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you don't have to carry out the amendment but you do have to discharge all the conditions placed on the earlier consent, so it sounds like they are saying you haven't discharged the conditions of the earlier permission

The counterbattens have to be screwed in - if you go to the Kingspan Tek site there are a raft of standard details available including the roof and what fixings to use. It states Ejot screws. I had a discussion with their technical department to see what they recommend and it seems they have conducted tests on the pull out strength of fixings into SIP. I was informed that fixings need to be long enough to penetrate 20mm into the actual insulation. I believe I gave the roofers a load of 70mm TKE stainless steel fixings from Ejot. I would not recommend those though. Having used them they are a PITA as the bits chew the head up if you aren't careful which happened a lot. I would suggest using an equivalent Spax type fixing - no doubt more costly but easier to use. @SuperJohnG - for your info aswell as I know you're going the SIP route too?

Lemon juice...

Its 300, just checked.

The plan is to acquire it later on, quietly, and eventually put some raised beds and fruit bushes on it. We have a very nosy neighbour unfortunately who seems to be on to the council complaining every 5 minutes, so we shall need to tread very carefully!

Try asking Door Stop if they can persuade the seller to forward the certificates. I know its not Door Stops fault but it doesn't exactly create a good impression of the company if their dealers are unhelpful.

if you continue to grow fruit and veg I am sure you are ok as it used to be a market garden. My wife’s late father used to grow spuds in our field. We were told the fence between the two (garden/field) would need to be re instated (removed to help with the build).

Yeah, it's a difficult balance, what I'd always say to people (and it's not really what a lot of the people on here would say by the looks of their builds) - but build the smallest thing you can build and finish well in your budget, and allow for an extension in the future should you need it. With your site, I'd be tempted to look at a longer, thinner plan as most of the current plan has 1m/1.5m down the middle given over to circulation - with a tight budget you want to look very carefully at the amount of space being used for getting to useful space! Also, the stair position in an upside down house is absolutely key, you kind of want the front door at the base of the stair, but also think about where you arrive and what you face at the top of the stair, for example, would it be desirable to have a straight stair which arrives facing the view over the fields, rather than a stair which turns back on itself so you arrive looking directly at the sitting area. Could you have the dining table somewhere that it gets both morning and evening light? any opportinty to look at bringing in light from above to the living space etc etc, there are lots of things you can do with a simple geometry, the idea is to build with value in mind rather than just bottom line costs

no water metering in scotland --so its not that expensive in annual costs --certainly will be cheaper than Uv and filtering requirement servicing --could need special filters for dissolved minerals in own water-arsenic is a common problem in granite areas and I know we have an old copper mine a couple of miles away as well as old lead and silver mines in the area and of course no 100% warranty they will find enough water when they drill anyway ,especially as I have that big hole very close to me --and Iknow it has water feeding it from the rock faces so on balance I think mains is the definite solution

I did 6.1m with SE sign off for an attic conversion, and that was with the flitch, and that was taking the head of the stairs as well. Done in 7x2, sistered, plus steel fillet, drilled and bolted every 400 IIRC. Stronger than a strong thing, like near zero deflection, and the first time I'd heard of them too. Then used the same principal to reduce the profile of the huge 12" purlins down to 5" flitch. HELL of a lot easier to get up 3 stories vs steels, which would have had to have been done in sections, plated, and bolted up. Hired a Mag drill for the day, and it made drilling a breeze. 3 man job at that length as that steel will twist, flip and fly out of your hands quick-as, and good luck trying to stop it in mid-air.

Thank you so much @PeterW you have been immensely helpful! We decided to go with another provider for a composite door and it’s come to just over £4,500 inc VAT which is a lot cheaper and they’ve got really good reviews too. We have a secondary door which we are considering putting a smart lock on. We were going to go with Yale but after your suggestion of Ultion locks, we are looking at their smart locks too which seem just as good, if not better. thank you again s

Vertical drops are near inaudible, but changes in direction do cause noise. You can mitigate against the high frequency sound by wrapping the nuisance parts in sound deadening mat ( dynamat ), the bituminous stuff you see in car panels and under the kitchen sink. eg. That and as much acoustic rockwool batt as you can stuff in there. I wouldn't try for the utility as that's a long way with not much of a fall, especially if it's Pozi-joists?

But once it’s installed then the water effectively becomes free, other than the cost to support the filtering ..?

didn’t know that, not a lot of point using the “Nile” then with the complications it will involve (apart from garden watering/pond etc i suppose?). Question, does the “Nile” supply the quarry pond or is that another source?

Built our forever house in 2015 with a SIPs superstructure, triple glazed, super-insulated which won a Special Award from LABC South West, but then found that it was in the wrong place for visits to hospitals which become more frequent or necessary as you get older. We are in the process of replacing a concrete panel Woolaway bungalow (1940's?) with a modern chalet bungalow, not unlike the one we won the award for and we now live 20 minutes away from a hospital instead of an hour and a half. We will be using a main contractor to get to wind an watertight then taking over first and second fix internals. This use of a main contractor is due to the ill health of my wife who would normally provide at least 50% of the energy in our partnership.

Could you not get them to horizontally bore into the hillside just above the house and pick up the aquifer that way ..? There will be water below the culvert/ spring, is that not an option ..? Would be cheaper than pumping up to the top of the hill.

It’s for the Hounds of the Baskervilles ? It literally is an enclosure for us to wipe off muddy paws before they come into the house. We planned an outside porch originally but have abandoned that in favour of a modest entrance hall.

Talk to your BC My thoughts are protect the "escape corridor" by making it a fire proof enclosure, i.e. fire rated ceilings below, fire rated wall to landing etc. And hang a hammer on a chain next to the gable window so if all else fails you can get out.

We use the window in the en-suite dressing room as the fire escape to avoid having to set a roof window low enough to meet regs. No door between bedroom and dressing room though.

looks like vanity unit is the best option all round.

If there are no loo or sink under the windows Or doors between you should be ok We have the same layout while there is no door between the DR Ana BR There is on the US BC told us we could still be cut off from that window But I’d check with your BC as they are not always consistent

@Robert Clark, If you are talking about requiring bottom openings then I take it that your plumbing comes up from the floor. In this case having pipes on the surface going into a semi pedestal is going to end up looking really tacky, IMO. I can see only three options here: A full pedestal which hides the pipework. Note that Grohe and some other supplier do a variant of the basin + semi-pedestal where the basin is wall hung and not really carried by the pedestal. The sink can be fitted and plumbed up then the full pedestal fitted in place to hide the gubbins. Some form of vanity (or half vanity) unit Battening out the wall or even just a 1m wide vertical section with a 35mm stand-off and extra plasterboard layer. This does complicate tiling slightly, but can look quite striking especially if you use a contrast tiling scheme to make a feature of the standoff. If you do this, then remember to allow heavy duty supports behind the sink line to allow the load bearing. The pipework can be run up the wall and up to semi-pedestal levels. A lot cleaner IMO than a vanity unit.

Hi Joe. In reverse order. To quote you “with regards solar panels they must be “fit for purpose” so the wind load calcs must have been done, different if you just did a DIY job.” I think you have touched on a good point. I agree with you in terms of the “fit for purpose”, not so sure that a DIY person should settle for something less though. Now the “fit for purpose” you mention. I raised this as I’m not so sure about how the manufacturers of solar panels are approaching wind loading. Yes, they may be designing their panels to take the odd heavy fall of snow, say two or three feet every 20/ 50 years, but what if you live in a rural area where the wind will bend them significantly every few months in the winter say? Over to the experts? I have been wondering if the manufacture’s address this more frequent bending of solar panels under wind loading, I struggle to see them doing this as the wind loading varies significantly depending on where you place the panels on the roof. Forgive my naivety but it seems to me that if you keep bending a solar panel it will break sooner than you think? Hopefully some of the roof / solar experts will chip in with their advice and clear the air on wind loading regarding Joe’s reasonable statement that they should be “fit for purpose”. Joe’s chimney brace! I appreciated your photo and description of what a chimney brace looks like. You explained that well and succinctly, the old skills, knowledge and experience seem to be neglected at times, your comment is refreshing and straight to the point. Thank you for that. The technical side is for another day. Thanks again Joe.

I was very sceptical about oxalis acids ability to clean up badly marked and black stained oak. One application was enough to get rid of the majority of the stains, two applications and a nylon bristled brush and the worst stains were gone. Give it a try, you have nothing to looose

Bit of googling found these. Colour? Too far away? https://eshop.solentbrick.org.uk/epages/BT3815.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3815/Products/PL12 Reclaimed.. https://www.watlingreclamation.co.uk/shop/brick-specials/plinth-bricks/2-red-plinth-stretcher-straight/

Full height planters was the original plan, but then I gave up because these 60cm GRP custom made planters costed me a fortune (never considered in my life to spend almost 3k in planters) and making them 40cm higher would have increased the cost even more. Thinking about the hassle I am going through now, maybe it would have been better to get them 100cm. Do you mean pouring concrete? I have never done it but from a quick calculation I got scared by the huge amount of material I need to reach 40cm. I will need some guidance here. I have added few pics of the patio, better than my words (the old yellow and red slabs at the end of the new patio are all lifted, there will be grass there).

It’s been a long time since but I bought specials from Cradely Special Bricks. I think the price was a bit fierce but I don’t recall there being a single bad or damaged brick in the whole batch. They were in Cradely Heath and they dealt direct to the public.

why the fascination with Permitted Development? Design what you want, and see if it fits within PD, not the other way around, the cost of a planning application is nothing if it gives you a much better house

Hambleton. I reckon I have about 220 and likely a few corner ones - not been keeping track to be honest.

Welcome Abbi.

Hey @Abbi ; welcome. There is tons to learn and lots of mistakes to make ( talking from my own experience of course ). Now is the time to be brave and creative though. I can hear a groan coming from the regulars......... Have you considered walk on glazing?. For that wow factor........?

Even a letter from them, confirming they sent the certs to A N Other online seller might be enough to placate the inspector.

Can’t you just get the certificate from DOOR STOP direct, explain the situation and hopefully someone can see past the red tape and send you a certificate......

welcome. good luck with the planning. this place is a great source of information and I have learnt loads! still have loads to learn though....

Welcome to the asylum. We (probably) all started out sane but self building does have its moments. Good luck with the planning application - I hope it goes your way and you aren't saddled with loads of conditions. The learning curve is steep but the information and advice here has saved me no end of grief and problems and led to a better overall design. That's not to say it's been stress free of course!!

Welcome to the world of self build! you will have plenty of time for research while you await your planning, make the most of it!

UPDATE went for an excursion to find the source of the nile -known as my original water supply results not good --found where it is running open in the field,probably opend up by farmerfor sheep ?since house was last used 60 years ago --but it appears not from a spring but from another stone culvert even If i could fence it off or makes him some sort of drinking pool there it is about same distance to pipe it to house as bringing it up from road and lots of dykes to go through .all presuming the farmer would agree to alterations I can not find where that comes above ground further up the hil but did find other "issues" coming out of the ground wwhich go back into ground ,but again all open to sheep drinking +crapping Ithink best descitpion of it is aculverted field drain and not a real spring,even though it runs all year maybe when it was first made in 17 80,s and the farm was not there then,no farm till about 1840,s --then it collected good water. somone spent alot of time making a 600m +long stone culvert to get some sort of supply for the house I am thinking no proff no plans or maps to tell me anything So on reflection I have decided not to use it for my drinking water supply will still be good for garden water+ a pond the question now is do it collect this dubious water to use for toilets etc and cut down volume I need to pump up hill getting more complicated every day this project so back to pumping it up the hill from main road I could opt to pump water from the quarry lake --but same amount of work only then I need to clean it up and as there is NO water metering in scotland for private supplies--just part of the rates and NO idon,t think I would get away with attaching a pico power turbine to mains supply--did think of it though .LOL will update this thread with all specs once I have them for sure

It’s my tv room! The only room in the house with a telly, so that’s my space. HWMBO May join me by invitation for selected viewing such as Grand Designs or Make My House Perfect ?

If you've any old style Jenolite liquid, that contains phosphoric acid and works too but you can't do patches. It's the whole lot or nothing.

In the spirit of encouraging the live theatre... OH NO WE DIDN'T