Roundtuit

£600? Good luck. I think mine was £180. Not Norfolk, but the next county.

Our alu clad trim is held on by clips and it just pops off with a bit of gentle persuasion. If you really did find that you could no longer live with the colour in a few years time, you could change the trim without changing the windows I suppose.

This really shouldn't be your problem to sort out if you've used a professional design service. Gut feel is that your timber frame company need to use wider battens on the cladding and suck-up any additional costs on the windows. Failing that, you can get aluminium pressings made in whatever size and colour you want that would sit behind the cladding, cover the cavity and overhang the slate slips (like a big aluminium window cill pressing).

Maybe, but the openings were as planned, with recommended tolerances all round (timber frame so easy to do), but the brackets were so inflexible that there was zero tolerance. The jambs bowed in on a couple of windows in the first few days after fitting due to the leverage over time. Rationel sent someone out to have a look, and judged that it was something the site fitting team would have been expected to anticipate and overcome. So, a few windows needed re-fitting. Not a biggie in the scheme of things, but worth a thought.

Same here. I like it.

That sounds about right. They also have a crank in them which I found was too much, and started to bow some jambs slightly. I ended up hammering them all flat before fitting.

I'd be interested in buying it if I were you, but there's a few things to consider. Firstly, I suspect that as you're the end of the row the land has little value to anyone else, so bear that in mind when negotiating. Secondly, you need to be clear what the current land classification is. I'd guess unlikely to be agricultural. If it's amenity land that forms part of the developers overall scheme, you might find you're not permitted to change the use or fence it in, or are restricted in fence height. More investigation to do perhaps!

I didn't say it was a waste of time, just that I'd hesitate before retrofitting it, due to the cost and inevitable disruption as you run the ducting and the reduced benefit you may get from the heat recovery. I also don't disagree that ventilation is key; 'heat and ventilate' has long been the mantra for keeping your house dry. A dehumidifier was a quick, unobtrusive fix for me in an imperfect house; just worth a thought that's all...

Unless you can make it airtight, I would think hard before embarking on the mvhr route. I'd invest in a decent dehumidifier or two and try that; we ran a cheap one (£100?) 24-7 in our last place over the winter months and it made a massive improvement condensation levels.

The size of the Root Protection Zone depends on the diameter of the tree at 1.5 m high, or canopy spread for mature trees, so maybe start by working that out (as per BS5837). I'd suggest just doing the best you can under the circumstances, so it looks like you've made an effort. The chances of anyone checking is pretty slim in my (limited) experience. If you need to cross the RPZ with any heavy equipment, you can hire ground protection mats.

They both look a reasonable choice. I bought a Transit Connect for £2K for the duration of the build. Turned out to be more like 3 years than the one year I envisaged, but ideal (if you're hands-on) for stuff you can't or don't want to put in a car. If I was buying again, roof bars and a tow bar would be on the wish list.

I stuffed a load of PIR off-cuts in the void under and around the bath before I boxed it in. No idea if it has any benefit though, other than saving a trip to the tip...

You wish...

You may struggle to get 70mm pir into 70mm studs as there is probably a tolerance of +/- up to 5mm on the pir boards. 70mm studs seem pretty light tbh; I think I'd be considering filling the studs with mineral wool insulation, and fixing the 70mm pir on the inside of that with battens. Someone clever will hopefully be along shortly to advise on vcl and condensation risk.

Maybe put a small fan at ground level to get some more air flow, and maybe use one of those absorbant things that are used for shipping containers to take up the excess.

Is that correct? 300 sq m is pretty big for a 3 bed house.

Just a thought... if a pipe bursts due to freezing, it doesn't usually leak until it thaws, and if the pipe is encased in screed, the I'd have thought any bursts would be around the manifold perhaps.

Maybe, but Artex is a trade name, and wasn't the only product available.

Yes, similar to yours; a really fine dust that seems to stick by static. It comes off easily enough with the brush attachment on the hoover. Filters are changed every 6 months.

'Textured coatings' (artex etc) may have contained asbestos up until 1984, so Google says. Best to know what you're working with I reckon.

I think maybe Tricky just wanted comments restricted to the heating system proposal, rather than the holistic approach, and is probably too far down the line to be able easily change some of the fundamentals...

Heat will escape; insulation just slows down the rate. Looks like you need more ventilation in the loft space to get rid of the condensation. Perhaps check the eaves are not blocked with insulation.

Looks like a good set up. I did a similar thing, but a bit of a bodge job, in our last place. I set the alarm to come on if pump 1 failed, but before water reached pump 2 level. I also discovered there was a problem with the pumps getting air-locked and failing to pump after the sump had run dry over summer. I ended up drilling some holes in the pipework to let water into the pumps from the top. I think I also had to put some one way valves in to stop water being returned through whichever pump wasn't running.

Honestly, if you're planning on living in this for an extended period of time, I'd have a re-think before you go much further. Has this been professionally designed?

Impossible to say really. It depends on where the leaks are. Unless you're stripping it back to basics, all you can realistically do is plug the holes in the inner skin (caulking round skirting etc); the cold air may still be circulating behind the plasterboard and negating the insulation. I'm guessing you have trickle vents in the windows? Perhaps not much benefit in sealing up too much unless you can control ventilation losses.