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Screwfix do some, called Mattez or something similar. Comes in washing machine size!

Every integrated washing machine I've had the displeasure of using eventually moves enough that the door ends up clattering on the adjacent unit when it's on full spin. That or the hinges drop. I'm considering a set up like this picture in the utility room. Any disadvantages to be aware of? Other than losing an extra 50mm each side

The main issues with sound transfer is the stairs fixed directly against the party wall Housing associations have recognised this as a problem and don’t fix against the party wall Usually Leaving a 10 mil gap between the plasterboard and the stairs Covered with a decorative fillet Spec house builders don’t care

The tough finish is achieved using 2 pack vehicle refinishing paint, also works fantastically well on Upvc and aluminium frames (with an etch primer for Alu)

I had planning enforcement out re our skylights as a neighbour complained - we had to do a non material amendment, though initially they said we had to do a section 73 application - which would have had a CIL implication. In days of old I think there was much more flexibility, but now if you have to apply for retrospective permission you will have to pay CIL, for the whole building footprint.

Hi @LSB your not being dim just one of the many things to learn along the way , i found this helpful . Aggregates - Middleton Aggregates (middaggs.co.uk)

I've done 350 buildings and had one measured, that I know of. I don't know why they measured it....probably somebody complained it was too big. It was to the mm. However I think they sometimes just have a look, and if there is no obvious discrepancy that is the end of it. Have asked a planner what tolerance they allow. On a brick house there is no excuse for being more than 1/2 brick out either end, so 1 brick. Strangely nobody goes half brick shorter. Of course they are busy and not looking for trouble....unless upset for other reasons. If there was an issue it would be negotiated, and the bottom line is whether it would have got PP at the larger size.

Perhaps you meant ... suggest... above? and I've tried the following technique on many occasions (while arbitrating between warring factions in the same building).... If possible, get your neighbours to come round to your place, and at the same time, someone else to slam (close) your neighbour's door (shut) while they are in your place. That way they'll understand your problem. There's a chance that they'll - on their own initiative - close the door more carefully. Cheaper by far. With care, the answer to your problem might cost nothing at all. Win, win.

The inner leaf masonry where the door is connected runs into your house with no breaks. That explains the front door noise. The top hat should be resilient bar. The stair may be fixed to the masonry.

Never heard of the triple leaf effect. More layers and more density will reduce air-borne sound, not amplify it. Impact sound will come through because there is contact all the way. To reduce airborne sound you need something separate from the solid wall, so changing to a dab connection is little benefit. Any introduction of fibreglass between the leaves will help, but noise will still come through the connections. Also there is flanking sound, where a surprising amount comes through the weakest point, such as cracks or joints at corners. What is the floor made of? If concrete in a single slab, then the noise can reverberate from one house to the next. For a much better sound barrier add another skin of wall, using studs that span floor to floor, and that don't touch the party wall. Fill with acoustic mineral wool, plasterboard and finish. You have now lost 80 to 100mm of floor space. The best improvement I have known was by fitting a special acoustic barrier of pvc sheet, containing lead, hung loose down the 9 inch solid party wal, then stud and board. It resulted in not being able to ever hear babies or tv through the wall either direction. It was experimental and would be v expensive, and I don't know if it is available. It shows what can be achieved if it matters enough. British Gypsum and Knauf have info on the noise reductions theoretically available, but an acoustics guy told me that the life levels are never as good as the lab figures.. Please note that you could do lots to the wall, only to have the noise come through the ceiling, or side walls....it depends so much on the construction.

Nah mate ! It’s (expletive deleted)ing massive ! . Longer and wider ?

? If you use the same scale rule on your build surely the result would actually be a smaller property.

Hope not . Mine has grown a bit and as many are aware I can’t measure accurately for shit . Part of the problem of being a well endowed man I guess .

Hmmm, full of [...] a bit harsh. He was writing just before the end of the Second World War. And much has changed since then. But, consider this. If we use Maslow's ideas as a starting point for our own thinking, then - at least it's a start. I'm OK with the notion: I can't think about working on my self-build until I've had enough sleep, eaten a sensible meal and I'm not in fear of my life..... It fits my life experience, but I wouldn't be able to generalise that without M's help.

There used to be Council mortgages. IMO we need to start with removing market distortions.

We had a visit from a planning officer following a complaint (couldn't tell us the details) from a neighbour (wouldn't tell us who). The planning officer took some photos of one side of the house , which happened to be completely shrouded in plastic wrapped scaffolding, but turned down the chance to photograph the other side of the house because they already had those photos. I wonder where those came from... Nothing came of it. I guess they compared the photos to the plans and that was it.

Ours too: lovely bloke....

the pencil line on a 1 in 100 drawing is a good 100mm on the ground.

I have had some measured by OS mapping.

Must have been a very bad digger driver on that job ?

BC won’t care and you will only here from planners if there is a complaint from one of the neighbors It’s Usually height issues when planners get involved Though there is a group of homes 20 miles from me Million plus each That the local council have ordered to be demolished As they have been built slightly to big An average of 50% to big ? Someone put a link on here a couple of weeks back

I would imagine they would only come out to measure it if a neighbour wanted to “drop you in it”. They have not got enough staff to do their day job let alone checking on completion. My house is about 100mm higher than planned (cock up with roof measurements) but as it’s a hip roof they would find it difficult to measure it anyway ?

Not that I've ever heard of, the bucket of the digger "slipping" whilst digging foundations is fairly common ? I even had my architect talk to my wife after we got the planning last week to recommend a little miscalculation when setting out to make the utility room a bit wider.... I said no as the bloody thing is over 3500 sq ft as is, it is tempting though but as I'll be driving the digger I'll get my way * probably ?

After putting in an offer on our plot in November 2019 , 3 lockdowns and 2 architect's later we have today received the email to say planning application approved ? might even stop for a cheeky one on the way home Brake ground in 4 weeks , here we go, Still feeling clueless and way out of my depth ?

Welcome to self building! Someone should have told you that managing people is the hard part. ? Given a choice I would keep the BCO happy rather than the ground workers. You might need the BCO to be more flexible later. So I would try to meet his 60mm per meter maximum if you can.

Work out the area, multiply by average thickness to get approx. volume and then multiply by weight of sand and cement. P.S. regular sand/cement screed is 1800kgs per cubic metre

Come on @harry_angel, don’t hold back, speak your mind ?. Yes I agree with you, and at the risk of repeating myself (cus it does my blood pressure good) I won at appeal and they told the LPA they were not abiding by their own policies, but as you say, no penalty on them. (Apart from knowing I won and built my house as I wanted).

It's the inconstancy that gets me. Our original one was a nightmare. Our site is ringed by a lot of trees but mostly scrub and whins in the middle. He could not be bothered to go on site or even look on Google maps. Just looked from his car and decided it was densely wooded ground. He sent a scorching letter to our architect saying he was disgusted that we would even consider asking for planning. Everything was an issue. You would have thought we were bulldozing Stonehenge and replacing it with a giant knob. We ended up with a new planning officer who was very helpful. Took a practical view on things, was fine about taking out some trees as long as we planted some more, absolute night and day.

I suspect that a major factor in sizing the TS was to make sure there’s room to absorb the heat from a run of the biomass. As I understand those things, you fill it with fuel and fire it up - you then get a huge load of heat out of it over the next few hours, with no way to stop it if you’ve overdone the fuel.

A simpler option is to have a new small unvented cylinder heated from the ASHP and take the UVC input from the TS. So if the TS is hot (stove or solar active) the ASHP won't have to work, but if they're not it does. (i.e. same idea as the on demand electric heater but ASHP friendly). It's still a lot of systems to maintain, but you _may_ be able to get the MCS installer to do this (basically tell the to take the UVC "cold in" feed from the TS and otherwise it looks like a bog standard install) is the gargantuan TS specified to enable multi-day storage e.g. to cover less sunny days, or because the daily demand is very high (running a guest house)? And what is the peak demand (5 showers running at once?). This sort of thing is probably influences the choices a lot.

No such thing as a stupid question, wire brush on a drill would be much easier than hand. removing the plaster/render won’t affect anything structurally, if the mortar is falling out from the joints just re-point the stonework to stabilise.

Rising band gate hinges?

More progress! Really pleased with the brick choice and decision to go with a raked out mortar joint, hopefully mortar will dry light grey. Rooms looking a good size now walls are up. instagram photo download chrome

In a caravan? I guess he means in the house so as to reduce upfront cost? Looks like the get as far as you can then do the final bits as and when affordable might be the sound option to close the gap. That takes some planning to ensure you can live without it looking like a building site for ever but planning is something that does not add to the cost.

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It’s very easy for both sides to break a contract If one approaches the other and simply states I’m running out of funds There’s very little point carrying on If you go down the route of individual subies As many have done one here Its unlikely that any will sign a contract Or have the funds to back it up If you go down a main contractor route It wouldn’t be unreasonable for you to bring in a demolition contractor Then a groundwork’s company and have the builder take over from there Your best way to protect yourself and the contractors Is to agree stage payments and stick to them Then at least your paying for work done or materials that are on your property

Wow. My input having done a 5 bed MVHR DIY a few years back... Firstly, I can't help but think most people *grossly* over-engineer the design of these things. You *can* spend hours and hours designing the b-jesus out of a MVHR system - 'meeting the regs', sound-proofing etc, etc... but, in reality, ultimately you will not be changing the air at anywhere near what the regs say you 'should' and duct noise really is not going to be an issue at the air speeds involved (assuming you avoid rigid ducts - see late and even balancing is more art than science). For an average 3/4 bed house, just stick to 4" ducting between the heat-exchanger box and vents (and use insulated flexible ducting as it is very cheap and easy to use and you won't get condensation issues that you may with rigid, uninsulated ducting). Use round, plastic ceiling vents/diffusers with adjustable flow rates which are dead simple to install, clean and balance (if you feel the need). NOTE: Get a ventilation unit with summer by-pass facility - I can't believe these things are sold without this facility as otherwise, in summer, you either have to have all the windows open all the time or the house becomes unbearably hot due to the heat recovery thing still going on. You also would have to deal with bathroom/kitchen extracting being operational without any way to stop the house warming up, again, without opening the windows. Bear in mind I was doing a new-build with a central services area and so all my ducting runs were kept to a minimum length and were easy to integrate. If you are retrofitting then rigid ducts may make much more sense.

“I have 12 inches, but I don’t like to use it as a rule”

Been looking at those. Might have the offer of one over in Essex. Means a road trip, passport, border control, import duties etc. Not sure if an Essex scythe will work in Kent... ?

And when the kitchen arrives and wifey doesn't like the colour, will that £66 feel good in your pocket?