Big Jimbo

On the bottom, I would do as Mr Punter.

Not much of an overhang into the cavity. My understanding of building regs is a minimum of 30mm of frame into the insulation. (could be wrong). However, the more you can get into the layer of insulation the less of a cold bridge you will have. Consider having frame extenders to each side of the doors, and fitting insulated plasterboard to the inside reveals, and the head if you have room.

Thank you to the Welsh, plumbing Wizard.

Don't tell me he still has that. He must have incorporated it somewhere into his build by now.

Well I did build a posh shed, so looking forward to seeing that.

I could have guessed that. Nice to see so many of the old guard still on here, together with some new contributors

Good morning. Been quite some time. I doubt anybody will remember me, but I used to enjoy participating on the forum. Only reason I disappeared a couple of years ago was, wife got ill, and to be honest, I found myself getting depressed. I don't think I even realised the depression, until I came out the other side.....I have missed giving Pocster a hard time for his solweld skills though. I hope all of your projects are going well. I must say, I'm looking forward to being back. The skill and knowledge level on the site has always been fantastic. Together with the willingness to share that knowledge, and the pitfalls, and good times. The only thing that would be useful to me at the present time would be if anybody has any recommendations for a really good planning consultant in the Hertfordshire area. Anyway, I look forward to participating again in this excellent forum. Best of luck to all. Regards Jim

I have fitted about 20 DIY kitchens in the last 2 years. Nothing wrong with them, and good value for the money.

If it was your only residence, I thought that no tax was due ? My belief was that if you keep doing it HMRC get miffed ?

Planning can really get you down. I would rather see a definitive distinction between old and new Architecture. Council want everything to look like something that went before. Sad mistake in my opinion. Our lead planning officer simply refuses anything that the PC object to. Make his life easy. Sad little twat has no mind of his own.

Not a problem, the heat will hit the bench seat and be forced out into the room. Just like a rad box without a front.

As the boards are made up from timber fingers they just cover themselves incase when cut into, or put a curve on the end, you might encounter a really light or dark bit of grain, which is common with Walnut.

Been a while since I saw some of those glass blocks. I kinda like them in the right circumstances.

I would just cut the cable with a nice long pair of loppers. Good to have the information. Thanks for posting.

Main electrics are going in detached garage. I'm going to need a sub main run to the main house. Going between the garage and the house, I will bury it 450 to 600mm deep. Once inside the house can I lay it across the ground to the other side of the building, under the block and beam, or do I need to bury it. Thanks

Sounds like a great result. I would be interested on a cost re your floor area. Best of luck getting finished now.

I am going to be using aerated block. 1 Lime, 1 Cement, 6 sand, for mortar. Any recommendations for render over that @nod

I can be quite a farter, so I also generate a fair bit of energy. Obviously, not a technical as @SteamyTea's method.

I just couldn't get through it. When you are five minutes in and nothing has yet been said, my mind tapered off. What is the device ?

Looks great in the pictures.

@DazRave to be honest, it was more about sticking as much as possible on the roof while it was being built.

I'm sure it was you that told me to fit as much as I can while building the house. I would defo get bits of shading to each of the 3 elevations from some tall trees. I'm happy for any suggestions.

Thinking further, I would need some ac/DC safety cut off switches, an inverter or two ? Some sort of diverter to send power to the immersion. Some sort of diverter to an electric car charger. Got to find some more time to get into it. My total budget is 12K so with what else I still have to get, I doubt a battery will be included.

My plan so far is to fit 17, 435w solar panels on the roof using gse trays (only ones I can find) fit 17 optimisers. I would like to fit these in the loft, rather than under the panels, so they could be got at more easily in the future. Run however many cables I need from the loft, down through the house, and duct them under the block and beam floor and into the detached double garage about 4 meters away from the house. Run a fat wire back from the garage in a separate duct to under the stairs, for potentially powering an immersion on the unvented hot water cylinder. That's as far as I have thought so far. I haven't had a chance to think about inverters etc so far. The above should be achievable DIY for about 5k. Hope I'm not missing to much so far.

Most of the Muppets out there still don't understand air tightness and thermal bridging. We are all here to help. Best of luck.