Conor

You don't have a meter, unless it's somewhere else?

Nothing wrong there. Just make sure the tap is fully open. A restricted bung is usually yellow, white are full flow, red are stopped.

I had this with my kango. Took it apart to inspect brushes. All good. Put it back together and worked perfectly. I suspect in hindsight a poor connection or stuck brush. The brushes on the Makita should be easily accessed, going by their other tools I own.

I'd pave under the area to meet the stone and just fix the pergola to the paving slabs with short concrete screws.

Fair point on the space. You've a significant slope to retain, and digging back is going to be a major job, as you are then working with unknown ground conditions and even a slight increase in height of the wall could result in big design changes. Whatever you do there, I'd be looking at steel reinforced concrete, definitely do not rely solely on blocks, even double thick. I'd be going for a ~200mm cast RC wall, tied in to decent footings, at least 50% as wide as the wall is high. Either that, or interlocking retaining wall blocks. Faster, cleaner, look good. Re tradespeople, they are sensing that you're fishing around and aren't wasting their time and effort when there no actual defined (drawing) job to price.

We moved our ASHP and just included it in an NMA application with some other tweaks, I'm sure you could try the same.

Drop to 2.4m high and you'll need 14 sheets of OSB and 20 sheets of plasterboard. Roughly. Just setup a spreadsheet with room dimensions and it's easy to workout what you need. Just remember for sheet materials to include openings, and everything to at 10% wastage.

Yes.

We used thermohouse EPS roof panels. 250mm thick EPS. Can remember the U value but wouldn't be hard to fix on another 50mm PIR on the inside before your service void.

Just pull everything back 250mm and make life easier for yourself. Do you have planning approval yet?

If there is an existing house, where does the surface water currently go? You have an automatic right (if not increasing runoff) to use it.

Reset to factory settings.

Is intermittent condensation really an issue in the summer? A few hours / days a handful of times during warm weather, with low absolute humidity, isn't going to cause any problems? Totally different for chronic, cold weather condensation. As long as it's not forming on your lovely wooden floors, of course.

How does the gable wall look? And why is there scaffolding up?

A sledge hammer should break it up into manageable chunks.

Your self build policy will cover you until signoff. Day you get signoff, your self build will be invalid and you'll need normal home policy.

Just because it's in a magazine doesn't mean it's compliant or passed inspection. Bet half the stuff on grand designs never gets passed without something major being changed. And I've seen several examples in home building mags, e.g. a set of stairs with absolutely no guarding or handrail.

3. Leave wall in place, build new brick wall in front with 100mm cavity. Fill cavity with concrete. Top off with new coping stones. Least disruptive, and will be more than strong enough, especially if you tie everything together with rebar and mesh. We've a 2m tall retaining wall built with that spec. (Will need additional footings for the new wall)

Block paving wont be an adequate support for a building of that size. Remove it, compacted base, then you want a 100mm thick concrete slab that will act both as floor and foundation for the walls. Also give you the opportunity to make it a bit wider. What height will it be?

Mesh will be in the render basecoat. I don't see point in all that if you're tiling. The rainscreen method makes more sense to me, but again, need to speak to an expert.

Not an expert but I would have thought you'd be better off battening the insulation, fitting cement board, and tiling that?

+1 for the duo. Foolproof.

Can we see your full threshold detail please? Normally the compact form would sit on top of the block, replacing the traditional concrete.

I'd just be putting in a picket style fence using vertical 25x50mm battens fixed to the back of the sleepers. Put some nice climbers against them. Id view it more as a deterrent for the kids to climb... Pointy sticks and growth will do that well!

It doesn't (appear to) form part of an access route to / from the house so is considered landscaping and BC does not apply.