Roundtuit

Legally, if you're downhill, I think you have to accept 'natural' drainage going in your direction, but if it's due to some sort of activity on your neighbours land, like downpipes or water storage, then I believe he has some responsibility. Not sure that helps you much if a) he's not co-operating, and b) got no money, but depending on how you think it would go, I'd consider researching the legal situation a bit further (Google, not solicitors!) and perhaps suggesting that you can help him out with his legal obligation by putting in a perforated pipe FOC!

Where is the water coming from? Sounds like it might not be just percolating through the soil due to the wet season?

I've used Helifix in the past for stitching cracks; yours is a slightly different application, but i don't see why you couldn't use it for tying in the repair and tying the two skins together.

Ours was a BPC system. I self installed, then when I was ready, hired an airflow meter and adjusted all the vents to match BPC's design airflow figures (Ian's right - a bit of a circular, pain in the ar$e job, in that adjusting one vent impacts on the others...). I produced my own commissioning certificate for Building Control and they never questioned it.

I think ours was a minimum of 200mm behind, 600 in front and 500mm either side to ensure adequate air flow and maintenance access. Not sure if that would be the same if you have multiple units close together though.

It takes a few days for them to die after ingesting the poison, so hopefully they'll pop back next door to expire!

@Ralph I suspect you're correct. We've got Rationel windows and doors (will dig out the £/m2 when I get chance) but our agent advised an alternative to Rationel bi-folds as they were 're-badged' from a different manufacturer, so we've got Solarlux bi-folds.

If you haven't got a VCL in your bedroom ceiling, I'd take the plasterboard off and do it again to be honest. Plaster might give you an airtight layer, but it won't stop moisture migrating. If the pb is screwed on, most of if will be reusable.

OK. You're right. ?

It should be specified on your plans, but as we know, they're a bit hazy. Ask your BCO; that's who you need to satisfy if you want sign-off. For what it's worth, I think yes, it is necessary, and if it was mine I'd do it without hesitation. The idea is to prevent moisture from 'living' migrating into your structure, condensating where it meets cold air and causing problems further up the road. You can install a cheap polythene sheet with a staple gun to form a barrier, or as @PeterW suggests, foil tape over the timber to seal it to the foil PIR, effectively achieving the same thing. If you can fit PIR that neatly, you can do a VCL! ?

Not sure that's universally the case; my frame had no noggins, just 140mm studs with factory fitted PIR and an OSB outer sheath. It looked similar to Zoot's (apart from the anomalies already mentioned!) @zoothorn; I'd put a VCL in as it's not a biggie in terms of cost or extra work, although its going to be a bit messy where you cut the back boxes in.

$h!t happens, and things always look better in the morning! Assuming that the hole for the window in the gable has existed for a while and aesthetically looks ok (i.e no one identified that it looked 'wrong') then a new window might be the most palatable of the alternatives. If you can't recover the cost (also need to consider what time and energy this might take) perhaps there's the opportunity to mitigate some losses - discounted fees, extras free of charge etc.

If it's rotten, as above I think it will be wet rot. As @PeterStarck says, have at it with a screwdriver and see how solid it is. Unless there's some signifcant deterioration, I wouldn't be worrying about it.

Most expensive trade? Kitchen fitter. He snapped a 3m length of worktop, holed a water pipe, damaged a cupboard door and an island end panel, and cut into the control panel of a brand new Bosch dishwasher with a multi-tool. Thankfully, it was expensive for him not me!?

We've got a Bio-pure 2, which has performed without issue for the last 22 months, to the point that I've not even bothered to lift the lid. Now that I have (had it serviced last week), I've found it's still operating fine, but it needs de-sludging. I think that if I'd followed the recommended 6-monthly inspection routine I could have extended the de-sludging interval. There's a slight noise from the blower, but I think it's mainly from where cables or air pipe touch the inside of the pump chamber. I got some foam material to line the inside of the chamber, but it's not noisy enough to be on the to-do list just yet! My father-in-law slept in his camper van next to it for a few days last summer, against my advice, and didn't even notice it. (It's his choice, honest! We do have a spare room...)

Yeah.. not sure that's going to do it! If your architect is also doing Building Regs application for you, they'll have something in mind I would think. Probably worth having the chat about windows without trickle vents if you haven't already...

Good plan. How were you planning to ventilate then? I assume the 25mm is an additional (internal) layer? What's insulation is in the SIP out of interest?

Try and get another quote or two and review from there. It does sound pricey if they're re-using your existing tiles, but there's too many variables that we've not really touched on yet; size of the roof, number of valleys and complexities, access, local supply and demand.

Old-school winter storage for root veg?

No, but you need to give it some thought. As above, you'd need to get the 'infrastructure' in during the build, but that's not a massive outlay if you install it yourself. Air tightness is key to effective mvhr, so for me, the bigger consideration would be whether to spec your windows without trickle vents (and I would suggest that would be the preferable in the long term), and how you achieve adequate ventilation levels in the interim.

Difficult to say. Possibly, the filters certainly catch a lot, but I suspect that most household dust is created 'in house' so I couldn't vouch for that as a benefit. Probably keeps some pollen out though.

Our electric meter is in an external boundary box (like several others on here), but to be honest, there's nothing else in our plant room I'd want to put in a 'shed'. I think architects need to get their heads around planning-in adequate space for increasingly sophisticated plant. In the not-to-distant past it was pretty much an airing cupboard for the water tank, and somewhere to mount a consumer unit. It depends on exactly what you're planning on putting in there of course, but probably better to make your plant room part of the house-proper if you can I think, to make sure it's secure, dry and accessible.

You need to be pretty airtight to make it worthwhile, but having lived with mvhr for 18 months, I think the 'heat recovery' part is possibly the lesser of the benefits. Having a controlled directional air flow through the house, constant fresh air into bedrooms and living rooms, and extract from kitchen/utility/bathrooms I think is just great. There's a gentle background noise to ours; just enough to tell when the the humidity sensor has detected our teenage daughters extended shower so I can shout up the stairs in a father-like manner. Our sons bedroom no longer smells like he's keeping ferrets in there. Stuff dries quickly; towels/tea towels, laundry dries over night in the utility room. If I had to live in a house without it now, I'd definitely miss it.

I think you're taking the best course of action. Sounds like, having accepted the compromise and the architects £1100 (and I fully understand why you would), you really need BC to rule it non-compliant before you can re-visit the architect for a resolution/compensation. If it turns out to be compliant, I'm sure the buildhub collective can come up with the most suitable, best cost alternative for when you're ready to replace - just need some more pics and plans!

We've got a Franke Maris 1.5 bowl. I like it; low profile mounting, clean lines, plenty big enough and not too pricey. It's not rock solid, but not too tinny either. We have a Franke Eiger silksteel mixer tap which toolstation were selling for less than £100 at the time, but I suspect that offer is long gone.