Conor

It's nothing to do with the hydrant, it's a washout hydrant at the end of the main will be coming from the LHS, not the RHS. BTW, you might find that there may a be a way-leave in place for the strip of land along the road and you may not have the right to erect a fence.

Almost guarantee you it's not water. It'll be a telecoms or electric duct.

The worktop fitters use some sort of hard setting resin that resists being pulled out or worn. That's what they used in the join between our upstand and worktop. Might be best going to a worktop company and asking if they have a product that suits.

I think in NI all works need to be completed within 12 years of the PP being granted. We're in the same situation, however, the planners only passed our application as the garage provides screening to the back of the house... So I'm not sure what they'll do to us if we don't build it in the 12 period! We're unlikely to build it, I think we'll stick some trees in to keep people happy

The embedded carbod within the oil is also massive, you need to add at least another 25% on top of the actual burner emissions. Also, can you not access off peak tarrifs? We're currently on 15p for economy 7.

Most likely alkathene or PVC. If soft, it's the former, or brittle, the latter. Or even some sort of bitumin product if earlier than 1960. Either way, cover over and don't worry about it. Even if it was asbestos, it's not a risk unless it's being cut/dirlled/crushed etc to be made airborne. If it was asbestos, you'd see hair like fibres in the material.

Same here, double sliders with 5 panes above did not look right at all in the renderings, so went with 5 leaf bi-folds from solarlux. For supporting the units, we have a steel beam spanning anyway so no issue. Might be better to go to your SE to spec a beam at 1st floor that can take whatever glazing opting you go for.

Log burner won't matter on SAP. You won't need planning for the PV panels if they are not visible from the front of the house, even in a conservation area. A non-material amendment to your plans might be all you need. Our panels weren't even mentioned by the planners. FYI you don't actually have to build any of these extra things, they just have to appear on the initial EPC for ecology. You can ditch them if you can't afford them. So stick on a load of PV, spec an airtightness of 3ach, triple glazed windows and get speaking to the best lender there is. Bear in mind that basically all self build lenders sell variable rate mortgages, so you'll need to budget for repayments based on rates of 10% or more, for at least 2 years.

Ignore it an let him sell. If you tout on him and something is raised by planning or BC and he can't sell his house.... He could make your life hell.

Render board is exactly how we did it on our dormer "cheeks" against the pitch roof. Roof slated, flashing put between slates and the wall, chased on and fixed, render board over, bead, then thin coat render system.

A few solar panels will get you up to 88. If you have a lot of glazing then a few more quid on triple glazed rather than double will make a difference. Fyi our front door is 0.6, but cost £3k. The SAP system penalises ASHP because is a cost based system. You can look at individual elements and see what you can improve. Imho, that's where you architect comes in. Ask them how they'd get it up to an A rating. Our old, 1970 semi was a C77 or something. So 81 for a new build ain't amazing.

I second the 10mm pipes. Less than 10seconds for hot water. I also fully insulated the got water pipe to the main kitchen tap. So if your in the kitchen and constantly using hot wat on and off, you don't need flush out all the water in the pipe as it stays warm for a good 15mins.

We're really happy with our internorm aluclad 3g windows and weren't too pricey. The quality is fantastic and they were able to make full 2400 tall tilt and turn windows and patio doors, which nobody else we spoke to could do. Got them from Feneco in Coleraine... They are OK. A few issues took a LONG time to sort out. There's another supplier in Fermanagh in think. We also got prices from Baskil, were a bit less than Feneco for aluclad, but didn't do the bi-folds or 2400mm high doors and windows we needed.

I would not use pedastals on stone. They are point loads and will sink and move. Cheapest way to make up levels is compacted hardcore then lay your pavers on a 30-50mm bed of mortar. Firstly, build a brick wall all around the paved area up to the FGL and use nice facing bricks. Then your hardcore is held within and you pave up to the same height as th edging bricks. Don't forget your fall.

We used a local SE but she didn't do any site visits (height of COVID). We just sent her lots of photos and took measurements when required at the critical phases. Worked out fine. Bear in mind each site visit will likely cost you £250 or so.

Mars bars or bits of broken pavers. You'll soon. Figure out how many you need once you start walking on the mesh. Min every 1200mm, double that at the edges.

Best option might be a couple hundred quid on an independent EPC. Because ultimately that's what building control need to prove that you've met that part of the regs. Give him/her the drawings and explain the actual build up in the roof so they can assess the buildings overall performance. Personally, I'd be asking the builder to add 75mm PIR under the joists and renboard, which should get you close to what was specced. You have to remember that you'll be paying for this cockup for years and years to come through higher energy bills.

That sounds very wrong. What's the reason? The ICF walls will have vertical reinforcement bars and these should tie in to the foundation slab. By the sounds of the mesh requirements this is a substantial structure and I'm amazed there is nothing tieing the walls to the slab. Here's our slab before the pour. Note the vertical bars at 200mm centres. It's a basement, but the standard would be a single bar every 1200mm for a single story.

Is there not a mesh/bar schedule on the drawings? We just sent the drawings off the the supplier and it all arrived on the back of a lorry a week later. As our walls were also RC, we didn't need to use links or overlaps, the U shaped starter bars did that, so despite having three layers at the ring, was simple enough.

You're limited to a ridge height of 2.5m as you are within 1m of a boundary. I think, like mine, you'll be limited to a flat roof. I would be worth digging out the existing concrete and pouring new footings and a slab. An extra weekend of work with a micro digger.

Brass compression fittings.

Apparently it's only on areas directly accessed from the building. So not a treehouse, pergola, ornate fountain/pond, bandstand or shed in the middle of your garden. Just think of all the little landscaping walls and details with falls over 600mm. Country would end up being one big ballustrade.

This is why we went through a broker. She sorted the wheat from the chaff. The two year thing is very common. For a new ICF build with basement and no structural warranty, we got a grand total of 7 offers back. Luckily, the best one was only 0.3% higher than the best generic money supermarket search result, so happy enough.

We spent a fortune on decking paint (something like £60 for a tin, needed three or four of them) and it was scuffed in a few days, chipping off in a week and fully peeling off on the damper spots within the year. So the next year I lifted all the boards, flipped them to the unpainted side and just treated with clear decking stain. Forget about paint for a deck.

Air is drawn in UNDER the door, so all you'll be doing is extracting fresh air from the hallway.