ProDave

This is proving to be a question that should be asked of the manufacturer BEFORE you buy an ASHP as some are proving to have high standby power use. My own, a 5kW LG Therma V use used 1kWh in the last 6 months of standby. That's 1kWh in about 4000 hours which is an unbelievably low standby power level. Yours would have used 320kWh in the same time.

Hi and welcome. Not much I can add to the above, but if you get a push back against full 2 storey, try for 1.75 storey, with just a little shaved off. One house here where we also have the same expectation managed to get approval for full 2 storey at the back and only the front facing the road having a slight not to partly room in roof.

If the concrete flows under the shutter then it if far too wet. Our steps were small so the shuttering was very simple.

Not here no. The first I think 5 metres can only be a very slight gradient. It is this bit people often use as their bad weather parking spot and walk down (or up) to the house.

Buy or hire a CAT scanner https://www.hireandbuy.co.uk/p/c-a-t-scanner/ Random link to show you what one is in case you don't know, not a recommendation to use that source.

What I see people up here do where a steep drive is the only option, is to create an additional flat parking area right by the road, and then steps down to the house from there. Better to moan at sometimes having to park further from the house and walk down steps, than not being able to get up the drive in wet or icy weather.

I would always try and design a driveway at least with an almost flat parking area even if the approach is steep. I make your drive slope somewhere between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5. That is steep. If we had that steep up here there would be a lot of the year it would not be usable without a good stock of salt and a lot of shoveling. Pictures of the drive and surroundings to give context?

That is a big step. I would do it in two 300mm steps, much more managable.

There is conflicting versions of this doing the rounds. The alternative and more likely one being if you are on a fix that ends up above the new October capped price, then your fix will be reduced to match the capped price. Best wait for the full details to be published.

I would wire it loop at switch so all junctions are accessible for alterations. If you think you might need a permanent L at the light fitting, use 3 core & earth from the switch to the light so you can have permanent L and switched L to the light.

Talk to carpet fitters. I see them offering to make "rugs" out of offcuts by finishing the edges with whipping, so I see no reason a carpet fitter could not cut the carpet to match the round hole, then finish the edge all round with whipping. What are you doing for handrail?

It is important when buying flooring that the manufacturer says it is okay with UFH. We have 20mm engineered Oak over UFH (fixed not floating) without issue, but we confirmed before buying it, that it was okay with UFH.

I am not familliar with the Tado kit, someone else will have to help with that, but lets assume they end up as an open / close contact, just like any other thermostat. For the UFH you have to decide is it worth having 2 zones for that room, or all one one zone. It is unlikely you could keep one end of the room warmer than the other even if you wanted to. for wiring, if you are going to do it all as one zone, then you don't need actuators on the manifold, you simply turn on or turn off the manifold pump and possibly a motorised valve. So no manifold controller needed. If you are going to do it as 2 zones then you will need something like the UH4 and an actuator for each pipe loop. That works by opening only the pipe loops that are calling for heat and turning the pump on if any zones call for heat.

Good point. My idea was to foam just the bit that has failed as a temporary fix and it is only a small area to strip of the foam when you get a proper repair done.

Hand rail and spindles like on a banister, the important thing being they are vertical spindles so you can't climb up them. BC accepted that to make a Juliet Balcony in front of a door.

Crack as a result of a previous chimney fire?

Seriously with the battens in that state, the whole roof wants stripping and re doing with new battens. There is no quick fix. Even if you patch that bit, it will likely not be long before another bit fails. A very quick fix might just be pull the tiles back into place and secure fromt he inside with some squirty expanding foam? Be VERY careful doing anything at all from the inside, you could dislodge a tile that could slide down and off the roof. you need the area fenced of or at very least a watcher to keep people well away from where a tile might possibly fall if it goes wrong.

Will this be like spray foaming the inside of a roof and then finding the property becomes unmortgagable as a resuly?

Yes, they have worked out they can get through the first outer seal on our windows but no further. So if you open a window in winter chances are a load of dozy sleeping cluster flies will fall out.

I would look instead at one of those posh garden shed / sun rooms and then add more insulation to make it a warm snug cosy room, and leave the garage as it is. If you wanted to go with the garage conversion, it looks like you could make an extra parking space to the left of the drive to your garage by taking down that fence and using the side garden as another parking space.

Definitely less spiders etc, they only ever get in when a window is open. But the big one for me is NO MICE. Every house I have lived i before, with the usual air bricks and other means of ventilating cold roof spaces and cold floor voids has allowed mice to get in. particularly into a cold loft space. It was just something you accepted and dealt with with traps or poison. But the new air tight house with a warm roof has not had a single mouse in it ever. That is a way better result than fewer spiders.

Most thermostats for unvented cylinders are this type https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362782647811? Random choice, they are available as lots of different makes and prices but all seem pretty much the same. the thermostat plugs onto 2 lugs on the immersion element rather than the cheaper type that are separate. the red knob sets the temperature. If the overheat (button marked safety in this case) keeps popping then either it is faulty, or the main temperature dial is set too high allowing the water to get too hot, or there is another source of heat e.g a boiler that is heating it too hot.

I fitted a WBS in out static caravan and it heated that for almost no cost through a cold winter.

Like many, I fitted electrical points in each bedroom for a panel heater, because I simply did not trust that here in the Highlands you could survive without heating in the bedrooms, and like most that have done this, those electrical points were simply a waste of cable and have never been connected.

Yes, yesterday and indeed the next few days are the ultimate "bad news day" to publish all that bad news that you have to publish but would rather nobody actually notices because the press is dominated with just one story.