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No, there's no road crossing at all - just along a footpath! Bloody stupid. I think I'll give SP Energy a call on Tuesday and see why it's been requested

Just finalising the electric supply from my DNO and they've now written to me saying that the council want manually-controlled 2-way traffic lights installed for a period of 3 days at a cost of £1000! From the pole to the plot is only about 8m so I can't believe it will take more than half a day to sort out. And they can park on my site. It's not even a busy road. Anyone else had this and is there a way of reducing the costs?

All a professional is is someone that gets paid for doing 'a thing' - it has absolutely no bearing on whether they are good or not. So far, pretty much everyone I've worked with has been great - but I've also pulled every one of them up on more than one thing that I'd consider pretty basic stuff that either they should have brought to my attention first, or that should have just been dealt with without my intervention. The only comfort in all this is that I know there is more of this to come so I just try and be as prepared as possible

Why am I now worrying...?

I think you'd be looking at £50-£100 per hour, depending on skills and location, plus travel expenses

I'm in the same boat too. I did ask the question in the last week or so as Internorm suggested around a 45mm recess and I did get an answer, but I think I need to re-ask to ensure there aren't any expensive mistakes. I'm sure it's pretty straight forward really

Who was your dealer? I'm just about to put a deposit on some Internorm windows!

Ah, sorry. Mine was pretty straight forward and our council seem a lot more switched on than most (all) I've come across so it was all easy peasy. However, I know from talking to my architect that generally anything on the rear of the property or where it has no impact to the frontage or neighbours is no problem. Removing windows wouldn't be an issue either. Looking over what you want to do I would just bullet point it all out and highlight what you are reducing and that it has the support of the neighbours. I can't see anything contentious in what you're looking to do

Get your architect to do it - it's something they do all the time

Well these are cheaper than I was expecting! I wonder if Openreach will be happy terminating a new line at one and then move it myself later on...

Thank you

Can anyone confirm if this is the right form? I've taken a look through it seems to be targeted at developers (companies) rather than self-build - this may or may not be a problem! It's also asking about things like lift-lines - any idea what these are?

Sioo is excellent stuff and Sansin isn't far behind. Have a word with Silva Timber - they'll be able to advise what would be best.

No probs. Re-reminders are always appreciated

Wastes are sorted!

Cool. That's a lot better than I was expecting! We're going to have extra cabling for internet, TV etc but not a massive amount, so hopefully a few 50-85mm holes will have us sorted

Dave, you're my hero Assuming the plumber is taking one of the 90mm holes, is just the other one generally sufficient for what you need or are you having to re-route some?

I need a bit of help! I'm a complete novice with wiring so apologies if I'm asking stupid questions... I've got the timber frame drawings ready for me to sign off but before I do I need to make sure that the routing for wiring (and to a lesser extent the plumbing) will be ok - and both my electrician and plumber have just gone on holiday! The issue I have is that there are quite a few steel and timber beams in the construction due to a large open plan area and I don't know whether the few holes the designer has put in the beams will actually be sufficient. So, what I'd like to understand is what the regs do and don't allow with routing the wiring. Ideally I'd like to go up to the joists from the plant room (where the consumer unit will be) and just route where needed but there are some areas that are more of a challenge. If I can't fully route through the joists could I take some of the wiring through the service cavities, either just above the floor/skirting or just below the joists? What are the rules about routing from ground to first floor? The designer has offered up the possibility of a couple of 85mm holes in each beam (although accepts that this isn't really an area that he understands) but is this really sufficient? I realise this is a tough one to answer without seeing the plans (which I'm happy to share) but as a general rule, is there a mass of wiring everywhere or is it a case of 2 or 3 wires in a loop?

This is about the only area I'm 100% confident on! My dad was a decorator and I spent many an hour/day/weekend/week/month from about 8 years old working with him. The key is to get at least a first coat on everywhere as soon as possible, or earlier if you can! If you do this then cutting in on the final coat is a lot easier

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo....

I just asked the designer at MBC how big the pipe was and whether there was space for both it and the sound insulation and that was the information he gave me. He could well be wrong and you be right! I think in terms of space, I need to make the wall thicker. Then it's a case of which method is most cost effective but I think the acoustic plaster board might as well be the first decision.

Yes, I could use acoustic plasterboard. Is this better than putting something around the pipe?

If you had more space to play with, what would you use as insulation? My architect is like bloody molasses and I want to get the MBC drawings signed off asap so I'm doing his job for him and trying to determine whether I would be better having a wider stud wall or whether the standard depth is ok

We have an SVP running through a stud wall - I believe the SVP is 100mm and the stud wall is 127mm internally. What's the best approach for implementing appropriate acoustic insulation?