Tony L

I was thinking I would do the same (assuming I ever get that far with my build, which is not going well) although I am also intending to have a soft outside tap for car washing. The water is very hard in my area.

Yes, although, it can lie a little bit, if half a hose is in the shade & the other half is left in blazing sunshine like we're going to have over the next few days. But it's easily checked, by bringing the two ends of the hose together.

Or have some lovely steps at your front door & make your Part M level access at the back door.

Agreed, @Mr Blobby. That's a good improvement on the computer putty coloured one above. I've always been surprised at how very ugly most of these units are. I suppose the designers have mostly spent years designing units for commercial buildings & ugly is cheap, & it doesn't matter. It hasn't occurred to the designers that their creations blight the appearance of so many homes & many people will pay more for a competitor's less ugly design. Same goes for MVHR units; Zehnder have some nice looking designs, but if I choose something else, I'll have to build a cupboard around it.

This has been my experience so far. Good for you. Show no mercy.

& the current era as well, if the builders & architectural technicians I have employed are representative of today's building industry personnel.

I'm sure you could find out, easily enough. I know where mine is, & it's not very far away, so a personal visit would be easy for me. My approach wouldn't be right for everyone, of course. I don't mind inviting myself into somebody's office & making a nuisance of myself. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. @BTC Builder. If it's any consolation, I am quite envious of your problem. I think I am years away from sign off stage, & I expect to be badly let down by many more people and organisations before I get there. You're at the last hurdle. Well done you.

I would go to the council office & be reasonably polite, & very, very assertive.

Thanks, @DIYMichael. I like the look of the Base Camp masks you recommend, & I've just placed an order. The Makers Manual discount was applied automatically at the checkout - thank you.

I've done some research & I have a good idea of how it will all fit together. I will draw it all up myself, before I begin. Thanks for the website tip. I'll be sure to take a good look at it. Rather than screws, I think I might buy a nail gun. £400. It would save me some time & could be used on the house build too.

Well done, chaps. That's inspiring. I'm planning to do a 5m x 6m garage on my own, within the next few months. I have a friend in the next village who will come & help me (although he doesn't know it yet) lift the walls & get everything vertical/square. My garage construction experience to date only covers making concrete bases (easy enough), & a little bit of block work three decades ago (I wasn't good at this). I have persuaded myself I will be much better at working with timber than with concrete blocks. I'll let everybody know what happens, so that others may learn from my mistakes.

This is one of the concerns I have for the biggest room in my build (which is well over a year from completion), although I'm confident I'll be able to solve the problem with some cheap DIY acoustic tweaks (thin pads on the ceiling, soft coving, absorbent art work, etc). I can't stand trying to hold a conversation in a room with loads of reverb, & if my hi-fi is not performing as it should I get quite annoyed. A friend's new house suffered terribly from this reverb problem when she held her house warming party. It was very difficult to decipher what was being said in her 70m2 or so room with vaulted ceiling & several different conversations going on at once. By the time of the next party, there were two sofas & a big (4m wide) floor to ceiling book case full of books, & the problem was gone. I briefly considered having a slightly sloping ceiling & non-parallel walls, for the benefit of my hi-fi, but I decided this would be impractical.

Why not email him? He can reply whenever he has time; you have a record of everything you've asked him.

Yes, but not me. I saved this screenshot from a thread on here (probably over a year ago). I think the top picture is just a marketing picture - it doesn't look very stable to me. @Russdl's work looks better.

I expect so. The difference in thermal resistance is not small, & the Thermoblocks aren't going to crack, either.