Leaderboard

I really don’t think this would happen. You are far more likely to strengthen your position if you get on and build. If you do nothing, there is less prejudice involved in overturning the permission and si that becomes an easier thing for the court to order.

If you are going with a split load board, a good split is upstairs lights and downstairs sockets sharing same rcd and vice versa. So something tripping the downstairs sockets does not trip the downstairs lights. All RCBO is still much better.

I've just had another look at this, focusing on the legislative basis upon which the appeal is brought, which is section 288 of Town and Country Planning Act 1990. That is an incredibly narrow basis upon which to appeal. I have pasted it below: 288Proceedings for questioning the validity of other orders, decisions and directions. (1)If any person— (a)is aggrieved by any order to which this section applies and wishes to question the validity of that order on the grounds— (i)that the order is not within the powers of this Act, or (ii)that any of the relevant requirements have not been complied with in relation to that order; or (b)is aggrieved by any action on the part of the Secretary of State [F1or the Welsh Ministers] to which this section applies and wishes to question the validity of that action on the grounds— (i)that the action is not within the powers of this Act, or (ii)that any of the relevant requirements have not been complied with in relation to that action, he may make an application to the High Court under this section. I think there is virtually no chance he will win, but I don't know the facts. Maybe you bribed the Planning Authority. Or maybe you blackmailed them. Or maybe they were drunk.

Have you considered making an FOI (freedom of information) request. I can be a helpful tool. I have had a recent application stalled. The officer kept phoning me so I had nothing in writing, also was writing me fobbing off emails to cover themselves and stall. Spelled it out to them that I was going to make an FOI alongside making a formal complaint and want to see all the info including all the in house emails.. he said you won't get to see them all if any. I said that is exactly what I need as now I know where you are hiding stuff and where to concentrate my efforts. Two days later it's all sorted!

This is just such a no-brainer. Watched a TF company put a 300m2 build up, including passive raft foundation, all to passive standards, in 31 days. AT score was 0.27 ACH. If you want the satisfaction of self-building, go for ICF ( just not Velox ffs ), but if you want your sanity and marriage in one piece go turnkey TF. By the time you've buggered off to choose your bathrooms / kitchens and floor coverings, the house will be most of the way up.

Pv and battery

from personal experience. 2019 - 12p 2020 - 15p 2021 - 21p (cap) 2022 - 28p as of April on cap and possibly another double digit percentage rise in September. very obviously, this is not a 28% rise.

As complete novices, the turnkey to get weathertight was very important - the window/door, roofing and render contractors were easy to schedule on the back of the frame schedule and then the contractor (MBC) returned to complete insulation and airtightness. We were then ready for first fix. We did not use their insulated slab option as we had another contractor build a basement in lieu of foundations but it was pretty straightforward. Like many here I did the MVHR install rite of passage - took ages but there was time to kill on the build and it's good to get it in ahead of other first fix trades as it takes up a lot of space which may get 'stolen' by others. There was still plenty to do.

I've had an Evolution saw since 2008, the first generation of the one you have posted I think. It was used for general DIY for a few years then was the workhorse saw for a big redevelopment at a business unit I had, now it has the house extension, garage, all the fences, skirtings, architraves, concrete formwork, every piece of wood I have put in for the last 14 years has probably been cut on that saw, when I go on tour to parents or brothers to do projects, it comes with me. So a good saw, paid for itself 100 times over. With a new blade I found it cleanly cut pine and MDF good enough to get perfect mitred joints etc. As @Onoff said it would not exactly be cabinet makers spec but its not far off it with care and good setup. I would buy another.

The original poster was specifically looking for something turnkey. If I was doing it all again and had the time I'd be tempted to DIY with ICF, just looks like fun

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. @oxoGiven your confusion over the order you received, I suspect you did not receive a statement from the court of your right to make an application to have the order set aside, varied or stayed? If you didn't the court has erred from procedure. See https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part03#3.3 paragraph 4. Or as to quote here: (4) The court may make an order of its own initiative, without hearing the parties or giving them an opportunity to make representations. (5) Where the court has made an order under paragraph (4) – (a) a party affected by the order may apply to have it set aside(GL), varied or stayed(GL); and (b) the order must contain a statement of the right to make such an application. (6) An application under paragraph (5)(a) must be made – (a) within such period as may be specified by the court; or (b) if the court does not specify a period, not more than 7 days after the date on which the order was served on the party making the application. However, what you need to do is contact the court in writing immediately to question the order and lack of direction as per the above paragraphs as then the court cannot then claim you were out of time. I fail to see how you can be defendant in relation to a decision you did not and cannot make which is probably what you need to take up with the court in relation to this order. You are merely an interested party, because you cannot defend the decision!

I would not bother doing anything about this. It is between Mr Evil and the Council. You won't be liable for costs. Don't waste your money on fees.

I agree with what is being said here in the last few posts. Basically anyone can fill out the form asking to challenge a planning appeal. So far he clearly has not paid a lawyer, hence he filled in the wrong form. Tbh I didn’t know you just had to fill in a form, useful info. The issue of who it is served on is not clear. The guidance suggests just the minister, but practicality suggests that you and the council are involved so should be served also. The N208PC form does have a space to fill in interested parties. I think the thing is that you have to be included in case the others don’t defend the case. It seems like you were served which has to happen within seven days. First point is the rules say 6 weeks to file, no exceptions. If he filled out the wrong form I am not clear the judge can give him an extra week to fill out the right form. He will also then have 7 days to serve you after filling out the form again. What he has served you so far is incorrect. You then have 21 days to file you received it. But first I would apply to get it thrown out on missing the 6 week deadline. The papers you are served with should show if he is seeking an interim remedy, basically an injunction. As @Adsibob says the reasons to challenge are very narrow and he is probably wasting his time. Maybe he just enjoys messing you around. The court won’t consider the merits and whether they want to even take up the case until the paperwork has been correctly filed.

Potential problems: Not all heat pumps are accompanied by good documentation and instructions or have the installation instructions readily available. My heat pump ran for 24 hours and then went wrong. My installer came back promptly and fixed it. Subsequently he gave me a copy of his installation and training manual which explained the likely causes of the error code (a blocked filter in my case) but I think he got that by attending a training course; I have never seen an online copy. You probably need a buffer tank so you'll need to work out how big, where to put it and how to plumb it in to the system. Buffer tanks confuse me. You will need to work out how to size your radiators/UFH (and their supply pipes). You can find software to do this but I tried and gave up because I did not know how to calculate all the correct input parameters. There is likely to be enough advice available here to overcome all these potential problems but heat pumps are unfamiliar to most people and most plumbers and so there is plenty of scope for error.

Hi all, thank you so much for all of your feedback, it is massively helpful. We happened to have a session with the architect yesterday and we have made the house deeper front to back which has in turn allowed us to sort out the master ensuite and bedroom sizes. We will now be able to get 5 bedrooms we think and feel that we should be pushing for that for sure (as we said, this is to be our forever home), and we need to get it right. We have made the utility room and rear hall all one to make the space more usable, we have also made the window bigger (not sure why it was so small) and I think that the angles section at the back of the utility room may become a plant room or similar perhaps, one to ponder. The units in the utility room are just indicative at the moment so one side will be a bench and boot/shoe storage etc for sure. The rest of the furniture in the house is all indicative as well. I have taken your advice on board and we will move the beds around and make everything more realistic. We will also be able to make the sitting room/snug a bit bigger which will be much better also we feel. The pantry piece is about trying to maximise the space on site (due to it narrowing northwards) and my wife is an avid baker so we need a lot of storage for her 'kit', that said, it may be a poor design and we need to rethink it, which we will. Thank you also for the concern raised over the structural complexity, cost and viability of the design, this is something I am now digging into further and challenging the architect on. One other thing to mention is that there is an existing basement that runs under the right hand side of the house (under the sitting/snug and living area), there will be a door down to this under the stairs, instead of a cupboard, if that makes sense! It will give us a bit more storage/a usable room also we envisage. I appreciate everything that has been suggest and said, many thanks for your help so far. Ant

This Order looks weird to me. The CPR provision that has been quoted is this one: https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part08/practice-direction-8c-alternative-procedure-for-statutory-review-of-certain-planning-matters#Anchor4 Para 4.1 of that says the claim form just needs to be served on the relevant authority. So I agree with the bit of the order which says " the defendants are the minister of the appropriate government department and the authority directly concerned with the decision". I also agree with the bit that says there is no provision for "interested parties" to be joined. I do not agree with the conclusion that the correct defendant includes @oxo. I would be minded to appeal this order immediately, as being named a defendant in a matter that cannot be brought against you seems ultra vires the legislation. In the first instance you could make your application for permission to appeal by email to the Judge/Master that made this order. If that is rejected, you'd need to apply to the relevant appellate court.

Can you advise as I am about to start cladding. I will have a 50 mm gap at the base of the vertical timber cladding and want to fix mesh to keep out rodents and insects as much as possible. Two options here but the Soffit mesh is a third of the price of the other. Any other alternatives you have used.

You would need to know EXACTLY how it is connected in extreme detail before designing a solution that will work with both. In my case (LG heat pump) it uses a double pole contactor to switch the immersion. The PV diverter just switches the L with a solid state relay. So instantly a conflict there.

Yes, ASHP effectively runs in reverse, removing energy from the fluid in the "heating" system and passing it to the outside air. Since I have a buffer tank feeding my UFH, it cools the buffer, which is then circulated through the UFH, cooling the slab. You have to be careful to not reduce any un-insulated surfaces to below the dew point, otherwise condensation will form. 14°C should generally be safe. I can run my buffer down to around 12°C which can reduce the slab surface temp to 18°C, without any risk of condensation and I find that quite effective at controlling over-heating, although I do take other measures to reduce solar gain. I've no experience of cooling via radiators, I would imagine, due to the smaller surface area, you would need to drop the temp further for it to be effective, which would then likely put you in condensation territory. Happy to be corrected if others have it working. Others also use fan coil units, cooled via their ASHP, which are reported to be effective. For this it would be relatively easy to insulate all the pipework to allow the ASHP to reduce the temp to its minimum, perhaps 7°C for some quite effective air cooling.

Not our windscreen, so boiling will work.

well, I guess that depends on the size of the array! which is also the question I should've asked. ?

Absolutely. I have bought a monitoring system to see what I use and where, it has sensors on 18 of my outputs - the major ones. I'm burning through roughly 34kWh a day at the minute. A big chunk of our use is the ASHP and then cooking followed by washer/dryer. If I can dump all that onto PV during the day and charge a battery for nighttime use it should bring us right down.

Nothing flash @Marvin. Just a PV system say 6kWp with maybe 8kWh of battery storage. The main issue as we all know is that we buy from the grid at (soon to be) 28p, but sell it back at 5p or so. So maximising the solar used is key to getting best return on it. The other problem is that PV generates most when basically we tend to not need it. In the day the systems can charge batteries and heat water, then you cook your dinner and run the dishwasher for free later. And since those appliances all use electricity in bursts, the batteries smooth it out to use as much PV as possible. Had a few quotes with similar metrics. £10-13k cost and £1200-1600 pa grid saving. Assuming system life actually is 25 years and 28p persists (both key assumptions obviously) then it’s providing 12% on a straight line depreciation basis. Ok so panel output will decline a bit, but energy will probably increase by more, but there’s lots of uncertainty so I’m just looking at in in a simplistic way.

Because of the very limited feed In rates, the batteries are really an essential component. But with 12%+ return (at 28p) systems with batteries are pretty attractive imo

I am waiting for batteries to improve before going there ....

That shows that you need to clarify with the plant that you will be carrying out a slump test and will return anything that doesn’t come up to spec.

Does Locktite reduce noise? Suppose it can on a wheel nut.

ITS Technologies. No issues purchased a full system, including all the roof integrated stuff.

Have a look at coanda effect nozzles, these will make the air travel from one side of the room to the other, so routing pipes is easier. These are what I used these for our supply nozzles. Zehnder 990326254

30p will be here before long

Sorry I should have stated that in our particular case the opening was a fire escape, my mistake.

Thanks Happy Valley. No blow outs on the Beeny project at all. I know because I supplied the Nudura!!

As I said before the fight is between mr nasty and the planners, not you. You have permission to build, if they withdraw after you build something I am sure you are in a position to sue them. At a previous house of mine , when selling it the solicitors found that the conservatory did not on their records have permission so the buyer wanted to pull out at the last minute. I forwarded my copy of all planning docs and said I was going to sue the council for breach of contract and claim all costs from them, I had a planning consent by courier within hours ?

I think he's referring to Sarah Beanie, who built a new house in Somerset.

My wife does the instgram stuff under @blackfoxbarn so you may have seen them there. I know when we bought oak for the stair treads it was pricey but it came from Latvia

I suggest you pay no more fees to anyone. You are a private householder who has legitimately obtained consent to alter your property. If the neighbour wants to waste their time and money with this, let them. I would give less than 50% chance he even pays this:

I found a ruling re late submission of forms. If you look at point 9 here, it seems to suggest that filing the wrong form and then being allowed to refile the correct form outside the 6 week limit is possible. http://www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Croke-v-SSCLG-judgment-1-February-2019.pdf However, there is nothing stopping you making the argument that the 6 week limit was missed. A reasonable argument would be that they were too tight to consult a lawyer and fill in the correct form. But I think the judge probably knows of this previous riling so will allow the filing to proceed. He will still not have considered anything about the case other than this.

Agree - we have 2 or 4 terminated cat 6 in each room, more in study - so about 40 in total. However we only have a 32 port switch and only about half of those are in use. The wall panels are handy though as our BT router is in GF study and has a few things plugged directly into the back. There is a patch cable from the router into the wall and that is is patched into the switch in the loft where all the cat6 is terminated. We also have the 'Unbreakable Wi-Fi' EE router up there (better signal) and it's patched directly into the BT router bypassing the switch. The BT WiFi discs are also patched into the switch as they are too remote from the router for the WIFi pairing to work. Just relocated NAS drive there also as it was too noisy in study. The only things that really use the home wired connections are static items like TVs, consoles and work machines, plus the Enphase box for the PV. Also use the Ikea smart home hub to control some blinds and that needs a wired IP connection. My only regret was not dispersing the wall plates more intelligently in the study - we have one wall where there are none, bounded by doors (so no fly cable option) and inevitable that's where the printer has gone so it needs to use WiF!

Try sdg in Armagh, they supplied the tanking system for ICF basement. Speak to Darragh. They do a paint on liquid suitable for ICF. At our ground floor level we fitted additional external insualtion. To prevent the tanking being bridged, the lapped over another wide layer of dpc over the tanking, up 200mm and back through the ewi to the render bead above ffl. I used the paint stuff around door thresholds.

I have a solar in the bathroom (vaulted celing) and it is lovely to be in the bath and have it open. Definitely prefer the solar over the electric we have elsewhere, for ease of wiring up etc, but a north facing or shaded roof may mean solar would be impractical. Your best compromise may be to buy manual ones and a Velux opening pole, i think they are about £30 and made for this specific purpose. If you find you are opening them all the time then buy the solar kit and retrofit.

Single buffer is fine - just chill it to 10°C and run that into the floor. You will struggle to get a floor down to that temp anyway with air temps of 18°C so it’s not worth messing with multiple buffers.

A freedom of information request could be counterproductive. You are not in dispute with the LA. You are in dispute with your neighbour. You don't want to gather documents from the LA which may assist your neighbour. If he wants to go to the trouble of getting information from the LA, then that's up to him, but strategically I would be minded to do nothing, other than: (i) consider whether to appeal this odd Order; and (ii) consider whether you should file an acknowledgement of service.

just had a consultation with the planning advisor who got our appeal through - he's no wiser what the basis of the order from the claimant side and we just have to wait for 2 weeks to receive all his papers ? apparently due to the fact that the order reached us and mentioned "to remedy procedural defect" of not addressing the right defendants in the first place - we are not able to throw it out but we are going to have a more legally minded mind to consider the background for now. more costs unavoidable it seems ? but I was so much more prepared for this call thanks to all your comments and learning - this is like a university here, loving it, more virtual Champagne to you all ? maybe one day the real stuff too ??

FWIW that's exactly what I did with my infill extension. Photo attached after basecoat applied with no difference between the parts of the house. The ideal thing about this is that you can then design the house details such as window reveals etc. to fit the design 'theme' of the house. In my photo you'll see that my windows have been moved out from the walls on the house and sit in the ewi to reduce thermal bridging around the frames. The negative side of this is that the depth of the reveals meant I had to make myself a bespoke reveal detail because the normal window/corner beads/ and reveal boards would not fit within such shallow reveals. As you'll see from the image I also curved my reveals as I didn't want the square sharp corners typically found on new ewi. This is where you ideally need someone with experience working with ewi as they'll be able to guide you with the detailing, something you don't want to find out about when it's too late and the renderers are on site. Your architect is merely suggesting what is a more mainstream approach and using the typical system sold by Weber which will be installed on a lot of houses across the UK. He/she may also be reflecting what you already mentioned as a lack of understanding of ewi systems. Like you, it's not the direction I would choose to take although if installed and detailed properly it will probably last the lifetime of the building providing it's maintained correctly too. There's nothing wrong with asking your architect to reconsider and include the works for removing the pebbledash and alternative buildup, but what I would personally strongly recommend is that based on your personal preference of materials you find and then use a complete ewi system and avoid selecting individual layers yourself that aren't part of the system. As mentioned before, get the manufacturer's technical department to complete a condensation risk analysis to demonstrate suitability of the buildup. You can also play with online tools like ubakus.com to get a feel for what you want. As a side note, please do remember to remove the pebbledash before you remove the roof and gut the house - old walls can become terribly unstable when you take the load off them and you don't want to be hammering the existing render off then! ? You're clearly doing your research so I'm sure you'll settle of the right solution for you. Good luck with it.

I really do not think it would be sensible to initiate a legal dispute, especially with a party that is hard to trace. The OP wants to be able to sell the place with no issues. Presently there are none and the water supply is all fine.

I am so looking forward to seeing what happens. Can we have a Sweep Stake.

OK. The buffer tank is a hot water vessel, simply full of water, zero mechanical or moving parts NONE, ZILCH, NIL, NADA. Get the old noisy unit out of your head, keep it off this thread, WE HAVE MOVED ON!!! The most you will have where this buffer is, is a circulation pump and possibly a motorised 2 port zone valve, one near silent, one totally silent. Noise is NO LONGER an issue. Even if there is a defrost cycle, it will only involve the ASHP sucking warm water back out of the buffer, which will be no more audible than when it is in normal ( quiet ) heating mode. The new equipment is completely different to the original, the original being a split ASHP with a remote ( internal ) compressor unit ( which was your nemesis ), but the new unit is a monoblock with the compressor outside with it. EVERYTHING that makes noise IS OUTSIDE. This is the most amount of capital letters I have used in a single post since helping to start this forum, so.......read, digest, understand, move forwards. We herby set sail form new ( quieter ) waters. You can request, of the new installers, that the secondary ( buffer ) pump ( if there is to be one at the buffer ) is located elsewhere in your dwelling, eg away from the bedroom. IF you mention the old system and it's associated noises etc again, I am going to send the boys 'round to duff you up, ok We're moving forwards, away from the old shite. The management.

Great post, and full marks for effort! As an alternative to mortar I took a punt on a jointing compound for ours (Joint-it) as I didn't trust myself to do a decent job and keep the sandstone clean. Not cheap, but quick and pain-free; 25 sq m done in a couple of hours.

Basically no. A single skin block wall won't hold back that amount of pressure. You want the wall to have steps so the earth its holding back rests on these and stops it toppling over. So your bottom course would be 450mm wide then steps in to 330mm for another course. Then 1 course at 215mm and a single row of 215mm then a block on its edge, 100mm wide. This will give you a height of 1m. You backfill with clean gravel with some sort of drainage channel or weep holes in the block work. The membrane sits on the ledges of the steps and helps to hold the wall in place.

How can you know that? You are making some very broad brush assumptions to arrive at such a conclusion. Do you know what will happen to energy prices over that 15yr period as that will have a material impact on the repayment timeline? Or do you assume today's prices will apply in 15yrs time? Do you know how much they will generate or is this an assumption again? Do you know how much they will use out of what is generated? I'm not having a go at you, I'm taking aim at how this is not a binary decision. It is too complex to just divide the cost by the assumed energy produced and then compare that to todays energy prices to arrive at the answer. My own view is that the climate is going tits up, energy prices will most certainly rise - we are already scraping the barrel for being able to produce enough of it, power plants are getting older, new ones will cost a load of cash which will no doubt get passed on to the consumer. If the summer temperatures get more extreme will air con in the home become the norm for this country like others overseas? If so, the PV will pay the bill for that use. There are lots of tangential arguments as to why PV is worth doing but they tend to get overlooked/dominated by the financial argument. Yes its a high outlay, but if you're in the house for the long haul then at some point it will be worth that initial bank balance hit.