Mr Punter

Having services on site will save about £10K. I assumed you would have to strip out everything above the top of your ground floor walls. I also assume replacement or thermal upgrade to ground floor. You will not be able to occupy until works are almost complete. If this was a loft conversion and extension it would be possible to stay while works were carried out as much of it can be isolated until the new stair opening is made or the new opening from the existing house.

I doubt the timber frame supplier will be interested in much more than supply and fit timber frame which is probably no more than 20% of the project cost.

The next step is probably to work up the existing plans and spec to the stage where you can send out a tender package and get some quotes from local builders. If you then find that you have too much cash left over, you can consider doing the additional works. Because you are doing so much to the property I think you will need to vacate as it would be unsafe and impractical to do otherwise but again your builders will let you know.

Assuming all new plumbing, heating, ventilation, electrics, windows, doors, joinery, kitchens, bathrooms, flooring wall and ceiling finishes I would budget £1,200-£1,800 per sqm, so £240-£360k plus the garage. Allow 18 months and for it to be unoccupied.

I have used Tyvek FlexWrap for cills and also for pipes through walls. Works well as it is elasticated enough to stretch around corners.

Have you had anyone quote to do this work and let you know how long it will take? My feeling is that it will be slow and expensive. Get the figures pinned down as early as possible and perhaps compare this to moving to a larger house. I am a developer and it is very rare that a bungalow to house conversion would work financially, and I am able to reclaim the VAT in any case.

Why not demolish and rebuild?

Automatic gate controls I think. There is still some room for some more stuff if you pack it tightly. Maybe some ethernet stuff or CCTV? At least a couple of double sockets, just in case.

It is nice that they put "Appeal Allowed" right at the beginning! Happy days.

I assume your appeal failed because you are 150m outside the settlement boundary. Half a mile to the nearest facilities is not really what they are looking for and I doubt in reality if anyone in the 4 houses travels anywhere other than by car. I have however seen a case where the developer made a contribution to a cycle path, included some social housing and was consented a scheme outside the boundary. I know you feel you have been robbed but you gambled £4500 with the hope of a profit of £150,000 and it did not come off. Who owns the 150m of land? If you went in jointly with them with a scheme to do multiple units it could be a useful windfall site for the LA. If the LA are keen, you could go with it, if they are not, you could re submit similar to your current application, perhaps a small bungalow, as it would then be the lesser of 2 evils.

This product has been withdrawn following the Grenfell Tower fire. The cavity wall product was not at fault but was part of a group of similar products, one of which was used as part of the failed cladding system, so Celotex withdrew the lot. Xtratherm do a similar product called CavityTherm, and it make no special claims as to fire resistance.

Result! Any chance you can post up the appeal decision?

Rendered inside, facing brickwork outside.

I am also wary of the life expectancy claim of only 15 years. I understood that galv has the advantage of being less of an environment for spores.

The blue one really stands out, as does the lettering. Do you think your neighbour would let you paint it to match the other one? I think a pergola could look good, but I don't know how the garden relates to the house or what you plan to do in it.

We are in a flood zone and I have used brick and med density block cavity with Celotex CF5000 rigid insulation. Internal partitions also med density block. Concrete floor with wood finish porcelain tile. Rendered walls on the ground floor. Non-return valve fitted to foul sewer. Electrics set at 1200mm from ffl.

Could you request that they repair the road, as it is adopted?

I have seen this applied. It looks a bit like Artex broken leather pattern but has not cracked or needed painting 6 years down the line.

I agree with @Russell griffiths. You are proposing to turn a 3 bed semi into a 4 bed semi near a busy road. This may add, say, 100k to the end value. Have a good look at Rightmove and see if you could find a 3 bed detached in the area that has potential. I had a quick look at Wembley. 3 bed semis are £500-600, 4 bed semis £600-700, 3 bed detached £680-800, 4 bed detached £700-900.

You could use a band seal type like https://www.wolseley.co.uk/product/flex-seal-dc65-drain-coupling-50-65mm-pf91540-44/

I found Fermacell expensive, heavy, difficult to cut and difficult to install electrics. I have recently used Knauf Soundshield Plus which is a multi purpose plasterboard so has improved sound, impact and fire resistance. I think GTEC Universal board is similar. Go with 15mm thickness and double up if you want more. I think they sometimes use 2 x 15mm Fermacell for secure institutions as it is so tough, but unless you are planning to set about the walls with a club hammer it is OTT for housing.

If they can do the cantilever in engineered timber it will make it simpler to finish and insulate, with less cold bridging. Typically the cantilever will need to project into the building at least twice the distance as it projects out and this will be concealed in the floor zone.

Or if you can get it cheap enough, Egger Protect is very good. It is coated both sides, easy to clean and you can tile onto it.

Um I slipped and fell on it...

My brother has a house on clay with piled foundations. Later he had an orangery built attached to the house using a raft foundation. I looked fine at first. Now none of double doors operate correctly and he is thinking of demolishing it. Mixing foundation types on shrinkable soil is very risky.