Mr Punter

The work needs to commence before the permission expires. Once commenced it can take as long as you like. Get the planners or building control to confirm that the work you have done constitutes commencement. Often doing the foundations is required. The garage consent has expired. A driveway would not normally be considered commencement. I think you may need to bring the wall in so that neither it nor the eaves clash with the corbelled parapet wall. Do it on ground and first floor and lose the step. Does your LA use the edge of the neighbouring window for the 45 degree rule? Some use the centre I think so you could maybe have the same size, just shifted along.

But if you cut it back so it finishes behind the plinth it won't be seen. Just mark the cut level with the bottom of the doors.

My favoured solution would be to remove both decor panels and move the appliance housing to leave a 604mm space for the dishwasher. Put brackets on the end of the appliance housing to support worktop. support worktop. After the worktop is fitted, cut down the tall decor panel to clad the upper part of the housing. Or just leave it all as is.

It looks fine. Does the socket on the left have enough cable?

I have used a hole saw on steel beams, but only 40mm or so. You may get up to 60mm with a mag drill but I don't think it will fit. I would be pretty pissed off with your so-called professionals leaving you with such a ball-ache of a job. Lazy bastards.

I think you will need to render the blocks first or at least get a slurry coat on them.

That is annoying as they normally flag this on the planning consent and it appears as a condition. I thought it was normally Environmental Health who deal with this via planning.

I thought about it but price and availability ruled it out. It is already a palaver having 2 different sand colours so mixer needing thorough washout if they change from blockwork to face work.

Workability mainly. Stopped the bricklayer whining.

I am currently paying about £4.60 a metre plus VAT for 9 x 2 C24 from local merchant. Similar price from Jewsons. Timber seems to still be falling in price.

The sand was from Kernow Mixers in Cornwall. Mix is something like 1:1/2:4 cement:hydrated lime:sand.

These are expensive to install. They have been popular in student kitchens etc. A full sprinkler system may be less expensive and cover the whole building.

Has anyone (like plumbers) been working on site. They may have leaked some water and not told you? There is what looks like a length of pipe dangling down. Plumbers are to blame for most things.

Another vote for sand. You could do sand / cement or levelling compound but it is more work and money. It is probably about 4 wheelbarrows full.

It is quite unusual to get this on a new house as they attempt to have stepless access but I guess the topography dictated it. Would a ramp work or is there not enough space? I doubt there would be a planning issue unless this is a conservation area.

That sounds quite expensive. I would have thought that £2,000 would be doable, plus the cost of the scaffold. Maybe get another couple of quotes.

I have used Polarwall in a basement a while ago and since then they also have a BBA certificate that covers this. The staff there are very helpful and may be able to put you in touch with a contractor.

Then that is what you should do.

5 is fairly poor for airtightness. 3 is easily achieved. 1.6 for the glazing units is really very poor. Can you ask your SAP person for suggestions? Sometimes extra boiler controls can make a difference to the score. I assume you need the points for a mortgage? I see some of the housebashers doing waste water heat recovery so I guess it must be a fairly cheap win. You can get an airtightness test done once the windows and doors are in and sealed. Probably change of £200 and you can identify any weak points. Do it before you plasterboard.

The big rolls are good value - less than 50p/m2. I have seen some Terram equivalents from reputable suppliers so they may be worth a go.

That lead must weigh a fair bit. What is underneath to support it?

I have just had an updated quote for trusses on a job that has been on hold. Gone from £2,200 to £3,300 in 23 months. I think I will shop around.

Where you have a door you can either reduce the cavity to 50mm or leave out the inner leaf and just have an upstand of 50mm insulation and run the concrete up to this.

At 150 ctrs and 70mm screed depth the 16mm O/D pipe will be 2.5% of the volume. I think @Canski's site manager was trying to cover his bad estimating.

Yes, clay, which is what caused the heave. Probably silty clay and variable strata. The house is on a hill but about 70 metres from a river. They had to pile down to rock.