ProDave

Two options really. Dig a test pit at ground level, literally a 300mm cube hole and try a percolation test in that. If that drains away okay, then you could install a filter mound system, which is just a pile of very expensive graded sand and the drainage field on top, then covered in earth. You usually need a pumped output from treatment plant to pump the output up to it. Or if you have access to the watercourse (as in legal right to dig up the land and lay a pipe) then do that. It is by far the best solution. In my case building control rejected the filter mound and at that point SEPA agreed to discharge into our burn, but unlike in England, SEPA seem to want you to prove land drainage is not possible before they will agree.

My previous 1930's house had a slate DPC.

Cold tarmac is what the council wagon carries and 2 blokes go around shovelling it into pot holes and give it a quick run over with a wacker plate. Within about 2 weeks, nothing is left of it in the pot hole.

Without a thermostat anywhere what can happen is all the TRV's shut down, and the boiler and pump keep running to circulate hot water around completely pointlessly, and waste a small amount of gas firing up occasionally to keep that water hot. The traditional way was one room did not have TRV's instead that room had a room thermostat. That needs to be the room that takes longest to heat up, so you can be sure the other rooms are warm before that turns off.

Not a design criticism, but if you have the HW tank under the stairs, and you are having an unvented tank, you WILL need a drain for the D2 discharge, so you will need to provision a drain under the stairs. That will need thinking about and planning at floor slab laying time. Just pointing out as it may not be immediately obvious you will need a drain and will be a bitch to add later.

That sounds like a lot of different button pressing and confuguring. How do you backup and restore that lot so WHEN a part fails you can program the new part just as it was. If it was ALL contained in a script or a program that you could save and restore, it would be easy. I can see the fun of battling to make something work like that, but would not want to rely on anything I could not simply restore to a working system if one part broke.

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.