Conor

Ditto the delivery lorries. We had blocks dropped on to the first floor slabs. We were fortunate enough to have a large site near us with a friendly manager, he sent his 14m telehandler round any time we needed anything lifted. Hired in a handler any time I knew there was a lot of lifting to do - e.g. the roof panels. Otherwise, there's a reason why most sites would have a ~6m telehandler and a block grab hanging around most of the time. Have you accounts setup with the hire companines? Worth doing as the rates you get are a good 1/3rd less than the walk-in prices.

What colour are the walls? If unpainted, or a dark colour, paint them white. The 3G will make a big difference. Otherwise you can introduce shading - trees, climbing plants etc.

The blocks simply act as a dam. A medium density block is a little bouyant in a wet concrete mix, they will partially sit on top of the lower pour, and stop concrete on top from flowing down. At this time of year, the concrete will start going off pretty quickly, even a pump mix. Btw, with that access and volume, pump is the way to go.

A couple concrete blocks thrown on top after you do the lower pour. What's the concrete volume? I'd reccomend using a team with wheelbarrows as you get away with a thicker mix. I helped a mate with his, 3.5m³, with three barrows in about 45mins. Good workout. Sounds like there's four of you on site so doable.

What Nick says. Clear to the footings. Not having to redo services and groundworks will be a huge saving, time and money.

He can only reclaim VAT on materials, sourced and paid for by himslef, for a residential new build, as an individual, not a business. Sounds like you are describing a service? In that case the works pertaining to the new build residence should be zero rated, if it qualifies, I'm not sure on that aspect and I think it's more of a core HMRC question rather than the DIY recliam scheme. Is the residential unit described as a separate unit (own access, services etc) on the planning application?

1. Backfill behind the wall with gravel and ensure water has somehwere to go. 2. Run doc/dpm from top of the wall, under the coping, all the way down to the bottom of the wall on the retainimg side.

My neighbour rendered his garden wall,2m high by about 8m long. On a hot sunny day. All had to come off. At least he realised his mistake before it fully cured.

You're not a million miles a way. Better than my first efforts! A good rub over with a plastic float after the render goes off a bit removes a lot of sins.

Take a step back, look at what you are actually trying to achieve, see what building fabric you need to use to achieve this. I've been playing round with our energy consumption and generation in a spreadsheet since reading this thread. Our 4.5pkW (limited to 3.8kW) system generated 4.5MWh from april-april, and our imported electric from the grid was 4.4MWh for the same period. In reality, we had a massive excess in the summer, and defecit in the winter. We're still better off by £1k a year with the array. Payback 5 years. Do a similar exercise yourself and play around with different scenarios and see what makes sense for you. In terms of heatpump Vs direct electric for us... Quickly calculated our heating season consumption, and it's about 21kWh per day, so about £400 for the heating season. If we had gone with direct electric, that would be more like £1000. Factor in the capital costs of the unit Vs a direct electric setup (no UFH, storage rads, direct heated water) and payback is about 6.5 years. That's with a pessimistic COP of 2.5.

Need to know details of the fabric of the build, energy storage (thermal/electric?), insulation, air tightness, energy demand etc to give informed advice. Those bi folds on the south elevation will bake you in the summer (and significant heatloss in winter) - have you considered shading and/or active cooling?

Jim, just sounds like my parents. I get it. Their favourite room in the house, pretty much uninsualted, but they live there during the day and heat it according. They close it off in the evening and then use the living room. Only only thing I can suggest for saving energy costs here is to get the insualted roof on, and look at the option of upgrading the glazing.

A replacement inverter won't cost you £2k. Are you tied to a payment scheme that dictates what can be altered in the system? If not, a new inverter will be ~£500 and a couple of hours to install. But as you say, could be something as simple as a fluff clogged fan or burnt out motor.

ASHP won't be any cheaper with the current electric prices. It's greener, not cheaper. I'd spend the £10k+ on other building fabric upgrades.

Nothing happens until you pay. Try one of the others or directly with a manufacturer.

You'll get a seperatly letter in the post detailing what was rejected. We had our staircase invoice rejected as it didn't have a description of the product. We posted off the detailed invoice and it was paid a month or so later.

Lindab have all that sort of stuff in stock. I'd leave 200mm dia holes and then foam in round. You want to leave a bit of a fall to the outside in case wind driven rain gets in.

We put our valuables in our parents house. Friends used a secure lockup facility that has insurance. I wouldn't be keeping valuables in a barn or caravan, insured or not .

Depends entirely on where the unit will be situated, the required height above / side for the duct work etc. Ideally they need to be 2m apart to prevent circulation. Not as simple as it sounds as depends where the exhaust / supply points are on the unit and what other duct work and services you need to work around. I stuck two in at that stage and ended up moving the unit and having to core out new holes.

It's dead easy to setup your own. They don't really care who you are. If you're doing a new build, and use somebody else's account, you won't be able to claim the VAT back.

It's 100% the water companies responsibility. Phone them. Hope you've got photos. It could just be a partial blockage downstream, which will be sorted by jetting the main. That's the min the company should do along with a CCTV survey.

Never liked the Z stone mesylf. All I could see is the Z pattern joins. A place near us did just vertical black stained wooden panels. A bit thinner and thicker than fence panels, something like 3x1s. Looked great against the red brick, slate roof and black fascia etc. Just be aware you might fall foul of planning if you do something starkly different from your original design.

Yeap, alpha. 50mm TLA then 50mm liquid on top. 30mm TLA may not be enough as you need plenty of depth for the staples. We used extra long staples. Have loads left if you need them! And a stapler, pipe decoiler etc.

What Declan says. We did that. We needed three plank ones though as we had to allow room for the ewi. Also known as Harp bars. Not to be confused with the Harp Bar in Belfast.

It is. The cushions are a little on the soft side and the seat depth is a little lacking, bit of an issue if you are on the taller side. Overall, you get an awful lot for your money, and I can't tell the difference between it and the expensive stuff. I still think the rattan will tare, rip, frame will rust etc. But as I said, I think that happens to all of that kind of furniture.