ProDave

If you look at the bottom of the head when you manually move the lever, it turns a quarter of a turn. That is how much the spindle on the valve needs to move freely. Sometimes you can persuade a jammed spindle to move the full amount buy turning it with a pair if pliers or a spanner where you can apply more pressure than your fingers and keep working it backwards and forwards to see if it will free up and move further.

If this is the Honeywell, you can't operate the head off the valve. the head needs to be on the valve to centre the gear mechanism. If you try and operate it off the valve it will not stay in place and the gears will disengage and appear to be faulty. The spindle on the valve head should freely turn at least a quarter of a turn so I would say yours is stuck or partially stuck. EDIT: Just viewed your videos. the head looks fine. The spindle of the valve body is not turning anywhere near enough. You need to change the valve body and since you normally buy it as a complete unit use the new head that comes with it and keep your old valve head as a spare.

The 2 times I bought one, I just bought from the caravan dealers that have their own transport wagons and delivery was included in the price. The one time i sold one, the buyer had trouble finding anyone to transport it. the 2 local companies would only deliver vans they had sold, he ended up getting a company from 100 miles away to transport it. Just phone your local dealers with a ficticious 'van and ask for a quote to deliver it from 50 miles away to your plot. Also check what "delivery" means. When mine was delivered, they unloaded it onto the road and said "there you go mate"......

Opposite with the Wickes paint. Forst coat as you apply it it looks like it is barely going to cover. Come back in half an hour and it has miraculously all whitened up and covers well.

I would recommend Wickes own brand trade white emulsion as being good, cheap, white and covers well. 2 coats on fresh plaster is plenty. Or are you looking for oil based paint for woodwork?

N0 1 oil the door mechanisms. they might have seized up. Second, some door handles have a spring built into the handle each side. If so try removing one or both springs.

Coal plant brought out of standby due to lack of wind https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58469238

You just need some walk on glazing at the top of the stairs to get the best view of the drop. When we built our first house we had an interesting argument with building control over the height of the handrail around the gallery landing. They tried to tell us the handrail needed to be 1100mm tall. Their argument was "landing" only covered 1 square metre at the top of the stairs and this was came under "Other" I asked them to show me something to document that fact in building regs and it took them a few weeks before the backed down and passed it. I would not be surprised if they try something similar here.

Why are the builders doing the plumbing?

A Switch Fuse is what you need.

The deflection of the 100mm joists will depend on the distance between the sleeper walls that will be supporting it. You need to measure that.

I suspect the quality is heavily dependant on the window manufacturer? I did look in detail at a similar system fitted to a house up up the road from here. These were Nordan triple glazed windows with integral blinds. The devil is in the detail. To my mind they were really double glazed windows, with the blinds on the outside of the DG unit and then a single pane of glass over the blinds. The outer layer of glass could be hinged open to access the blinds for cleaning or maintenance, but that of course means is is not sealed so I doubt the window would have the performance of a true triple glazed unit. Also the strings to operate the blind have to pass through a hole drilled through the frame to get to the insides. It all seemed to compromise the window. There were other issues with that particular window design as well that also put me off.

I hope you have fitted your floor socket power point, aerial and ethernet ports just under the bed.

I am still considering this, but SWMBO has veto'd running the ASHP for the 4 cheap night rate hours. The issue is when the HP is on, there is a low level noise audible from the circulation pump, and at the moment we deliberately don't run the heating at night so it is silent. So if I were to switch, it would not be to make particular use of the 4 hours at 5p, rather for the general savings. So switching to GO would save me 1.67p per kWh on the day rate, so that would save about £100 per year. I would not go to all the hassle of changing energy supplier for that small saving. The question is, is that enough of a bribe to get me to accept a smart meter and then any hassle that goes with it if the thing proves incapable of providing the correct readings?

The heat pump coil has a much larger surface area and is much bigger, pretty much filling the whole height of the tank. It is because heat pumps work better at lower temperatures, so by having a larger area input coil, the heat pump does not have to run at much higher temperature than your target temperature. If you are planning solar thermal as well, speak to C2G and see if they can do a heat pump coil and a solar coil in one tank? Mine is a 300L cylinder and I don't recall the heat pump coil being anything like that much more.

At least the cable they have used is rated for 600V and 105 degrees so you will have no problem.

I would look at say 50mm of PIR strapped UNDER the joists (hard work fixing it from below, hope you have enough crawl space) then 100mm between the joists. 18mm flooring is only good for 400mm spacing, if your joists are 600mm centres you need 22mm.

If I wanted an unheated outdoor pool, it's either the river, a 5 minute walk from home, or the sea, 3 miles from home. Neither are what you would call "warm" The council run public pool 7 miles away is infinitely more inviting.

Also look at yacht rigging systems?

Am I reading that right, an 11 metre RSJ over a window / door opening. That is a subject in itself, that is a seriously big span and a seriously large joist that is probably going to have a big deflection. Think long and hard about that aspect of the design. Also that will be a lot of glazing to lose heat in the winter and over heat you in the summer.

To achieve EPC A is not straightforward for an "ordinary" timber frame. I have just competed my new house, typical wall roof and floor U values 0.14 or better, triple glazed windows all with Uw <1 typically 0.9, 5kW ASHP for heating and DHW and 4kWp solar PV. ventliation by MVHR. That achieved an EPC of A94. I doubt you would get to A without the solar PV and air tightness will play a big part in the energy efficiency (and will need tested) so attention to detail to make the whole build air tight is key. I am not sure how the pool impacts the EPC rating, perhaps @AliG could comment I know he has a pool.

That was tongue in cheek about the pool, if you want it then fine. The pool brings it's own issues with humidity, but there must be a way to recycle excess heat from the pool room to help heat the rest of the house? Research Ground source heat pumps before you commit. Most find the extra cost of the ground pipes makes it way more expensive than an air source heat pump and the small extra efficiency will never repay the extra capital cost. Also an ASHP will do cooling as well so no need for a separate air conditioning system.

ECO build and "pool" (with all the energy that uses) seems slightly contradictory? Re the VAT, to start with just make sure the receipts for EVERYTHING are made out in YOUR name and keep them all safe in date order in a box file. If you want to make your life easier (less paperwork in one go at the end) then download and print the VAT claim form now and fill it in as you get each invoice.

At that size of build and budget you would have thought the gym would have had it's own changing room and shower.

Hi I can't answer your mortgage question but just to say hi from the other side of the Cromarty Firth.