ProDave

Would a static caravan fit on site for temporary accommodation? A lot easier than trying to live in half a house.

Who or what are you expecting to make noise downstairs in your house that might wake you?

Hi and welcome. What part of Oxfordshire? That's where I hail from but moved "up north" in 2003.

Glad it's sorted always nice to hear the solution.

You would have to check the English building regs (I am only up to speed on the Scottish ones) but here you have to keep an infiltration field 5 metres from your boundary and 5 metres from a building, so there would be no land available in your own plot I suspect. If the farmer is willing then that is your solution. I don't see the cows as an issue, cordon off the corner with an electric fence while the work is being done. We did a similar thing in a day with a competent speedy digger driver.

Some dimensions would help on that layout plan. My gut feeling is there is not enough space on your own land for a treatment plant and the soakaway for it. I am near certain that existing septic tank will drain to an infiltration field to the east, perhaps partly under your land but almost certainly extending under the field.

A site layout plan would help at this point.

You need to do some investigation, even if that means digging to find the pipes and where they go. If it heads off to an infiltration field under the adjacent land, what is to stop you continuing to use that with a new treatment plant if it still works?

I will only add that if I need to perform a function that is not "quiet mode" then I would not use the en-suite, but a more separated facility to spare myself any embarrassment.

Those rely (at least for retro fit) on those horrible half height doors and a shower curtain to keep water out of the rest of the room. I don't see that solves your problem? Your issue is the waste requiring too much depth. either seek out a shallower waste or accept you will have to cut into the EPS a bit. This is the one I used https://www.impeyshowers.com/wetroom-floor-formers/level-dec-easyfit-wetroom-floor-former/ Standard trap needs 97mm below the floor or 119mm from floor level (pre tiling level) They also do a low profile waterless trap that only needs 76mm under the floor / 98mm from floor level (pre tiling) Data sheet here https://www.impeyshowers.com/media/1875/aqua-dec-easyfit-technical-data-sheet.pdf

Yours are painted timber? Ours are aluminium clad and that detail is different, that's all that was confusing me.

So you have the opposite problem to me. Our cills were extruded aluminium and the bit that went in the window was ribbed, making it incredably tight. you have a folded cill. Just fit it with a good waterproof adhesive / sealant like stixall, sikaflex, CT1 etc. You appear to have a broad horizontal groove in the front face that serves no purpose. do all your windows have that? One thing I liked about Rationel was their simple crisp clean profile. We don't have that.

I found that standard fascia vent did not work, I used the OV10 vent instead https://www.centralpointbuildingsupplies.co.uk/ov10-1m-over-fascia-vent.html

Can you post an end profile shot of the Cill? They look different to the Cills we got. I think the issue is Rationel don't supply the cill and ADW (I assume that's where they came from) get the cills made locally. We had a slight issue with ours, the main batch, the cills were a damned tight fit into the groove, but okay. Then I had one more window delivered on it's own and the cill provided was an almost impossibly tight fit. It went in, but if I had a router I might have widened the groove a bit. What is that groove in the front face showing? That looks like the internal groove for a window board? Not sure how uch you will see if you zoom in on this, it's the only picture I have of the window cills before the cladding and render was finished.

Where you are expecting your kitchen cabinets, put horizontal battens across at top of cabinet height so you have something to fix to, otherwise it is unlikely the cabinet fixings will line up with the studs.

I had a similar problem with a small bird (forget the breed) that just sat all day on the wing of my Landrover pecking at his own reflection in the wing mirror and crapping on the wing. I used to put a plastic bag over the mirror to stop him.

No I don't know the U value but it should not be too hard to work out. The modern method would be hold the PIR in place with the battens that form the service void. The fixings are so few I don't think cold bridging is much of an issue.

Those are based on Aerogel, just about the best insulation known to man, but expensive. I would be interested in the cost per sheet for example. You can probably get a similar result for less money but a thicker build up with other insulation.

Where does the old system discharge to? On a new build, not having a drainage solution would stop you getting a building warrant so would stop you building (at least it would in Scotland)

Then don't describe it on any paperwork as a ditch. It's a burn. And yes ours also goes through a "partial soakaway" first.

The Graf is one of the ones that operates on the air blower principle. So is one I would recommend (I don't like the ones based on moving mechanical parts) Others to look at are the BioPure, Vortex and the one I have the Conder. I believe these are all available as 6 person sizes which will suit your 5 person occupancy. But first have a look at @Crofter blog. He built a holiday home. Have a look at what he chose as I seem to remember it being suitable for intermittent use. Check also that SEPA are happy for you to discharge to a open ditch? I thought it had to be a flowing watercourse in Scotland.

Normal acoustic insulation (the stuff off a roll in my case) with strips of any old wood to support it. doesn't need to be self supporting.

We did a different approach. Because the "kitchen" is actually a kitchen / diner (often referred to these days as family room) we put an inlet at the dining end, and an extract at the kitchen end. When balancing the system I matched the inlet and outlet rates for this room, the theory being air will flow from one end to the other, but not into or out of this room.

The automatic bypass will pass water when the normal water flow route is shut. IF for example all radiators have thermostatic valves, and all rooms are up to temperature, then water will not flow through the radiators and the bypass is doing it's job. Go and ensure at least one radiator has it's TRV turned up to maximum and try again.

Pex Al Pex It was a right pain threading it through the posi joist webs, only feasible for a short length of pipe like this and a slightly longer one in the en-suite.