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How many metres of setting out has he had to do? I can't see how cutting down a bunch of blocks is more than a days extra work, admittedly not much fun. But maybe it is a whopper of a house!

I'd get as much topsoil over the gravel as you can to avoid summer drying out as punter says. I wouldn't use a membrane in clay soil - the membrane itself can clog up over time. Not sure if I'd want to start putting clay back into the trench unless you have a year or two to wait for it to sink back down to its final level.

Do you mean something like this? https://www.buildingmaterials.co.uk/plasterboard-edge-beads What happens to any packers used to set the door linings - won't they be visible?

WHy 60mm void if the joists are 200mm? Diagram useful here. If you only have space for 60mm insulation it is going to be well below building regs.

Great thanks Dave

Can i put all my plug sockets at 600mm off floor level if I want? This assumes I have understood Part M right to mean that sockets can be anywhere between 450mm and 1200mm. But an electrician I have spoken to says they have to be at 450mm.

Personally I can't see a problem.

Where is the insulation in relation to the easijoists? If the duct is inwards or towards the inside of the thermal envelope it should be fine. Why are there small pipe ridges? Should be twinwall with smooth inside.

I managed to speak to the relevant local council planning person and he said that the key issue from a planning perspective was whether or not the works could be considered as involving 'engineering'. Quite what that means I don't know and he sounded a bit vague about it. Nor do I know where that bit of planning law comes from. I guess the amount of drainage considerations might come into it. With the correct camber water can be directed to the ditch on one side of the road but there are a couple of places where some drainage channels might be needed to get water away from house driveways.

Situation is this - 300m track off the main road leads to a few houses. It is not under local authority control as an adopted highway. As far as I know it is an Inclosure Award Road which I think in effect makes it a private road owned jointly by those who own adjacent land. It is also a bridleway. In winter the road gets horrendous for driving down no matter how much filling of holes goes on. Some on the road have started prepping for tarmacing the road by scraping with a digger and putting edging all the way along. There is some local opposition to tarmacing the road mostly driven by opposition to recent development of a couple of traveller sites on the road. So there have been various visits from local planners and county council. County council roads/rural person has said that he won't object to laying tarmac but wants it to be done properly so there would only be a danger of ripping it all up if it isn't done well/drains well/etc. Local planner has warned those thinking of doing the work that it can't be done without planning permission. So work has stopped as those who want it tarmacced don't want to pay for it only for it to be ripped up. There has been talk of laying granite chips down instead but I can't see that doing any better than what is there now. My question is - is the local planner right that planning permission is needed? Scraping the existing stuff on the road also clearly shows evidence of previous tarmaccing of the road . The first short section is all tarmac and there are little islands of tarmac all the way down.

I'd just fix the beading with plasterboard screws.

Thanks all. It has decided to work again now so hopefully that continues. If not I think a call will be made!

I get the message, thank you! It is definitely on the older side not sure exactly how old though, not much work on it recently except new expansion vessel. It has lit once since I switched over bottles, I assumed all sorted but then went back to F29 error message.

Problem has returned - damn! What is involved in purging ? It says in the manual "the gas supply to the boiler can be purged by slackening the gas service valve beneath the boiler". Looking at the manual and then the boiler I see an isolator with a flat head screwdriver to open/close where the LPG gas pipe comes into the boiler so I assume that is the gas service valve. .

Looked up the manual on purging and it says to slacken the gas service valve beneath the boiler. All I could find is what seems to me to be an isolator for the gas in so I turned it off and then back on. It did the trick! Not sure if what I did was purging it or not but something worked. Thanks all.

All cylinders on. Pressure is fine. Purged? I don't know - I'll have to look that up in the morning.

I'm having a problem with my boiler that maybe someone can point me in the right direction. Vailant Ecomax 828 on LPG bottles. If both bottles run out the error message F29 appears to say no flame. Normally I change over the bottles and then press the flame button or turn it off and on and it will reignite but this time no such luck. No flame and F29 error remains. What would be the next thing to try? Ringing up Vailant is an obvious option but I'm wondering if anyone has any useful suggestions. I'm guessing either it thinks that gas isn't getting into the boiler sufficiently (most likely) or something wrong with the flame switch (less likely).

I'm installing 3 multipanel shower walls and am planning on leaving a 5-8mm gap at the bottom to seal with silicone. Should I cut my internal corner profiles to the exact same height as the multipanel so that there is the same gap at the bottom all the way round?

When wiring face plates for a ring main with 2.5mm wire is it advisable, sensible or unnecessary to double over the wire where it gets tightened to the connections? I ask because I seem to remember my previous electrician saying he always liked to double over any wires up to and including 2.5mm to provide a better contact. My current electrician isn't doing that so I am wondering if I should ask him to. Any thoughts?

I'm with you!

I can't see how space saver stairs could pass building regs bit you could ask. I installed some in a small attic conversion to bedroom in my previous house but there was no chance of building regs approval due to stair angle and height at top of stairs. I just accepted it was done without building regs approval while making sure it complied with regs as far as it could. It was pretty common practise on the street.

Don't forget to paint the ends of the planks when you put them down to dry. Less chance of splitting due to differential drying times.

excellent suggestions. I have some expamet lying around so I will go with that. Not sure why I didn't think of it given the number of bits of timber in the old walls I have covered with expamet before rendering already!

I have a small internal timber frame dividing wall that I want to render on to. What is my cheapest option for a board that takes render? A quick look at the internet finds options like this: https://www.insulationshop.co/9mm_renderflex_polymer_render_carrier_board.html But they seem expensive!

Are you moving in to the house straight away or is there a period of building when nobody is in the house? If the latter then you have a better chance of digging up floors so that you can get insulation under UFH. If you are not going to address the air tightness of the building then I would suggest MVHR is not suitable. If you do a thorough refurb then you have every opportunity to concentrate on air tightness detailing. This is much harder to do if you plan on doing things bit by bit if you have to live in the house while works are going on. I originally planned on a pellet boiler to power my farmhouse but I am glad I didn't go for it in the end. Many arguments against them from an ecological/maintenance point of view. If you can get your heat demand down I would say an ASHP would be best way. What are the internal features that discount IWI?