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Excellent legal advice. Thanks. Interesting thing though, how much detail to get into before making a planning application? Everyone from self builders to larger developers make a judgement call on what time, money and effort to spend fine detailing their proposals before they even know if they'll get permission. Some spend years, or tens of thousands, or both, ironing out every aspect, even appointing a contractor before applying for planning, almost like that bit is an afterthought. Others apply for planning before they even own the land, let alone employ an architect and engineer to actually check their idea can be built, all on the basis that if they don't get planning permission then all of that other stuff would have been a waste of time and money. What I did was design a house to avoid all the many possible reasons for planning refusal, use the simplest construction techniques, and work with the limited site access. I did a lot of research first, including assessing the tree. I found that a piled raft was viable and wouldn't require tree removal. I didn't get so far as to get an engineers design up front, or to get quotes for the groundworks. I viewed the planning application as a 50/50 shot, but worth a try given I could do it myself. By keeping my planning application homemade I saved myself the risk of throwing thousands away in fees for nothing, but left myself some further learning to do post-permission. Ultimately I accepted there would be one or two (to borrow the phrase) 'known unknowns', but I have confidence in my ability to problem solve when needed. Sure enough, it took more time and energy than I hoped to get me to where I was when I started this thread on Monday night. Now, a few days later, I've learned that my rights to cut roots on my land do have limits, that not everyone is comfortable with even a very nice tree close to their house, and that a fair few buildhub members are open to lighthearted skullduggery when overcoming obstacles! I've also (having learned I can't compel my neighbour to even discuss the tree with me) been forced to explore alternative foundation designs, including an excellent tip from Mike about ground screws. Turns out I can use various combinations of trench and groundbeam footings, or ground screws instead of the piles I had come to dread so much. These options seem far safer and easier, do not require removal of the tree (which in fact I really rather like), and cost half what the piling was going to. So all in all, I feel less of a muppet than you might think. But thanks for your valued contribution.

I agree, if something like a garage has been built with PP, then any addition to it that's within the PD rules could be built under PD. There's no rule about grossing up the areas of an existing building with PP and that of an extension to it under PD, AFAIK. I went through this some years ago with a detached garage that had been built without PP, where I applied for a certificate of lawfulness, which was granted, then built an extension to the garage under PD, which was fine, as the certificate of lawfulness was considered to have the same standing as if the garage had been built with PP. In this case I only discovered that the garage had been built without consent when I sought advice about whether the extension to it came within the PD rules, it was the planners who advised as to the course of action to take to regularise things (before the days when they were chasing every bit of income they could).

this garage is not PD, the lean to workshop is (class E above applies) no where does or state the “outbuilding must be stand alone “. No, the garage has planning permission, the lean too (if it were me) would be built under PD. If the garage were PD then the planners might take into account the whole building now being PD but It still would fit all regs. Its @starbuckhouse call but as far as I can see his case to build under PD is very clear. Frankly, as others have said elsewhere the planners will tell you to apply as it’s Income. I have been through this loop many times.

I did some of those too, I was late for them all.

Will you be having a door mat? You can buy coir door matting off the roll around 15 to 20mm thick.

that ones for sale as is the quarry and the jetty B listed house not really that hard a project all services are pretty close very solid structure already -just needs interior + roof revamping and bringing up to modern spec -less work than alot of self builds and with 5 acres annd 2 other ruins you got lots of space to do other things when i get stopped waiting for planning etc on main house i will do some moore work on it -cleared all dnagerous trees around it already I did toy with the idea of doing that one first -selling and making some money --but my age means i have to be sensible --may not have two houses builds in me being on coast and or away from all the pine forestry and midges are not a problem my current house is on edge of newton stewart -no real midge problem there -was worried when I made a pond --but no still no midge problem far worse up north all over

@Big Jimbo the several versions of the calculations I’ve done have all come up with 2m3. To me it’s seems 6.8m3 is massive, but if it transpires that is what I’m supposed to have then that’s what I’ll do. I’m not trying to cheat the system here, it’ll be my back garden and I don’t want it to turn in to a swamp, but if I only have to dig 2 and a bit m3 instead of circa 7m3 then I’ll go with the former.

Kin hell. i'm going for a lie down just looking at that.

Tony fella. Sorry, but in my humble opinion you have been given a lot of irrelevant, and subsequently, rubbish advice on this post. It all very well telling you what they would do, or have done to trees that are on there own land. I dare, any of them on here to risk taking out a large established tree that is not. You will have done some research, and you will know that you won't be ordered by the court to pay for the full cost of a sapling. You will be required to pay the full value of the tree ££££££. To take out the tree, without your neighbours permission, by accident or otherwise, would be a seriously big gamble, and could cost you so much more than an alternative foundation design. With regard screw piles, I did look into them, and there are a couple of companies that do the engineering calcs, installation, etc. You might find bco's a bit resistant, but it is more than possible to build a house on screw piles. Personally, I think they are a great eco product. Virtually no spoil. No concrete. I hope you don't think I singled you out for a bit of stick? You certainly don't come across as stupid, and I think that your post was more, searching for a devine Ray of light, than looking for some stupid comments like, take it out with a digger. Best of luck Tony. P. S. In the future, I believe that most new houses will be built using screw piles. Unfortunately, being a bit ahead of the curve means it may cost you a bit more than people in the future. Regards Jim

I got it off eBay, the guy has got another if anyone is looking for one. its a vortice hr200 unit

Under PD, as close as you want. There may be some requirements under the Party Wall etc Act. In terms of the new foundation and unless site conditions dictate otherwise, the depth is approx. 1m below ground level. If you have a couple of courses up to your rear doors from patio/garden level, the depth would be in the region of 1.15m-1.2m below internal floor level. If it is to be a lightweight structure, you may be ok without traditional strip/trench fill foundations and more of a raft slab with a thicker toe but that’s for Building Control to confirm.

Have you had Loaded Vim? Or Valid Demo? Some people can do it .. but not me, unfortunately. I can do more with maths. One of my favourite websites since about 1995. https://wordsmith.org/anagram/about.html

If the main goal is to reduce sound then get Gypframe Resilient Bars and fit them to the ceiling first. These are light, easy to fit and readily available. Then fit regular plasterboard to the bars. This will preform much better acoustically than blue acoustic board or thicker boards. However it doesn't matter what type of ceiling you install if you put loads of recessed downlights in the ceiling and make swiss cheese out of it the sound will always travel through the weakest point.

That sort of doorbell could be used on batteries with just one pair of wires to the pushbutton, or mains powered (as in this case) by connecting a transformer. but not both together.

yep. agreed! I'm a self employed IT consultant with my own company and I sent an email to Control-4 explaining that I was looking to expand in to home automation alongside my existing networking/server business and wanted to become a C4 installer. This was just so I could do my own system with no real plans to ever do other installs. I never heard back from them! I might try again at some point. you never know, it could be a new way of life for me. I could do a buildhub member discount. ?

Not needed, but nothing to stop you. You will obs need some more timber where the wall on the left is flush with the truss.

It is All the plaster and cement bags where twice as Heavy We used to carry two in when we were loading Now I see young lads wondering upstairs with one 25 kg bag on there shoulder They think I’m being funny telling them to stick another on there shoulder A few month back we had 300 100 mil insulation boards to get from a service lift down some stairs and 20 mtrs along a corridor I told all five loaders one each or you won’t get them in today about 40 kg but awkward Im 58 so I decided to lead by example We got them all in 7 hours To expensive to leave outside in sunny Burnley One of the lads lent me his steps watch Quite surprised how many steps in a day

You can Google sussexlogs for phone number and I work from home (live on site)

I am really looking forward to the time we can get the windows in the sun room. Apart from a nice place to sit, part of it's objective is to catch solar gain to help heat the house. It will be nothing more high tech than if it's warmer in the sun room, we open the connecting doors to let the heat into the house. Shut them if it's too hot. We also have the natural filter than as soon as the leaves grow on the trees, we stop getting much sunlight so a natural way to reduce summer overheating. The only time we got too hot and needed some cooling was last years heat wave. That was not excess solar gain but the air temperature got too high for too long and there is only so long good insulation can keep excess heat out from that.

Alternative view here - we looked into automation at an early stage of the build and given we are both electronic engineers working in s/w & h/w we were au-fait with the technology and more than capable of configuring it. Ultimately we decided against for reasons of cost and complexity. When we took a hard look at it, we couldn't find an automation use case that was so compelling that it justified the investment and commitment to cabling hub & spoke for lighting vs traditional ring. A few factors - Our house is quite large (basement, two floors and room in roof) so we would have needed a lot of kit. We have 3 standard fuse panels as it is and had to wire the house left and right to minimise cable density. We have electrical external venetian style blinds to east windows on toggle switches - i find we don't really adjust them much during the day. They never go up and down, at most we tweak the angle of the slats. We have Velux Integra windows in the hall and utility and have motorised external blinds on these and a few others - all are controlled by the proprietary Velux touch screen panels, again we don't really fiddle with them very much during the day. Heating is single zone on ground floor only and is rarely on as the house meets passive standards. MVHR is triggered by PIR and light switches in bathrooms, which also triggers the hot return pump We have a mix of ceiling LED spots, a few pendants & uplighters in the living/dining area and a 5a lamp circuit in each room and this satisfies all the lighting 'scenes' that we seem to require (eating dinner, watching tv, etc..). During the build we felt that we'd removed another source of complexity as our electrician had other builds where he was held up by the KNX firm delivering panels etc. One feature that I am envious of though is the ability to centrally turn off all lights from one place - now that we have teenagers, they do roam around at night and I often comedown in the morning to see every light left on...

I did that some years ago and did not allow for the human factor -people not closing doors etc or wife wanting to open all the windows to get fresh air once that happens zones are pointless

It was a really big surprise to me, too, as well as being a damned nuisance! The cooling systems operate for a lot longer every year than the heating system, not something I'd have ever envisaged when we were first planning the house. I'm sure that a large part of it is due to our sheltered location, a combination of very little wind and a lot of exposure to the sun. Right now the air temperature outside (taken on the sheltered North side of the house) is just 13.5°C, yet the kitchen (stone) window cills are warm and my wife's been sat outside in the garden for the past hour or so, without a coat. Despite the cool weather and heavy rain yesterday morning, we still ended up turning the aircon on in the bedroom by late afternoon, as it was getting a bit too warm up there in the afternoon sun. I really wish we'd been able to fit external blinds/shutters, or had opted for something like Sage glass, as I'm sure either would have made a world of difference.

I will look in to it all some more, including the KNX switches. I understand what you mean about the annual maintenance fee and also C-4 has a subscription based model for certain features which is a bit galling. but, when it comes down to making a decision I will take all the information I have and the costs involved (including ongoing costs) and make a decision.

Yep I ran into that at Uni in the 1980s as part of the attempted self-justification rhetoric of the feminist. I always thought it went back well into the 1970s.

My wife did some feminist studies as part of a politics degree, and yet I was the one on our team who successfully answered a quiz question about this phrase last week. It's a bit of a feminist rallying cry - disappointed you didn't know it Joe! "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"

@Russdl just did a quick search and found this https://www.eden.gov.uk/media/1072/bre_digest_soakawaysdesign.pdf. Any good? (Not read it yet got household chores to do ?

I had a quick look on my phone but the free version has loads of locked cells - not sure from glancing whether they are the ones you need to be able to change. I'll open it on my laptop tonight and compare the two then to see how it is.

I can't seem to find the calculations we did for this, but remember that I used the chart in building regs to get the requirement, then worked from there with the roof area. I installed 20 heavy duty Aquacell drainage crates, wrapped in terram, under the drive, with a volume of about 196 litres each, so a total volume of 3,920 litres/3.92m². This was overkill, but the percolation rate here isn't that fast, as these crates drain via a narrow strip of permeable soil above the clay.

Yep, Leyland is PPG too. For reference, I've been associated with the automotive paint trade for almost thirty years now (weighing/mixing IT support) and have also been subbed into retail mixing in Homebase etc. Somewhere 2007-ish as I recall (you can research the complexities if you're bored) the coatings industry was reshuffled before and after European monopolies issues. ICI decorative (Dulux) went to Akzo ICI automotive (Nexa) went to PPG Crown went from Akzo, through a management buyout, to being owned by Hempel. And if you think that's complex, look at the history of Axalta...

Sometimes you just have to take a punt, though. We bought our plot knowing we needed to take two trees down to have a hope of being able to build on it, so were taking the risk that someone would come along and just bang a TPO on them (very quick and easy to do - seems a favoured trick by some professional protestors). We took the risk, and the day that we completed the purchase I instructed a tree chap to take both of them down, as quickly as possible, in order to try and pre-empt any objectors causing us pain and grief. TBH, if I was faced with a tree problem like this, with a non-native tree right on the boundary, I'd probably still go ahead. I think the main difference is that it would be an ex-tree before I ever mentioned it on a public forum, as it would have met with an unfortunate accident that necessitated it's removal. Reminds me of a telephone pole that was at the end of the garden of a house I lived in, and prevented me being able to take out a section of fence and get a car into the back garden. That pole developed severe rot around the base, and was reported to the GPO (as they were then). When the chaps came around to replace it they were slipped a few quid to stick the replacement a couple of feet to one side, giving me enough room to get a car in. (old battery acid poured into drilled holes just below ground level tends to cause very rapid "decay").

The Salus actuators don't really care too much about flow rate, as they seem to be able to modulate over a pretty wide range. I've found that our UFH works a great deal better with a lower flow temperature than 33°C though. If I ran ours anywhere near that high it would be pretty uncontrollable. We run ours at a flow temperature of about 25°C to 26°C, and have found that this gives an overshoot of maybe 0.5°C. When we ran it at about 28°C the overshoot went up to about 1°C.

The party wall act, will come into force if you are digging foundations deeper than his, within 3 meters of his. So dig as close as you like, and he he says anything tell him you are only going level with his.

One of the many reasons why my back is like it is. S'funny how I'd always find the strength to lift something if it was free. No change there then. ?

I've never heard of that anagram and don't say you just came up with that!?! ?

£220 each for the course I do on that. Course is run at a local Kebab shop, next weeks is at a different Kebab Shop. Not just pure theory.

I'm pretty sure I just used the calculation method given in Part H 3.23 to 3.30. Wish I could find the spreadsheet I put together, as I remember pondering over how to calculate this. It's probably at least 3 PCs ago, though.

I was spelling it for him, in colour and big words as God knows how, your sketch still prompted questions! ?

Welcome @DevilDamo. We like voluble people and photographs. I note that you are an anagram of Model Diva ???. I like your avatar - well designed to draw attention on the page.