Big Jimbo

Total crap. Roof battens are not even the same size. Sack him off. That is shocking.

That is a fair old crack. I have got some under the windows of my old bungalow. they are about 5 to 6mm wide. I have owned it for 6 years, and they have never got any worse. to be honest i don't know if they close and open during the seasons. I do know that it is only about 1 meter from a Poplar tree. The soil test just fell into the low shrinkabiliy band, (just) The footings are 9 inches deep. When i pull it down it will be interesting to see if the footings are cracked. My friends old place about 500 yards away, has got similar cracks to yours. Narrow at the bottom, and wider to the top. His have got wider, and wider over the 5 years he has owned it. it will be interesting to hear what the problem is with the place you are monitoring.

Loads of screws and joints glued to each other.

That's why i used the glue.

Previously, i just bonded out the dips using a long straight edge. Foam glued and screwed the plasterboard to the underside. Skimmed and painted. Bit of a pain, but better than pulling down lath and plaster ceilings. Even with a good mask you will be trying to get bits of crap out from between your teeth for days.

I like that idea @Mr Punter. Almost like a fire hydrant within the land that could service several properties. Good thinking.

Sorry can't help but i'm sure i read that the tank has to be much bigger than 3000litre. Are you sure that size will be ok ?

When i did my daughters, i replaced old windows with new, but didn't fit any trickle vent. It's about 5 years ago, and the rules at the time were that the replacements had to make the situation no worse than it was before. I bloody hate trickle vents. Leaky pieces of crap.

The roof looks great, but i would agree that the water outlet looks way to small. It would concern me that the coping stones on the slope could kill somebody if they ever came off. I have always liked to continue any rubber roof over the top of the wall, like yours. B.C. were not happy with me simply fitting heavy coping stones with just morter to the rubber roof. They wanted me to cut the rubber back. In the end i fitted powder coated ali.

Might be worth asking them. I had 4 internal soil stacks in my last house. I used dergo's on all of them. B.C.insisted that i had One to fresh air. I said that as i was on a run of 10 houses, there was plenty of ventilation to the system. They agreed after having a right old ding dong with them. The only thing i would say is that all the rain water pipes will have traps to stop leaves etc entering the system. So not really vented.

@Dave Jones. So if you join onto say a private road you don't have to bother ? However, if like me you join onto a public highway (Country lane, no pavement) I have to provide wheelchair access from the highway ?

Done to British Standard. Sorted.

You will get weeds between the pavers regardless of how they are laid. That's a promise.

crack on. As above by @benben5555

I know a good team of brickies, but they are going to want more than "I want a bit of this, and a bit of that" Full set of plans showing all elevations. Inner and outer wall construction. Details of cavity, and cavity insulation. Lots of details required before you can just get a pi$$ing in the wind quote.

Have you got a decent set of drawings, showing all the elevations ?

Do you no longer have to provide wheelchair access from the public highway ? I know that about 10 years ago i had to, on Two houses.

Are you windows pre finished. Bare. Or supplied in primer. If you have been warned about moisture intake you need to be concerned. Can you paint them first, and then a light sand, and final coats when installed.

As my old dad used to say. In the bloody 60's we used to build 4 storey blocks of flats on 300mm footings.

They look nice. So even when closed they allow 8.4 meters cubed of air. So you always have some form of background ventilation regardless of humidity ? Bet they cost a fair few quid more than the nasty normal One's supplied.

Be safe and give it 10mm. You can always ramp up slightly. much easier than trying to grind down.

@Conor and @JohnMo where do the sidelights drain to. i assume they are bottom draining ? Both look great.

I would get hold of a cheap wildlife cam, and get your car covered by that. If you catch them, pass it on to the police. As far as neighbours complaining, i wrote to the council via my solicitor advising them that, as they had found out all the calls were false. If they continued to contact me without doing due diligence first, they would be in court for harassment, causing stress, and wasting my time. Not heard from the council since.

@Dave Jones So i know that if i replaced my outside leaf cut block with a marmox block, my thermal losses would be better. It's just so bloody expensive. Apols re your first pic. It didn't look you had anything in the cavity. Lets face it what normally happens is that the perimeter insulation and floor insulation is only taken around the inner block wall, and the void is just filled with bloody concrete. Will you also do some work to improve the thermal losses to the door frame sides, and head. If they are not sitting 30mm into the cavity that is a building regs fail.

If I am sinking my doors into the floor. I usually do like the picture. Because of the depth of cills available, I usually find that door frames end up sitting forward of the cavity regardless of size. I also try and improve the head and reveals. Providing everything is nice and tight, I have never had my screed cracking.