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Despite watching lots of Grand Designs, building a house wasn’t something I’d ever considered until about 18 months ago. Fast forward to today and we’ve bought a plot, instructed an architect, and I’ve traded my evening telly time for browsing the Buildhub forum. So how did we get here? My partner and I want to start a family but agreed that we wanted to move into something larger first. We drew up a list of what we wanted and started our search. After months of searching / viewing we began to realise that we were going to be spending a huge amount of money just to buy something that was ‘kind of’ what we wanted. Still, what else could we do? Then I stumbled across Danwood – the polish prefab house firm – and had my eyes opened to the world of self-building. I paused the depressing Rightmove search and started reading in earnest. We went to some self-build shows, read huge amounts online, and eventually decided to swap Rightmove for Plotfinder. Our hope was to build near where we live currently (to be near family / friends and have easy access to London for work) but had no luck finding anything suitable or affordable. Funnily enough, it was Rightmove that came to the rescue. One night my partner sent me a link to a bungalow. It was small, in a sorry state, and well over our plot budget… But it sat on a good-sized plot and was in a great location for us. We called the estate agent to arrange a viewing and were politely told to eff-off as they’d accepted an offer from a developer. Back to square one. 2 weeks later I got a phone call from the estate agent asking if we were still interested in a viewing. The developer’s financing fell through in the wake of the Kamikwasi ‘mini’ budget and the bungalow was back on the market. We went for a viewing that evening, put in an offer, and a few months later the bungalow was ours! We completed at the end of 2022 and have since appointed an architect but I’ll cover that, and other bits, in a separate post. Thanks for reading - I look forward to sharing our inevitable ups and downs as we move along.

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It’s ‘surprising’ how often another offer appears.

Looks like a great project - here is how we started:

Slight amendment.

I'm somewhat convinced that a water spray is a more hygienic way to deal with poo, as opposed to just spreading it all around with paper until a low-ish amount remains. But, well, the price for such a marvel of modern shittorial science goes up real quick depending on what features you need. Would love to know which toilets people have experience with? Some thoughts: I *think* the only feature that's crucial is an upward-ish spray, which, somewhat strangely, eliminates the cheapest option, which is the Vitra Aquacare - 550GBP, which seems to just tick that box. But I have the impression it wouldn't be able to 'hit the spot'. - fixed sprayer The cheapest device with an upward-ish spray I've found is the more electronic and has a lot more fluff-ish features Vitra V-Care Basic, 1100 GBP - pretty flexible sprayer - e.g. a bit more gentle for women, adjustable extension - seat heating Only slightly more expensive is the Aqua Lava device, which is 1198 GBP - Adjustable spray, temp, pressure - Nozzle Oscillation - Warm Air Drying: 5 settings The warm air is somewhat interesting, but I would suspect it will take much too long to do its job vs just using a bit of paper. Does anyone have a toilet with a butt dryer? How long until you're dry? Once we get into the 1500-2000 range, there's a range of devices that are somewhat similarly featured: Grohe Sensia - 1669 - All of the above plus heated toilet seat. And then, as far as I'm aware, the cheapest toilet from the most premium brand: Toto Washlet RG Lite - 1949 - Doesn't have air dryer. So.. thoughts? The Aqua Lava seems to be the best deal but will it be poorly designed or break after 2 monsterpoops?

From a quick look, the fundamentals are the same, both referring to the same document.

Same here. Ours was a 1.4 acre field that had only ever been used as grazing land.

Unfortunately it has no material effect on a planning application. If the site is within the settlement boundary (should be available within the local plan) then infill would be a strong argument. If it's outside the settlement boundary, then it would be considered rural or a "ribbon" development (development that has historically occurred along a road, leading away from a settlement) where the infill argument is unlikely to carry any weight. Get a copy of the relevant OS map, sketch out the foot print of what you are thinking and walk it into the Planning department. They should make someone available for a 10 min chat (although some LPA's will make it as difficult as possible), and see whether it's a definite "no", or a "may be". If it's a "may be" then it's worth a punt and offering a little over it's value without planning. What is odd though is why the current owner hasn't already tried to get Outline Planning and made their plots worth a lot more money.

Go far it Ours was a 2.5 acre field and had been in the same family for over a 100 years Not so much as a cow shed has been built on there Now we have two building plots

I browsed the topic and on reading @Nickfromwales first post, my honest reaction was that they were reasonable scoping Qs aimed at focusing the discussion into something valuable for you. You have now twice replied by trolling in response to reasonable points. Not a good start for a new member.

It's been a while but I seem to remember much more dilute that that. Safer to start weak 90:10 maybe and up the dosage from there. If it's just green algee a brush and a garden hose will shift it. Otherwise a cheap karcher or similar will get the job done.

The price of the land will usually reflect the likelihood of planning being granted It would be worth checking if there has been any related applications to this land

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285121580537?hash=item4262920df9:g:gikAAOSww75j0VRp&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8Oo2VkeYjPSaqtN7JVb1u5YOlFDX3CiTLo14RM0%2BlMepZHo6JoiEafYIbL0N2M3L5Zaft9uxo%2FNgtcJ%2B9aJLoDtQ5A%2FHMdBe0NWKZeP4RqKy5bKRSXpYYyY15J8HqDVfa5GjdbV33tfBLExBh20%2FA2yhAm9limeVMSBUdKaWo9GPv1yBC09ai81kplq9Wlml1Kp%2FThCNNEoGmSgrQbbhG1ueoqstXGrCSNeB6yWyaKNVNdty8Q2c9FtFDuV50ClaLYVYYIEEQdnr6aiTQ68I6xlJ9zGu4rFS0G0brDHTbM3WzHd%2FlnxNa%2FufNPwXjSnaqg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7Ljy-HaYQ

I agree with the 100x25mm - got to be screws for SIP though.

how confident are you that there is actually another offer?

Buy a normal toilet and add one of these? https://www.samodrahome.com/collections/bidet-attachment/products/samodra-minimalist-bidet?variant=40198313509062 They are available on AliExpress, Wish, eBay, etc. If you search, you can find lefthanded ones too. I don't have one but its a solution I am considering.

I didn't want white or yellow. My mix was 3 builders sand 1 sharp sand 1 lime 1 OPC.

They'll likely be getting in through those old air bricks! A mouse can get through a pencil sized hole.

Easy to find. Google Highways, sightlines. 1 page attached. The principle is that you are sitting in your car, so you are low down and back from the road. How far can you see each way? It depends on the road speed, but you could make a special case if the road could not be driven at that speed.

We love where we live, but have always wanted to build so converting one of our barns seemed like the ideal compromise. Hindsight is amazing, I still feel like bulldozing it sometimes 🙂

It should be possible. Speak to your SE about an alternative solution - which may mean more reinforcement in the pad foundation and a larger beam. The masonry is probably just there to conceal the UB and if you’re happy with the UB exposed you just need to paint it to get the FR.

Beat me to the punch I suspect mr Ps answer is what you will get from your SE This is pretty common on commercial buildings With some boing as the SE has shown Or add a stud wall to bring them flush

You need to bat this back to the engineer. What you have suggested is rather close to the edge of the pad foundation.

+1. Spray or brush on a dilute solution. Be careful with your skin and eyes obviously. Doing it in slightly damp/misty weather seems to help it soak in I find. Quite often just a rince with a bucket and brush once the chemicals have worked will do the trick but a pressure washer will make it a simple job.

sodium hypochlorate

Pressure wash! The surface will be pitted so dirt gets deep into the surface, yes you could grind off with a diamond disk but the work and resulting finish would be terrible.

Ours is Podium brand from Plumbase I like the the non slip and it cleans well but not sure it’s in your size. would be interested to see other people’s thoughts as well. ours has been in use for 12 months apx.

Have you insulated the ductwork supplying air to the rooms? Do you understand the difference between air con and cooling too? Just before we get 'into it'

@Drellingore It is all to do with exceeding electron shell energy levels and electron 'holes' in the atomic structure. If you can imagine a book shelf and you are hurling books into it, some will hit the wall and bounce back (reflection), some will be too high and miss (jumped up 2 energy states/shells), and others will be too low and fall to the ground (below shell potential). About, in perfect conditions, 40% will land nicely on the shelf. These are the photons that are in the Goldilocks zone. Now the real fun starts. As a photon is easiest to model as a mass less particle at the speed of light, and a massive particle at rest, two different physical principles have to be used. When the photon hits the silicone it has to instantly change states and become a particle with mass. That mass then has to act like a snooker ball and knock an electron out of place. Sometimes this works and the now free electron has to find a hole to fill. This happens about 50‰ of the time. That, and the 40% earlier, account for the efficiency of around 20‰ efficiency of PV. When it does not happen, because the electrons have mass, and are moving, they have energy. There are two rules here, momentum and kinetic energy. Depending on the speed and angles involved, some will heat the module, reducing efficiency, but importantly, reradiating photons (why the module mass does not increase, apart from birdshit and wood smoke particles). Some of the particles will easily find a hole to make a temporary home in, others will have to travel further away. Luckily the silicone is doped with other elements that means, in the lowest energy state, there is an excess of holes. On average, when the sun is shining, there is deficit of holes, so spare electrons find their way out via the wires and to any load in the circuit. If the module is unconnected, it acts like any mass with an energy input and rises in temperature. A similar cycle happens in the load, but in reverse. Why your light shines and your motor turns. As for the 'direction of flow' this is where the very poor analogy with mechanical plumbing breaks down, it was never a good one anyway. Electrons have a negative charge, empty atomic shells (the ones with holes in them) cause the atom to become positive. This creates a 'field' that, like a magnetic field, can do work, but only where the field is disturbed I.e. the load. So basically photons dislodge electrons, electrons then find a new hole, the ones that can't find one locally keep moving, and will eventually do some work, while re-emitting photons. This is only a partial model of what happens. If it was easy to describe, it would not be worth a PhD.

My preferred option would be a new cavity wall as the current one is single skin, hopefully with a 1m foundation. Hubby is not sure what he wants and would like to just pretend it isn't happening, he is the doer and I am the planner.

Hello @LSB Hope this helps a bit and gives you some food for thought, even if just to help you rule things out. I have made comments / suggestions / rambling thoughts in italic in line with your text. Firstly don't depair and think the worst, hard to do when you are at the sharp end. I haven't posted to my blog for a couple of months, mainly because we haven't been able to progress until we got the Structural Engineers report. This was promised in 2 weeks and ended up taking 10. Hopefully they dropped you a note explaining why things were taking longer as a common courtesy. I now suspect that this was because they didn't want to tell us the news. Don't suspect anything at this stage keep an open mind. Our build is a barn conversion so we've had to jump through lots of hoops. ,making lots of money for other people. But you will have something a lot of folk would give their back teeth for. But, particularly for the SE, first it was the report where they said to planning that the barn was convertible. The SE may have been looking at the condition of the walls and could they be retained as planning constraint, maybe that was their brief? Cost would not have been a significant factor. Then the 1st phase ground contamination report, no issues there. Good. Planning approved with condition of phase 2 contamination report. No significant problems constraints with that? Any other conditions other than just getting the investigation done? Then we started preparing the site, documented in previous blogs, we did this thinking that it would benefit us with the SE report to get the building regulations drawn. How wrong we were. Maybe not.. just by messing about on site you can gather valuable information that can be used to solve a problem. One of the limitations of the barn conversion was that one side of the building can only be 2.2m high. We worked around this by designing rooms so it wasn't needed for walking. Yesterday, I received the report, only to be horrified to see that this low side of the building, 2.2m remember, needs underpinning foundations of 'at least' 2.4m. How can a single storey build possibly need foundations deeper that the height of the building. The opposite side is 3.15m high to the roof, here the SE say we only need 1m deep foundations, figure that out. The soil is not clay, not sand, there are a few 3" elm trees that are being knocked down so no large roots. From what you have said it seems like the soil is the crux of the matter. The roof loadings and the self weight of the wall are not onerous given the size of structure you have. I'm just speculating but are the walls close to a boundary with trees on the other side? Has the SE not realised that the Elms are young and to be removed.. then speculated that they will grow into large trees? It could be a simple lack of communication! Digging deeper if this is not a communication issue. You mention that the soil is neither clay nor sand. It may still bit bit expansive.. prone to swelling / shrinkage.. much depnds on which part of the UK you live in. Some of the Gault (fissured) clays in England are sensitive to ground and moisture changes, If for example you live in parts of Northern Ireland, Norfolk, Stirling in Scotland, the Severn type estuary regions in Wales then the ground can move about to a good depth. Another thing is that your SE may have identified a band of silt.. so not clay or sand.. and this is another type of material. Silts are tricky to build on so maybe the SE has, luckily for you picked up on this. But, it gets worse, they say that this must be done 1m at a time, doing 1st meter, then 3rd meter, then 5th meter, then 2nd meter etc.etc. This particular wall is 25m long. They have no issues with the existing internal walls. Unless you have spent say 10k plus on a pretty comprehensive ground investigation.. maybe with an interpretive report I can't see (willing to learn though) the justification for concluding that the founds can be significantly shallower for the internal wall.. which may be load bearing to some extent. This makes me lean back towards the trees rather some tricky layer of soil in the ground. I've never been so glad to be stupidly busy at work to take my mind of this fiasco. So, what do we do. Relax! Have a chat with the SE. The thoughts I have are: 1. Can we knock down the back wall leaving the rest and build only 1m deep like the wall on the opposite side, but I would still need to get planning. 2. Do we write off all the work we've done and all the money we've spent (lots) and try and get planning to start from scratch with a kit house. It would have to be self build though due to the extremely limited funds available. 3. The long wall splits into utility, 2 x bathrooms, 3 x bedrooms and a pantry. Do we knock down the wall for each room and then rebuild it bit by bit and with what foundations. 4. Do we start on the high side of the conversion and work backwards ignoring the problem for now. The sides vary from 1m front to 2m foundations at the back. The most disappointment I feel is that the SE passed the building as fit to convert, including digging holes to look at the existing foundations with no mention of anything like this. I don't know if it makes any difference, but the original SE was probably about my age, in his 50's, whereas the recent one (same firm) was barely out of nappies and didn't want to talk to us when he was here to discuss anything. What I have done is: a. Requested a meeting with the SE and his manager to ask why so deep and about a new wall. If we can knock down the wall and put in 1m foundations then that is manageable as with the digger we can knock the existing one down and dig the trenches before getting a groundworks crew to do the rest. b. Started compiling an email to send to the planners, but with the current situation I don't think I will hear anything. Also, I'm a bit wary, if we say what is required can they pull our planning and still not allow us a new build. c. Started looking at some kit companies who provide self build kits to get some ideas of costs. The one thing that we cannot do is dig down 600mm x 2.4m a meter at a time. Maybe a groundworks company could, but at what cost for what, in reality, is a tatty barn which, if we could have got planning we would gladly have knocked down and crushed. I spoke to the planners after we got planning to ask about this route and we told that we had no chance. Here's a little reminder of the layout. In summary see what the SE's have to say. If you get no joy then dive back on BH. Provide as much info on the ground as you can and some cross sections so we can see where the roof loads go, the wall thickness and so on. BH members can then have a few more bits of info to work with. Look forward to your next post/ blog once you have got over this bump in the road. All the best.

It's the overflow pipe from the brine tank. It won't normally have anything flowing through it, and can be plumbed to a drain, rather than out through the wall (ours is plumbed to a drain, well above the connection from the normal drain pipe to the same drain).

@jack I have the softener drain pipe and overflow pipe both running into the same waste pipe. The drain pipe might cause some resistance if it remains at 10mm for a long distance but if it opens out to say 15mm I can't see any problem.

You can forget about UFH on an uninsulated slab. May as well take your cash outside and set fire to it.

>>> Not worth a knitted flue cosy. I think that something striped and crocheted would be lovely.