Gone West

Well done, looks to be a neat job. Glad it worked out well for you.

Yes, we built our house in a similar way but we didn't use a ridge beam. Our house was built in 2010 and was the second construction of that type that the TF company built. The first was an art gallery which was much larger than our house. https://lowenergybuildings.org.uk/search.php?s=greendale https://lowenergybuildings.org.uk/projectPDF.php?id=255

We had a Genvex Combi 185 at our last house which incorporated an EASHP to heat the DHW and the ventilation air, if required. It only works in an extremely well insulated house. We heated our house to 23C with just three electric towel rails and the Genvex. https://www.genvex.com/en/products/air-ventilation---water-heat-pump/combi-185-bp-and-combi-flex

Back in the seventies I was told a similar thing by a chemist at work. Don't wash your hands with Swarfega, use washing up liquid and cold water so the skin pores don't open. He said Swarfega was carcinogenic in those days.

Back in the nineties I rewired my house and chased all the walls with an angle grinder and cold chisel and hammer. The dust was pretty bad so I would do as @Iceverge suggested.

Back in 2010 I had a problem with a high water table and the sewage treatment plant at my last place. The hydrostatic pressure was forcing water around the inlet and outlet pipe seals. When the water table dropped in the summer I sealed around the inlet and outlet by packing bentonite around the pipes about 150mm thick. It seemed to do the trick. You could uncover where all the pipes enter the manhole and do the same.

We also stayed in a PH B&B for a few days, back in 2009, as we wanted to experience a PH before we finally decided to build one. It is cetainly a good idea.

We have an old cast iron lamp post, by our drive, which I renovated a couple of years ago. I used LED filament bulbs, which have survived pretty well considering where they are fitted. https://www.ultraleds.co.uk/tear-drop-st64-squirrel-cage-led-filament-lamp-b22-400lm-2200k-extra-warm-white-easydim

That's what I've read, and I do hope so. I'm going to try to lime plaster the window revels in a 600mm thick stone wall. If I get on alright with that, I'll try larger areas. I find it very tricky plastering with gypsum and get on better rendering with cement.

Is he also an arborist 😉.

The roots of Leylandii will not draw water once the trees are cut down so that there is just a stump with no greenery. The reason roots draw water is feed the tree so once the surface of the stump is dry no more water will be taken up. If they were not Leylandii, but say Yew, then the tree stump would sprout new growth and the roots would continue to draw water.

If you cut them down they will die as they are Leylandii so will not sprout from the base. The problem is that it will take at least a couple of years for the soil water saturation levels to settle.

Yup, if you were using self tapping screws into metal you would drill a hole first, unless you were using Tek screws when you wouldn't have to drill a hole.

Last year I used concrete screws to fix some timber to a concrete block wall. They are very sensitive to the hole being exactly the right size.

Some use OSB others such as Steico use structural fibreboard. STEICOjoist and STEICOwall are natural products. The production basis for all our joists is timber. Made from slow grown spruce, the flanges are kiln dried and machine stress graded thereby guaranteeing a consistant quality and defined mechanical properties. The webs are made from structural fibreboard, jointed along the length with a V-groove profile, offering a very high shear capacity. Both the preparation and manufacturing processes of the flanges, the webs and the installation of durable adhesives are carried out using the latest automated assembly lines.