ProDave

You need a serious think and investigation about lots of aspects of this house. Do you have any details of how much insulation was put in when it was converted? Is the neighbour with a low bill in another converted Nissen hut? No 1 is ditch the trace heating system. If it takes 5 minutes for the hot water to arrive, then the whole hot water system needs a re think. Can you post a floor layout? I suspect there may be e.g kitchens and bathrooms a long way apart, and you would probably be better with two hot water tanks close to the points of use to avoid the long runs. The Aga. Is that all electric and the sort that is always on? they are a huge consumer of electricity. Seriously consider swapping that for a conventional cooker, even a range style cooker that just uses heat it needs when it heats it. We are in still in summer (average 12 degrees here for the last 24 hours so you might not think it) so you should not be using much electricity now. So what is your weekly summer usage?

WOW 30,000kWh of electricity per year. If you pay the same as me (14.3p per kWh) that is £4290 pa. That is FOUR times what our family of 3 spend in an all electric house. Did the builders forget the insulation? Something is not right somewhere? our 4.5kW stove heats the whole house and you don't have to sit next to it to benefit. Can you give some more details of the build? Your (roughly 8kW) of panels will likely produce about 6000kWh of electricity per year, so even if your batteries let you self use all of that, it will only reduce your bills by about £850 That is going to take a seriously long time to pay for the panels and batteries, about 20 years, so does not make economic sense

It depends on the manufacturers instructions of the stove. Mine is a convection stove and the MI says it only needs 100mm between the back of the stove and flamable material, and only 150mm at the side. You do not need a constructional hearth if the manufacturer certifies the bottom will not get above 100 degrees, then you only need a 12mm hearth. I think those BR dimensions are for where the manufacturer makes no declarations. If the distance from the flue is an issue, you might have to fix a metal plate to the wall spaced 12mm away from the wall as a heat shield.

Personally, to do a proper job, I would strip the lot off back to the bare timber structure and replace with plasterboard. It WILL be a messy job.

That's a serious "jumping jack" compactor. I would have bought a whacker plate / vibrating plate type (actually I did) e.g. something like this picture randomly pinched from ebay.

t have building control said so far? At the moment all i see is a garage (no insulation, no windows just a big door opening) and how are you going to turn that into a "family room"?

Has your brickie really made the door openings that tight? It's normal for the openings to be somewhat larger than the doors and a certain amount of packing to be needed when fitting the door frames.

How old is the house? Any chance of contacting the original builders for more info like how deep and what it is encased in?

I think the only way you will identify it for sure is to dig to look for it. I would start by digging at the front corner of the garage in the direction the extension would go, dig about a metre down and dig as far as you would want to extend. If you don't find it, then don't mention it? As to who is responsible? Probably you. I believe this would make you a riparian owner, just like I am with a burn running through my garden. Covering the entire burn would not make it go away. To make alterations if for instance you did find it and would have to move it over or build over it, I suspect it would be the Environment Agency assuming you are in England. One final thought do you know anyone good at dowsing? A set of divining rods might enable you to locate it.

I believe someone else here dealt with this by laying the underground cable, then "accidentally" breaking the overhead cable, and when the team arrived to repair it, they "understood"

You can just about see some of the piles of concrete blocks supporting mine in this picture.

Ask each utility in turn for a quote for connection and they usually supply a map with all their assets on it.

I just have the feeling, the new tank and "decomissioning" of the old tank may have been done by the previous owner, quite possibly with no OFTEC involvement.

I am still unsure if this is a static or large touring caravan. A static should not be left on it's wheels. Start by jacking up and supporting under the axle. Mine is supported on pillars of concrete blocks laid flat then various bits of wood of varying thickness for final levelling, As someone else noted there is often marked flat points on the chassis to support it under. Including the 2 under the axle, I have a total of 12 pillars of concrete blocks supporting all the marked load points. and then I drive stakes into the ground at the corners and strapped it down with thick fence wire and turnbucles.

What sort of 'van did you end up with and in what way is it "wobbly"? How is is set up on site?

Grey area. I don't know who installed the new tank, or even if it was during the ownership of the present owners who have only been there a couple of years. I belive the oil delivery companies insurance are footing the bill for filling the wrong tank.

We had always planned for the larger bedroom to be open to the vaulted ceiling and the mezanine floor above the small bedroom. The open design of the roof space allows so much flexibility so when it came to our bedroom, we decided to have a higher ceiling as we liked the look of the vaulted ceiling and it seemed a shame to hide most of unter a shandard height flat ceiling.

This is dragging on really slow. After a long delay for whatever reason, they cut the access doorway in the end wall and a team have been in under the floor to investigate. The finding is the oil is soaked into all the under floor insulation, and into parts of the timber frame, certainly all the floor. Inside the house, paint is peeling from the door frames and cement falling out from around the door and window frames. The next plan it seems is to take up all the internal floors to see if it is possible to remove and replace the contaminated timbers and then sort out any solum contamination. Owner is getting very peed off with slow progress. Owner thinks it will end with a knock down and rebuild. Also hearsay says the bill so far is already up to £100K which to me sounds like consultants fleecing the insurance industry?

This is my 900mm island with 1400mm between the main units and island That picture is still with the temporary worktop on the main run before we got the granite fitted. Beware of reducing the gap to less than 1400 before sign off, you may fail to meet circulation space requirements. I have a feeling our island may go for a bit of a walk after sign off........

We chose not to have a vestibule. In the last house that was a single storey box tacked on the front. A BIG difference with an air tight house, is when you open one door, on a windy day, you do not get a howling gale blow in. The hall is tiled in slate, as is the adjoining utility room, and that is where you take off your outside footwear.

I see what you mean when you say it's too late to change anything. Yes that is looking very nice and it fits the plot nicely.

Layout looks good and eficcient, but without seeing how the building sits on the plot I could not comment further.

Re do it with a dry ridge system, SO much easier. I did a wet ridge on a previous garage and it was a faff. A dry ridge system is so much easier.

If you can see sky, the problem is with the tiling, which can really only be broken tiles or tiles laid to the wrong gauge.

It has to be worth a try. Care to post some pictures of the plot or an anonymised satellite image? At a previous house with a large side garden we built a large side extension. I had first got permission for and built a detached garage that broke the building line on both streets. I had to go to appeal to get that, but I guess that then set the building line so the side extension was well within that new building line.