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Should not this problem be kicked back, along with costs, to your architect as they should design to part M. In a job I worked on, albeit for a public building, they made us zig-zag the ramp across the steps up to the building to keep to the 1:20 so I guess you might need to work out a a 1:20 plan, as I mentioned elsewhere here today this is not about you today but about those who come after you and might need access.

How to mark out plaster board for the window reveal: Take one child: Give it a pencil and a torch:

Spend £1000 on advice. Work out who is the sharpest self-employed planning consultant around - by reading their applications and looking at the results of their applications. A real eye for the nitty gritty detail is what you need. Then go down the pub and listen. The go to the local golf club and listen. Not all on the same night Ian

You have to consider building regulations as well as planning. They DO set minimum sizes of an "apartment" and things like door width, corridor width, space in kitchens, activity space in bathrooms etc. So in effect they set the minimum size a house has to be. Of course you can have a 1 bedroom house with two very small "studies" or "store rooms" if you can't meet the regs for all 3 bedrooms, so there is some wriggle room.

You can get away with a ramp not exceeding 1:15 as long as it is less than 5m long and you have a 1200mm x 900mm flat platform in front of the door. However if a ramp is not practical due to the level differences or geography of the site then a max 150mm step in to the property at the door is also an reasonable and acceptable solution. The building regs is a guidance document only and the part m list a heirarchy of preferred options with a level approach at the top, then ramp then step, then flight of steps. However as long as the approach meets one of the solutions in the before mentioned NHBC document then it still complies - your BCO can advise and give their preference but can not insist on one solution over another.

Our present (solid Maple) floors were sold as "random lengths". In practice that meant there were 4 different length pieces and a lot more of the shorter ones than any others. The best tip I had was "close your eyes and pick up a piece" then use it, rather than looking at the pile. Even then you had to be careful not to end up with two adjacent joins in line etc. I "added" to the randomness by using whatever off cut was left from one row, to start the next.

It amazes me just how many new houses I see around here where the whole ground level at the front has been raised to floor level to give level access. It clearly must be bridging the DPC as there is seldom any effort to separate the ground from the wall. In my case I have left a large French Drain. I did talk to my BCO about putting the ramp at the back but he referred me to the "access to principle entrance not reasonable" bit. Just because you don't like the look of a ramp is not justified reason to put it around the back, there has to be more of a technical issue at the front before you can do that.

That's what we have done. I didn't like the idea of the access requirements when they came in (primarily I think because of the truly horrific looking efforts being constructed in the early days), however, having lived with level access in a number of houses now, I have grown used to the practicality of them Great when the kids were young, and casting my mind back seeing my parents struggling to get a wheelchair bound relative out of the house down just one step,convinced me that it really is a small price to pay. If you really want the visual appearance of a grand stepped entrance, put the level access at an alternative door.

You need to double slab the walls and use a trim like this http://www.qic-trims.com/product_category/dry-lining-trims/ Use the R12. Metal trim is much better than plastic. Door linings need to go in before plasterboard and fit the trim to the edge of them. Detail drawings here https://armourcoat.com/en/technical/sss/SSS004

Remember what you build doesn't have to be permanent, it only has to be right when the BC guy does his inspection. Once that box is ticked it can be removed. Most people here go down the few slabs route then take it away when it's been approved.

I would say absorb all the stuff above, then talk to a Planning Officer to find out what the local policy and practice are. IT may only be guidance, but complying with it will save you the aggro of an Appeal and perhaps 6 months and a lot of work, unless you are Captain Mainwaring and enjoy such things ! In practice the main bits of space you need to allow for will be: The Building. SPace standards may apply but since you want it large not small that should be OK. Space Around the Building so you are far enough from boundaries. Usually means 1m+ iirc. Parking Spaces, which will mainly depend on how many occupants and/or bedrooms you plan. EXtra bedrooms can be smuggled in by e.g. subdividing later if you really need to. Approx 12-18 sqm each. My LPA require 2 for 2 bed, 3 for 3 bed+. Minus 1 if you are on a good bus route near a town centre. Private Amenity Space i.e. garden. in my LPA minimum is 50 sqm. SPace for your soak away etc which tend to need to be 5m from a boundary or as similar as possible. Then they may require turning space on site but often not since research showed that reversing out onto a main road was ess trouble than expected and the requirement was loosened in the Manual for Roads and Streets over a decade ago. Then there is the usual stuff about habitable room to neighbour habitable room facing distance etc, but at this point that is not relevant. So max building size means roughly 50sqm in front or side for parking, the same behind for the private garden, and a 1m stripe around the building to avoid the neighbours. Narrow strips will not count for amenity space. UNless you are two beds or less you really want more than fifty sqm of amenity space so it could appeal to families etc. Phone up your LPA and ask for those details. Have a site plan and / or block plan online or ready to email plan or link so he can have a look on the spot. Or know how to find it on the Councils map on their website as that is what he will look at. Ferdinand

FFS. I despaire!

6 cheap patio slabs and a weak mix of sand and cement? Material cost circa £30? Place the mix on a piece of DPM so it doesn't stain your existing slabs.

We included the shed because we were worried, and we said so in the submission, and in the end they said nothing about removing permitted development rights in the planning permission when it came through.

Have to somewhat agree Peter but they can get caught out if it goes to appeal because the inspector will look to check the boundaries of their thinking in my experience anyway. Worked through 3 or 4 appeals (although with others) and this seems universally the case. The most common thing that helps is 'have they allowed similar things in the past' so if you can show that they have then they are likely to roll over. This is kind of built into their approach, an old friend is a retired planning officer, so red lines are really red lines cos once they let it through somewhere it will go everywhere unless they can block it with a change to the local plan (takes years). So just find examples of where what you want is already happening, ensure your argument draws on this, preferably many examples, and is set a little bit back from it, so you are not pushing the envelope, and things should be OK.

Check your local planning policy. There will be things like minimum distances between facing windows, a certain amount of amenity space being needed such as parking, possibly turning space, bin storage space, clothes drying space, maybe even bike parking space etc. if the outside space is very small, they might remove your permitted development rights. That is a PITA if you want something simple like a shed. So perhaps preempt that by including any sheds you are likely to want in the initial planning application. It certainly amazes me sometimes here just how little outside space you need. In the town here, there is a trend for back building behind existing houses which leaves both the original and the new house with only a tiny outside space. But it seems if you can fit two wheelie bins and a rotary clothes line it seems to be "enough" There are other building regs things to think about, like if you have a window very close to a boundary it might have to be fire rated glass etc.

Unfortunately planning policies are worded in a suitably ambiguous way to allow the planners to approve, or not, what ever they want. It also depends on your LPA and their competence.

Yes everybody says mains gas but I have a worry that its not a sustainable source of energy, but then what is? Although you can pack one hell of a punch with a gas boiler most people on here build homes that are so well insulated & air tight that the energy requirement for heating is very low to non existent, Domestic Hot Water (DHW) is the main challenge. There is loads here on that challenge (just use DHW in the search box to find out just how much). Last week I was looking at our system and although I had sort of concluded that a combi boiler that could deliver 2 x 10l/min showers was the way to go after @Nickfromwalespointed me at a unit capable of doing it. I am wondering if that might be overkill but it does have the capacity for showers albeit at a cost £ and some small standing losses in the internal preheat system. Although the final system will be an exercise in optimising the compromises you can, in the end, decide much of the detail down the line provided, it seems to me, that you get the basic infrastructure right and make some decision up front. There are also some basic myths to dispel. They are (and I am not sure it helps to understand them): Just because you don't have children and are happy to live the life of a hermit / hippy (nothing against them some of my best friends still are) the people who will purchase your home from you or your estate will pay more for stuff they understand (get). The price of energy is low. True it is now but won't always be. Being self sufficient in energy is a good thing. Not necessarily true because you have to live with your neighbours and they with you so unless you can find a self sufficient solution that relies on no technology you will have to rely on somebody just to keep making the service parts etc. This leads to some upfront decisions - these appear to be: Want to be a) net exporter of energy (SAP > 100), b) use no external energy, sum of external input - generated output = 0 (SAP = 100), c) use some external energy (SAP <100) If you go for options a) then you will inevitably need some sort of energy storage system to smooth out the generation curves you are likely to get unless you have access to something like Hydro generation and even then... We have : Natural Gas, E7 or E10 but will need to change supplier, Sun - so could have PV or ST We don't have: Provision for wind (not enough space), Hydro - no flowing water to speak of, We won't have: GSHP -small area available but costs very high, Oil & LPG So far on my list of 'infrastructure' I have: Ducts to get ASHP services into the the building and to the plant room (at this stage I don't intend to install an ASHP) but given the cost of small piece of ducting.... Ducts to get additional PV, for garden mounted PV cells, into the building and to the plant room. Ducts, or just routes, to get Roof mounted PV services to the plant room. Enough room, and wall pattressing (extra strength in the walls), in the plant room for the; MVHR, a Thermal Store (TS) or UnVented Cylinder (UVC) or a phase transfer storage system, a boiler, a couple of heat exchangers, 3 - 4 pumps and associated valves, pipework & wiring. Space somewhere for the control panel (in our case not in the plant room but in the downstairs WC where one wall is spare! - there are reasons.) UFH - which we technically don't need, Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) says warm air will be enough, but it unlocks a whole mass of possibilities for heating, cooling and moving heat about. See the @JSHarris blogs for more on that. I will not terminate the UFH other than to pressurise it for testing and during the slab pour. I think the cost of installing it will be around £400 but I, or my descendants, will get this back from the people who buy it safe in the knowledge that it has UFH available - not many people understand hot air although a lot of people generate it. Provision for in duct cooling and heating around (or in if you can afford one with it built in again see @JSHarris) the MVHR box. Can be fed from boiler, or ASHP if installed or could be electric heating (cooling not simple with electricity alone) Masses of insulation around the plant room to help with any standing losses, effectively isolating it from the house so what happens in the plant room stays in the plant room. I would like to eliminate standing losses if I can, I am sure I read somewhere here that @SteamyTea got to a point where his DHW energy use was the same as the standing losses so 50% of energy is notionally going to waste but probably heats the house in winter but is a problem in the summer. Using the MVHR to extract warm air from the plant room and redistributing it make sense but the cost of generating it in the first place needs to be considered - IMO I have also provisioned for a battery store adjacent to the garden room and can use the existing electric ducting to carry the connections back to the house and generation points. Have kept waste water separate from the raw sewage down to the plant room in case I feel the need to deploy waste water heat recovery via a simple heat exchanger. (Added 21/11/2016 when reminded) Some things imply other things so: if you go for ST then you probably will need at Thermal Store and a UVC won't work. If you have ASHP you will need supplementary systems to make DHW and you will probably need Underfloor heating and a buffer tank to optimise the ASHP output. It is unlikely that you will install both a TS and a UVC In short its probably one of the most difficult choices out there if you have a conscience and want to do the best thing for your finances and the planet. Hope this helps - could write a book by combining the people on here but I am not sure you would arrive at a consensus unless its to agree that there is no one right answer.

And some of them only got "built" for £100K because they were not finished.

I showed the roll dispenser idea to my boy..... "Oh Christ we'll never get a bath!"

What size of house? To get under £100K is doing well, I doubt I will achieve that in spite of me doing so much of the work myself. As Peter says, No 1 is insulate, insulate, insulate. No 2 is air tightness. No 3 is good doors and windows, No 4 is an MVHR unit (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) Then you can think about heating, which should not be much. I am going for an air source heat pump and to buy one for self install should be under £1500, possibly under £1000, i.e not a great deal more than an ordinary boiler. I personally would not have oil or LPG again, the price is too volatile. (though I will have LPG for cooking, the usage is so low that the cost hardly matters) I will be fitting solar PV, but by the time I get there, I doubt the (already low) feed in tariff will exist any more. So that means a DIY installed system bought as cheap as possible, and almost certainly some form of battery storage to ensure near 100% self usage. Tell us more about your house design and where you are building. Oh and welcome to the forum.

It gets more expensive when you are caught saying things like that...