ProDave

I am surprised you think the wood fibre is the problem. Our last house had poor reception inside which I have no doubt was the result of the foil backed plasterboard. but our new house the signal inside is no worse than outside (still not good, but it works) I might still install a repeater to boost it though.

We were the same. Our subsoil is "sandy clay" and was declared okay for standard strip foundations but with a strong concrete mix with reinforcing mesh. I pretty much knew that as we had previously built 100 metres away. How far has the concrete lorry got to come? the hourly rate might start to push the price up.

I see the good, the bad, and the ugly in my line of work (electrician) but I can honestly say I have not seen that bad. It pains me to see poor workmanship, the usual being the boarders burst a board because it is too big to fit and shrug their shoulders and say "the taper will fix that" Best of luck getting it resolved.

Sorry but that is as rough as can be. I would be marching them off the job if they are not going to re do the rubbish bits. If they just skim that, round the sockets the plaster spanning mid air will just break off when the sparky screws a socket home.

Very true. In fact my own (metal) CU is mounted on the actual inner wall, so when the service void is boxed in, the plasterboard will in effect flush mount the CU leaving just the front showing. I will be sealing any holes with intumescent sealant.

In effect you re making your own bit of trunking, so your electrician just designs it for trunking.

A void in a wall is just like any other wall, cables must run in a safe zone. A void in a ceiling is just like any other ceiling, the whole ceiling is a safe zone. and a sloping ceiling is still a ceiling.

A sloping ceiling, is still a ceiling, so cables can run anywhere.

Service void is the neatest way unless headroom is tight (I avoided a service void in the en-suite to gain every mm of available headroom) If they must go on the surface, trunking is much preferable. Apart from anything else, clipping to plasterboard rarely gives a secure fixing, the nails of most clips are simply too short. Think how it will transition from the sloping ceiling to the upright wall, I assume that has a service void?

It's a typical socialist "tax the rich" knee jerk. You can debate it all you like, but if ever implemented, the devil will be in the detail, and that will determine if it's fair, or punative. Sice we won't know the detail until it is (if ever) actually implemented we won't know. I am afraid of "tax changes" because they always seem to leave me worse off. When I bought my first house I paid "rates" there was no single occupancy discounts, you got a bill and paid it. So when the poll tax was being introduced, it seemed a good principle that everyone would pay so the amount I should pay would be less. WRONG my poll tax cost me more than the rates did, if there had been multiple people in my house at the time they would ave been raking it in. Then when the poll tax was abolished and replaced with council tax, I thought my bill might go back down. WRONG again. My council tax, even with single occupancy discount was more than I paid for my poll tax. So forgive me for being nervous of ANY tax change relating to property as I pretty well know it will cost me more.

On the subject of pencils. There was a time when the correct place to keep a pencil was behind ones ear. Sadly the onset of middle age, and the requirement to wear spectacles means the ear no longer works as a pencil storage location.

Without seeing the plot layout I can't comment but my initial thought would be the garage om the east side of the house, or offset so at least some more of the south wall of the house gets some sun. Our last house was like that, best view to north but wanted the sun, so made the main living space double aspect with windows to north and south. That is what you want to be aiming for. A compromise might be windows to north and west so at least it gets afternoon sun. Just combining the lounge and the downstairs bedroom / study would achieve a living room that gets the view and afternoon sun (bigger window to the south?) and would adding the extra upstairs bedroom mean you could dispense with a downstairs bedroom?

Yes. you would not believe the number of pencils I have lost carefully distributed around the house for use later. I suffer just as much as anyone else with forgetting where I put a tool. Often I will walk off to get something, not realising something is already in my hand, and that something gets put down where I collect the item I have gone for, but of course I forget that. What I find does help is to actually say to yourself (out loud if needed) "I am putting the tape measure on the window cill" etc. Then you have a slightly better chance of remembering where it is.

Thanks I missed that. Unless there is a VERY good reason why the garage is where it is, the whole layout wants to be mirror imaged top to bottom as drawn. At the moment you have a cold dark living room and a (wasted) lovely sunny garage. I would go to great pains to put the garage anywhere other than where it is at the moment. Quite possibly to the extent of not having one if that really was the only place it could go.

Black duct for electricity (some DNO's want red), grey for BT, water buried direct.

Hi and welcome to the forum. In many parts of Scotland, a hipped roof does not fit in with the local vernacular, and a gable end to the garage roof gives much more scope to make a proper extra bedroom from it. We can't possibly pass comment on the design without knowing which way is north?

That would blow my usual "1 hour per point" estimate right out of the water. Has your electrician tried SBS Trade sales, he sells the Live range of stuff and does some pretty good custom stuff, but strictly trade only?

You appear to have 5 double deck CU's, each probably with the capacity for a very minimum of 20 circuits, so that's 100 circuits available. Talk about "room for future expansion" I have seen industrial units with smaller distribution boards. I assume there is access to the other side of that wall still otherwise how will you get the cables into them?

Not tried them yet but will put them into the mix. Have you also tried stair box?

You have reduced the number of complaints. What do you have against just agreeing a render with a pink hue? It seems they would accept metal roof, timber and render (pink hue) for the walls. Is that not your solution?

Sory not making sense. looks like snow falling off a roof? What am I looking at?

Yes split CU's does indeed seem a good idea. E That's what's known as a KMF switch fuse. If there is more than 3 metres between the meter and the CU then you will need a fuse of your own. you are only allowed to rely on the suppliers fuse to protect a run no more than 3 metres long. I have the same switch fuse for my 25 metre run.

On the subject of granting PP for one house, then refusing one next door. There was a case here where someone applied for permission to build at the edge of a field. There is a general presumption against building in the countryside here with a few exceptions, one being building in an established settlement. Well there were two adjacent properties opposite this plot, and it was granted permission, the plot was sold and a house was built. Then the owner tried for a second house. It was clear to anyone with half a brain cell that his intention was to slice up the field a strip at a time and sell it one plot at a time. This time it was refused. So he took it to appeal. The appeal said it failed the established settlement test and the first house should never have been built either, but they could do nothing about that. So not so much something changed, but different people interpreted the same policy in different ways.

If your tails just go 1 metre through the wall and out the other side then the REC2 will be fine and use the PME earth they have supplied. Put the gernny changeover switch inside next to the CU.

If the board is all rcbo then you do not want an up front rcd, unless you are on a TT earth where you will be forced to, in which case you have a time delay RCD to provide discrimination. I assume this is just temporary as you are having the meter moved first? If that is the case, I would do nothing right now. Book the meter move. Make sure your electrician is on hand and you have a double pole 100A switch and a REC2 enclosure for it. When the meter monkey moves the meter, get him to connect the meter to the input of the isolator switch, and then your electrician connects the output of the switch to your consumer units. If your consumer units will be remote from the meter, then use a switch fuse instead of an isolator, such as a KMF type.