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Update: Received the following just now- “Please accept our apologies in regards to not informing you when we issued the CIL Liability notice out at that time, as the originally email with the notices was sent out to your agent directly dated 04/10/2023 (attached). Due to the situation where development has commenced on site and you didn’t get notified, on this occasion we will allow discretion whereby you can submit the relevant forms, and we will grant the relief. Please do note that the full CIL charge plus the additional surcharges will not be imposed.” Thank goodness! These last 24 hours have been traumatic to say the least. But it appears that they do have some heart following my email to them detailing all the flaws in their process conducted. Thank you all for your input and advice. What an amazing platform we have here 😀

Our certificate was emailed over today , feels like another milestone on the build, despite the fact this will be our second Xmas in the house officially we have(now) completed .

it's been a long journey (although about a 1/3 of the time it took @Pocster) but we finally have our final certificate sign-off from BCO. we are over the moon to have passed that hurdle. There's still a long way to go but we are living in the house now and it is performing beyond our expectations and is a wonderful place to live. thank you to everyone on the forum for your help along the way. this place has been invaluable for us.

So a quick recap - back in December 2023, what may be my last ever employer decided to ask me to leave. I had mixed feelings about this. I took several weeks to think about next steps and actually get around to writing a father of the bride speech which I'd been putting off. After the wedding in March (a great day and a great speech!) I started to look more seriously for a new job, but being the wrong side of 60 now, the IT industry is not a good place to be looking especially when so many other people have been let go as well. Coming up to the end of May, we sat down and took some tough decisions; we bought a static van on a site about 3 miles from the plot, I stopped looking for a new job, SWMBO did an internal job transfer, we rented out our current house (instead of our original plan to sell up) to three newly qualified doctors (our niece and two others on their first F1 rotations in our local hospital so that worked out well), and we spent 6 weeks decluttering, and moved down SE Cornwall (Kernow) at the end of July. In the last blog entry I ended with a list: Finish ventilation system Finish insulating the GWW Finish backfilling Electrics Floors Walls ASHP and HWC Kitchen Bathrooms The remaining plumbing Outer wall coverings This is how it looks today Finish ventilation system Finish insulating the GWW (Great West Wall) Finish backfilling (on the back burner) Electrics (first fix) Floors (now on the back burner) Walls (En suite partition walls to be done) ASHP and HWC (being done in January) Kitchen (planned for January or February) Bathrooms (temporary loo and basin installed, cold water only, temp bathroom planned for January) The remaining plumbing Outer wall coverings (rendering done, stone cladding starting next week) What I missed off the list, and has taken most of our time: Sound insulation (R35 rockwool and resilient bars) Plasterboarding So a few photos are required I think: MVHR unit in place (since removed as plant room walls have been put in and waiting to be plastered inside) Ventilation distribution boxes and pipes fitted: Plaster board arrived (in May): My cold water manifold has pipes attached for the first time (one now being used for the temporary toilet and basin), no picture of it but just to the right is the hot water equivalent: We powered up the sewage treatment plant for the first time (nearly 4 years after it was first installed!): We started plasterboarding, first a large room into which we moved all our stuff that was in storage so saving a hefty wedge per month on storage fees, and then the much larger and more complex open living area: We took some time off in early October and went sailing for a week, and when we got back some kind fellows had installed some scaffold (first time on this build), and in the following few weeks we had the renderers in thanks to the Kernow weather gods: Meanwhile back inside, we finished plasterboarding the large living area, and during this last week the plastering started (kitchen area first!). We set off a couple of insect smoke bombs as we had a cluster fly infestation and wanted rid before plastering started 🙂 : Dare I add a what's next list 🙂 ? Well, here goes .... Plastering finished in the open plan area this coming week (by others) Remainder of stone cladding arrives and work begins to get the most inaccessible (high) parts put up before the scaffold gets taken away - this means cladding two 7m x 2m wide walls Plumbing pipework ready for ASHP installation Gabion basket and pad for ASHP to be installed on Mist coat and first coat on plaster (SWMBO is at the ready) Begin fitting upstairs UFH Front door being fitted (January) by others Take 3-4 days off for Xmas ASHP installation (January) by others, that will allow for hot water and the downstairs UFH to be available ... Fit a temporary bathroom ... Fit out utility room as temp kitchen ... ... and this is why - Move out of static van for the month of February (rules is rules!) and decamp to the house Well, I'll let you know how it all goes 🙂

Item 1 on the latest list is complete 😁

It's not just the VAT. I've undertaken several deep renovations myself, as well as having managed & priced them commercially, and they always turns out to be more expensive than rebuilding would have been - unless you're doing much of the work & discounting the cost of your labour. In addition to strip-out costs, many things just take more time and/or cost more. For example, building a doorway into a new internal wall is more-or-less 'free' - the extra costs are roughly balanced out by saving 1.5m² of blockwork. On the other hand, knocking a hole through an existing wall, well that's a couple of days work + additional materials. Then there are things you find that you didn't expect that need fixing - walls, floors & ceilings out of level; botched DIY; sagging rafters; dry-rot; lead water mains; cracked sewers, whatever - which also takes more time to fix than fitting from new. And making an old house properly airtight - which is highly recommended - is almost always more complex because it wasn't considered as part of the original design. There are good reasons for not demolishing. Maybe you just want to tart it up & flip it. Maybe you need to live in it because you have nowhere else and a caravan is out. Maybe the building has a particular heritage value (whether listed or not). Or, as with my current project, maybe it's an apartment - which kind of rules out demolition! But if you do decide to renovate then do make sure that includes a thermal upgrade to at least Building Regs standards. Better than that if you're concerned about future energy costs and / the future additional value that it's likely to provide.

I've dealt with planning in perhaps 12 councils. Scores of applications. Applications in 10, and also meeting them in working groups in 2 of these. I think they were all behaving honestly. Of course they are people, and some are less competent, organised, modest, strong willed, hard working than others. Some will tend to bend as required by bullying councillors, developers etc. Do they respond to bribes or threats? Not that I have heard. Parish councils are amateurs. They can't be made to go on training courses. Some are there for their own ends, there is no doubt, and will bully and lie and use their position. Most are there for the best of reasons but can be bullied by the former and by the public...and often will leave. Is that corruption? No, but bullying is as bad. Parish councils can't control planning anyway, only advise. Bigger councils have more clout. The elected members are usually also politically linked. You are into the world of lobbying and lunches. Most are doing the best they can. I think it's too easy to assume corruption is behind decisions we don't like. The ones who cast blame are those least likely to put themselves forward for public service.

I think I'd extend that downpipe above and drop it directly into the gutter too.

The builders scaffolding came down and the roofers scaffolding went up all to plan. The new roofer has a good gang and they are working well on the roof. The weather hasn’t been great, we have had three storms Bert, Conall and Darragh luckily no damage to the build. We are approx 615ft above sea level and about 2.5miles to the coast as the crow flies so we get a good breeze coming in off the Atlantic. The wind has Brought with it some very cold spells that and the shorter daylight hours has meant progress has been a bit slow. The roof has been battened, breather membrane and counter battened, eves ventilation and we have some nice joinery on the gables, facia, tilt fillet at the eves for the last slate row and overhang. The slates are looking good and I’m happy with the hooks they are using, sometimes they are quite visible when the sun catches them but these have black tips that blend in nicely. The overhang also has some nice leadwork. The solar panels have just arrived and work will continue next year with the installation. The MVHR vents are installed and the Velux windows are installed, one window still needs its flashing kit completed and slate around so is covered up for now. Whilst the scaffolding is up I have managed to give the bargeboards 3 coats of wood protection with black stain. Finding time when its not too cold for the stain which requires 5 deg plus and keeping out of the roofers way has meant a little at a time but the gables are done and the facia on the North side is done with just the South to have another 2 coats. Im glad I’m doing it now not just because the scaffolding is up but also any drips of the very watery stain are not going on my cladding. We are ICF as you know and we have to be careful that the preservative is solvent free or it would melt the ICF blocks. Whilst the scaffolding is up we have also put the counter battens and insect mesh on the gable ends ready for the cladding next year. We purchased the insect mesh quite wide to go from the battens to the inside of bargeboards. Next job whilst the scaffolding is up is run some sealant in the small gap between the slates and the gable ladder, I have been told this is not done on most sites these days but due to our location the roofers have suggested we do it, so I purchased a huge box of baby wipes ready, I’m sure I will use them when we seal the windows as well. I have moved two empty slate crates just off to the left of the camera and started filling these with the half cut slates and the broken slates. The plan is to may be use the half slates around the bottom of the walls above ground level before the cladding starts, I’m hoping sticking them on will be the easy option, the broken ones will be crushed more and used as mulch on the ground around the edge of the building. We have paid the window deposit and the window openings have been measured, for one sliding door and 10 windows it took apx 3 1/2 hrs to measure the openings and discuss the window placement position and the sill positions and depths, and the sliding door placement taking into account the ffl after the insulation, screed and wood flooring. Some walls are being rendered and some wooden clad so the sills are different depths. We have 3 windows on one wall that face down our field and I wanted them levelled with a laser as well as measuring as these will be a big feature. We paid apx £700 for the measuring service and it will have been worth every penny. The windows are due in production towards the middle to end of February so hopefully before the end of March they will be installed. The cars that managed to sneak onto the photos for this catch up include our own Jensen FF back from the painters and a local customer popped their Jensen 541 in for a quick service.

You do understand it. It is the U-Value [W.m-2.K-1 or W/m2.K (not W/m2/K as above)] multiples by the surface area [m2] multiplied by the temperature difference [ΔK]. So with a U-Value of 1 [W.m-2.K-1], a surface area of 32.9 [m2], the unknown ΔK, but a solution of 881 W. 881 [W] / 1 [W.m-2.K-1] x 32.9 [m2] = 26.8 [ΔK] To work out the assumed outside air temperature [OAT] you just subtract the external temperature from the internal temperature [IAT] i.e. 20°C. 20 [°C] - 26.8 [°C] = -6.8 [°C or K]. Now that is the power (the W) not the energy [Wh] losses over a set time period when the OAT is -6.8°C i.e. a cold winter day. To calculate the energy lost, you have to multiply by the time in hours [h] to get to Wh, which is how we purchase energy (we purchase in kWh, so need to divide by 1000). Now we do not have fixed temperature differences, they vary over the year i.e. large in winter, small in spring and autumn, irrelevant in summer (they they can be positive as well, we call that solar gain). Temperature probabilities, based on a typical metrological year [TMY] are used to calculate the amount of time spent at different OATs. Now you may have noticed that I have mixed descriptors for temperature, sometimes I have used celsius [°C] and other time kelvin [K]. This is considered very bad practice but is often used to make it easier to read. There is a reason that it is bad practice and that is if you are adding or subtraction temperatures then the scale name makes no difference as the size of the graduation is the same. But if you are multiplying or dividing, then you must use the kelvin scale or you get odd results. This is very important when working out radiative losses and the efficiency of CoP of heat pumps. To convert celsius to kelvin, you add 273.15. So -6.8°C is 266.35 [K]. (We should really use the joule [J] for energy and not the Wh, but that is another lecture)

Most British people don't want more houses really. Other than for themselves of course.

Hi all, Have been reading advice here for a while and thought I'd join. Bought my first house 2 years ago (victorian end of terrace), thought it needed some light remodelling. Long story short is turned out to have some major structural issues, fixing these, led to destroying most of the interior structure, and, given I was already recking it I decided I may as well make it future proof at the same time, in the hope that this will make it nice to live in and recoup some costs in the long run. Its now fully insulated with and ASHP, UFH and MVHR. Kitchens in and currently on bathroom. Doing majority of the work myself to make it more affordable. Not a builder by trade, but have learnt a lot from forums, badgering those in the trade, and extensively quizing technical departments. I'll post any questions I have, feel free to message me if anyone is thinking on embarking on something similar.

If you need to ask whether to isolate before removing a cover, there's no question you should isolate before removing the cover.

Hi. Not sure if anyone will see this but I was searching around for this exact topic and found this so felt it my duty to respond with my findings I have a new build (~2018), north and north/east facing rooms/bathrooms have always been cold, like ice-boxes in the winter. After just making do and then going through covid, this year I'd had enough and thought this cannot be right! After reading through the replies here and asking around I was about to pay for someone to come round to inspect our wall insulation. I thought I'll just go into the roof first to see if I can see anything obvious..... well, I noticed a few gaps in the roof insulation and some insulation just randomly lose on top of another covered area. I simply "fluffed up" here and there and moved the lose bits to cover gaps. Honestly I'm amazed at the difference. I've bitten the bullet and bought a Hive thermostat and a few smart radiator valves to put into those cold rooms and to have easier control over adding heat to those rooms when needed (i.e. guests), but just simply fluffing up in the roof has already made a huge difference and I'm amazed. So - if you have a new build and its passed building regs, aside from a major screw up I'd be surprised if there was anything majorly wrong with your wall insulation. If a room is north facing, and has a window on the north and east sides like mine then it will feel colder than other rooms. BUT, I would recommend checking in your roof before forking out for any inspections etc. I've gone extra in going for smart heating but that is a personal choice and technically not completely required. I'm hoping though it makes putting the heating on more efficient and I will have easier control of what comes on when and to what temp. That's my two pennies on this subject - hope it helps someone

Yes. This is it going on You can see the brushes we used to apply in this photo

Hi all Early 30s and just bought a 1970s mid terrace build which I’m looking to gut and renovate. Look forward to sharing my story and learning from you all.

Everyone interested in timber frame construction should read this. https://www.merronbrook.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/timberframepocketguide-aug2016.pdf

I recommend you 'phone your local Western Power (now part of National Grid) office - you may be surprised by how helpful they may be! We had very similar situation, demolishing a 1950s bungalow with the original power cable from the bungalow wall hanging over the driveway to a pole near the edge of our land (thence across an A road to a transformer on another set of poles). We planned to install an external meter cabinet near the pole, initially to supply our temporary caravan, and when we're ready to supply the new house. The National Grid planner turned up for a survey, took one look at the old pole and announced they would replace the old pole and put in new cable from the transformer across the road to the new pole and down to our external cabinet... for FREE. All I had to do was build a wall and install the cabinets (one for their stuff, the other for us) and hockey stick. (And that was my first post!)

I just want to emphasise that I used to work for a small turbine manufacturer, we made a 5 kW turbine. It cost about £20k to install, and that was 20 years ago. Even on a good site, it would struggle to produce 10 MWh/year. Most likely half that, so no better than PV, except it works at night and in winter. I would, if going off grid, go with CHP, PV and a modest amount of storage.

Why not a generator and some battery storage? You could, with a bit of simple plumbing claim some thermal energy from the generator. The main thing with off grid living is to reduce usage to a ridiculously low level. This will probably mean a total redesign if your home. May be too late to do that if you have planning already. Small, domestic, wind turbines are pointless. The physics is against you. It is very easy to think you can live with a log fire and a couple of lights, but realistically you want a washing machine (about 2 kWh per wash), a fridge and freezer (0.5 kWh/day), extractors, maybe off grid sewage and lights (another 2 kWh/day) and you have already used up your winter PV production. Find a decent mechanic and make a small CHP unit on a petrol engine (gasoline us 15p/kWh).

Because the poorest people live in the poorest houses and taxing them more would be seen as unfair (IMO). Council tax is a way of taxing more for the bigger houses but perhaps we need to differentiate BETTER houses that pollute less fir council tax bands.

I am assuming those 2 pipes, one is hot water, one is cold water? So you probably won't use the hot water and you will first need a bit of pipe out of the cold isolating valve to a tee then to two washing machine valves. And some brackets to clamp the pipes to the wall.

That fixes humidity, but not the CO2 issue you will have. You NEED ventilation. Your living environment will be bad for your health. Sorry I am going to very blunt - Airtight without ventilation is not a good or smart move. Add a couple of dMEV fans one in kitchen and one in bathroom(s). You then need to allow air in somewhere.

I thought I should follow up with this as so many posts are left with no resolution! Long story short I owed them a few quid for a raised bed/sleepers they did for me. Agreed to not pay that and I sorted the slabs myself (yes, a big risk on my part but I just wanted them gone!). I used (actually got through x2!) crimped wire cup angle grinder attachments (check your angle grinder RPM), and a load of very strong brick acid. Ensure you use appropriate PPE (I didn’t, I know a should have). Body totally covered, eye protection and quality mask. Got all of the cement off with a few hours of relative heavy work (bent over with a grinder and loads of brick acid). Expected it to badly rust. It did. Give it a good long cooling off period - preferably 2 weeks of mixed weather. That makes all of that rusting appear. Next step was 2 large bottles of LTP rust remover in a few steps. 1. Paint or spray on rust remover. Leave to settle and do its thing. 2. Before it dries, spray off with pressure washer, then wash slabs with a paving cleaner (NOT acid based). 3. Leave another week and same again. Most rust deposits should be gone within 2 treatments. Clean again as above. FYI the trust remover bloody stinks like rotten garlic. But it works. After that let it fully dry out - the slabs are likely to look a bit tired from all the acid. Assuming your slabs are good few months old (I’d suggest open to elements for at least 4 months), give them a good clean then a seal. I used Lithofin stain stop plus. Google paving expert sealant trials for a great test. I found that to be the best balance between mild colour enhance, sealant properties and price. 1 large tub and I have some left overs for a top up coat next summer. Yes it was a lot of work, but I was in the (somewhat) fortunate position of the slab laying being OK, and the cement staining being the main problem. If there were major issues with the slab laying I wouldn’t have bothered and gone for the nuclear option. Pics attached. No doubt if we have a serious few freezes this winter or next, the pointing will need redoing. But overall I’m happy with the result I achieved and it might give those with a particular interest in DIY and elbow grease and option for fixing theirs:

Option 6. Demolish the lot and start again. What you are planning to do will cost more and perform worse than a new build.

Hi All, Introducing myself. My wife Sue and I are contemplating a Barn conversion in the Tunbridge Wells area. This site will be very useful I am sure.

Id have to agree with this. I have them on the back of my house, (but real slate on the front), and they have been there since the 70's. They are fine. Ok, some moss on them, but otherwise OK. I had to take a few off recently for an unrelated reason. i just put them back on. When we bought the house, i mentioned to the wife that maybe we should re-do the back in slate. Reality, until i read this post, id never given it another thought. I dont stare at the roof everytime im outside. My wife is always moaning that i try to do everything perfectly, when, often, it just isnt necessary. I struggle with that concept.

Sorry to install a heat pump and cylinder to an existing UFH system - £13k - they are taking the p#ss Panasonic heat pump £2500, cylinder around £1k. Sundries £1k Or contact Cool Energy, they do a self install scheme to get the grant. They design, you install, they commission. Allows you or you plumber and electrician to install. They have a new 6kW heat pump also.

Finally IWI has commenced onsite. The good advice given here has me sold on the benefit of a parge coat. I think no matter which IWI system you select a parge coat will sit very comfortably in the mix, its effectively the same material as a victorian brick wall (sand and lime) so little concern about introducing non-compatible materials that the building may reject. We have spent a few day pointing up the bigger gaps in the jointing, will parge now and expect much like a mist coat it will show up which areas need further attention. I'm mixing 3:1 Sharp sand to NHL 3.5. This mix seems broadly accepted to be OK, however I've seen @Iceverge add a shovel of cement and elsewhere others say NHL 3.5 is too strong, so again noo hard and fast rule it seems. I will say that its not as easy to put on as I thought, not in terms of hard physical effort but getting it from the bucket to the wall. I'm applying with a soft sweeping brush, the mix in the bucket need to be constantly agitated to keep the sand in suspension, or else you end up just whitewashing the walls. A lot of material goes on the floor, which when gathered and put back in the bucket dries the mix and so more water is required to bring the mix back to a brushable consistency. @Redbeardsuggested a pre-bagged mix which certainly would be an easier material to work with, but I figured I'd need 50+ bags so it works out to be a much more expensive option for my project. Here's how the first gauge is looking.

Maybe it's not exactly what you had pictured in your minds eye but I would try to keep a balanced view. The house I grew up in house has manmade slates since 1951 and they're still up there, day in day out keeping the weather at bay. They have gone somewhat grey and are more brittle than new but they've never leaked. A similar aged house in the locality had theirs painted recently with specialist paint to smarten them up and reinforce them somewhat. Natural slate isn't without it's issues either. Some of the imported stuff can be of extremely variable quality resulting in lots of waste and high fitting bills. Welsh slate is very very expensive. It's far heavier and will stress the roof timbers more. We put fiber cement on our roof, even paid a little extra for the fancier type. Complete waste of money. Nobody ever noticed. I don't think anyone will spend too much time looking at yours if I'm honest. The builder is running a business and will naturally tender to the most competitive specification. I don't think you can really blame them. Just make sure the price tag reflects what you have and spend the savings on something more important like a comfy chair or a boiling water tap.

If I put my foot down, my V8 AMG returns less than 8mpg. "Smiles per gallon" my friend. You are dead for a VERY long time, fill your boots and do NOT listen too much to bean counters. Most get buried with their money and are boring as feck. Most won't buy a round either.

>>> Is it so fundamentally broken I think it is - the LPAs have way too much power. In particular they can delay for ever and most planning judgement is just personal opinion - which varies with the case officer, the day of the week, the weather etc. The rules need to be slashed by 50% or more for self or small housebuilders. And both the LPAs and the Inspectorate mislead the governement and the public with the way they mis-report their stats. An architect friend tells me that if the French equivalent of an LPA doesn't make up its mind by the state-imposed deadline, then the application is automatically allowed. Here, delay is routinely used as an LPA negotiating tool.

The problem you’ve got is the CIL is due and the council will pursue matters against you. You’d be fighting on two fronts - one against the council and one against the architect… but a planning solicitor would help on both fronts and hopefully be able to look at whether the architect had any liability. Contact a solicitor tomorrow.

SUCCESS!! After an initial refusal and discussion with the council includdng a lot of the points on here raised, they have now approved my application. Thankyou for the help and the comments on here. So very much appreciated!! Credit to my council too for reconsidering and being sensible and fair.

And they wonder why planners have a bad name. How do "formalised space" and "unneighbourly" map to the requirements of planning law? Similarly, I don't see how "engineering works" have anything to do with the need for a planning application. You built a small(?) retaining wall (planning not needed), replaced the paving over a slightly larger area (no planning needed), and didn't raise the level (no planning needed). I agree that it all sounds like complete nonsense, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with it. Depending on your appetite for stress, I'd be tempted to write back and tell them that you look forward to them initiating enforcement action based on the actual planning laws of which you're alleged to be in breach.

I estimated labour at 1 hour per point. A "point" being a switch, a socket, a light fitting, a smoke alarm etc. For a new build that has always proved pretty accurate for me. It should be easy to count up the number of points in your house. Materials can be harder, anything from £2 for a basic white plastic switch for £10 for a stupid expensive "designer" one. So make sure they know exactly how many switches etc there will be and what sort you want.

Could it be that vertical timber is helping support the ceiling by hanging that binder from the purlin? Removing it may make the ceiling below start to sag?

That's going to limit your audience a bit I'm afraid. Whilst we're lucky enough to have a number of professionals who keep us on track, this is more where the half-a$$ed amateurs hang out when we're not trying to rectify the last job.

Despite having fought planners a few times (and won) I have no evidence of corruption but I would call them generally inept, full of self importance and blinkered in their approach. I am sure they are also underfunded which can’t help.

This one made me chuckle, uses actual footage from the show. I believe Kevin actually tweeted the link on his feed.

Hi Karl! There's always potential for ambiguity and different people's interpretations of tolerance, however notwithstanding this in my view if the tolerance is '3mm within 3m' then I'd take that to mean that over any 3m length the difference between the highest and lowest points should be less than 3mm. Thus your units could ripple like a (square) wave but if you were to locate the lowest unit then all the others must be no more than 3mm higher than that and you'd be fine. It might not sound a lot but 3mm is a fair amount for something that is infinitely adjustable. Do you want to elaborate on your situation? Did you cancel the templating or did the surveyor say it was far out? If the latter I'd expect them to be advising what improvements were needed and where etc. Gosh, this thread is a blast from the past. Funny reading back how concerned we were at the time... A few years on and we love the worktops and wouldn't change them for anything else!

Tell them to pack there shit and leave Tell the person they are working for the same and bring someone else in There standards are obviously lower than yours No amount of pulling them up will make any difference

All done. Bloody hell, suggestions to rip up oak floors, hire all sorts of machinery, all for it to end up taking 15 minutes, and 5 minutes to clean it all up. Barely any dust gets loose if you one-hand the grinder and hold a decent dust extractor right next to the cutter. For anyone else who ever comes across this thread during a Google search, here's what worked for me: 1. Set yourself up with a bit of plastic that you can tape off the room with. Takes about 5 minutes total. That way you can zone out 90% of the room and protect it from dust 2. Remove as much from the room as possible, and open up the top and bottom windows to create an air current 3. Make sure you set up all of your tools to go on the right side of your sealed off area - you don't want to open it up again while this happens. 4. With your vacuum or dust extractor in one hand and the grinder in the other, work at a moderate pace, with the vacuum attachment about 50mm from the cutting dust, and 90% of it will be sucked straight into the bag. 5. Chisel out everything with an SDS, chisel into the cut so as not to blow plaster 6. vacuum up all leftover bits, including the chase, and use a dustpan and brush for the big bits. 7. Leave room for at least 30 mins, then return to vacuum up the rest of the settled dust. A mask is essential. You wouldn't want to do this in a room with carpets, or, I guess, in a room you weren't planning to decorate again, for obvious reasons. The dust increases dramatically if you cut into brick, but then you just go slower so that the vacuum can catch more. It's an easy job, but the dust is definitely a nightmare. I cannot imagine how much you'd produce if you didn't seal off the room and work with an extractor. It would be like a sandstorm.

Hi all, My wife and I are in the early stages of setting up a self-build home in Orkney. We don't have any construction experience, and am extremely glad to have found Build Hub - browsing around has shown how much experience and advice there is on here! In particular, I've been reading @Stones' blog and @MarcelHoldinga's updates on their similar projects with a great amount of interest. We're a couple with a young child, and our self-build ambitions come from a place of hoping to make a safe and comfortable haven for our daughter as she grows up. We have family in Orkney, and the friendliness of the local community was ultimately what made us want to make the leap - we've been searching for a stronger sense of community since the difficult COVID years. We've got a plot of land and are beginning the planning permission process. The intent is to build an efficient and open-plan ICF property on one of the North Isles. Happy to be here, glad there's such a rich source of info on self-building!

Do not forget insulation size on the pipes!! We had a nightmare of a job pulling 4 x AC pipes through together with the insulation on. 110mm duct was stupidly ambitious, but narrowly managed to make it work. Also bends disproportionately add to the resistance pulling things through.

Also, was building control involved in all this and are they local authority? Ah, I see the answer is ‘yes’. Then it sounds like one part of the council is telling you to do something … without warning you that another part of the same legal entity is going to try to profit from it. Strong letter to head of council suggesting unethical behaviour to start with as such behaviour could be interpreted as a revenue scam. That’ll probably do it. It wants to be worded carefully, so maybe you want a cleverish lawyer to write it.

I disagree with that and think your chosen AI tool has got it wrong. If the house is at negative pressure with respect to outside, it will draw air in through any leak path, which if anything will draw air DOWN the flue.

Have a good think about who's looking after all the off grid gubbins if somethings gone wrong and you're not around or are taken ill. Not sure the type of property your looking to power but if you come to sell you'll likely be selling in avery niche market. The Victron forum is where I'd start looking for ideas but no idea if the knowledge base extends to whole house design??

@SBMS - save your cash . Do this - value for 15 quid .

BEFORE you depressurise it to fix the leak, you DO have the fill loop needed to re pressurise it afterwards?