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Simple.... Two solenoids holding the rail onto its brackets - at sunrise the pins retract and the rail falls to the floor..... you have til sunset to reset it manually ...

Agree 100% that you have to contact SEPA. IIRC, culverting a watercourse for land gain requires a licence. Can't imagine they would be that happy about increasing or creating a localised flood risk, nor the pollution that the work would create downstream. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/150919/wat_ps_06_02.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwi_7eOimfrSAhWpI8AKHVIEDicQFggwMAI&usg=AFQjCNEmVS1yN9UrLXrH0v5dFJDOl1HPOQ

I intend to build using Durisol ICF blocks. That company has teamed up with crsfuturebuild who in turn appears have teamed up with isolohr I thought I had our floor slab sorted out, but. Anyone know anything about isolohr or crsfuturebuild? Both systems are German: they get everywhere these pesky Germans.

As many of you may know, a small burn runs through my garden, in fact through the garden of my existing house and my new build. In fact it passes through about 8 people's gardens down our road. It's only a short burn, less than a mile from where it rises as a spring to where it joins the river. But it is prone to rising very rapidly when we get heavy rain. A short section in both my new plot and existing house is culverted with a square steel box structure that was installed many years ago, long before we owned either plot. These are about 1 metre square, and are only just large enough. The original neighbour (The one between my existing house and my new house) cluverted a bit more of the burn when he built his house in 2003. He used a 1 metre diameter round stainless steel pipe. It doesn't take a genious to realise a 1 metre round pipe has a much smaller area than a 1 metre square pipe. Twice in the time I have been here, in heavy rain, this smaller round pipe has become overwhelmed and the burn flooded over the top of the culverted section. The square sections coped, just, but only just. Now here is the issue. The current owner of the neighbouring house has for some time been talking of culverting the entire length of the burn through his garden. I have had a conversation with him several times and tried to persuade him this may not be a good idea, but if he must do it, use a much larger pipe. Yesterday a large digger was delivered next door, and he's been busy taking down fences etc ready for action. Today I spoke to the neighbour and asked what size pipe he is going to use. "The same as what's there" (i.e 1 metre diameter) Again I tried to persuade him this was really not a good idea and I can predict it not coping. Cost was his argument for not going larger. Now you can see the problem I have. More so for the new house. If a long culverted section below me is too small to cope with a know level of flow that occurs from time to time, then it is going to back up in my garden. I think you can understand me not being happy at that prospect. Also, a short culverted section is relatively easy to clear of debris should it get blocked. I worry at an almost 100ft culverted section being nigh on impossible to clear if it starts getting blocked. Time I think to tell SEPA of his plans. I really really hate the idea of being a snitch and even if I inform them anonymously, he is bound to realise it was me, but I don't see an option. I am not just going to do nothing and let someone do something that may cause me problems in the future. What would you do?

It’s September 2015. We had our plot, we had approved planning permission, we had a builder who was about to start a build in the plot next door to ours and who had provided a build estimate that fitted with our budget. What could possibly go wrong? 18 months later, and I’m still not sure I can adequately answer that. On the positive front, the 120 year old Farmhouse we’d put on the market a few months earlier had sold for a price we were very happy with. We were less enamoured with the local estate agent who tried to get us to accept a lowball offer put in by a chancer. And I was (and still am) frustrated that I gave in to SWMBO and went that commission based estate agent rather than one of the fixed fee ones. I am more than happy to pay professionals for their skill and expertise, but am still adamant this estate agent did virtually nothing to accommodate the sale. They could not even get simple things like the wording on the house schedule correct – it took 15 revisions before it could be signed off, with room names, room sizes, distances to nearest amenities etc all wrong multiple times. We moved out of that house and into our temporary home at the start of October 2015. We’d only be there for 8-10 months and in our new home by Christmas 2016 (© Every home renovation show ever broadcast) or so the builder told us. We were excited and looking forward to life by the sea (ok, Life by the Firth). But the next few months were frustrating. Looking back, we didn’t really know what we were letting ourselves in for. The main problem was making progress with the detailed design. We first approached the architect who did the planning drawings, and had a couple of meetings with them, but then they were completely unresponsive (in our experience, a running theme with many so-called professionals in the building industry). Even getting a quotation for the warrant work provided impossible, so we eventually gave up on that and asked our builder for a recommendation. Our builder recommended a design agency they had used previously, stating that since we had approved plans, we did not really require an architect and all we needed was someone to take the plans and create the technical drawings to take forward for our building warrant. We decided to go down that route in the middle of December 2015 and arranged a meeting for January 2016. It's said that you get what you pay for, and that proved to be the case here. Whilst the design agency were technically competent, and they did what was asked of them - they took the plans and created warrant drawings from them – there was absolutely no feeling that they were in any way invested in making the design as good as it could possibly be. They were not designing a home, they were creating some lines on a computer screen. A perfect example of that was highlighted when we identified a couple of very basic flaws with the approved plans, yet the design agency did not notice those until they had been pointed out to them. I'm sure many here will spot the issues: It was my own inquisitiveness that meant I spotted the issue before we got to timber kit design stage. Other than the initial marketing images, we did not have a 3D model of the house, and with two roofs resulting in a fairly complicated join in our master en-suite, I wanted to visualise how that room would work so started creating my own 3D model. You can see that roof join in this picture: I had drawings with room sizes, but wanted room heights, so I asked for section views and eventually got the below. However, even at this point, the design agency did not seem to comprehend that there was an issue with the two en-suites on that floor. One of them only had 1.6 meters (around 5 foot 3 inches) headroom in front of the toilet! The agency sent this through with a "as requested" response, not the expected "oh, I see what you mean, that headroom is not enough" comment. Nor did they notice that the roofline at the rear of the building meant that you could not walk around Bedroom 3 with a double-bed placed as shown on the plan! We did make some changes in an attempt to mitigate the issues - we increased the roof ridge heights and widened the dormers to allow people to walk around the bed, but it was hard going. We were effectively driving any improvements, and the design agency were acting as computer operators. When asking their opinion or making a suggestion the response was typically "what do you think?" There were some changes we made that we were happy with - I've always liked a double height entrance space, so we removed the vestibule and added a void above the front door, we removed the back door from the kitchen in exchange for more sliding doors (although for some reason they were shown as bi-fold), and also made some other tweaks. This was the final set of designs we got from the design agency, in April 2016. During those winter months, the builder also continued to work with structural engineers and the pipeline owner on getting approved foundation designs - that too was turning out to be a bit of a marathon that would rumble on for months to come. With us changing the roof lines, we had to go back to planning, and were advised to go for a Non Material Variation, but Fife Council kicked that out and said we had to go back to full planning. £100 wasted there due to bad advice - we were later told it would never be accepted as a NVM due to the ridge height changes. If we had gone ahead with that build, I think I would have been ok with the house, but we were not happy with compromises we were having to make due to the rooflines and definitely not happy with the service provided by the design agency. We felt like more could be done with the space we had, but were struggling to find a route to getting there. By chance, we had tickets for the Homebuilding & Renovation Show in Glasgow in May 2016, and sat watching a talk on self-building. The talk was about why having your own brief was so important. Almost simultaneously, my wife and I looked at each other and both knew at that moment that we needed to pause and rethink our house design. We bought the plot with full planning and never even wrote our own brief. Since we were already having to reapply for full planning, we decided we'd do it properly this time - it was time to find a new architect. Reading the above, you'll notice that the timeline is quite stretched. While this was ongoing, we also had real life to contend wit: I was made redundant from my job in January 2016 due to a major restructuring in the American Software company I worked for. I was offered a role in the USA, but that did not work for us as my wife cares for her mother, so I had a period of time where my time was spent was on finding a new job. Alongside that, my wife's mother went through a period of bad health, with 4 hospital admissions between December 2015 and March 2016. She had very little time to give to the process. During such times, you have to focus on the priorities in life and other things just have to be put on hold. Next up: Selecting a new architect.

Well the kitchen wall has gone and we love the extra space - shame its only for a while till the bathroom wall gets put back. Our neighbour needed somewhere to store her old sofa and asked if we could keep it for a while so the room is now half full with that. It gives us somewhere comfy to sit in front of the wood burner but it is a pain wehen we have to move it back and forward. Luckily we are concentrating on the upstirs so its not getting moved often. Most of the last couple of months has been spent sorting out the electrics upstairs as well as preparing the windows of the front bedroom windows for plaster boarding. The OH has been doing the lights and switches upstairs, with the cables in position for the downstairs ceiling lights. Its lovely that we now have working switches although as the hours of daylight are getting longer, its much easier than it was moving portable lights around to where ever we were working. The surrounds of the front bedroom windows were awful and I ended up taking the plasterboard and various bits of foam/wood and brick from around the sides and bottom of the frames, to enable me a) to clean the frames and b) to actually see a frame. It looks so much better and in one part, there was a huge hole behind the plasterboard and I ended up building a column of half bricks in the cavity to help fill it up. I then used low expansion foam to fill in the gaps (I could see daylight at the top of one side) and stuck some pieces of wood at the top of each side, thinking that at least they now have something to screw into if the new owners decide to fit blinds. It probably looks a right mess as I used spare bits of wood stuck to the foam to fill out the spaces before fixing the plasterboard to the sides, having already fitted the cills, using the Soudal foam to fix it in place. That worked a treat until the foam gun stopped working! The OH spent a good hour cleaning it all out, using the Soudal cleaner that came with it. but when we put the gun back on, the foam oozed out in a trickle! Then when we disconnected it, the foam suddenly squirted out all over the place - and its very sticky!!! It was all over the floor and us. Eventually, he gave up and we binned the gun - he really did clean out every single bit of it but still it just oozed. So I ordered online some hand held ones which come with a straw and were much cheaper than buying them at the BM - but thats another post! They arrived the next day and I had a go - I was not happy as the foam just oozed out too, till I remembered that I had to hold them upside down and then it worked great. (that wasnt the reason the previous day, we were doing it correctly then) So the windows now had new sides, completely covered in plasterboard and they look pretty good, if I say so myself. And we can see most of the frame too. Following the advice from a plaster post here, I have been experimenting with plaster and adhesive, to try to make some repairs to the walls. Downstairs, (actually in most rooms) more of the plaster was loose so had to be removed. but this revealed rather a large crack. This is a wall between us and next door, and next to the chimney breast. The pillar on the left is the new one which holds the RSJ's between the kitchen and middle room. So I dont think the crack is too much to worry about - I cant see that wall disappearing anywhere - apart from into the cellar beneath! Oh dear, hadnt thought of that, So it was out with the pva then I patched up all the holes with hardwall plaster. I plan to practice my plastering skills on that wall, once the wires are in for a socket or two, when the OH gets round to those. Maybe we'll take a look at the foundations under that wall in the cellar and make sure they exist...... I dont want to spend all that time plastering it, for the whole thing to fall into the cellar. One of the things we were concerned about was the way the rear bedroom floor bounced - it was quite a lot.. So we bought some extra joists and the Sawmill kindly cut them down to match the old size of the new ones. I thought the price was quite reasonable - £12 per length - is that good? 110 x 50mm x 3metre. We added them to the old floor, typically adding one every second old beam. Once the noggins were fitted, the bedroom floor scarecly bounced at all! One of the big problems were are having with the renovation is deciding in which order to do things. I couldnt sort out some of the walls till the floor is on place. We wouldnt fix the bedroom floor will we have all the lights fixed in place for the rooms below and I cant fit the insulation into the fllor space till the lights are in. we couldnt fix the lights till we had a dining room ceiling so it was time to get the ceiling done now that the new joists were in. I was a bit worried about doing this as we discovered how heavy PB is when we did the top of the stairs ceiling - my arms were aching holding the boards in place till they were screwed in. I did fnd a large wooden post that I could jam under one end while I held the other but it wasnt ideal. The decision was made to buy 1800x900mm sheets to make it much easier on ourselves. and we also managed to borrow a couple of props which were brilliant. It may not be the best ceiling plasterboarding but it works and I am quite proud of it - for our first attempt (not including the small landing ceiling) We have even managed to cover the RSJ - using a sheet of hardboard, to make up the difference in levels and give us something to screw the light fittings to, then one of plasterboard. CT1 worked brilliantly! We left it overnight and it was absolutely solid by morning. The props youu can see are under a small corner bit left for me to do today. Speaking of hardboard - a week or so ago, I popped to a wellknown brand of kitchen supplier to find they had moved. The guys were just sweeping the floor, ready to shut up shop. Outside was a huge skip, and I could see lots of nice pieces of wood sticking out the top. I asked if I could take some and while they didnt say I could, they didnt say I couldnt. He actually said they'd be gone in an hour..... And the skip was being collected that afternoon...... An hour later I was back and with ladder, was able to get up to the top and I took out 10 sheets of hardboard, around 4x5ft. It was heartbreaking to see so much wood going to waste - and if I'd found out earlier, I would have spken to the manager to see if we could have had more. However, its better than nothing. And to make sure it didnt look sneaky, I parked in front fo the skip in full view of everyone passing and wore a bright yellow jacket! I'm still waiting for that knock on the door... Unfortunately once home, we discovered that some of the sheets were slightly thicker than the rest. But three fitted onto the bedrrom floor really well. Most of the old boards were tonge and groove and getting them up to work underneath was horrible, with most getting damaged corners and sides. so we plan to use the best of the two rooms in one and buy new for the other. Its just a shame all the boards were not thick enough to use. They'd have done one complete room. I am sure they'll all get used eventually. So with the ceiling fitted, we had to make decisions about where the downlighters were going. The OH had put wiring in for 4 in the dining room and two in the bathroom and today we measured and mused and eventaully made decisions on where they'd go. Then it was down to Denmans to get the lights. They had some new ones whch the OH liked the look of. From KSR Lighting, they are 'three in one' LED downlights. on the back is a small switch which changes the light from warm to mid to white light (6000, 4000 and 3000kelvin), they are fully dimmable and easy to install. At £17 each, we agreed to give them a go. He particularly liked the fact that we could choose which light we wanted, once in situ. We'll probably leave them on the mid setting but they can be eased out and changed if needed. I shall let you know how they turn out. They must have been easy to install as I only left him there for a couple of hours and its all done. I can now start getting the insulation fitted into the joists before we screw the boards down for good. Then we can get the walls ready for plastering. Oh, and we've bought radiators so they need to be fitted (or the pipes put in place) too. But I think thats enough for one post. its slow progress as we both have other things which take us away from the house more than we'd like but we're slowly getting there. And as long as we dont start listing all the things that still need to be done, we remain reasonably happy with progress. at least I do - and I am learning all the time. Initially we hoped to have the place ready to sell by spring but thats not going to happen. Maybe we'll be out for Christmas......

What little strength it has isn't compromised!

This +several million. I actually measured the apertures in ours but with one thing and another didn't get around to comparing them to the drawings. As it happens, there are a few that were slightly less tall than they should have been (15-20mm instead of 30mm, with one or two being 8-10mm). You wouldn't think it significant, but it was in some cases. The result was delays, extra costs and a couple of places where the installation just isn't what it should be.

@dogman, Martin, One thing to check when the panels arrive is whether the strut lines are properly marked on the outer breather fabric. If no, then go around each panel with a sharpie and put a mark on the outer fabric over each upright. We didn't do this, and they weren't marked in the factory (the staples lines were only approximately over upright), and we needed to fix through to these uprights to tie out outer skin. So missing a 20 min job when the panels are on their sides meant that I later spend hours playing tapping games with a hammer and drilling pilot holes to find these lines again. Also double check all window and door frame openings. If there is an issue then let the gang boss know. You'll probably have no problems, but if you do, then this is the time to get them fixed.

Try and take some photos before he puts the pipe in! (Edit: Looks like you have done that.) We were advised to write a letter to a neighbour and send it recorded delivery, keeping a copy etc. This is because once someone has been formally made aware that their actions could cause damage, if they go ahead anyway, they become liable for additional damages for negligence. Otherwise they are just liable for damages for repairs and/or nuisance. I would point out in the letter that.. * Land owners upstream have riparian rights to discharge water into the burn. * You are writing to make him aware that the existing 1m diameter pipe at property X has proved inadequate and caused local flooding on at least X occasions in recent years. * You believe that his proposed use of a 1m diameter pipe will also be inadequate and may cause flooding and flood damage to your property for which a court is likely to find he is liable. * Now that he has been made aware (that a 1m diameter pipe is likely to be inadequate and cause flood damage to your property) if he proceeds to install or retain a 1m diameter pipe and it does causes flood damage it is likely he will be additionally liable for damages for negligence.

Just sit them flush. I was speaking to a decorator about this - he does tape and fill but says he never specs TE boards as the finish is fine without. No need for gaps - he said if there are, just put caulk in the gaps before taping. I meant to respond about boards to floor but couldn't remember why I left a gap. Partly it makes boards easier to fit but also because I also thought if there was a spill it might be better if the boards don't touch the floor. Decorator said he'll come down and give me some lessons that will save me hours and avoid having to sand everything. Will share once he's been J

But even Clive doesn't work to these tolerances

Yes, we have a TF house that's roughly square (11.5m x 10.5m) and decided to have a full basement under the house which acts as the foundations. Planning didn't blink so we got an additional 107m2 internal floor area, nearly 50% extra on the above ground element, which in the SE is worth quite a bit. Architect was very wary (had no experience) but it was no problem to build and is one of the best features of the house. All the plant is down there in a dedicated room and we have four large (4mx5m) rooms each with light well for leisure use. Nice bright spaces, really pleased we went with it. Cost wise, structure was £120k but that included the demo, clearance and plot services, so probably closer to £100k just for the basement - you could probably subtract a good chunk from that had we used a traditional raft slab. Fit out was about another £15k, kind of got lost in the overall electrics / plastering / joinery / flooring budget. Aside from plant, there are no wet services and no heating required (we have 300mm insulation under the slab and 200mm outside the walls. We used warrantied waterproof concrete (Sika) and no other internal tanking or external membrane as the water table is fairly low (6m). I see that you're near water so the situation may be different. There are 3 recognised forms of waterproofing - best practice is to use two but we got by with one (B). A is external membrane - needs very careful application and extreme care on backfilling, otherwise it can be compromised B is waterproof concrete - we used a Sika system of admix and waterbars in the joins - was all recorded, inspected and signed off on site by a Sika rep who then issued the warranty. C is internal membrane - applied to the internal walls and drains to a sump with a submerged pump (or two for redundancy). Quite common in London basements but has an ongoing maintenance cost wrt the pump. About 30% of basement cost is muck away and a tight site with poor access will increase costs further. A good chunk of the remaining build cost is formwork labour (took 2-3 days to prep for each pour) so complicate designs will cost more to form, the actual concrete is not that significant a cost. We were lucky with our design, location and conditions. Many 'basement specialists' are focused on the conversion market (London dominant) so are not suitable for a new build. There are specialists (Glatthar) who are high quality but fairly expensive. Most competent ground workers can build a decent basement, especially if they sub out the concrete works to an experienced team who can work with a warrantied product. These people build carparks and the like all day long so this is small beer. You could even chance an experienced general builder if they use a warrantied waterproofing product.

I've just had another thought. It might be a good idea to start taking loads of photos, even if you do nothing else. Having evidence that the actions of your neighbour now, has caused damage to your property at some later date, might be useful.

I have a load buried at the back of the lock up, probably a couple of hundred, but, unfortunately, they appear to be a lot darker than the colour your picture suggests. Sorry, that's of no help to you whatsoever,

There's not much I can do. My (new) house is upstream of the neighbour in question. If his new pipe did become overwhelmed then the water would back up, the level would rise, and it would end up flowing over his lawn above the culvert to get back into the burn. There is nothing I can do on my own plot to prevent that, and nowhere else for it to go other than through, or over, his garden, somehow. By the time it backed up far enough to flow over his garden, it would have also flooded part of my lawn, i.e the burn would have "burst it's banks" Here is a picture of the burn when it's "a bit full" looking downstream. this was taken not long after we got the plot. You can see the square culverted section in the distance where it goes under the fence between me and the neighbour. At this state of flow the square culvert is less than half full. You can see the issue, that if a smaller culvert downstream causes it to back up, there really is nowhere for it to go other than back up until it gets high enough to flow over next doors garden, probably wiping out his fence in the process. the ground to the left is a field and rises, so no way out there. the ground to the right is where my new house is and rises. In fact now the plot is landscaped the ground level on the house side of the burn is at least half a metre higher than the far side that you see in this photo.

When you are putting it on you have to work quickly and make sure it is nice and smooth because there is no second chance to go back and smooth it out, like you do with normal grout. Make sure there is good ventilation Make sure you are wearing good rubber gloves

Another BPC customer here, we wired the MVHR boost function (sentinel Kinentic +) to activation of bathroom light switches and also put a PIR in for daytime activation. These also activate the secondary return pump for DHW. So we had no need for the switches.

For reference, our 5kW Panasonic Aquarea was £1760 (ex-VAT), using my electrician's discount at the local Senate/Rexel outlet. That included the basic programmer, and (from memory) delivery. Interestingly, the price is identical today, 18 months later! The basic programmer is a bit of a faff, but the unit itself is a corker in terms of COP and low temperature performance. I made some graphs for our plumber to show that in most weather conditions it wasn't far off the power delivery of a 7kW (or was it 8kW?) unit from one of the more common ASHP suppliers in the UK (might have been Ecodan).