ProDave

Do you not have a self build policy? That will cover it at all stages, but needs to start before the building work starts. I will be trying again soon to convert to a normal polict now we are within touching distance of finishing. but last time I looked, last year even a standard policy was coming out at more than just renewing the self build policy (it is "non standard" construction)

I started cutting the lawn around the new house LONG before it was habitable and long before we had even moved into the static caravan. The logic was I had just about finished the ground works and wanted to sell my digger, so it's last job was spreading and leveling the piles of topsoil that had been waiting since excavating the foundations. Then it could depart happy that it's work was done. Of course once the ground is flat and bare, one has to seed it with grass and then mow it. you would not want it left to just grow weeds and all need digging up later would you? Nor would you want to press on building the house only to get to the end and realise you still have a bomb site outside and needed to hire a digger to deal with it. I think our neighbours have given up asking when it will be finished. But at least it feels like it's moving again, I have been putting up some scaffold around the sun room in anticipation of the windows arriving soon and being fitted. Re odd perceptions and odd questions, neighbours when passing often say to me when it's blowing an absolute hoolie "great day for sailing" erm no it is not.

No. If a loop runs up hill from the manifold, it WILL trap air with nowhere to bleed it out and stop working. It might work better if you really have to only have one manifold with it on the top floor and long runs down to the lower loops that will at least self bleed to be bleed points on the manifold.

Properly cost the installed cost of the powerwall, the life of the batteries, battery replacement at end of life, and tell us the cost per kWh of your "free" stored energy that you can use.

My PV saves me about £250 per year in electricity. I could get that up a bit (and gradually will) by thinning the trees that shade it early morning. I can't do anything about the other tree that shades it in the late afternoon as that is in the neigbours garden. My DIY install cost me about £1500 which means it will pay for itself in 6 years. I believe it is only financially viable if you can buy the kit cheap and install it yourself. If you had to pay for an install and the cost was say £4K then the payback time for me would be too long. The developer houses with just a few panels, are probably not put there for planning reasons, but because the developers continue to build poor houses and it would fail the SAP calculations on it's own and they add some "renewable energy" to get just enough points from that to pass. The will save you money if youcan use that electricity but you need something to use it in the daytime like your washing machine, dishwasher etc. If you are out, set those to run on a timer in the middle of the day and at least some of the power they use will come from the PV. If you are all out and nothing is on to use the power generated by the panels it will just get exported to the grid for no or little payment. The other way to self use your PV power is a device to divert surplus generation to your immersion heater, but the developer house is likely to have a combi boiler and no hot water tank so that is not possible.

I cut it back with an old panel saw. Cutting plasterboard is not kind to a saw so keep an old one just for that. Don't use your best one.

By the looks of things, if you go the official route, they might say your parking space is too short and refuse permission.

Yes my main concern is earthing. You should NOT connect a caravan to a TNCS earth. Best to fit a local earth rod and connect the caravan earth to that. Why not connect the combi boiler to a new MCB in the caravans consumer unit or is it that small it has no extra space?

Sory brain freeze. Yes insulation particularly floor insulation to make ASHP and Under Floor heating work well.

I dug the footings myself with my own little digger, then the builders poured the concrete and built up from there. Timber suspended floor. In the above picture the FFL is only just above ground level, but at the far left corner is over 1M above ground level.

Air tightness is more important for making MVHR work, and that is more about getting detail right than costs.

I would really really really think about siting the washer somewhere else. We have a large kitchen / dining room, as well as a separate lounge, and we moved in early, way before the house was really ready and for a while used that space that incorporated the kitchen as a living room. I really hated having even the noise of the fridge or the dishwasher in a living space, so would never tolerate the noise of a washer in there as well.

Our site slopes a similar amount and I discounted a passive slab for this reason. No problem at the high end, but what do you do at the low end? By the time you have excavated all the organic soft top soil, at least a metre here and then built it all back up with infil, then keep on building it up until you get to your slab level you are almost 2M of built up infil. That would have been an awful lot of material to buy and compact in layers. Then you would have to continue that raised infill beyond the house and either then slope it down to the ground level, or build a retaining wall. It was oh so much simpler to do stepped strip foundations and then a well insulated suspended floor. Less work, less cost, still a well insulated floor and nothing fancy to do with the garden levels.

No to sticks like, my plasterer says so. If anything, fill in those corners with a bit of bonding coat plaster, it does not need to be good. That is certainly some "unique" plasterboarding.

Think in terms of achieving the best U value you can afford, rather than just the bare minimum.

But it is usually NOT sorted. To get an air tight house it is all down to detail being done properly. Sadly a lot of people do not know or do not care about doing it properly. It is far better to make the whole fabric of the building air tight, then all the wiring and plumbing can be contained in a service void without having to penetrate the air tight layer.

Usual issue is if you are relying on the plasterboard and skim to be your air tight layer is you then leave the possibility of it being a "plasterboard tent" What usually happens through simple lack of attention, is this gap behind the plasterboard ends up being open to the cold loft space. It is almost normal up here in the winter when i unscrew a socket or a light switch in a house, to be greeted by a blast of icy cold air coming out from behind the plasterboard tent. You really want to make the fabric of the building air tight so the plasterboard remains within that.

Why not go back to a top loader?

Also worth bearing in mind for people that normally "get a man in" to fix the washing machine, if it is up high and needs lifting out it will be "get 2 men in" Yes a low platform that you can walk it up onto single handed would work.

Ask Building control. THEY decide what is acceptable not your builder. If BC say stairs are okay as per the plans that they appear to have approved, then tell your builder to build to the plans. Just to clarify, the "Certificate of lawful development" is in effect your planning permission. That is not building regs. you have notified building control? Have they seen the plans? if not get it all approved before you start.

It wasn't a 6" step that bothers me, you can tilt it and walk it up onto that on your own. It was the idea of putting it up almost at worktop height. The issue is I cannot lift a WM that high on my own, 2 strong people could do it but I am only one not so strong old person with SWMBO not being up to lifting half the weight of a WM so every time you want to lift it up or down onto it's elevated spot you need to find a strong willing helper or pay someone. I don't like the idea of "building in" the need to get someone else in to help me maintain something.

Butane will not off gas much below 0 degrees C so would be pretty useless up here. It has to be Propane for outdoor cylinders. Leave Butane for summer caravanning, though I still see no reason to use it and i had propane for my touring caravan.

Before sitting through that, I would need someone to give me a simple and succinct summary of what wonderful benefits I can look forward to if I were to fit such a thing.

I would ask him to show you the regulation that is concerning him. Is he worried about a leak, ignited, and a flame out the top of the cylinder?

I dug a 2 metre deep test hole not very much larger than the digger bucket using a 3t machine.