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Not sure if you can get a grinder in there but if so something like this might do the job. you can get them in various sizes.

So the boundary was drawn by the same guy who planted the hedge, and has been there the whole time they've lived there. They've now got a survey which states it's not very accurate to the title plan, and in any case the Land Registry themselves state that the title plans aren't definitive. It's worth trying to be polite to the neighbour - you don't want this to escalate since that will get expensive - but I don't think he's got a leg to stand on unless there is anything in your deeds which defines the boundary much more accurately than the land registry map does. It's worth checking, but I'd be surprised. Edit: apparently what your neighbour is doing is common enough to get it's own FAQ answer.

The inclusion of this in the planning objection will make no difference. Planners are not concerned with who owns what. The overlay drawing from Survey Hub did not show anything of note.

This Video below gives a reasonable impression of the biomass industry I think. Simply put the idea of chopping down trees and burning them to improve the environment doesn't make sense. The cheapest route I reckon. 1: Reduce your need for heat through improving your building fabric and ventilation. 2: Gas 3: ASHP The greenest 1. Reduce your heat demand 2. ASHP with green electricity

Doesn’t need to be compacted hardcore. Needs to be sound and stable, and we obviously need a bit of feedback before saying more. Ive done loads without, just a quick blinding and a whack and job done. What I do, ( if at all unsure of the subfloor ), is build up the 1st 50 / 75 / 100 with individual sheets of 25mm EPS so they can easily conform to the subfloor. DIY not here tbh, so one assumption is a builder with at least 3 brain cells will be employed and able to govern. But then again, you’d probably then end up with a 150mm slab, 50mm of insulation and 50mm liquid screed

Hi we had to get a company in that located the main sewer it was supposed to run along the edge of the pavement according to Scottish water but was one meter into the road,it cost around £400 they opened up a man hole cover and had a massive coil in the back of the van with a transmitter of some type that could be picked up by a cat type tool

A well done self build requires little to no heating. I didn't see the point investing in an expensive heating system that would be rarely used. Have you considered an exhaust heat pump? Our one acts as MEV, but you can connect it to extract air from the outside like a conventional heat pump if you already have MVHR in your design.

If you don’t have access to mains gas then your alternatives are bottled gas, oil or electricity. Both oil and bottled gas are bad polluters, if going electric then a heat pump will give you up to 4 times the heat from 1 unit of electric. Regarding radiators with a heat pump they need to be bigger to cope with lower water temps. I don’t know about UFH upstairs being noisy, I am sure someone here will confirm/deny that (I have no heating upstairs apart from bathroom towel radiators and the house is warm enough).

Just had quote for Electric from UK power Networks £1425, they supply 13 metres of 32mm ducting and single phase cable, we dig the hole and lay the ducting (cable was £13 per metre). Gas, £492, this is a subsidised price, not sure why this is but trying to get this completed ASAP before subsidy is removed as this is obviously not a GREEN approach. 3 metres dig by Cadent, 8 metres by us and supply of 11 metres of 32mm pipe . Still waiting for Water and sewage costs.

Concrete subfloor is staying, electrical cables and microbore radiator pipework is most definitely going Regards Tet

Welcome. Get a good book about physics. The two main areas are material properties and thermodynamics. Both only require basic arithmetic, so no need for a maths book.

i think that i have found the type of detail i was looking for, below. In this case it looks like its proposed a double DPC (14 and 17), not sure the reason why but i am sure there is a good one!

If you already have Planning Permission its very unlikely the planners will take any action as they can be liable for costs of removing it. First thing I would do is get a copy of both title plans and overlay them on an old OS map at same scale to see how everything lines up. Yes I know these aren't definitive. Get a 60m tape and measure from any features shown on your side to the current boundary position. I know this isn't "proof" of anything but it might tell you if there is something wrong and where it might come from or if its total fiction. The rules on Adverse Possession changed in 2002 (?) and unlikely you will be able to use that to claim ownership as its registered land. Nowadays you can make a claim after 10 years BUT the LR then try and contact the registered owner who has 2 years to assert their right to the land and reclaim possession. If they do then its game over for you. I would NOT go down that route without taking advice as making an application might amount to admitting the land is not part of your title. See also a PM I sent you.

So the fence was put in place by the person who owned both plots at the time it was erected? Interesting. I wonder what the law would have to say about that. In some ways, it seems to strengthen your position, since presumably the plot owner had no particular interest in putting the fence in the wrong place. Indeed, I wonder whether the title/boundary was recorded before or after the fence was erected? The ideal would be the latter, because then it just appears to be a simple error in recording an existing boundary defined by the features of the fence and hedge. I'm not a lawyer though - you really will need to speak to one, unfortunately.

Potentially Myrtle. Grown by my Gran on the Beach Road in Prestatyn. Or look for shiny or narrow leaves which will let less nasty in. What about Holly? Or Holm Oak is a good one which is hedgable. Or maybe things like Cotoneaster.

XPS will cause plasticiser migration in cables same as EPS - keep them apart!

I live on the coast and have to be careful with plants due to the extremely windy days we get here. Laurel is a no go. Privet grows ok but it doesn’t seem to want to grow upwards much. It mostly seems to spread outwards. Ceanothus grows like a weed here and could make a good hedge, and Griselinia, a plant that I’d never heard of but was recommended on here also grows well. I have several conifers (smaller than leylandii) but none of them have ended up with issues.

@recoveringbuilder fitted biomass in their new build. Very unhappy with it I believe. @Declan52 also has one.

Would the best starting point not be to smash a load of space floor screws in at 100 or 150 centres all along the joists? Cheaper and less invasive than ripping the floor up. If that doesn't work then escalate the job. Those screws are very good at pulling things tight, a shit load of them should do the trick. If your floor deck has been glued down it is going to be one hell of a job to get it up. What state will the top of the joists be in once it has been ripped up?

Have a word with @canalsiderenovation He can tell you who to avoid.

We are a couple of miles from the sea and we have different types of hedging around the garden. We bought a pallet of Oleaster, one metre high, a couple of years ago and they took well and are easy to trim. They are evergreen and have small very fragrant flowers that the bees like and later berries for the birds. https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/oleaster-elaeagnus-x-ebbingei.html#aELA

Adverse possession is for where land that is owned by one party has come into the potential possession of another party by way of long-term occupation. Your case sounds more like there's a question over where the boundary lies, exactly. The land registry documents are not definitive. If there's been a fence in place for 20-odd years without anyone noticing, then unless the land registry makes it clear that the fence is in the wrong place, there's a decent argument that the boundary is in the right place, and the land is yours (not theirs, and you having a right to claim by way of adverse possession). That said, there are traps for the unwary here. Do not under any circumstances discuss this issue with your neighbour before talking to a suitably experienced solicitor. One trick your neighbour might try is to offer to sell it to you at a low price. You accept, then he/she withdraws, but by that time you've effectively confirmed that you believe he owns the land.

You can only use products which are BBA approved for the purpose, think you'll see that Celotex GA4000 isn't suitable for full or nearly full cavity fill. Specialist products exist, Xtratherm CT/PIR and there is a Kingspan product which is also approved for this purpose (can't remember product), but they have special surface coatings, foil isn't suitable for the coating as it can easily be pierced. If you want something easy and cheap, brick outer > 100 cavity with 35 or 40 wool full fill > whatever 7N block > insulated plasterboard

To answer question about accuracy, they are accurate to within 1metre, so thats 1metre either way, or 2metre overall, I had a similar issue with my neighbour and he backed down once he had that fact

https://www.myerson.co.uk/news-insights-and-events/a-guide-to-adverse-possession Go talk to a competent solicitor, one who has experience in these type of matters.

Start proceedings for adverse possession if you have proof it has been fenced and used exclusively for 19/20 years.

I carefully designed our £4k passive front door from RK systems to be 1100mm wide with 450mm glass to side (opening was 1650mm) for the desired 'big door' effect. Door arrived 8 weeks later and was 900mm wide with 650 glass. Checked the design and I'd made an adjustment but not noticed that the door size had reset to default. Was really upset for a few days but got over it and moved onto the next problem

This on its own is a premium product. Also go through the forum, there is a similar discussion and as good as rigid boards are, they require extra care/patience - adding cost if that is taken care of or losing performance if not.

Sounds like @Tetrarch is infilling what used to be the void of a suspended timber floor so it's unlikely that the ground underneath will be properly compacted hardcore.

@markc the squeaks are mainly centre of room, but so also happen a little further away too, for one room it happens immediately as you enter the room. The noise is coming from the area very close to the footstep (when listened to from underneath), not from the hangar location. Of course that doesn't mean they the aren't perhaps responsible for the noise in some way, maybe we can inspect everything critically when the chipboard comes up.

Not necessarily, I have a screed laid on top of eps insulation. It depends what is supporting the insulation. If the insulation is on top of compacted hardcore then I would use concrete with mesh reinforcement. If the insulation is over a concrete slab or block n beam then a screed. Depends what is suppling the strength and support. @Tetrarch what is this insulation going down on to.

You’ll get fractures from curing, but nothing that’s not expected. To say that will crack is a bit coarse a statement. At 70mm I wouldn’t be laying a liquid screed anyway, I would be using a dry sand and cement screed. No need for 4” thick reinforced concrete unless you’ve got very big rooms and no possibility of introducing relief joints at the doorways etc. The most important thing is to get the ground level, flat and true, and to apply a blinding layers of sharp sand over the compacted subfloor. Also remember the perimeter insulation up-stands, made from 25mm PIR for thermal break, and then a thin compressive strip of the small foam stuff to allow expansion. If the subfloor prep is spot on, the floor won’t go anywhere.

@craig , the only person I know who looks at windows, not through them. ?

250mm of EPS will be ample, and cheap. 300mm is heading for passive house standard levels of insulation. If you can get hold of seconds for the upper 150, then go for PIR ( celotex / kingspan etc ) and use 100mm EPS underneath. Or 150 EPS and 100mm PIR atop. Anything above EPS is a benefit, but I’d be more than happy with 250mm EPS tbh. Depending upon how you want to use the heating ( timed for working family / on long and low for retired ) then there could be argument for putting a slightly thicker screed down, but 70mm is a good average for this type of emitter and will give an even spread of heat output.

Apologies for the delay in replying, I haven't come back here recently. We had a heat loss survey done and the ASHP was sized by the installers based on that. The ASHP does run most of the time when the outside air temperature is near zero but it can heat the house well and acheive 20 deg plus internal temperatures if a high outlet temperature used (e.g. 50 deg). The interesting challenge is setting it up to get adequate heating at lower outlet temperatures to improve its efficiency, we can still get 20 degrees plus if required but it takes longer to get there. The sizing of the ASHP system seems OK as long as you don't expect to get the same sort of heating response as you would with an oil boiler rated at over twice the ASHP capacity and running a radiator circuit at 80 degrees rather than 40. The ASHP system is set to a more or less constant internal temperature demand when the heating is on as opposed to the oil system where the heating was off overnight, the oil system could of course raise the temperature back up in a couple of hours. You have to accept that if you have an ASHP the heating system has to be programmed differently and understand that the response time will be different.

@shuff27 nothing really to add apart from the south facing windows in the kitchen. i’d make them as large as you can get away with. they’ll really enhance the room.

That's quite a subjective view really. The hall way can act as the focal point unifying the house. We've got a fairly tight footprint and space usage was quite an important design factor, but we still have an open hall way going up all three storeys in our house. My wife and I think that this is one of its most effective design features. It pleases us and surely that's what matters.

Really ..? 300 litre UVC is change of £800. 8kW Heat Pump and all the toys change of £4k, so £5k all in. Full bore 3bar mains pressure and flow over 15l/min New WB Greenstar 8000 40kW has a flow rate of 14l/min is £1580 plus flue etc. So we have a rough factor of 3 difference. Not a minimum of 10... Gas boiler needs annual service, cannot run on anything other than gas (ie you can’t feed it with PV etc) and they are being phased out and gas will only go up in price. Nope that’s you looking in a mirror if you think a combi boiler is the best solution to all problems.

We were charged £3914 for electricity 4 years ago. This week, my neighbour has been quoted £13K for the same specification connection by the same supplier. All they need to do is mole under the single lane road and make a normal single phase connection . Just under 300% rise in four years.

I’m in the NW We were also lucky to have the services in front of the plot Electric 730 Gas 800 water 1100 Three years ago

Check with Joule that their heap pump is inverter driven. If not it will be more noisy, and a little less efficient.

Isn't that the unfortunate truth. Beyond the initial design phase, all the meetings we had with our architect ended muddier than they began with rare moments of undertaking to get this done within a specified timeline. I also had to sack the SE our architect wanted to use and refused to pay him a penny. We also got caught between all the builders we spoke to wanting more details and architect saying there's no point as they don't get used anyway. If it's a straightforward house using standard building techniques then I'd argue details are less important. If it's unusual design and/or materials, or you're building to a standard like Passivhaus, then the details and specification are far more important. For me this demonstrates the problems we've got in the construction industry in the UK. Having the poorest quality of building construction in the developed world is in part down to this disconnect and lack of trust between the 'professionals' - e.g. your architects - and the builders, many of them with questionable training, experience and standards and who often think they know better. I grant you that sometimes they do, but to the extent that is accepted in the industry? Anyway, that's got me on my high horse and probably hasn't helped @ianfish

We found that all apart from one of the architects proposing for our job only quoted for RIBA stages up to planning. It means you then get hit with a major additional cost once you've got through planning.I think a lot of self-builders are put out by this and thus choose a different route? I think there are advantages if the architect works with the SEas you can get more integrated design as if they're involved independently I think they can focus too much on their own areas without necessarily considering the others.For example, the structural scheme imposes itself too much on the aesthetic or vice versa. I think the best solution is to have an explicit conversation with the architect as to the exact nature of the agreement and ensure it's all in writing.

Agreed. To all other readers, don't use 18mm chipboard onto joists. 22mm only please. It is cheap enough anyway.

Quite a few on. here have used https://www.ecology.co.uk/mortgages/residential-mortgages/self-build They are a building society not a broker

It sounds like the layout may force you to go MVHR - maybe check the kitchen unit options? This is what I used last time: VTC Low-E - it is so-so, but the price was attractive. I had it hanged in upstairs airing cupboard so it could serve the bathrooms and deliver to the bedrooms - it definitely helped with the bathrooms, misus tested the boost every time and it would clear the sauna quickly. Even in the bedrooms with leaky windows it made noticable difference, with no stale smells in the morning and much reduced condensation. For intake/outlet I just used the roof vents on the opposite sides of the roof All branched, no silencer (but pipes laid to not to cause crosstalk) etc. Of course you can fit it in the kitchen, you will gain extraction point and maybe ever replace the hood as they are intended to do.

IMO biomass boilers only make sense if you are a farmer or producer of something where your left over 'waist' can be used. They are messy , dirty, not cheap and need a lot of maintenance. If you have gas on hand, it will be the cheapest solution by far. Regarding aga's and the like - have you lived with one? I hate the bl**dy things - century old tech has no place now for me.

I presume you mean Spax? I presume you mean "many"? ?

It's done like that so if you have a fire and your upstairs you can open the window and use the bricks to climb down like Spider-Man. Or they had no string line so used blue rope.