ProDave

Am I the only one having trouble to relate the photos to the plans, not even sure on the plan where the entrance onto the site is. In any event as above what is the question? If what you want is not PD you submit a planning application. What makes you want to avoid a planning app and what makes you think it would be refused?

Is your issue the opening up of the piles where it is pressed down at the edges? That I believe is called "grinning" If so the only way to avoid that is a different carpet. It is generally something you have to consider on a stair carpet where it is being formed round the nose of a stair.

As above. Don't over think it. A typical solar PV with a 3.68kW inverter you can self use almost all of it providing you have a diverter to send any excess to an immersion heater in your hot water tank. You need prior permission from your DNO for anything larger and only consider larger if being paid for export or you have batteries.

First question is what is the wall make up? That has a big influence on how to do it. Ours is timber frame at 600mm centres OSB and air tight membrane then service void created with vertical battens in line with the studs. Use the sort of bracket that hangs from a top rail if you want the tv to be as close to the wall as possible. Only use the cantilever type if you want the tv away from the wall or angled. Assuming you have a service void, then DON'T put any back boxes in now. Run all the cables in the service void noting and photographing their positions before plasterboarding, then only cut back box holes and fish the cables out and connect them when you know where the tv is going. If you want ultimate flexibility, run a horizontal noggin at bracket height all along the wall, so you can hang the bracket anywhere along that wall, not just certain pre guessed locations. Similarly run cables along a horizontal batten in the service void so you can cut the back boxes in anywhere along the wall you choose. For the mains feed run the ring main cable along that batten all the way with a bit of slack left in the cable but don't cut it anywhere. Only when you know where the sockets are going cut the back box hole fish the slack cable out and connect the socket(s)

It was a good explanation of the totally mad electricity pricing market. Explained well with the employing 3 different people to do your gardening and you HAVE to pay them all the same rate and that of the highest bidder. Then lots of waffle about taxation. But NOBODY I mean NOBODY is talking of restructuring the the electricity market so we stop this nonsense of paying the cheap providers the same price as the highest cost supplier. Until we do that nothing is going to change. We are NOT going to solve this under the present system just by building more renewable generation. And all the time we have this ridiculous system, anyone (such as the PM) telling us we just need more renewables to bring the price down, is being economical with the truth. Someone on another forum summed this up well. Renewables will never supply all our needs all the time, we need backup in the form of storage and alternative generation to bring on line when needed (gas) so we will always be paying effectively for 2 parallel systems so it will always be more expensive.

the aerator is tiny power 75W. What is the "pump"? What is that doing? Pumped discharge to soakaway at a higher level or what? That is likely to me a much higher power rating. How far from consumer unit to treatment plant? What do instructions say? Can both pumps share a single supply or do instructions say they must have separate supplies?

You have just what we have, some rooms vaulted, others with various ceiling heights and loft space above them. While we did not attempt to insulate the ceilings, just plasterboard, plaster and paint, I can confirm the "loft" temperature remains just that of the roof. So insulating the ceiling to "reduce heat loss" must imply you would expect the loft space to be cooler. I very much doubt that will be the case unless your overall insulation and air tightness spec is poor.

Your boards tuck in behind the end pieces as the one on the right of this picture is already, so the width of the wall is as you measured, it does not get wider.

We only had 2 extremely hot days so far at 31 degrees and keep windows and curtains shut in the day and open windows for night purge has worked well without needing to persuade the ASHP to run in cooling mode (only have UFH so it is not that good at cooling)

The lintel that squares off the door opening is not really doing anything structural. Nothing will fall down if you take that down. The piers are usual construction at intervals on a single brick wall. I would suggest whichever way you widen the opening which will mean taking down one of the piers, you will need to build a new pier at the other side of the new opening. Then you can span a new lintel between the new piers over the opening. Post the dimensions of that timber supporting the roof, and the proposed width of the new opening, and one of the SE's on here will hopefully advise if it is okay as it is to span that distance or will need strengthening.

Can we see a picture zoomed out a bit for context. There is some dodgy wiring there.

We did a slow "build as you earn" due to inability to sell the old house. Instead we let it, to give income, moved into a static caravan on site while we completed the build. We started to use more and more of the house as it progressed, while still officially living in the 'van. It was self build insurance renewal costs that tipped us to getting a temporary habitation certificate to move in and swapped to normal house insurance while we finished off. Living on site should NOT slow it down, if anything it will speed it up because you are already there, ready to go and work on the build when there is time to do so.

Post the full quote and we might be able to advise. Any pictures of the site etc?

Moving soil with the dozer blade When I was doing my groundwork I wanted to clear all the topsoil and pile it up at the edge of the site. I did not find a cheap enough dumper close enough so was doing it all with my 3t digger. So I used the dozer blade. Piled up a load of soil in front and pushed it. After a few runs, what spilled out from the sides formed a trench and thereafter not much escaped. Once pushed to the edge, used the digger bucket again to pile it up into one big pile. So it can be done. Beware once you get up to about 6 ton not all diggers have a dozer blade.

I would expect a modern 5 year old HW cylinder to be well insulated. I would be looking at the pipework to make sure that is also well insulated. Pictures? Our airing cupboard is perhaps 2 or 3 degrees above the room it is partitioned from, not much at all.

For moving soil I would be looking for a JCB 3CX etc not tracked digger. You can pick up a front bucket of soil drive to where you want it and tip it. A 360 excavator is pretty poor at moving soil, that would be a bucket load at a time, or using the dozer blade to push it around. Unless you want to buy a dumper as well?

You are not buying the right house for you. You are planning to buy a house that needs alteration and know access for tha alteration is going to be difficult. Can you not find a semi detached house with side access or at least a terrace house with access to the back garden other than through the house. Direct access to the rear garden was always one of my non negotiable requirements, for simple practicalities like I don't want to have to transport the lawnmower through the house and back again every week in the summer.

No help in an existing building, but this is just one of the many reasons I think all new roofs should be built at a 45 degree angle.

I suspect those walls are supporting the roof purlins at either side. So treat them as structural. The only way to get enough headroom for taller doors, is move them towards the centre a bit. The headroom at the edge is what made them put small doors there.

In your dreams. It would put some people off. A friend of swmbo was house hunting, they had the chance of a semi detached house with solar PV at the original FIT rate, and also had a paddock behind it. They withdrew from the purchase after the surveyor warned the PV panels may affect the integrity of the roof, and the paddock was outwith the village boundary and in green belt so they could "never do anything with it"

I would have lost patience by now and told them I will be serving eviction notices and marketing the property.

Perhaps you could post the quotes you have got? Just because there is for example a cable right outside your plot does not mean it has sufficient spare capacity to connect another house for instance.

The pipes are probably okay, lazy plumber did not wipe flux off after soldering and it is corrosive.

Aren't FD door liners supposed to have recessed grooves for over size door stops? (mine did) I always fit door stops at door hanging time, one less thing to line the doors up to. Instead line the door stops to the door.

The first house I bought was like that. The rear fence stopped about 5 feed from the roadside footpath and some rough shrubs had been planted. But in our case the house deeds clearly showed that the land we owned went right to the path edge including the bit beyond the fence. So collectively we submitted a planning application to move the fence which was granted so we moved it. When your garden is only 30ft long and extra 5ft is a lot, some of the houses only had a 25ft garden so even more useful to them.