ProDave

This brings us onto site insurance. I HOPE you all have a self build site insurance policy in place? If so that will include your employers liability insurance. So far only one person has asked to see mine, and that was the builder who built and erected the frame.

I was originally having blown in insulation in my 190mm frame, until I found out the cost, and you need a man with the machine to do it. I changed for the frametherm instead, it gave the same U value and was half the cost, and was a DIY job to fit it. 190mm frame with Frametherm 35, 100mm wood fibre external insulation then render, OSB, service void then plasterboard inside gives a U value of 0.14

For my ground work, and then the construction and erection of the frame, I paid in stages in arrears. When I got the same builder to supply and fit the windows, I paid 50% of the window cost up front to them, and the remaining 50% and the labour for fitting once they were in. But by that time there was a lot of mutual trust between us.

Did you go "full plans approval" with building control? If so your "non standard" build will have been detailed in the plans, which they have agreed. Therefore ALL you have to do is build according to the approved plans and they will have to pass it. They only have cause to complain if you deviate from the approved plans.

I think that is a condition imposed on all the Graven hill plots. Not so much a planning issue but a condition of sale.

The PME earth and caravan thing is to do with failure of the cable. With a PME, it comes into the house, usually in a concentric cable with the outer being a combined neutral and earth. It is not unknown for that CNE conductor to fail. If it does and a caravan is connected, then the metal caravan skin (which should be bonded to earth) can raise to L potential. This can be VERY bad news for someone entering or leaving the 'van with one foot on the ground and reaching up to grab the door handle. A TT earth avoids that issue, and while Neutral might rise to L potential, the caravan skin will remain at local earth potential. Same issue for site tools (if not 110V via a transformer) This I believe is also the reason for the change to the regs to fit an additional rod, as usual we the electricians are having to take on the responsibilty of sorting someone elses shortcomings.

I was going to mention sheds. And that car port that covers half the car (Aesthetics has trumped over practicality?) If you are having a car port it needs to cover both cars completely. Sheds can be dealt with under permitted development, UNLESS PD rights have been suspended, in which case your planning needs to cover a lot of sheds, you can never have too many. That bunk room, I would not call it that or include the bunks. It will impact your drainage requirements (I assume it's mains drainage) Just call it a multi function space and by all means put the bunks in later after completion sign off.

All relays will be able to switch AC or DC. Their current rating for DC switching will be lower than for AC switching.

There is nothing wrong with you connecting your own earth rod to the main earth terminal to supliment a PME earth. After all, the ethos of a protective MULTIPLE earth system is there will be an earth rod, or pigtail at every connection point. Indeed the draft of the 18th edition of the wiring regs looks like it will become a requirement to add a local earth rod to a PME install. In my own case I have the supply head and meter remote from the house, and a local earth rod by the house to supliment it. A static (indeed any) caravan should not be connected to a PME earth.

CPC do lots of relay boards http://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=relay board

Hi and welcome to the forum. Looks like you have secured a nice plot there. We will be watching with interest how this proceeds. Some of us are a little skeptical about the limitations on how and when you build, so will be interested how you find it first hand. I am intrigued by the layout, particularly the "bunk room" and the thinking behind that.

Check the current requirement of the LED's. Cat6 cables are tiny CSA and won't carry much current.

Ah lofts. You get to see all sorts in my line of work. The ones where you can't get 6" beyond the hatch due to all the junk carefully stored treasured possessions that are the most "fun" And the ones that have 3ft of loft insulation added so you have no chance of finding the joists to stand on.

I would want the cylinder closer to the kitchen. (that is indeed what I am doing) the kitchen hot tap is the one that gets used a lot and waiting ages for the hot water to get there is a pain. Bathrooms get used once or twice a day so less important that they get the hot water as quickly.

Yes it is as simple as that. A bit of 3 core & earth 1mm cable.

I wonder if my plant room would get away without anything if I had a fire door between it and the habitable part of the house, and a smoke alarm?

Your frame is 140mm, your insulation is 100mm so a 40mm gap. Add 12.5mm plasterboard and you have 52.5mm Plenty for a 35mm or 45mm deep back box. What's the problem?

I would be mighty impressed if you build even a small house start to finish in 3 months. On the subject of financing and pensions. I have one small non defined benefits pension. I will start drawing this early next year when I hit the magic age of 55 that allows me to access it. I intend to put it into a drawdown fund, initially taking the 25% tax free lump um then starting with a low monthly drawdown with hopefully the flexibility to raise the drawdown amount when I need to. I would not necessarily recommend using a pension to fund a house build, but it makes sense in my case as this is only small pot that in terms of monthly pension if you took it in a conventoinal way is rather trivial. Plus I have other more worthwhile defined benefits pensions that remain for that purpose. Also when the new house is finished and the old one sold, we should have plenty of capital, free of any "pension" restrictions.

I was going to ask how do you insert the glass? Surely you have to insert the glass as you assemble the stairs? The newel posts won't now pull apart to get the glass in, and the slot does not go all the way to the top of the post to allow the glass to simply drop in. You have left the bottom newel post off for that reason but what about the rest?

My guess is there is a boost switch wired in somewhere but rather unhelpfully they have not labelled it. Search doe a switch somewhere, possibly lookinh like a light switch that appears to do nothing (i.e. not turn a light on or off) and try that. Or ask the landlord to show you where the boost switch is.

Is this interior or exterior cladding? I too may have this issue. I have opted to leave my plant room in bare OSB. I have a feeling the BCO will want something painted on it. I know such a "something" exists as I wired whole house finished in OSB and that was passed once "something" was painted on it, that still left it looking like plain OSB.

Beware before buying any programable room stat. Read the instructions. We didn't and got lumbered with two that were battery powered, and forgot their programing every time the battery went flat.

I think you mean leeward? Windward means you are upwind of it so it won't fall on you. It won't immediately fall down when it dies and a responsible land owner would fell a dead tree long before it rots and becomes unsafe.

Chances are Ash Die back will see to that in due course. There's barely an Ash tree left alive up here now.

If you are going to do this, use crates to contain the stone and only do it on a straight run. My first house the developer (or the planners) decided resin bonded stones on the private road and parking spaces would be a good idea. At the point where the road turned, the stones just got scuffed off in no time leaving two bare strips where the car wheels went. The builder re did it twice and both time it did the same. I would have MUCH rather just had a tarmac road.