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@tonyshouse @markc @joe90 thank you all so much for your advice on this. Just wanted to update that this was successful and not too difficult. I’ve uploaded a couple of pics which are not that fascinating but a testament to the excellent advice you all gave me. Thank you! m

We have just heard from planners today They have finally accepted that we are in flood zone 1 and don’t require a sequential report and are ready to pass for full planning Just a couple of small things ? Some route protection and a site overlay on the flood map Which is already supplied But the want the flood expert to confirm that it is correct Talk about dragging things out Big relief

I’d probably reconsider your kitchen fitters They are either stupid or just don’t care

Hi. OK, you seem to be all over the place with the replies here, so let me clear a path for you. Incorrect. The heating circuit can easily support an UVC / TS etc, simply by adding 2-port zone valves to split the heating flow and then running that to the heating coil of the storage tank. The downside is that the combi then, ideally, wouldn't be used as the return path for the hot water a) due to the restrictions through the combi plate heat exchanger, and b) because the combi does one job or the other, eg DHW or heating out, not both together. This means that all the time DHW flows through the combi, it will ignore the heating circuit completely thus not maintaining the temp of the UVC. To get 2 showers running simultaneously, and with good flow, you will definitely need to store hot water in an UVC. I would not recommend the pump as with the new cold mains in place you should find things 'sufficient' as is. You'll lose the inherent restrictions, in-built into the DHW gubbings of a combi, by going mains > UVC > outlets, plus the hot and cold feeds to all the mixer outlets will also be balanced by the control group supplied with the UVC. That gives a 22mm outlet to the UVC and a 22mm outlet to cold mixer feeds, both at the same potential. For this setup you will need to plumb the house correctly, with all monoblock taps / mixers etc all piped back to the same place at the UVC. Cold feed appliances, WC's, and DEFFO the outside tap need to be tee'd off the cold mains the second it comes into the house. Ideally the outside tap should come off the rising cold mains before the first domestic stopcock within the property. The combi can be run to the most infrequently used hot tap in the house, and the one open for as little a time period as possible ( probably the cloakroom wash basin ) so the DHW priority when it's in DHW mode is not dominated by that outlet eg it stops servicing heating output to rads / UVC. Ignore the dynamic pressure readings as they are academic, because you can get great performance from a shower with little to zero dynamic pressure. It's flow rate l/p/m that matters here. Plumb the house to have a rising dedicated 22mm cold feed that services the UVC only to maximise performance.

A good article out today on the new Matter home automation standard: https://www.theverge.com/22832127/matter-smart-home-products-thread-wifi-explainer

True,though when you are required to point up any work you’ll naturally try to keep joints full as it’s easier & quicker to joint them if they’re full to begin with.

My guess is that providing there is a continuous bead of mortar filling 50mm of a block joint width then the mortar joint is airtight. Pointing can be deceptive because it could result in a thin crust of mortar being smeared over a joint with a void.

I wouldn’t have a clue data-wise about this but I have been on jobs where the inner (cavity) face of the blockwork has been pointed,for this very reason. Years ago the blockwork wouldn’t have been pointed at all,just ‘flushed up’ which is quite haphazard & open to interpretation.

Hi Jilly - you have to ask yourself - is it better to ask for permission or forgiveness? Are you likely to be dobbed in by neighbours / nimbies etc? Are the planners ever likely to come and have a look (rare!)? How obvious a change is it - clearly doesn't help being on the road side? You can apply for retrospective consent if your fingeres get caught in the till - how likely is it to be granted (Article 4 and all of that). How much would it cost to reinstate vs building to plans and doing it later? What are the implications on programme? Is there a compromise where you could make it look a bit more in line with consented drawings while taking a bit of a flyer? At the end of the day you just have to take a view - hopefully the points above give you some perspective to assess it. Personally I would chance it depending on the cost side - 4 years and you are in the clear either way.

I agree with @epsilonGreedy The planers don't care about you. They might not care enough about this plan to look at it properly if you don't actually object to it. They are supposed to look at it if you raise questions, but I suspect there is a risk that they simply approve it if you don't object. This could have a negative impact on you. If you object to it, it will be refused. You need to look after yourself and not worry about them. You don't need to be a professional planner to know this is bad for you. You just don't want to feel guilty about it. Your neighbour and their architects are quite happy to ***** you over to get their extension. You have to keep this in mind when feeling guilty about it.

Well done , hope the last couple of small things are just that .

You can probably design it so that the extra metre or so fits in efficiently if you get permission. Nothing stops you from building out to the piles as that is foundations not 'the building'. Perhaps you can build a demountable outer wall that can be moved when you get permission.

You are seeing moral complexity and drama where none needs to exist. Your neighbour and his architect have formulated a plan that enhances his lifestyle and/or the value of his house. Most people and hopefully the planners would consider the extension over development since it fills 90% of the back garden as I recall. If built the extension would devalue the enjoyment you get from your house and would undermine the value of your house a bit. So you object and the application needs to be resubmitted for proper review. Unfortunately your earlier mixed signals have given them hope you will acquiesce. Stop expending brain cycles worrying about how the neighbour and the architect perceive your actions, they have hatched an unreasonable plan. Don't get involved in an emotional txt exchange with the architect because it gives them hope you can be manipulated.

I liked the Housemartins

If you're going to cover the roof in a ballast or sedum trays I would consider a single ply or felt system. While both single ply and EPDM both have the con of being prone to puncture Single ply at thicker gauges i.e. 1.8 is extremely resistant and if your covering in ballast you will be required to have a protection layer over the single ply which coupled with your ballast or green roof would make it bomb proof to punctures. Alternatively just use a felt system which would give e you the robustness you want a high longevity and it would eliminate the 18mm ply. Felt systems like Bauder and Icopal are tired and tested but everyone is doing them now Sika has a system and so do Iko it depends on your budgetary requirements. Bauder also do their own green roof systems which then fall under their guarantee as well though.

I reckon that would work, just poke it out the top and let the brush sit on the pot with the rods weighing it down from below - as long as it's dense enough that a bird won't go through the bristles you'll be alright!

I reckon..... with a bit of gentle shoving and a spotter outside, you could push one of these up from the inside. Let it pop out the top then pull the rods back. Might need to tape it on to start with. https://www.bes.co.uk/decorative-sprung-fit-birdguard-22412/?

Perhaps you can just ignore the joists and fix through to the lower OSB. 18mm OSB has a pretty decent pull-out rating. Just make sure you have the correct screw lengths for the differing insulation thicknesses as the screws will only be threaded at the end 60mm, The tube washer type fixings look good as the screw will not pop through the waterproofing if the insulation is compressed.

I guess it would, pop it right to the top so they have nowhere to nest in (and give it a wiggle if they start ?)

You could push the brush until it was starting to exit the pot leaving a dome or cone to prevent the birds from building a nest on it. Or bite the bullet and get someone in for an hour to cap it/them off.

Awesome advice Nick. Thanks for sharing and for giving me the details I need! I will ensure it is exactly done this way.

I've had to furnish 2 bathrooms, 2 en-suites and a downstairs toilet. We used a mixture of different brands and suppliers. Most of the things like vanity units and shower screens came from Victoria Plumb in the sale. They are crafty beggars and I needed to keep a fairly long-term view on the price of the things to get a true picture of when they are actually reduced. Stone resin shower trays were generic unbranded from a random bathroom supplies website - all have turned out fine. We decided to go for Grohe taps and shower mixers throughout as we wanted something decent quality (and to be honest it's the only logo you would really see) - these were from the cheapest website I could find that stocked them - again turned out fine and look good. For tiles I got all of our from the Johnson Tiles factory outlet in Stoke (https://www.johnson-tiles.com / https://outlet.johnson-tiles.com). It wasn't too much of a trek for us to go and have a look at what they had and then I called up and ordered what we wanted which they delivered on a pallet. They were well up for a deal too, I think I got about 15% - 20% off an order of £1500. I'd say the best thing to do would be to buy to your budget, you can spend mega money on bathrooms but also do it quite fugally but still have good looking results (I spent about £7.5k total on all the stuff for our 6 bathrooms including electric underfloor heating mats + towel radiators). The other thing to mention is alway open and check the stuff when it arrives. I didn't install one of the vanity units from Victoria Plumb until 13 months after it arrived, and of course that was the one with a broken handle. It was a real challenge to get them to replace it - had to leave a bad Trustpilot review threatening the small claims court before they "found a spare one in the warehouse" and sent it out to me.

I recommend you speak to someone about remedial screw piles - these should be fairly simple, quick, and "relatively" cheap to install on the necessary walls if you've got decent access for the rig. We looked into this when we thought we'd need to underpin our bungalow foundations before building up, but the SE did ground bearing analysis on 3 trial pits and lots of calcs for Building Control to convince them that the existing footings are adequate, so we didn't go down that route. But that would have been our preference over underpinning footings to 2.0m with concrete, 1m at a time.

Observe the time where the system has zero output. But the structure doesn’t magically have zero thermal loss in that same window, and that cumulative energy deficit has to be replenished by the ASHP during the next heating period, and to do that the radiators must produce more output than they would otherwise be needed to, meaning the surface temperature of them will need to be higher than if the structure were heated continuously. There is clearly a trade off in running cost between running hours, average delivered flow temperature, average outside temperature, and likely electricity tariff rates that make this all a bit of a judgement.

Well done and UW

Ask him if you can delay his payment until it is approved. Easy to risk 'someone else's money'.

Very appropriate for piling. https://www.britannica.com/topic/sunk-cost

This appears to me to be the key issue. Could you share the exact wording of their Decision Notice in relation to the word 'habitable' please.

None, none at all. Their stuff is pricy - flush plates for example are stupid - rude almost. But in the scheme of things .... you've just got so much other stuff to sort out, by the time we were fitting the stuff, I just winced and moved on to the next issue. Price-inelastic I think is the term. I have a feeling that house-churn is so much higher here than over there (Germany) that those two companies feel justified in charging through the nose - or wherever.

The only things I remember for sure that were branded were the Nikles showers. The taps may have been Crosswater but the ceramics etc weren't labelled as far as I can remember. I'm sorry I can't check as we moved house a few months ago.

I am not fully understanding. However in case this helps: once you have planning permission and start the project within the usually 3 year limit, the whole permission is locked and there is no time limit to complete. Full Plans and Building Notice are Building reg's, not planning, so are of no concern to the planners other than proof of when you started the work. Please explain re the shed: are you wanting to apply for planning permission to further extend the house onto where a 'shed' used to be?

Not understood the situation (what was there before, what was removed, what was put up, what you're aiming for). I'm slow, though. In general, having something there tends to improve the chances of permission for putting something else there. Having nothing there tends to make permission more difficult, especially with the kinds of restrictions you listed.

That would be nothing short of madness!! What kind of screed where they going to lay today in winter and expect it to be suitable to fit a kitchen on Monday?? No chance that it would be fully hardened and dry enough.

As you say, you will use around £2 or maybe more on a 0-5C day, but presumably you aren't sleeping in the room or using it every day of the year. So I would guess that the real world heating requirement is maximum 2000kWh and probably less. Say £300-400 a year. A small fast acting fan type heater is probably best for this. The single room ASHP would save around 2/3 of the cost so would pay for itself in around 4 years after installation. It also gives you the option of AC. It would be running at nowhere near full power but it would be good if you could find the noise level at different power levels. The max electricity usage on that unit is 1.12kW, so only 5 amps on 240V. It shouldn't need an upgrade to your wiring. It may need a higher start up current. That unit has no outside unit so all of the noise would be annoying you! This is a quieter and cheaper split unit, but I would guess installation is more expensive. https://www.cooleasy.co.uk/3-5kw-12000btu-inverter-srk35zmp-w.html

Wow, I never knew you lived near me, Kent right? Let's meet up, perhaps your neighbours could join us as we find the loud bike owner. There is a guy a few hundred yards away that goes out every few weeks during the sunny season, may be it's him? It can't be mine, I'm old, so I have a sensible bike that's not much louder than your average Skoda.

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Did you end up using this product? What was the make up of your foundations up to sole plate?

Until now. Just keep a good, smokey, fire going.

Disclaimer: *no animals (well birds) were harmed during the making of this thread*

Can you do a reverse CurlyWurly effect, make it gradually larger over time, rather that smaller. Then put a big Waggonwheel on it, as an act of defiance and irony.

People from Delabole will disagree with that.

It may just be the condensate drain, my combi does not have an external connection for a PRV. My instructions explicitly state pipework must be plastic.

Nah, not me any more, not for a few decades now. I'm as quiet as I can be, but not so quiet that someone listening to music or driving on their phone won't notice me.