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I've posted a first Buildhub blog here on our experience and learnings from concept through PreApp, planning application and getting a recommendation to refuse over-turned at planning committee. Its a pretty niche situation - listed building curtilage, conservation area and also wheelchair mobility needs but hopefully some use to others.

I would be most grateful for any advice regarding planning for my self build. I am required to and have complied with the council’s requirement to install opaque glass in the two upstairs windows on the side of my house, that overlook my neighbour. My neighbour has also asked me to make the ground floor glass door opaque, even though this is not a planning requirement. Since I’ve not done so, they have contacted the planning department & the senior planner came round to inspection the house. He said in hindsight they should have required the glass door to be opaque. My neighbour has installed a fence on his side of the boundary, so I’d not installed the privet hedge that I had intended to. The planner asked me to agree to opaque glass ilo the hedge. Since I don’t really want opaque glass & definitely don’t want to agree to change the planning ilo of a hedge! I’m putting in the hedge as shown on the approved plans. My question is - If I have complied with all the requirements for planning. Can the Council force me to make a glass door opaque even though it was not a requirement of the original planning approval?

You need different things for the different finishes. Ours - timber frame (MBC) will be part stone clad - off SurCav and part Wood clad. The whole thing needs to breath, but our stone mason is used to putting in what he calls fire socks to the Surcav bit. And we'll be using something like VFB 60/60 from Tenmat as cavity closures in the wood bits. I'm still worried about providing housing for a whole menagerie of critters so will be doing some more work on keeping them out, but MBC are only bothered about the need for ventilation and BC are only bothered about the fire risk so those elements are a must. Critter barriers it seems can be "model's own".

You've got your location set as "south west" which is a bit too vague for specifics. Most of us have knowledge of just our local office. Many are in deep doos. They have too few officers. Those there get over worked and leave making the situation worse. In East Devon it got so bad in 2025 there were literally none left - I've no idea what sort of service people there get. In South Somerset (where we are) they have a published schedule which suggests a decision within 8 weeks. That's just puff like the 4 hour wait in A&E. After 8 weeks I had great deal of trouble getting any info at all. Once I'd gone round the houses a bit and involved local councillors I found out that our assigned officer had gone on long term sick and everyone else was so busy her cases weren't being reallocated so we just faced an indefinite wait. After making a bit more fuss a decision was made 7 months after application. The snag is, such decisions these days come with numerous conditions, and to discharge the conditions you have to make an application which goes into the same queue. I'm happy to say that element is behind us now...but we bought our plot with extant outline planning permission at the end of 2023 and we will start the foundations on July 6th 2026. Its a daft system and process for a country that professes to want to build more homes.

Nice work Mark!

You mean a contactless one? Will it work? the phone will be 30mm or more from the charger base.

Thinking to have a mobile phone charger recessed into the underside of the island worktop (quartz). Anyone done this ?

Only one access point needed. But we have flat access to every door, either on to decking or patio. But whole house is single storey so why not. Nice future proof, you never know what's ahead of you or your family.

Could you have a hammer to smash your way out through the window ? Seems to be allowed for trains. How long is it going to take to knot the bed sheets together ?

Looking for a premium, domestic aluminum front door fabricator or supplier who can replicate the traditional/geometric style shown in the attached image (Front Door Traditional Aluminum .jpeg). Please send over a quote if you can supply (or supply and fit) the following exact specifications: 🚪 GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS: Material: 100% Aluminium Body (Lightweight domestic profile preferred) Design Style: Traditional Geometric Raised Panel Design (See attached Front Door Traditional Aluminum .jpeg) Layout: Single Door + 1 Integrated LEFT Sidelight (Built within a single outer frame) Opening Direction: Left hand, opening inwards 📏 EXACT DIMENSIONS: Overall Structural Width: 1500 mm Overall Structural Height: 2000 mm Actual Door Leaf Width: 1100 mm Left Sidelight Width: 400 mm Door Height: 1975 mm (To accommodate the cill) 🎨 COLOUR & FINISH: Slab & Frame Colour (Internal & External): Jet Black (RAL 9005 Matt or Fine Texture) Cill: 134mm colour-matched black aluminium cill Glass Type (Sidelight): Satin / Frosted Privacy Glass 🔒 HARDWARE & LOCKING: Main External Handle: Central Round Pull Knob (As pictured in Front Door Traditional Aluminum .jpeg) Hardware Finish: Satin Brass / Brushed Gold Internal Handle: Standard Lever Handle (Black or Satin Brass) Locking Mechanism: Automatic multi-point slam-shut lock Cylinder: Thumbturn cylinder Hinges: Slimline Roller Hinges 💬 PLEASE QUOTE SEPARATELY FOR: Supply Only Full Installation (Location: [Insert your rough location, e.g., Reading / Berkshire]) Please also confirm your current manufacturing lead times.

Plus drains sized accordingly … I recently witnessed a downpour onto an industrial shed and the downpipes and gutter backed up because the water couldn’t get away ….. until a chamber lid lifted and the roof water ended up in the yard.

Ah OK, well let's hope your local authority has a positive attitude to tourism in their district. Hope you're successful.

No level access was need at the rear of ours, just the front door. Love it now.

🙂

Is doesn’t matter how big the gutter is if you don’t have enough outlets. every 6m is the regs in Australia due to rainfall, we should be looking at that as a standard.

Thanks all. @JohnMo perfect. Thanks for the photo. I think I can just copy this design. A platform outside the front door and footpaths leading to the driveways. The front door is the principle entrance. Always wanted the raised patio. The building regs officer said either to raise the patio or to put steps in front of the bi-folding doors. I will hardcore the patio and compact it so it's just a step below the bi-folding doors. This will give us enough depth to play with in case if we want to have the patio level with inside floor.

There is no EWI, it's a cavity wall though. So direct connection to the wall with say 12mm XPS backer board is my best option here?

Yeah, we’re just starting the basement part of our build. This is ‘not easy’ (basements are quite unusual in the UK remember) unless you’re very comfortable with risk and/or have deep pockets. Most UK suppliers won’t want to guarantee water-tightness, the odd European supplier might, but my experience is that they are v difficult to deal with. As others have said, without some kind of sketch - to give an idea of size & shape & ground levels, we’re fairly much in the dark, so can’t say much.

+1 on the overhangs, a good foot or more. Defo, oversize the gutters. The current regs are based on historical norms. We've had several "monsoon" downpours already that have overloaded standard gutters. We used large (150x150 irc) square extruded aluminum ones. Interestingly we set them "in plane" with the roof. Ie at 30 degrees (for our roof) so they acted as "V" gutters. Minimise south-facing glass or provide externalnshades/shutters. My old house had very little south facing and I was glad of it. The "winter sun heating" didn't really happen as our winters tend to be gloomy. Every time I see a grand designs with a south facing curtain wall or giant windows to "catch the sun" or similar I wince. Cross ventilation, and also up and down ventilation if multistory. Defo level access (be aware of flooding!) and don't forget wider doors for wheel chairs etc, if you can. We did this and it was a godsend when we swapped with my parents when my dad got dementia. The buikding regs already spec higher sockets and lower light switches. It seems odd at first, but - again is a massive plus for any one infirm. Even an able bodied person can get temporarily injured (back or arm injury) and these things help then. On that note, the front door lock shoukd be accessible - the traditional rim lock is often at shoulder height which makes it difficult if you ha e a shoulder injury and crucially (my parents learned this the hard way) avoid any door setup that requires 2 hands to open. Specifically a door knob and yale lock combo. My mum broke her arm and could get into her house on her own for a month. Even now it's right pain carrying stuff back in from the car. (sorry rant over) No smart stuff.

In addition to the Building Regs, the 'principal designer' - i.e. you, if you haven't formally appointed anyone else to the task - is required to comply with the the CDM (Construction Design and Management) Regs. They make them / you legally responsible for eliminating safety risks during construction, cleaning, maintenance & demolition (or mitigating the risk if that's impossible) at design stage, involving a risk assessment. They come with some pretty severe potential penalties. Handrails or walk-on glass might be adequate solutions, but I see no obvious way of dispensing with both while being able to safely clean or repair the windows & the rest of the structure above.

Any less would be bouncy and not reassuring to walk on. Rafters would need to be 400 as well.

I need planning as I plan to rent it out as holiday accomodation

One thing to check is whether they are SBD or PAS24 approved, required for a new build. I'm sure the Rationel will be but the Cortizo may not be - the 4600 isn't their most common model. We bumped into a situation where they have a PAS24 certified configuration of their Cor Vision, but not their Cor Vision Plus. BCO wouldn't allow the Plus. Cortizo is rebranded a lot so might be a bit less consistent. If you can, it's nice to be hands on with these big sliders to get a feel for their quality

Chat absolutely on fire today ! SO fast ! . Responses in seconds rather than minutes . File downloads happen within 10 seconds . Blazing ! . By-passed codex and my menu today as we were only dealing with same 4 files . Significant progress ! . 2nd uma8 really helps even with background radio on as we get 2 whisper transcriptions .

A good list, though I'd tweak these: Larger roof overhangs for better shading and and rain protection - given enough space, consider turning the overhangs into a veranda or loggia High maintenance 'green' roofs are probably not an alternative that is sustainable in the UK climate going forward - select the right plants; it's even possible in a Mediterranean climate - https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/52357 Plenty of fruit trees - olive trees to minimise watering? Breathable (sorbative) insulation and high decrement delay wall materials wherever practicable - plus clay or lime based painted internal finishes External shades or shutters on South and West facing windows - consider adding them on exposed East facing windows too. Plants (vines?) running up & over a pergola would be an alternative No 'smart devices' whatsoever to go wrong/be held hostage to - a good idea not to rely on them (at least have a conventional alternative too), but the risk is somewhat lower if they're not exposed to the Internet ...and consider these (though most are more applicable to a whole house, rather than an extension): Minimise hard paving in favour of planting Make the building airtight + add MVHR for ventilation Make provision for natural cross-ventilation with openable windows on opposite sides of the building Use UFCH designed to allow cooling (if only in the future) Add PV panels Choose appliances with top energy ratings to minimise their heat output