ProDave

I see two completely separate issues. The poor insulation The poor condition of the decra roof. Both need tackling separately. I see no reason why the insulation cannot be fixed by adding more on top of the existing straw. The devil is in the detail, you do not want ANY of the original roof uncovered, e.g. the bit you removed to have a look will just let cold air get under the rest completely negating any insulation. You want to ensure the whole roof is covered with no gaps and only then is it worth adding more. How has the decra roof been fitted? It is a lightweight covering often used on mobile homes, and I have always understood it is lad onto a flat board. Your sagging decra tiles suggest it has been laid like traditional tiles on battens and has sagged between the battens. You probably want to lift some tiles to have a look.

So if none of your devices are natively alexa aware, how and what do you program and in what sort of language, to make alexa talk to your media centre?

On the main news today, the Government are proposing to scrap this rule, which in their words would unlock 100K houses stuck in planning at the moment.

If the fibre is not there yet, don't do your final surfacing until it IS there and working. 20 years ago a new house up the road from us had just moved in and were somewhat peeved when SSE came along to dig a trench down the road and across their entrance for a new supply to 2 new houses down the road (one of those being our first self build)

I would tell them to halt work until you have had building control look at it. Post pictures of the wonky walls and point them out to building control. Don't make any more payments to the builder until it has been resolved and you are happy with the work.

And they are not even the coloured ones that are coloured so that building control can easily see that they are treated. No colour, they are probably not treated and building control could fail the job. It needs ripping off and starting again. Sorry.

We too had to have the first 3 metres finished in tarmac, so I did it all in that right up to our level concrete parking area. If you live on a single track road, passing traffic WILL treat it as another passing place unless you park on it yourself to stop that. Not much you can do to stop that.

If they insist on a buffer, then can it not go where the old inside unit is? On the understanding it will be SILENT and of not they WILL make it silent.

Not at all. Best to site the HW tank as central as possible to points of HW usage, distance from ASHP does not matter.

That is why Highland council grant temporary planning for a static caravan only, with the stipulation the static caravan must be removed before occupation of the new house. I bent that as far as I could and got mine amended to "habitational use of the caravan shall cease upon occupation of the house" so mine remains as a work room and store room.

+1 for questioning a buffer tank. That is usually used in a very low heat demand house to avoid short cycling. I would tell them to go ahead without a buffer tank and you accept the consequences that it might not run quite as efficiently, but that is unlikely in your case.

If DIY laying tarmac, you can use a wacker to compact it but you must keep it wet with a hose.

50C seems hot for heating temperature? does it really need to be that hot? DHW flow temperature may not be such an issue. If you monitor the flow and return temperatures as it heats the tank, you will probably find the return temperature is about the same as the tank temperature at that time, and the flow temperature is a few degrees higher. As the tank warms up, both steadily increase. It is physically impossible for the HP to run at much higher flow temperature as it's only a low power heater. The setting on mime is maximum flow temperature, a maximum cap on how hot you let it get.

The flow temperature (known as water leaving temperature on my ASHP) will need to be about 5 degrees hotter than the target tank temperature, so if your target is 51 degrees the flow temperature will need to be at least 56 degrees. Most ASHP's won't give you a direct reading, of COP. It is easy to measure energy in, but very much harder to measure energy out. So I would not trust the readings yours gives you to be completely accurate.

I have no regrets getting a cheap ebay electric roller door. It fits on the inside and there is no reduction in the opening area.

This is yet again where the Scottish system is better. You would not get a building warrant until all details like that are agreed, and then you know if you build what has been agreed on the plans, there should be no nasty surprises. Do English building regs not check the drawings properly before saying go ahead?

Do what we did, come out level with the house more than you need to to make a nice big level entrance. Then slope the path down from that level platform. The reason for the bigger than need be level platform is it then puts the path a bit further from the house wall so your idea of sloped grassy sides will work.

In @ToughButterCup case could you not run the pipe underground horizontally with a slight fall and vent it out further down the slope, that would let the heavier than air gas out.

If you have windows open in summer you could turn it off. But ours runs all the time. A good test of an air tight house, is you can open one door or one window on a windy day and you won't get a draught coming in our out.

Isn't it to vent radon gas so should it not be open? Where does it actually go? What happens if it is so open rainwater gets in?

And a sketch of a section through the ground, and foundations to see how the 45 degrees from the foundations compares to the excavated ex retaining wall.

And who do you think this governing body that is going to go snooping is? Assuming the panels are on the roof or elsewhere it is probably only an electrician. Start with an EICR limited in scope if you want just to the solar PV. Commercial or domestic client?

In Scotland, you can use a certificate of temporary habitation as your "proof of completion" for your VAT claim. If you do that before you have your actual completion certificate then there is no reason why the rest of the work done as supply and fit cannot be zero rated, right up to the very last piece of work the day before completion. Why would you even tell your builder that you have submitted your VAT claim for the materials that you bought? It is none of his business.

It depends. One job I worked on the window was 1" too high so BC made them install a 1" high step. I am sure the step is no longer there, and if there was a fire, most people would cope with a window being 1" too high without a step.

I would advise caution doing the actual build. Your house is built on sloping ground but nobody knows yet how the foundations were built and how deep. To do your new lower ground floor extension, you need to dig down right adjacent to the back wall of the house about 10 feet. That slab of concrete needs to come up and someone needs to carefully did and see what foundations the house is on at the moment. This must be a real candidate for not knowing the costs of the ground works before you start. If the house is not on very deep foundations then you are into deepening the foundations and it is really like adding a basement to the existing house. Accepting the technical and possibly cost challenges, it sounds an interesting project.