ProDave

Another big advantage of at least getting the foundations in, is that in the eyes of the planners, you have "started" so the planning permission is locked in, usually without any time constraints on when you can finish. I could drive you around our local town and show you at least 4 houses built to slab level than work has stopped. They have been like that for 2 years. No doubt the developers have decided now is not the time to build them but were facing PP about to expire, so they "started" the development to lock in the planning.

So you are looking forward to 25 days of peace and quiet.

A dual rate meter will (should) also have a heavy duty switch contact and a switched output. If you look at the meter there will be 5 big terminals, not just the 4 on a normal single rate meter. So connect the spare (assuming you only have 4 cables in there at the moment) to a small off peak consumer unit and that will only be energised at off peak times. If you don't have this 5th terminal connected and no off peak CU how are you powering the storage heaters?

That just tells you what the SWITCH does. Concentrate on the motor or the door itself. Look for part numbers and search or post them here. It is the motor you are lacking information on.

You don't even need a timer for the bottom one. Use the DNO supplied off peak supply and wire it to that (same CU as the storage heaters) so it just comes on when the cheap rate is on. Use a boost switch for the top heater. like this https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SMTGBT4.html

My money is on one of our bathrooms being finished first. I haven't bought anything yet, well apart from a bath.

What is missing (or you have just not posted it yet) is a diagram that shows what coloured wire goes where on the switch. Or the exact model number so we can search for information.

I have long since given up any notion of having a "plan" about when we will move in. But of the only thing stopping us was a lack of staircase, then I would use a ladder!!!!! (getting the furniture up may be a challenge) At least living on site all the services are in. What I learned about those is they ALL took longer than they said they would, so start getting those in LONG before you think you might need them.

There are two sides tho this. Getting the physical cable in place, and getting it connected. I did persue the Open Reach route at the start of the build. About all that did was to identify exactly where the cable had to run to, and a drum of free issue SWA 6 pair phone cable. I then knew the phone cable had to cross the road, so was able to provision for that when the other services also crossed the road. That left me with a phone cable from the house to the grass verge immediately above where I was told the BT cable was. When it came to connection time it was a call to BT as a new connection. The OR engineer that attended first was the one I saw 2 years ago who gave me the drum of cable. As it happens the connection took way longer than it should have done and I got my connection fee refunded and 12 months of heaviliy discounted broadband as compensation for the delay. If I had missed out the Open Reach bit at the start, and just gone to BT for new connection, I would have missed out on knowing where the connection was to be made. That would almost certainly meant OR digging a fresh road crossing. I would also have missed out on the chance to bury the cable into the house before I did the basic landscaping, so would have resulted in my lawn being dug up.

That looks like the typical "help me out, it has to be finished by Christmas" jobs that pour in at this time of year.

Interesting how it varies from one council to another. It would have been north of £300 here.

Never trust a plumber to design the pipe runs (off to get my tin hat) My plumber friend when he designed his house, he put the thermal store in the diametrically opposite corner of the house to the kitchen.........

Does the basin tap pipe run go next door and back first? Why the difference?

You would still have needed a road opening permit though. We found it was cheapest to get Scottish Water to make the road crossing, the utilities have a permanent road opening permit, any private contractor would have had to apply for and pay for one.

I suspect it is a quirk of how road closure orders work. You can't apply to close it for one unspecified day within next month, so faced with that inflexibility, they apply to close it for the whole month knowing it will be closed only 1 day. There is a small development in the town here with a "road closed for 6 months" sign. I think I have counted 2 days closure so far. So your sign is as close as they are able to say, when they mean "will be closed for 1 day, some time in the next 25 days"

This must be a regional variation thing then. My only concern is how long will the P5 be exposed to the weather? Another poster on here had his sag and swell due to exposure to rain. I have only known one stick build where the first floor deck went down early and they used a truly waterproof chipboard because it was going to be exposed for a while. for working on, we had a temporary OSB deck as soon as the joists were down.

Buy a boundry box or 3 (known as a Toby up here) Cut into your pipe under your land and use one or more. I used three, one to feed the stand pipe for building water, one to feed the static caravan and one to feed to the house.

Related to this withdraw the application thing. I will tell the cautionary tale of someone I used to work with. He applied for a massive extension to a house more than doubling it's size. It met with several objections. He was advised to withdraw and re submit. What he actually did was submit a second slightly different application, which got a new application number. THEN he withdrew the original. Nobody noticed the new application number and when it came before the planning committee, there were "no objections" and it was passed. I think his planning consultant knew the system and played it.

The Knauff Earthwool products are a lot less nasty to use than many types of glass wool insulation. I don't know which one is recommended for loft insulation.

Basically the downstairs wall panels went up first. Then all the floor joists. Then the sole plate and first floor wall panels. The floor deck gets laid some time later when it has a roof on and is water tight. This is how every timber frame that I have seen has been built.

I have to ask why the TF company wants to do this. Normally the upper floor's walls are built off a sole plate laid onto the joists. This is how ours is done. The floor deck then plays no part in holding the walls up. How about a strip of 6" by 1" as a sole plate / packer that fills the gap the TF company is expecting to be made up with the P5? I would be worried in the event of a leaking pipe for instance that the P5 could swell or disintegrate.

Perhaps the newer ones re less good? Mine has a plywood top, finished in a very hard waterproof covering. It makes a very handy "hop up" and is used regularly for that purpose.

Well if it is wired according to regs, then all junctions will be accesible, so follow it back to the previous junction where it was looped from and test there. If that's not the issue and you think you have a severed cable, then there is no option but find and repair the break, or replace the whole leg of cable.

15.467p per Kwh does not sound blindingly cheap to me. It perhaps confirms my suspicion that some of the cheap deals on offer are only possible because they are subidised by those paying less good tariffs. Take away those less good deals and the cheap deals go as well?

Yes I was meaning get all works in or under No 66 complete before you sell it. I don't see the Fire Hydrant as an issue. My Sister's house has a fire hydrant set into the pavement right in front of the dropped kerb to her driveway. I assume you are creating a parking space in front of No 66 so any adjustment the the hydrant cover could be done then. Water can be connected to the site just to a stand pipe, then routed into the house later. Likewise electricity can be connected. You can either get a "building supply" and have a meter and consumer unit in a temporary box on the site boundary, then have the supply moved into the house when ready. Or you can do as some of us have and make the meter box on the boundary a permanent fixture to avoid moving it later. At least if you get all the connections done before you sell then the buyer knows there is a bit less disruption to expect. It should be pretty obvious where the new house is going in that situation with or without footings to show it.