Leaderboard

Standard concrete by the looks of them. Easy to check with a chisel or drill, as concrete is very hard and thermalite etc is made from a paste, looks like grey aero underneath and turns to dust under a hammer or chisel.

Nah, go on Jimbo, speak your mind, don’t hold back eh ?

No problem in using a sub main for a PV Install. the existing consumer unit will probably need to be swapped over to suit appropriate RCDs for the PV supply and then for the outbuilding itself.

......come to visit! ?

Not quite that simple. The book for my solar grid tied inverter shows this: Marvin.

Yes take their advice, as they will see the circumstances. But they are not likely to say that they designed for a joint and now it doesn't matter after all. My point I suppose, is that if you happen to know that the materials were already stabilised, then the SE might just think that could be ok. (sometimes blocks arrive on site that were made the day or week before, and they are guaranteed to shrink, or bricks are still war from the kiln and guaranteed to expand.....and then there are problems without joints) keep us informed please.

+1, nimbyism

Well Done and pleased you have got them sorted. I actually think Jealousy is what drives peoples cynicism, defensive behaviour and down right stupidness. Rarely is it personal although I know very unpleasant. I hope the planning goes through relatively swiftly for you.

Insulating externally will be expensive and very difficult. It will affect the roof, drains, window: everything. So I think the cost kills the idea. Loft is easy and cheap so use lots of good quality mineral wool Floor: If timber you can lift the boards and insert insulation between the joists. (You have lots of headroom so you could feasibly insulate over the existing floor, but it will probably make the doors too low.) Walls internally. It would make a mess, but perhaps do this gradually if ever you have to strip a wall back for other reasons. It is probably lath and plaster, but that looks like good condition and you wouldn't want to strip it only for insulation. If covering any floor areas put down underlay with carpet, but also foam board under any tiling or vinyl: even 10mm makes a big difference. Are the windows double glazed? In order of benefit 1. do the loft 2. Draughts 3 Windows 4. Floors 5. bits of improvement when appropriate.

There are good fixings that will hold to the plasterboard, or you can use long screws to the block. I would trust the plasterboard, just use plenty of fixings in case someone sits on the radiator. There are all sorts of fancy fixings but I would just use plastic wall-plugs, and plenty of them as the brackets have several holes. BUT pay the little bit more for a known branded make.

We recently obtained our EnerPhit plus certification, with airtightness of 0.6 ACH which is good enough for a new build passivhaus. We could easily of exceeded even that (our initial test was under 0.5), except for a couple very annoying leaky components that weren't really anything to do with doing a retrofit: - The ground floor shower trap is "low profile" and got sucked dry on the depressurisation test. (Should have left the shower running during the test!!) - the stupidly expensive PH certified Moralt garage door was specified as outward opening and the threshold leaks like a sieve - one of the internorm windows was poorly adjusted and leaky (but we fixed that med test). Really interesting comments about the longevity of the airtightness work on a retrofit. May thought was by overachieving we'd eventually settle to a "reasonable" level, but there is a lot depending on sticky tape so time will tell

Can you not have your expansion joints behind your gutter down pipes? helps hide them a bit!

It may be only me but I question that movement joints are always needed. You build this perfectly goo traditional masonry wall, then insert weaknesses. There are no such joints in old houses. Bricks expand for a while after manufacture, while concrete blocks shrink, and the new walls can be very stressed. If you can afford to let the materials sit on site for a few weeks in typical weather, then likelihood of a problem from that source is removed. Not expanding foam (out of a tin) please: it seals but is not flexible, and tends to spread more than is desired. There are expanding foam tapes specially made for this: you squeeze them smaller then they gradually fill the gap tight. Then seal with , again, special mastic filler which are flexible and also grip the sides...the name's I can't remember at present.

665mm is only 9 courses of brickwork,can he not take it down & build the MJ in? Brickfill or similar should be used during construction & then mastic applied for weather tightness once finished.

One has a kind heart ♥️

They will look shite straight, they need to be staggered to look correct.

Don't have kids for a start, the messy little feckers manage to spray water a good 3m here.

Same here. Gave up and settled for this instead: These seem to be widely available

That’s not really doable or desirable. That’s not really doable or desirable. I was thinking something like this might work, but I need it in either a matt black or brushed brass finish. Plus, this is crazy expensive for a TP holder! https://www.parkstreetbathrooms.com/Store/product-details/Axor-Urquiola-Toilet-Roll-Holder-42436000.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=CjwKCAiAtdGNBhAmEiwAWxGcUhYscPWapZjL5LIw40_qeqhdbGoSlDKL203ZRmH7Zy7dK8p4aB-yoxoCl74QAvD_BwE

Depending on the size of heat pump to load, and the thermal heat capacity of the heating system, you can usually turn the heating off for a few hours.

What makes them think that? Would it be lack of insulation under the UFH that was relying on the higher temperature supply from a wood burner? I posted up a link to a report about ASHP and stuff that includes buffers. report about heating.pdf

Anyway, good news. The council are going to remove the offensive comments.

Respect. Very clever. Sniper, not a machine gunner. To those you visited, the agenda was not merely planning: it was about your 'fit' with their values. Once you'd passed the values test, it will have been all downwind sailing. Bet you dressed carefully for the event, turned up bang on time.... . Wish I'd had the guts to the same. Still, look at it this way, I had the joy of peesing them all off and getting permission.

Because they can . Logic and reason don’t come into it

We built in a small village/conservation area. Before we submitted our planing application I called up both neighbours and the chair of the parish council. I asked if I could drop in one evening to introduce myself and show them our plans. I arranged to visit each individually at their house as I didn't want to be out numbered. In the end everyone was welcoming and we spent more time talking about our families and the local school and village life in general. Even then one neighbour objected. The plot already had PP for a house and our proposal moved it further away so i've no idea why they objected.

OK, had my retest today. Improved from 7.9 to 5.55. I could probably have done the work to get below 5 given a bit more time and a lot more enthusiasm. The guy said that it was a surprisingly big improvement. From bad to mediocre! I found quite a few largish holes in places that were out of sight. I presume these were the main areas of improvement. I am not convinced it has actually made any material difference to gas usage. The one thing I did conclusively fix was the WC. It was consistently colder than the rest of the house and the heating ran a lot of the time in there during winter. Now the heating runs less than the adjacent hall.

Get your own back by flaunting your youth and vitality. Go for a daily jog around the village in your best gym bunny outfit then stop outside the houses of the evil ones, plonk your ghetto blaster down and do a 10 minute step routine to Eye of the Tiger at full volume.

An objector had the suggested the motivation for our application was pecuniary gain and we were using my wife's disability to further our cause rather building the dwelling for her particular needs. I strongly objected to the council and asked them to remove the offending and discriminatory comments which they ignored until my appeal was presented. Needless to say, I used the LPA's inaction to demonstrate their unreasonable behaviour to the planning inspector in our cost application, which no doubt help paint the picture of the journey we had with the counsel. It is referenced in our costs award decision, see attached, paras 6 and 12 PPG guidance states: Paragraph: 033 Reference ID: 16-033-20140306 “Can costs be claimed for the period during the determination of the planning application? No, but all parties are expected to behave reasonably throughout the planning process. Although costs can only be awarded in relation to unnecessary or wasted expense at the appeal or other proceeding, behaviour and actions at the time of the planning application can be taken into account in the Inspector’s consideration of whether or not costs should be awarded…” Costs Decision - 3198387[100338].pdf

Lack of local experience. For the word ... ceramic... substitute any build material or method that's even slightly outside the range of experience of local tradespeople and, based on my personal experience, you will hear a continuous sucking of teeth akin to a bad dose of tinnitus. As you might expect I am very keen indeed to see your project succeed. I nearly chose your preferred build method too. Good luck. Ian

But only one storey and no indoor pool like yours!

Play to win, Jimbo ?

It's bigger, the greedy git.

Toilet papaer? Don't use it. We have two Geberit AquaClean loos, principally because of my injured back. You can vary the water pressure and the durationof the cleaning 'cycle' from a few to 50 seconds. When they come round my mates use the loos even if they don't need to go: and one of them has been known to wash his botticelli twice in succession just for the fun of it. On first use, the female of the species has been known to squeal. My only regret is not buying the version of the AquaClean that has a BlueTooth remote control. Just think of the fun you could have with that. There's one with a blow-dry facility. Oh God, @pocster is going to read this and ......

That shed's massive, got to be at least half the size of @Big Jimbo's!