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Counterintuitive, but my architect was instrumental in getting us planning permission.

I looked into this years ago and my main worry was storing and moving water above living accommodation rather than just having a waterproof cover. IF I did rainwater harvesting I would use an underground tank filter and pump.

MVHR is NOT all about air tightness of a house, at least not just about how air tight you can make the fabric of the building. If i take the example of my last house, my first self build. I don't believe the basic fabric was leaky. But because it did NOT have mvhr, instead it had: Kitchen cooker hood exhausting through a 100mm hole. Utility room extract fan, venting through a 100mm hole. 4 bathrooms, each with it's own extract fan, exiting through a 100mm hole. A stove that drew it's combustion air from the room, and for that it had an air inlet vent built into the hearth do admit outside air into the room directly behind the stove. and because it was not room sealed, the stove flue effectively was vented to the room. We also had a standard letterbox in the front door, a cat flap, and every window had a trickle ventilator which even when "shut" I doubt were particularly air tight. That is what a "standard" house has as a collection of big holes to let air in and out uncontrolled. Fit mvhr and we have NONE of those. So regardless of what air tightness test you get, simply eliminating those collection of huge holes to be replaced by one inlet and one outlet and an mvhr system is bound to be a big improvement. Of course because everything was thought about this time, the WBS is room sealed drawing all it's combustion air directly from outside.

...the tiles or slates overlap enough that they don't leak immediately. Primitive and effective. Modern roofs leak with a single failure.

I'm certain they will be when we get to the other reserved matters, but for the initial outline application with only access as a reserved matter, I don't think they can add anything to be honest.

Would need a lot more thought and detail, but something along this idea.

If the CIL is a thing in your area don't start any work on site until you have formally claimed and been granted the CIL exemption for self builders. Even if the planners tell you it will be exempt you must formally claim it on the right paperwork or loose it and pay £fortune.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/fences-gates-and-garden-walls/planning-permission

This.

Builders are not experts in planning matters. I've seen it so many times here were people have followed the advice of trades and ended up on the wrong side of planning / building control. Glad you came here before doing anything. Anyway, speak to planning, provide a sketch and photos and see if they'll advise. Unless there's previous permission for a structure over 1m, you'll likely need planning. On the plus side, planners dislike fences and like walls and hedges.

So if the middle wall had extended to the rear of the house it would support the rear purlin mid span like the purlin towards the front..? If so what about a steel in my CAD (crayon assisted drawing) below

The builder is wrong. Maximum height under PD where it’s adjacent to a highway is 1m.

as is... Ground, upper, and overlaid. I've looked at a few alternatives on the proposed, but basically they all revolve around the small room at the back upstairs being moved left or right, with a second room beside it big enough for an upstairs bathroom. I'm willing to entertain anything that allows the addition of an upstairs bathroom, without losing the bedrooms (don't think my offspring would want to sleep in the bath)

We appear to agree. I did this with a 10m3 tank, this being twice the recommended size. The water bill was tiny as was the related sewage bill. Payback 5 years, which you don't get anywhere else legally. Well, maybe 8 years after costing the plumbing and management critically. On the latest project I'm thinking of a basic tank in the ground, for gardening only, and a simple pump.

If the gutter happened to be there or conveniently could be designed in, then ok. Maybe. But holes in roofs are to be avoided whatever the purpose. Gutters need overflows too. A usefully big tank also requires stiffening of the structure. So it's not something I would look to do. I will, however, continue to consider a tank in the ground and a pump. To feed that into the house requires a parallel plumbing system feeding only WCs and outside taps, and a link to mains for when the tank runs out.

I'd advise against judicial review and instead re-apply with a full matters application with a planning consultant assistance. Judicial review won't look at the merits of your application, but whether there was a legal mistake made by the inspector - facts in law. So you'd have to identify specifically what legal mistake was made, and even if you were successful at judicial review (£££), all that happens is that the inspector re-assesses taking that legal point from the high court. So you'd have to specifically point to a specific error in law made by the inspector. Even then they might make the same decision.

And the corresponding downstairs layout see we can see what any upstairs walls can transfer load to.

If I’ve learnt anything these last few years it’s that there’s no consistency with the LPA across councils and even within the same council. Too many decisions are based on the opinion of an individual rather than the strict application of their planning guidelines. They are also underfunded which isn’t helping them.

I'm with you 100%. Also part of my appeal Statement of Case; So my Local Authority themselves estimate that in less than six years, a third of the vehicles on their roads will be ultra low or zero emission. When you also consider the location, size of plot, potential value of house to be built etc., the odds of any future occupants driving an old, dirty, petrol or diesel car start to drop quite considerably from a demographic perspective. Whilst I'm frustrated that the Inspector seems to have disregarded much of the information I provided, it is nonetheless very heartening to have the support and bewilderment of the buildhub community to console me... 🤗❤️

I would have thought alongside the rear perlin as unlike the front perlin there is no central wall support. 🤷‍♂️ Can you give us a plan view of the upstairs rooms as they exist and what you propose ?

New houses have an estimated lifespan of 60 years. I'm not sure how that's calculated as it seems short to me, so perhaps that's 60 years to a major renovation? There's an argument that the LPA should not just be considering transport today, but for the life of the house. New car sales in the UK are currently 25% "Plug-in" (BEV + PHEV), ie. zero or ultra low emission. By 2035 that will effectively be 100% zero emission (Labour is talking about going back to 2030). Before 2050 there will effectively be no non-zero emission cars on UK roads. (yeah, I know there will be a few) While you can't force future occupiers to move to zero or ultra-low vehicles the government is with national legislation and councils are accelerating that change with low emission zones and new properties are making that an easier change with driveways and chargers.

>>> Would it be reasonable for me to conclude that there shouldn't be an issue here? Certainly my LPA seems to believe 'smaller is better', so yes.

I never bothered asking, wasn't really aware I had to. But started paying council tax that day. No one seemed to care, so didn't ask questions.

"very" will mean different things to different people, but assuming you expect it to be better than 5m³/m².h @ 50 Pa then you need to install the additional ventilation which for your unit needs to be equivalent to a 10cm x 5cm clear hole to outside. With that additional ventilation installed, you'll then need to perform the the "full spillage test " they mention, with all extracts and ventilation running on max. If it passes Building Control should not have an issue.

Quite. The various policies and departments aren’t joined up. Like almost every other parts of Government. It suits the council not to approve rural builds and promote more urban development. If we all lived in towns and cities they could cut all the services to the rural areas.

I’ve been looking at this recently it looked like the cheaper end had 25mm panels and the dear ones 40mm panels. look for one with a threshold that has an upstand that the door closes down to with rubber sealing strip. I thought the u value quoted was pointless as the weakest area would be air leakage around the seals.

That’s outrageous, with that attitude virtually no houses will be given planning permission in rural locations. Ditto Very good idea. 👍

Possibly lashed together with lots if timber and without approval. Most such will survive, because we don’t get many hurricanes or deep snow, although we design for it. But it's serious if they don't.

It’s not easy to see the problem without drawings but as my Dad used to say “there is more than one way to skin a cat” it’s a shame your neighbours plans are not available to see how they did it.

When I looked at this a couple of years ago, the Hormann sectional doors LPU42 and LPU67 looked the best, or at least were one of the few that provided what looked like sensible specification which came to a 1.4 W/m2k

I’ve been converting our flat roof garage into a workshop. It’s adjoined to the house, and has an up-and-over metal door. Ages ago I put 50mm of celotex on the inside of the metal door, giving it a calculated U value of around 0.5W/m2k - of course this ignores draughts around it. Calc: celotex lambda=0.025W/mk, so U=0.025W/mk / 0.05m=0.5W/m2k The outside wall has 100mm celotex, floor 50mm, roof 150mm equivalent. The insulation is mostly internal - likely I’ll only heat it locally when needed with IR panels rather than with a thermostat. For comparison with the U values you gave; an old single glazed window U value is 6W/m2k, modern double glaze is 1.2W/m2k. I think you’ll be disappointed with a 5W/m2k ‘insulated’ door.

I was staring at my garage door last night while planing some wood. What a good idea ^^. It sounds like your supplier is saying their doors have a U value from 4.8 to 5.4 W/m²K, which is... not much. Basically the same as single glazing. You can convert it to an R value by dividing 1 by it: U=5.4 = R=0.18. Doesn't sound insulated at all... ("Rating" is a weird term to use here, but they're giving you the unit so I'm confident it's not an obscure rating scheme. Language barrier?) Don't think I'd get planning permission to convert my garage into living space, so if well-insulated garage doors *do* exist that might help a lot.

Without evidence, that is an outrageous comment to make. You are correct @garrymartin, the micropolitics of this application appears to be a confounding factor. You are also correct in pointing at the Catch22 factor: Sustainability . Who knows what it really means? I admire your attack, I rarely read (here) of such a well-organised approach. Could I suggest that you : + wait a bit for the new regime to settle down; + smell the new policy coffee ; + employ a really switched on planner and; + reapply. Reading between the lines, the LPA is grasping at straws. And has the Inspectorate in it's pocket. You need a well- connected professional who - in detail -knows the micropolitics of the area. Good luck.

- 20A and 355 Bus Stops – 1.3km (0.8 miles) - Droitwich Spa Train Station – 2.6km (1.6 miles) Unfortunately, the Inspector commented "I am also not persuaded that occupiers would prefer cycle-bus and cycle-train travel options, over the convenience of vehicle related trips. In particular, for day to day requirements." As far as I can tell, what the LPA Officer and the Inspector appear to be implying is that unless you can walk to a bus stop or to local services, it's not sustainable because people will prefer using a car.

You might be cheaper buying new panels with delivery included. 6 months hire= new purchase price. Or buy second hand at £15 for a panel and foot, and rent a Luton for the day.

Buy a 12 foot trailer or a long bed transit type pick-up, or Luton box van. I found the luton box was best, as I've owned all three. If your doing a self build (yourself) you will need one, unless your getting builders merchants and sub contractors to supply everything.

I feel for you. I think that where a planning consultant would have assisted is in providing objective similar schemes that had been approved and drawing comparisons to your site and those. Where travel was an issue they would have looked for similar schemes that had been passed, on evidence, that were objectively ‘worse’ than yours. They reference planning policy, high court cases that challenge and reinforce your position and your site. Fundamentally, at an appeal stage, you’re into the intricacies and minutia of planning law, planning policy and case law. At this stage it’s very hard as a lay person to produce a compelling and reasoned argument. It’d be a bit like representing yourself in court. I also think that an appeals officer or planning officer treats an application differently when you have an advocate that understands planning and case law in detail. You sound a bit like me, trying to understand the NPFF, applying reasoned logic, ‘tilted balance’ and so on. But here’s the reality - actually what you need is not to understand and interpret the NPFF and planning policy, but to understand how your planning department and an inspector understands and interprets planning policy. This is totally different to you understanding policy, because the missing piece you won’t have is experience. Experience of national prior cases, of supporting high court rulings, of the local interpretations and sites that were passed and so on. Unfortunately, it’s not an intellectual argument, and it’s not a case of you presenting your argument to a panel of other lay people or a jury - it’s their decision to make - entirely on their interpretation and their application of policy to your application. I don’t know how It works with going back in for planning after a dismissed appeal but I would 100% recommend appointing an experienced consultant and speaking to them about your chances going for a full application (not outline). A good one will 100% be able to tell you if you have a case. Waiting for your planning officer or head of planning to come back on your points is a waste of time, I think. Get back on the saddle, get a professional in your corner, and see if the game’s over or time for round 2. 👊

They are very long. The trailer I bought I sized to be able to fit a standard 2.4x1.2 sheet. Heras fencing is much longer. I got our 30 odd fencing panels delivered.

Bought ours second hand from eBay. They delivered for a fee.

employ a professional who knows crack.

>>> The moral of this particular part of the story is that as intelligent as you think you are, there are always experts in the field that have experience aligned to that intelligence that will trump you every time. You are rightly treating this as a logical exercise with rules, regulations, standards, arguments, precedents etc. The cynical part of me suggests that 'sustainable travel' is just an excuse to do what the planners want - which is to discourage development in some circumstances. My LPA often uses the words 'amenity' and/or 'environment' regularly as justifications for their decisions without bothering to explain which aspect of amenity or environment they mean - and they have 3 or 4 definitions of each in their local plan. That is, they use these fuzzy words to 'justify' what they want - at least to themselves. Maybe Labour will change things around a little and some of that might work in your favour - at least they say they will re-write the NPPF.

Hi Garry, so sorry to hear of this refusal and good for you for not giving in. Yes all these bl@@dy politicians talk of building more houses and changing planning rules but they still stop people like yourselves doing the right thing. 🤷‍♂️

You need to take some bricks off and excavate in an archaeological fashion to determine at what level the ground has sunk. It could be the aco drain is leaking and the top layer of sand has washed away, or it could be something deep down that has collapsed like previously made up ground, a collapsed drain, a leaking water pipe or just about anything else.

Approval of Reserved Matters was correct, that is exactly what we did following outline permission.

Insufficient drainage so it's going into the adjacent bit of driveway and washing away sub base?

BEfore you do anything you need heat loss calculation for your building. This will tell you if your on a hiding to nothing.

missing/poor sub base. The ACO channel really should have been concreted in as well. If the build up didnt involve a good 6" of type 1 hard core it wont last.

The sister-in-law always brings her dogs 🙂

I think the paint will do as good a job as the plastic sheet, which will be pierced by multiple screws and may not be properly lapped / taped.

As @Nickfromwales says, there are several different Sikaflex compounds. Originally, Sikaflex was only a polyurethane, moisture curing, sealant/adhesive. This was the stuff that earned Sikaflex a good reputation as a sealant that would tick like sh*t to a blanket, on damned near anything. The two downsides with it were the slight smell and the fact that it was, if anything, too good an adhesive (damned near impossible to get off when cured). Since then, several manufacturers have come up with other formulations, from polysulphide sealants (excellent stuff for sealing up the joints inside aircraft wing fuel tanks, but smells awful and I'd avoid it like the plague) to a wide range of modified silicone polymers and polyurethanes. CT1, Evo Stik "Sticks like Sh*t" sealant and Unibond F|T101, are examples of MSP adhesive/sealants that are near-identical. Sikaflex EBT is a polyurethane that seems very similar to their old 223 industrial grade stuff, marketed as a building adhesive/sealant. In general, there's not much to choose between any of the MSP or polyurethane products. All are significantly better in just about every respect to standard moisture curing acetoxy silicone sealants, although some of the better neutral cure silicone sealants perform almost as well as the MSP stuff, but there's not a big enough price differential to make it worth using them, IMHO.