ProDave

What is that hopper next to the boot sink and what is that black pipe discharging into it?

Take a look at this picture No we are not looking at that trusty reliable subaru (that happens to be for sale) We are looking at the road planings it is parked on. That was constructed as a temporary loading bay for log lorries for some planned tree extraction (that has not yet happened) As far as I could tell from what I saw of it's construction is it is just a load of crushed stone of some sort laid and compacted and topped by quite a thick layer of road planings, probably laid and compacted in layers. It certainly feels solid and does not appear to move as you drive or walk on it.

Is this a solid or suspended floor that slopes? Do both floors up and down both slope the same way the same amount? How old is the house? e.g. if it was my BIL's 300 year old Welsh farm house, I would be impressed if they were that level (the upstairs ones certainly are not)

If you are trying to encourage SWMBO to do the painting, that is a problem I don't have as my SWMBO does all the painting in this house. So no further advice available.

Are you sure, waiting for the CAR licence from SEPA delayed my building warrant. Ask building control if SEPA have issued the CAR licence yet?

The CAR licence you will have to do as part of the building warrant, you can't start before that. The other is a plan that has to be drawn and then it is how long the planners take to process that.

For our front door ramp we used decking planks with the inbuilt grip strips. 2 comments, very expensive, and they kill saw blades cutting it.

Try any of these https://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/underfloor-heating-thermostats/cat16430006 But first check the specs to make sure they will work without a floor probe.

The PVC ones usually sold as "conduit back boxes" They are a softer plastic that won't break they will just bend a bit. Usually have a knock out for 20mm round conduit or small mini trunking, and in any case can be drilled, sawn or filed for any other cut out you want.

Can you remove the front and post any pictures of the inside in particular the connections? If they don't use a floor probe they usually just work on a room thermostat, is that what the (remains of) the round dial was?

I bought it at a time when prices were rising quicker than my wages, mid 80's. It was the only house in the county I could afford, literally and was nowhere near what I wanted and I had no intention of staying there any longer than I had to. In my case it was easy to put a gate in the back fence onto a public path and wheel the mower round. Most of the estate where gardens backed onto other gardens did not have that option. If nothing else that house confirmed what I did and did not like about houses. I can't say there was very much at all about that one that I liked other than it was cheap.

My real extreme case coldest day is just over 2kW I have just tried it again, selecting the option to change things, and there is only gives very coarse options like insulation over or under 200mm no mention of type or U value so it is clearly NOT reading the actual values from the EPC. Oh and at the end of inputting the values there was no "proceed" or done option, so it never did manage to give me a revised figure. Sorry a broken / not properly tested website that either spits out meaningless values or does not work at all.

It astounded me when I bought my first house, a new small terrace house. It had a lawn front and back, but the only way to get a lawnmower between the 2 was to pick it up and carry it through the house. My first DIY job was put a gate in the back fence so I could wheel the lawnmower around the outside. Why are builders so stupid?

Just tried that. It found my EPC (which was lodged as As built, A94) and it came up with heat load of 7.4kW Which compares to the actual heat loss of just over 2kW which my 5kW ASHP has been dealing with comfortably for the last 5 years. I think I said at the time, even an as built SAP with all component parameters entered correctly seemed to calculate my heat loss at about 2 times the real value. I will say it yet again, Jeremy's heat loss spreadsheet on this forum got the estimated heat loss bang on correct. EDIT: I just tried it again, this time selecting our old house which is larger, less well insulated and less air tight, with an EPC C, and guess what, it also claims that house has a heat loss of 7.4kW. I don't know how it is calculating that heat loss, but it is certainly NOT reading any actual figures from the EPC you select. Total work of guestimation, and totally useless for any practical purpose. I wonder if this is the sort of tool MCS folk uses?

What the OP has created is a DIY electric storage boiler. Typically the commercial ones are quite large and have 3 or 4 immersion heaters. they work best on an Economy 10 tariff (not sure if that is available to new customers now) which meant the time they needed to store water between the 3 off peak times was not too great. An Air Source heat pump is a far better idea though.

If you go down and underground then back up, then there is no way to drain that "sump" if you need to.

Personally I don't like steps with a very long going, it is not natural and I end up making a very long step, or 2 little steps to ascend them. We are all used to internal stairs and their rise and going, so I like to stick to similar. Or at the most stretch them out to the longer going of commercial stairs, i.e. what we are all used to in a shopping centre.

Can we clarify: Is it noisy all the time even if the stove is not lit and it is circulating cold water? Or is it only noisy when the fire it lit?

We did as above with 150mm by 20mm planks, either side of the posts. Plenty strong enough to space posts at 2 metres and no additional support needed for the planks. All standard stuff from fence suppliers. Planks either side of the post like that give privacy while allowing wind to pass through.

Fit a waterproof external junction box in place of the old light and extend your cable from there. Most LED outdoor lamps now come with a captive length of flex.

What diagnostics have you done to confirm it is the solenoid coil that is faulty? It could the signal that is driving it that is not present? It could be it is energising but the thing it is activating is stuck.

Wind driven rain will be your greatest challenge there.

Generally speaking, the DNO's expect the incoming cable to enter the kiosk at the bottom left and they put their supply head and fuse to the left then the meter above it. That kiosk is large enough that the incoming cable can just make it's way to the left. Consumer side outgoing cable usually on the right. Assuming the DNO fit a 100A fuse the outgoing cable wants protecting by a lower rating fuse to give discrimination, I normally use an 80A switch fuse for that.

Mice only need a tiny hole to get in, about the size of a hole in an air brick. If it is a normal cold loft it will be ventilated and the standard sized vents will allow a mouse in. Not much you can do but traps, poison and get a cat. This is not a problem unique to timber frame. If there are no obvious signs of water damage all you can do is keep topping up the heating pressure and see if anything develops. Is is solid floor or suspended timber floor downstairs? If suspended are there any access traps to the under floor space? If it only loses pressure when the heating comes on and then goes off, it is equally possible the expansion vessel has failed and water is getting expelled via the discharge pipe each time it heats up.

I definitely agree with remove corridors but we found a stairwell right in the middle of the house worked very well. Straight in from front door into a small hall area giving access to all downstairs rooms from the one small hall. Up the stairs, 180 degree turn at the half landing, and the upstairs landing is directly above the hall, and gives access to all upstairs rooms. Nice and compact and efficient. The only one we struggled with downstairs was how to get a utility room and downstairs WC without a corridor or having to pass through one to get to the other. Simple answer combined utility and WC all in one room. Not to everyone's taste I agree but it works well.