ProDave

Picture please.

We did an entire 2 storey extension under a building notice when we were down south. It worked astonishingly well, no problems at all. But then the builder we used had come highly recommended and there was nothing particularly complicated about it. I also remember the astonishingly (by todays standard) cost of building the shell including foundations and roof of just £18K

Can the glass banister panels be removed? I like the Genie lift idea, but it would be a lot less frightening if the glass could be removed and the bath only then needs lifting to floor level and sliding over from the lift. Then glass replaced.

Re sign off. Obviously there is the design and things like structural engineer. We paid an AT to do all the design and produce all the drawings to the satisfaction of building control and issue of a building warrant. Electrical install required sign off, that was my job so for me easy. Plumbing, the only sign off was unvented G3 and Gas safe for the hob. I did the plumbing for both, a plumber I know did the tests and G3 sign off and a different plumber issued the gas safe certificate. AS built SAP issued by the same company that did the design SAP using the final figures I supplied including the air test results. BC effectively certified the stove install, they were very particular checking distance to combustible materials comparing actual to that the stoves install manual stated. All drain pressure tests done by me and witnessed by BC. Glass. BC just checked all the low level windows and doors for the toughened label on the glass units.

Why not drop a flue liner down the chimneys and extend the flue liner only down to the sub floor space. That should be air tight.

So the issue is, as I suspected, you are unhappy with their plans. Has the drain EVER blocked with this new neighbour? Is the extension going to come right up to your boundary? If so you need a party wall agreement that should sort out all the issues including rain water drainage. Someone else will have to answer the finer points of that as I have never had to seal with one. If you want to sow seeds of doubt to your neighbour then suggest if he builds right up to the boundary you might later do the same and his semi detached house will become a mid terrace house devaluing it.

The two browns, presently in the L terminal need to connect to both COM1 and COM2 on the new switch. You will need an extra piece of brown wire to make a link between them. The other two browns in the terminals with a symbol a bit like an X, one will go to L11 and the other to L21 on the new switch. No links this time. The blue connected to N is not needed for the new switch follow it back and I think you will be able to disconnect it from the terminal block with the other blues. Leave the other blues still in that terminal block. The new switch has a metal front and an earth terminal so you will need a green and yellow earth link from the earth terminal in the back box to the earth terminal on the switch.

Is the OP looking for a way to block his neighbours extension from being built?

My plumber friend seems to call into TP EVERY morning, not always to buy anything, but for the free coffee on tap.

A plug in AC unit that has a big vent pipe to get outside somehow to remove the hot air, will annoy the hell out of you. They are so noisy. I would have to be VERY overheated to put up with the noise of that. We have one from 2 houses ago. We tried running it in the bedroom when we were downstairs in the hope it would cool the room enough to turn it off when we went to bed, but it had not really cooled the fabric of the building so soon warmed up again.

Howdens used to do a "Friday Pie Day"

I have a Titan SDS drill not as big as the breaker mentioned, but can do light weight breaking. It is over 20 years old, had a hard life but still going strong. On it's third set of motor brushes and second mains lead (original one was pathetically short anyway) It only cost about £30 when I bought it all those years ago.

I hate builders that do that, give you a lot of land, then fence off just a tiny bit of land for your own private use. NOBODY benefits from the bit of land you have with a hedge and some dead space behind it. I have a relative in a similar situation. He planted a Beech hedge all around his boundary and when it reached 2 metres tall he let all his fences fall down, and now has a private and much larger garden.

I would just do it, take out as much of the hedge as you need and cover the area with gravel and park your car there. If you do ever got an official complaint it would be easy to re plant the hedge or other shrubs. I feel trying to get official permission would be a big hassle.

Show us the circuit. Or just experiment. Start with 100K, measure the voltage it pulls up to when open. If that is nowhere near what it is trying to pull up to, try a bit lower.

We are one of those with no heating upstairs. and being inland a bit in the Easy Highlands we know what cold winters are. Fair enough if your bedroom must be 21 you will need heating, but we don't. If you are to accurately calculate heat demand on a room by room basis you must allow for heat from downstairs coming up, so must calculate the U value of the ceiling / floor. And again if a 3 storey house. Intuition says your upstairs rooms will need a lot less heat than the lower floor rooms. I would stick with UFH throughout, and the fact you are more likely to have carpet upstairs does not matter as you will need less heat anyway.

Put some dimensions on that drawing or tell us how many square metres? You will do well indeed now to build for under £1000 per square metre. We did, but it was a slow build with a LOT of DIY work and it finished about 5 years ago. But as others have said, once you have foundations in, that would be an easy timber frame built on site which is entirely DIY possible if you have some basic skills and tools. Other DIY things, buy some kwikstage or similar scaffold and do it yourself. no scaffold rental and no time pressures to get it done and scaffold down.

I stayed on a campsite that had something similar. A very long shower tray. It had fixed glass all along the long edge and the narrow edge (in your case facing the loo) completely open. The tray was so long that nothing sprayed out beyond the end of the tray, and you had an 800mm wide entrance.

Hold the gland nut inside the box with gland pliers, and tighten the outside of the fitting with a big spanner. Must be done before fitting the cable into the fitting.

The gland nuts don't look tight. If you stick with those glands drill a hole through them both and put a nut and bolt through. What's the rating of the terminals supplied with the box? though not a lot of room. I would have used a larger box.

It could have been built as a proper warm roof design and would not need ventilation

If you are on clay with a high water table you MUST concrete it in. Don't let anyone say pea shingle is adequate. I have heard most discussion this sat they prop it upright with temporary wood, and don't forget to fill it as you pour so it does not float out.

Don't use a crowbar, get a pair of drain cover handles. e.g. https://www.screwfix.com/p/monument-tools-115mm-manhole-keys/14087

Buy a shorter car (i'll get my coat)

Definitely. Our past house had a pump out of necessity as the drainage field was higher than the treatment plant. The pump would last somewhere between 5 and 7 years before it burned out and needed replacing. I was SO glad when our present house was given permission to discharge to the burn, no pump, no drainage field.