ProDave

Do you mean 2.4m? That is low for the apex of a vaulted ceiling and would not be high enough for that sort of multi pendant fitting.

It makes me angry that the law says the CIL won't apply to self builders. So WHY are they allowed to make the system so complicated and with so many "traps" to try and make self builders pay if they don't tick the right boxes in the right order?

We have one light fitting in our 5M by 4M bedroom. It is a high ceiling with a light fitting that hangs down a long way with 3 lamps in it. Works no problem. How easy to change at this stage? What is above? Accessible loft space, easy peasy. Vaulted ceiling with just a small service void could be very difficult.

I assume some sort of hand rails are still to be fitted? There is one lone wooden post in place at the moment suggesting that might be the case. I would have made them less wide, but perhaps they are that wide to allow an infirm person to use them with a helper with them? Agreed about the lack of edging, the grass will quickly encroach on the steps.

Why is anyone paying? I thought this was supposed to be covered by a government initiative to provide gigabit internet to all properties?

What was asked for and agreed? They are functional if not pretty. Of course the devil is in the detail that you can't see, what base has been laid under the grass to support them?

It's been plumbed wrong. The cold taps should be fed from the same pressure reduced feed as feeds the cylinder. Instead it sounds like yours are fed direct from the mains and since you turned the pressure down, as you say the cold feeds are now at a higher pressure.

The highlighted word is the important one. Judging by the way he butchered your wall I am not sure that word applied here?

"Summer bypass" is a poor description of this function. It is in reality "heat exchanger bypass" In summer when it is hot, the heat exchanger can actually work in reverse and COOL the incoming air. Operating "summer bypass" then, would just allow ever hotter air into the house. I have never used the bypass function on mine, I struggle to find the very few times it would actually be of any use.

You choices are get the kit and design for £0 which takes account of the grant, then pay your chaps to fit it. Or ignore the grant altogether, buy the kit yourself, pay your guys to fit it and get nothing.

One option to look at is a number of companies will supply the kit for free (using the BUS grant) with design and paperwork, leaving you (or your builder) to install it. Any competent plumber and electrician that can read the install manual will be able to install it.

When building a house, you can have cheap, fast and good. But you ONLY ever get at most 2 of those. We chose cheap and good with us doing a lot ourselves but it took several years. To have paid someone to just build it would have resulted in a house that cost way more than it was worth. Perhaps self building only suits the practical sort willing to do a lot of the work?

By far the simplest way to manage heat, is during the day keep all windows shut and curtains closed on sunny side of house. Then at night throw all the windows open to cool the house from the cooler night time air. Trying to tell someone NOT to open a window when "it's hot" just does not seem to sink in.

^^^ It makes my blood boil that some councils waste so much time and money on stupid things like the above, and fail to do the things they should be doing.

The holes are where he went probing to try and find a stud, and the long screws are because he didn't have any plasterboard fixings. All speculation of course.

Was this done on an empty house or furnished? Did any of the sealing gunk (whatever it is) settle on any visible surface of the house and need cleaning off afterwards? Before or after plasterboarding?

The contactor and wire got hot because the connection was not secure so created a resistance. Current passing through a resistance creates heat. The total current flowing would be less than if the connection was perfect so no chance of over current trip operating. The current still flowed Live to Neutral so no chance of tripping an RCD. The only thing that might have detected that is an Arc Fault Detection Device. Their uses has been discussed but not presently a requirement. Lots of th discussion has been on false trips, i.e. they are not regarded as reliable devices. Normally one's nose detects these things, if you smell and odd smell go looking for it's source.

I wanted to do a self build when I was young, but then I lived in the SE of England (where I suspect @maison d'etre lives judging by plot price) but it was never possible. The very few plots that came up for sale had a plot price equal to a ready build house. So were not for someone wanting to self build an ordinary house. It was only when we moved to the Highlands that plot prices were sensible (and a LOT more available) that I got to realise that dream.

Surely if it is a party wall, the centre of the wall will be the party line, which is what it looks like from where you have drawn your red line?

But there is not much flying there any more. That was my point.

I was going to suggest a rat had been exploring your drains and is stuck in the saniflow.

Buy yourself an air test kit, they are not expensive and test as you go. You want to make sure your drains are all good BEFORE you cover them with plasterboard and hide them. And testing as you go means if you have a leak, you know it is in the last bit you did. You fill all the traps, plug the vent pipe and connect the test kit wherever is convenient and plug the rest. TIP: Some top access shower traps with a lift out "bucket" that lets you clean them from above will not withstand the test pressure and will pop out. I had to cut 2 thin strips of wood to wedge ours down in place to get the pressure test to work. Our BC wanted the test done to 100mm H2O but that is impossible, it will pump up to about 70mm the depth of seal of your smallest trap and any attempt to go further just blows bubbles through the trap. They accepted that.

Just decide what lighting you want. Don't skimp, because you can't add more later, so make sure you have chosen enough lighting. Then submit a site plan showing what lights are going where and send details of make and model etc. Better to choose too many lights now and not use them all than wish you had more. The worst that can happen is they say too many and you have to try again with fewer.

I was badly advised on our first build and the ST was just backfilled with pea gravel. I worked around that situation by only ever getting it pumped out in the summer after a long dry spell when I was reasonably sure the water table was low. And then immediately running a hose to re fill it with fresh water rather than waiting for it to fill gradually. But I did see one float out of the ground. It was a treatment plant I don't know the make but it's design seemed to be the water level in the system was quite low and after heavy rain one morning it just pushed it's way up out of the ground.

We once tried to buy a wooden bungalow with a subsidence issue years ago. It looked like the subsidence had stopped and it had been re roofed with a custom cut roof that corrected the previous wonky roof but the building had been left with one outside wall that had clearly sunk leaving one room with a sloping floor. Our plan would have been level that floor and do nothing else, and in the longer term it would have been knock down and rebuild. But we were outbid and it sold for more than we though it worth.