ProDave

That puts you in a good position. If it is any help, the only time I talked to an architect, they gave me such a silly estimated build cost that I could never have afforded it, and I would be paying to build it way more than it's market value was. I built if without an architect for half their estimate. Are you really in a hurry? How much if any are you prepared to do yourself? I think if you wait a year, with large builders mothballing sites demand for materials will fall and you will find builders merchants a lot more interested in self builders and prices may come down. If you can get a basic shell built, then most of the rest you can do yourself, that is what we did. Because of a change in our circumstances and I did not want and was probably unable to borrow, ours became a 5 year long build as you earn. Are you prepared to put in the graft for a similar result?

Is that 3M internal or external? Wall thickness is an important consideration with such a narrow build. that would swing it in favour of SIPS but what are you going to clad it with?

Such speculation assumes things were "normal" until recently and would follow the same pattern as before. But we have had 15 years of emergency low interest rates and a decade of "austerity" to try and revive the UK economy after the 2008 crash. We have certainly NOT been living in "normal" times for a long time now. So long that a lot of people believe this fragile propped up economy was in fact "normal" Logic says we are at the start of a recession , and house prices will fall as demand falls, this is not a good time to invest in a house building company. Unless you genuinely believe they are going to carry on building houses and manage to sell them at a profit?

So they were refused the original plan, got permission for a different design, then built the original refused one. I would certainly NOT risk an awful lot of money playing that silly game.

That's not the end of the puzzle. With interest rates rising, and so many people used the the previous emergency low rates as "normal" it is widely forecast people will stop buying houses and wait, causing a slump in the housing market, and falling prices. If that happens, mass market builders will mothball their sites, they won't build with rising costs and falling prices, just like they did last time. And so we enter the next "bust" phase of the unstable housing market. If all the mass market builders do stop building material prices should come down. I think keep looking for a plot but not to be in a hurry to actually start might be a good plan at the moment?

Looks very nice, and a plug for the fourm. I take it you had to do a lot of tidying up for the photos?

It perhaps shows the disjointed system? If you apply for a building warrant, do building control actually check with the planners that what you have drawn for the building warrant matches what you have planning permission for? I read it as the planners told him what alterations he needed to make for it to meet planning policy and instead of doing that he fought it but missed various deadlines. I would never dream of applying for a building warrant for something different to what the planning permissions says, but then most of us understand the system.

In Scotland for certain it has to be a double check valve. I argued this point with the Scottish water inspector. The single check valve in the SW supplied toby was not sufficient. Nor was the single check valve in my own toby that followed that. And nor was the single check valve built into the tap on my standpipe. So to keep them happy, in addition to the THREE single check valves on place, I had to install an in line double check valve. Only then would they make the connection.

Yes this is just symptomatic of the way mass market builders throw things together with no proper thought or understanding of the details. What's the chances the top of the wall is open to the loft to let cold air down, the classic plasterboard tent? Sadly the OP is thinking a 5 year old house will be "built properly" Penny pinching and not even using foil backed plasterboard for the ceiling about sums up the level of understanding that went into this build. I guess it is going to be a try it and see solution. Start by taping the joint, see if the problem goes away. If it does not, or gets worse, cut down both sides of the membrane close to but not touching the joists (so you can undo this trial if needed) and roll the membrane up back as far as you can to expose that ceiling and see how that goes.

If we are doing digger pics, this was mine. That was digging the hole for the treatment plant, almost at full reach down into the ground, a smaller digger with less reach would have struggled. And on the subject of maintenance, the astute will notice a steel bar forming a temporary pin for the boom. It had just sheered it's original pin and this was the best I could muster up to get the job done until I could replace the pin properly. It was somewhat floppy like that!!!! It was a very old 3t Komatsu. Not what I was really looking for but it came up on ebay, and I put in a silly low bid and won it for £2500. It was old and worn but it worked, did everything I asked it to and I sold it for £2500 when finished.

To save your time, stress and anger levels don't bother. Just search the net for stories of people with real structural problems unable to get satisfaction from NHBC, a few spots of mould in very cold weather, you would just be wasting your time and increasing your stress levels as you bang against a brick wall. I would ask why does the vapour barrier only cover the edge of the ceiling? So it is a vapour barrier in the wall lapped over the top above the plasterboard. If done properly you would expect it to either be continued over the whole ceiling, or the edge where it finishes taped to the plasterboard. As it is any moisture that gets under the membrane is trapped. So I would start with making sure it is dry under what you can see of the membrane then tape the edge to the ceiling. Ideally with air tightness tape, but even something like gorilla tape would be good. then put the loft insulation back ensuring it is well laid and no bare ceiling is exposed anywhere. Then see how it goes.

Indeed it does, I knew someone would know the correct name. More information here. https://retainingwallsolutions.co.uk/king-post-retaining-walls/ It would be my choice in this situation.

We have very similar in a recess in a wet room. except 900 deep 1200 wide wet room shower former sitting in a 400mm deep recess. Next to the door is a little fixed 300mm panel just to stop water splashing the door. It does not need to be a perfect seal, so we bought an "over bath" panel set 100mm above the floor and the top is about head height. It does the job nicely to stop the door getting splashed. Everything is so much easier and more spacious with a wet room.

Be careful how you phrase things......

In my case it was the house designer, an arcitectural technician who specified all the insulation build up and did the intersitial condensation analysis. My original design was for just 25mm wood fibre board over the rafters and 200mm in between them, but I increased that to 100mm over the rafters.

It is making the noise with no water coming out? Does the tap still deliver water? Is there a pump in the system somewhere?

With proper design input you might be able to make it a hybrid roof with not very much insulation above the rafters to minimise height build up.

First thing at this stage is the roof. Think really really hard before the kit goes up, if you can find a way to do the roof as a warm roof. This will make the build far easier, and far better from so many angles, easier to detail air tightness, easier to detail services like MVHR etc as they will all be in a warm space, and not to mention you will have a nice warm loft for storage. To make it a warm roof, once the trusses are up, you insulate above the trusses and then membrane and battens etc. You often insulate between the rafters as well. you will need some proper input from your designer and might need to speak to planning if you are on a tight ridge height limit.

You ignore them and build your own slim design of retaining wall as already suggested. I fail to see what other option you have. without it getting very nasty, very expensive and taking a very long time. And you don't want to fall out with them if you might need a party wall agreement at some stage. Your choice.

The time to replace them is before the PSU dies completely, there may be more wrong with it now.

Care to take the cover off one of the failed back plates . psu's and post some photos. I have just fitted 8 of these to the local village hall. Looks like I need to schedule replacing them again in 10 to 11 years......

As long as it is an old school storage heater no problem, but not one of the current ones with electronic controls. Have you taken the cover off the iboost to see what went wrong? I have repaired a couple of PV diverters (not that one) and the construction does not seem that good, one was a fly lead burned out because it was under sized and the other a PCB track burned out. Some seem engineered rather badly.

Personally I would take the bath out through it's own pipe at the front (bottom of picture) with a drain run along the front to merge with the one from the back.

I am starting to question if the plot is big enough to build on. I would certainly want at least a 1 metre walkway between the house wall and the boundary. At least 2 very slim retaining wall options have been posted that would not take up much of the 1M walkway and allow the build to proceed without dispute. It now seems you are implying you need to build up to the boundary, so you really are into proper retaining wall that will also be the foundation of the house. You would expect that to be built on your land and I would not expect the neighbour to contribute to that. With a PWA that could go right up to the existing wall and you could end up with your house wall on top of this new retaining wall very close to the boundary, if that is really what you seek.

That was a LONG time ago they were that cheap. Last time I looked the plots there would cost more than my entire build here including the land.