Conor

We laid ours on 2mm foam underlay. Great job. No messing around. All I had to do was give the cemfloor a Scape to get rid of blobs of plaster etc.

What are you blocks and what is your wall build up?

It looks like your kitchen is open to the whole house? That means no rooms have a safe fire exit route and all will need escape windows. Including upstairs. Just stick a door on between kitchen and hall.

Seems to be a lot of mature trees very close to where you proposing to build, and you will be digging well within the root protection areas. If they are not on your land, how are you going to deal with this?

Controversial suggestion, but you could save the £15k+ you'd need for a new heating system and spend it on insulating the walls and keep the oil boiler. Spending more on insulation will make more of a difference than anything else. UFH is more costly to run than rads, and is a no goer unless you've a decent amount of insulation in the floor (150mm+).Do you have the room inside for internal wall insulation?

Is this an ICF build? Why aren't you screwing in to the plastic webs?

is it full bore? some valves are smaller than the pipes they fit to and can cause headloss. Also, some are designed for outdoor use, and others indoor only. Also things like integrated non-return (check) valves.

50mm isover acoustic insulation

random, but the polypipe ones I have here from screfix are about 35mm. But you'll want to allow room for sound insulation on the pipe anyway (if it's waste) so make the space a good 50mm wider than it needs to be. highly recommend installing the pipework and build the frame for the boxing after.

The guy stapled it / taped it to the walls, and it's not really compressed by the screed so there are gaps and irregularities... So it comes out easily enough, it does tare but still easy to rip out the bits that remain with a small serrated blade.

Full PP. Outline doesn't apply to demolish and rebuild, as it's implicit.

I think your problem is insulation, or rather lack of. Details please. You seem to be using up to 100kWh of electric in a day?! No matter what your heating source, it'll be expensive.

A) fence unlikely if temporary works. Not sure about demolition. B) Only permanent items that make up your build and can be linked to the planning drawings. C) you can only start claiming items after the date planning is granted. I had a £1200 Screwfix order sitting in my basket for weeks waiting to press the button!!!

Just pulled it out, rather than cut.

Hi. I've a load of bullnose granite pavers to use for two purposes: - steps down from balcony - parapet wall - for seating The pavers are 350x100x30mm. There is no drip groove. Both the steps and the parapet wall are reclaimed red brick and I'm worried about eventual spalling. Do I need to cut a drip groove in these? Should they be laid totally flat or a slight fall? (Photos later)

We've screed as our finished floor in the basement.... I just used colour matched silicone after I cut the foam away. You can only notice it if you look.

Interesting, no idea and no data to add, but, Paint whitewash on in early summer? it'll wash off again with the winter rains. Tho, overall, a permanently white roof would be better from an access / cost / safety point of view. The cooling effect of a white roof in the summer would be much grater than the gain of a dark roof in winter. And of course depends on the ratio of roof to building volume. A skinny, tall building with a small roof would have marginal benefits.

Looks suspect for sure. For a quick fix, rub it down and pour / roller a couple coats of GRP topcoat resin. Make sure it's dry and not too cold.

If the wooden floor is lower, just use plyboard or chipboard screwed down. If it's 30mm, then a layer of 18mm and then 12mm should do the job. You might want to use som packing spacers where the floors meet to get it perfect.

In the vast majority of these cases, the contractor is on a fixed rate agreement to do the works. E.g. £500 per pole. They get a job list, head out and do their work. If they can't do a job, they don't get paid. Their time, their loss. The business would have competed for the work and calculated a min installation rate to be profitable. So of it turns out 20% lower due to poor info from openreach, then they are under pressure and losing money. This pressure transfers to the crews who then do what they can and bend the rules to get their jobs done. A product of the system. I've been there, done that, seen the company I worked for loose £££££.

It's a professional service, VAT has to be charged.

The bottom of the tench should be firm and free of sludge... You might need to get a shovel out and do a bit of scraping. But not likely after a night of rain.

Get an induction hob anyway, far better job.

Our joiners fitted two stairs in one day, £420.

Yes, between the door block and screed.