ProDave

We have several willow trees. Most of them remained, the Structural engineer and building control did not raise an eyebrow. Digging the foundations almost no tree roots were found anywhere near the house footings. In our case it is probably because the willows are either side of the burn so I would suspect that is where you find their water and where most of their roots are concentrated.

What insulation, going where, how applied?

That depends on the heat loss from your house. Worst case for us (+20 inside, -10 outside) is a little over 2kW heat loss, so a 5kW heat pump only needs to be running for less than half the time. So it still has plenty of time available to heat the DHW. In general most ASHP's only heat space heating or DHW never both at the same time.

Only 1M between main units and island will be too little if either has a dishwasher with a pull down door, you will curse as you empty it, you cannot get past the door to put stuff away.

No, particularly for HOT pipe runs, I strive to get the shortest run when out of sight for quickest delivery of hot water.

HUGE noise I would say, and the unreliability as in YOU don't want to be the person repairing or replacing it WHEN it goes wrong. Post some plans of the proposed extension and existing drains and we might be able to suggest something.

Is there a motorised valve operating from a tank thermostat and the tank thermostat is set lower than the ASHP target tank temperature? Picture of the plumbing and controls on and around the tank? There should be a motorised valve and tank thermostat on an UVC as a safety measure to shut off the heat input if it gets too hot. This is often not actually used with an ASHP and in my case the tank stat is set to 65.

How come? Is that not the capped price for daytime? Night rate should be lower. If that is the best you can get then E7 / E10 is dead, switch to single rate and ditch the storage heaters.

Definitely single phase, only 2 HV cables to the pole.

What makes you think that? Building control might want to inspect and test the drain run to a "caravan" * but they won't want to inspect the plumbing inside a "caravan" as that is outwith building control. * In this context as far as building control are concerned you are connecting a "caravan" even if it does not look like a caravan and may not even be on wheels, it is still legally considered to be a caravan if it is moveable in some way and is within the size limits defined in law for a caravan.

My first car, I fitted a DIY car alarm, but I was not interested in flashing the lights or sounding some siren, no, it had a huge set of air horns under the drivers seat. The theory was not to attract attention of passers by, but to make it physically painful to remain inside the car if they set the alarm off.

Not common up here, but during the early stages of our build, one night 3 of the builders vans in the same village got broken into and most of the power tools nicked. They came to site but told me not to touch the vans as crime scene were on their way to fingerprint them. That is not common up here, but plod reckoned it was a gang from down south, working their way down the A9 calling in at all the villages adjoining it.

Today the phone line transferred to the VOIP service with the new provider. That should end all my services with BT. Just got to wait for the final bill to see if they have tried to sting me for any silly charges. I have had clarification of equipment returns, the only thing they want me to return is a 4G router that they sent to give coverage during a line fault. Well they are welcome to it back, it never worked at all. They are sending a postage paid return bag to send that back at no cost to me. No mention of returning the router so I won't.

Please tell us what he says? It will no doubt roughly translate to "not our fault"

How practical are you? the biggest way to save is get the builders to do all the structural work, roof alterations and other structural changes and then complete all the internal work yourself? How are your DIY skills?

@zoothorn what help do you want? If you are certain the damp and mould is nothing to do with the building or how it is heated and ventilated, but everything to do with your local microclimate, then the only answer is to sell up and move house to a less damp climate? My own take is you have a new extension attached to an old damp stone cottage, and unless there is an air tight seal between the old and new, then the inherent dampness will be in the air everywhere inside. We have relatives in west Wales that live in a 300 year old stone farm house. It is very damp and you smell damp as soon as you walk in (which oddly enough you get used to and stop smelling after a few days, so they will swear it does not smell damp) And when it is very cold you see the condensation forming on the walls. Re painting the bathroom is an annual task to try and keep it looking fresh etc.

If I knew what I was looking at? the back of a solar thermal panel?

That's the posts in place, mounted in their post feet, and fixed to the frame with coach bolts. Just the end joists to fit then the long M12 studs and nuts through the two end joists and through the posts. For the first time the balcony is standing on it's own two posts, all the temporary support packing has gone. One issue. it needs some diagonal corner to corner bracing on the frame. As it is, it is just a little wobbly. Adding the decking planks will stiffen it up but I would rather it was solid before the planks are fitted. Ideas please? I could strap say 50 by 25mm battens underneath, but it is so visible from below I feel that would look a bodge. So my idea is two lots of diagonal tensioning with yacht rigging wire that could be drilled through the joists or fitted near the top and notched into the joists. any better ideas?

In the case of Scotland, that only applies if you keep formally extending the building warrant, but my whole build was done to the 2013 version of building regs. After I think it is 3 years, you have to renew the building warrant, and I was paying £100 per year to renew it from that point up to completion. In Scotland failure to renew it would mean applying for a new building warrant and conforming to current regs.

I think the only golden rule is DO NOT open the DC isolator when the inverter is running. Normally both isolators remain on and it just operates, starting up and shutting down each day, and coping with grid power cuts. The isolators are there for when you want to work on the system, either the panels or to change the inverter.

How far is it? I would be inclined to use conduit with swept bends and a draw wire for them to pull the cable through without any joints.

The rest bend ensures solids and liquid stay together and flow. If the liquid runs off and the other stuff goes splat it won't carry on flowing.

Have a look at something like this https://www.flue-pipes.com/pipe-150-mm.html you will see the typical range of fittings available including flashing kits and various finishing plates to cover the hole in a ceiling etc.

the flue manufacturer will make some sort of flashing kit to suit their pipe and different types for different roofs.

A 150mm twin wall flue is usually somewhere in the region of 250mm diameter, and then there is the manufacturer specified "distance to combustible material" usually at least 50mm, so it's going to be a very minimum of 350mm. But check with the manufacturer of the flue you intend to use for actual dimensions.