Bonner

Good approach. You will learn as you go along, by making mistakes! Best to understand as much as possible before you start. See if you can meet someone locally who has already been through it all, always good to have a buddy.

…or knock it down and start again. It will be even more daunting but probably the best for the long term. See if you can find a trusted local builder and talk options, ask what would you do?

Have to disagree, I have an Einhell double bevel slider, it is horrible! No soft start, noisy, slide not smooth and more importantly inaccurate. Still use it for rough work, mainly chopping kindling. Got a single bevel Dewalt and it’s so much better.

When I said they agreed to collaborate, they did but Northern Powergrid cried off on the day due to an emergency. They had already dropped off their duct so I asked Anglian Water’s contractor if they could install it. Initially they said no, so I asked if I could do it, but no, I was not authorised to work in their excavation. Anyway I went back a couple of hours later and they had done it! It was all done in a morning but the road was closed for another 4 days until the surfacing team came to reinstate the road.

I have idea if you will find someone to do it cheaper but worth a few phone calls. The cost are exorbitant really there must be huge overheads involved. The utility companies usually sub contract the work anyway.

The biggest part is pipe laying which is contestable so you can get alternative quotes from LRQA accredited contractors as noted in the quote.

Mine was a lot less, 2.5k for water and 2k for electric with road crossing. Managed to get them to collaborate and only dig one trench (a lot more difficult than you might think!). Go back and challenge the costs, ask for a breakdown.

Agree, 50mm screed is absolute minimum and leaves no margin for variations

Suggest you accept compensation and then get them painted when the build has finished. You might even come round to liking the colour! I have slate grey inside which contrasts with the internal walls and frames the views nicely.

74 miles per US gallon would be very good

I am almost fully metric but litres per 100km means nothing to me. At university we used American textbooks for some topics so I had to get my head around Slugs in measurement of viscosity.

What does it smell like?

We are still a bit mid Atlantic which confuses people on both sides. For example we drive miles (and yards) and consume fuel in mpg but buy it in litres?!

Got mine from TK stairs in oak with MDF treads (carpet). They didn’t offer ply as standard, give them a call but you may be paying more than oak for something non standard.

Not everybody has a borehole so maybe ask someone who does directly. Either post on an existing thread or search for someone who might know and tag them by @name.