Dave Jones

yes, ridge should be open to breath. hardly ever see it done though as no one like the rain getting in before tiling.

forget about the manhole your 'engineer' just like spending your cash. In a nutshell you need some m2 of storage or attenuation as they call it to hold the water back before it discharges. crates do this for a fraction of the cost. if you want to add a chamber for some reason crack on but not needed with crates.

be cheaper by far to use 2m2 of crates.

so you dont have a QS ?

i ran a test at 12 for an hour and the floors were ok, we have karndean and it was still dry to touch. point is you dont need any lower than 16 anyway, just set and forget.

they concrete slabs ? Looks like water soaks into the joints, is soaked up by slabs. salts come out. It's once of the reasons porcelain is popular now, none of that happens.

putting a ceiling cassette makes a whole bunch of more work, getting it airtight into the cold loft etc. id put as fancoil unit higher up on a wall if your stuck for space. As long as you have good airtightness and leave the bedroom door closed our bedrooms were at 19/20 with outside at 30 and flow temp of 16. All free as there is excess of solar when its really hot! I did test one of the bedrooms by turning it off and it got to 25 by dusk. Within 90 mins that room was at 19 when i turned it back on. The main problem with them, apart from cost, is once you have them you can never go back.

the trays finish at the bottom of the panel, there is no spare tray to lap into a gutter. Sounds like the bottom of your panels will actually be in the gutter ? You have to flash 150mm up and under the GSE tray to make it waterproof.

put supply and condensate drains in all the bedrooms and just leave them capped off. Will cost a few quid at first first but come the mega heatwaves the climate loons tell us are coming you may be glad you did.

pipe is standard plastic. If the void your running the pipework through is insulated already then no need but for the price of pipe insulation cover everything. if its ground floor then drains can be put in the slab, 1st floor run through the joists - easy. Defiantly connect up the condensate drains and lose in the studwork, wish I had done this knowing what I know now. being able to drive it at 12c for free really knocks out the heat fast compared to 16c. Dont forget to insulate the UFH manifold as well.

doesnt matter. M2 is M2. QS has a rate for it and im pretty sure its miles more than blockwork or brickwork for same m2. But im sure as you have experience of it you have a professional QS you can share ?

what were you paying a m2 for the brick slips to be tiled as well as the slips themselves ?

m2 isnt hard. steel, ICF kit, conc then the finishing = m2. at least double the cost of a normal build if not treble.

1500 isnt going to pay for a mega cheap to build legoland box let alone anything out the ordinary. Bog standard rates are double that. Reality check time.

m2 price please of FINISHED shell, including outer skin.

just a cut block, the one below it looks fine. probaly caused when the perlin dried out originally, could have been soaked when put in.

pocket door ?

typical loonie leftie crap. Compulsory buying land from housebuilders to 'force' them to build. Who will be doing the building ? taxpayers paying over the odds adding to the ever increasing blackhole. The biggest issue is the civil servants blocking everything, planning application should take 8 days not 8 months. Which will only happen if its privatised. 2 tier kier is done for. spraying cash at the unions strikes like its going out of fashion whilst robbing pensioners. will end like it always ends with leftie governments, one almighty expensive mess to be cleared up.

the problem with not using a professional to do the appeal is you dont know what you dont know and they do.

you can leave what you want. Engage with planning enforcement, they are used to whinging neighbours. They wont be in the least interested any anything not directly related to planning.

its a building site, neighbour hate comes free.

couldn't get hold of trench blocks ? its normal practice not to bond as the pic above below DPC, sleeper walls for b and b etc

why do the people that design these always make the ceiling soo low, tucking the windows tight to soffits meaning hard to insulate. I do like the ICF concept but at double/treble the cost of a normal build for 10% at most better performance the numbers just dont stack up.

does it matter as self builds are exempt?

claims direct, whiplash etc hope you got plenty insurance.