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In my case , the architect did the drawings for planning permission (elevations, floor plan, site plans etc) that cost a few £k, the after we got permission, I had Building Control drawings done by an architectural technician (ie build specification, apparently these vary in detail, depending on what you want) and these drawings were sent to the SE. The software is CAD and if the architects appoints the SE and they work together they usually are happy to share them. I chose a different SE and there was one sniffy moment where the architect didn't want to, which annoyed me ...

My boss says "It's always the windows that go wrong in Grand Designs". I think he might have a point. Not that I'm building anything particularly grand, but certainly about the windows. This is the outside prior to fitting the large window. The cladding job is going well, so we are hopeful of a good day. Having spent a few evenings fitting frames in the recent cold snap I think I ought to spend some time with SWMBO on valentines weekend. So I treat her to fitting the second largest frame in the house, and of course some glazing. It's because I'm a really nice person and like to share. The frame is 2.5 metres tall and 1 metre wide, designed to take a single glazing unit so I was particularly concerned with distorting the long edges as it was installed so we paid particular attention to shimming it correctly. I'm pleased to say that the Alien declared it to be straight and level after the screws were tightened. So concludes fitting the last frame in the first floor. The view of the site will be particularly good from the stairs. Now on to the glazing. We carefully plan how we are going to lift 49kg of glass up the scaffolding and swing it into the frame. We have a selection of glazing handles, ropes and platforms set up ready, and then I look at the glass in detail and announce that there's no way I'm fitting it. SWMBO then looks at the glass and storms off in a sulk. Not the reaction I desired, but understandable when you see the bars inside the unit are Y shaped and not straight. We then checked all the others, and found another with a dodgy bar, meaning 2 units out of 48 have a problem - not exactly achieving 6 sigma QA! I have to suffer on site with SWMBO sulking while we do some other jobs that need doing - all she wants to do is go home and be cross with the local window people, which I can understand, but it won't progress any of the handful of little jobs blocking the big day of seeing the house without scaffolding. I pointed out (in the words of one of the members here) if you can't take a joke don't start a self build. But this went down like a cup of warm sick. That evening we found what looks like water in the oil of the Range Rover engine. Happy valentines day Mrs dnb! Fast forward to Monday, and the photos arrived at the window supplier. His first words were "Well, they didn't try very hard, did they? I'll tell them to have another go and hurry up about it". I'm happy that it will be sorted out, but it's a bit more delay. We'll get there eventually... The last frontier for the cladding before we look at scaffolding removal. There's no point in hanging on to it for fitting the arch windows unless they arrive in the next couple of days. The window suppliers assure me that everything can be done from inside for these. I've always liked this view of the house.

Well that was an unexpected surprise. We just had a signed-for delivery arrive. I wasn't expecting anything, and then had a slight panic attack when I saw it was from HMRC. Big bundle of docs, so assumed they were just returning the invoices, but turns out it came with a letter confirming they'll be paying in full within 20 days! A few notes: We moved in around Christmas 2015. It's taken us far longer than I'd ever thought possible to get things signed off, and I was convinced we'd be going to appeal as a result. We were upfront about the delay (i.e., we put in the correct moving-in date on the form), but did not give any explanations or excuses. The application was filed at the end of October (about 2.5 months after issuance of the completion certificate), so it's taken almost 4 months to get the decision. We had some oddities - a few invoices in the name of trades, an invoice in the name of someone completely random (something bought at a trade counter - our guess is that they made a mistake and used the last customer's account?), some cash receipts for cheaper items (each under £100, I believe), and one weird invoice for bathroom stuff that combined the amount owing and deposit paid in a difficult-to-fathom way. We put a brief explanation on each point in the covering letter. All invoices were accepted, which surprised me a bit. We did have some decent expenses in the months leading up to the completion date, which may have helped paint a picture of the work being ongoing. There were, however, periods of a year or more where nothing happened, so certainly there's nothing to suggest that the work was continuous. In any event, the money is nice, but not having the stress of a potential appeal and tribunal hearing is even better! I do hope this is indicative of a change in practice at HMRC. I genuinely feel for the people who lost significant money as a result of HMRC's behaviour.

How much have you agreed the Architect will do... Just get Planning Permssion? Building Control Approval? Construction Drawings (if needed)? Supervise getting quotes and Builder selection? Supervise the actual building work or just provide support if needed? Getting him to do the whole lot can cost >10% of the build cost.

You definitely need their agreement and a deed of grant of an easement. I have done this before. Expect to pay but they do not have to agree. If they do not, you are stuffed, sorry. I know they do not have to because I have prevented neighbours running services through my drive even though they had a right of access on foot or by vehicle. The rights did not extend to services on, under or over it. BT does count, the telecoms act lets them do anything they want.

I've re-read this thread and you appear to have had one electrician and THREE plumbers on the job but the plumbing pictures show it looking unfinished? What are you doing to get through so many plumbers, you're not Zoot in disguise are you? ? (I still can't fathom "potable hot" btw).

It's been a wile since the last blog entry and I didn't expect to have gone through yet another contractor by this stage but that's the way life goes! We had some good progress with the basement floor walls going up and getting poured without a hitch. We moved on to the basement roof which is a terrace for the lower ground floor so was propped with acros (decided to buy 50 as can re-sell later). That also went well - aside from some issues identified by the structural engineer. Due to a delay in the concrete pour (don't ask), managed to get a local firm in to make up the shuttering for the exterior stairway so poured them at the same time as the basement roof - not really saving money just getting it done a bit earlier. With that done we could get no with some backfilling on the sides of the building, brining up the drainage pipes from the soakaway and building some planters between the side the basement and the boundary - reusing some of the sleepers from the retaining structure we built along the boundary. Also meant we could get some blocks in to the other boundary wall and close in our neighbour - she's been great and very understanding! After applying the waterproofing and a few weeks we were able to properly backfill behind the basement. The engineer required more granular fill than the beautiful sand we had removed so that hurt a bit but never mind we cracked on with that and backfilled against the eps sheets we laid against the double drain which was against the waterproof membrane. This took a lot of time compacting in 150mm layers but we had a big excavator on site to help and a few bodies. With the backfill done we could start on the ground works for the lower ground floor. Unfortunately a ground worker though a boundary wall should come down (I wasn't on site) so that made a lot more work - was the remaining part (about 8m) of a 20m long wall so more to get rid of and more to rebuild (he didn't last a lot longer). As this floor is below street sewer level we installed a1.5m x1m pump station for foul water/sewage - the upper floors go direct to the sewer so we can last a while if this get blocked up - though it does have 2 pumps, an alarm etc. Issue really was that it had to be pretty deep due to the distance from the furthest bathroom - though the groundworks guys did a great job with that. We found that a large tree we had felled (with permission) had it's stump in the way so a day was spent getting rid of that -managed to find a neighbour to take it + some off-cuts of timber! You can see in the pics some decent size I beams we installed to make a king post wall retaining our neighbour's new fancy house - the beams were 9m long so 6m in the ground and 3 out to retain the excavations. Luckily I could call upon the firm I used for the earlier retaining king post wall who happened to have hired in a great new machine which they used for 2 days to make the holes and we then used the 13T excavator to drop the steels in place - this was completely heart in your mouth stuff. The steels were too long to be lifted so the guys cut a wedge in them 1m down from the top to wrap the lifting chain around to get more height - worked great. A bit of concrete later and we had 4 solid steels which we could install the sleepers in to. Rest of the ground works just took its time, we're 3.5m below ground level so all materials had to be sent down a home made chute but more problematic was the removal of 160T of additional excavations from the trenches and final levelling. how do you get that up 3.5m? We hired a long reach HiAb with a clam shell bucket and paid extra for a tipper to be loaded at the rate of 1 per hour. Took it's time but we got there eventually. We still had some final trenches and drainage right at the front of the site which of course resulted in 30T more excavations which we put in dumpy bags and got the HiAb back to lift out and put in a tipper - though kept 10 on site as a safety barrier and to reuse for backfill later. And the long boundary wall - well we re-built that much stronger than it was and also a little higher to fit with a future stairway - not looking forward to the rendering cost for that ! So we're now ready for the concrete blinding layer and then we get the steel fixers in for 10T of rebar for the next slab. I hope it gets easier after that! and hope we keep the current team for the duration....

Will be EDPM with a pedestal for tiles on top of that - will check on vapour layer -roofing co are speccing that -I trust them

I mean, seriously! The guy tells you - "You don't worry, I'll watch over every aspect of the build, that's what you pay me for", and then never checks that the door opening in the brick/block walls is wide enough, never takes interest in the final design/dimensions of the windows/doors ordered (to be fair, we ordered windows and doors ourselves, not via PMM - but that was based on the opening dimensions he/builders provided and from the company he/builders recommended!). A professional PM would still double-check or at least point it out to the client that the actual door opening is a regulated thing and might be worth checking... And the windows company, who knew full well this is a newbuild so the openings are done from scratch and are subject to BCO approval, did not bother to point it out either. Funniest thing (not really, but hey) is that : imagine the installed door opening must be A, and the doorframe total width be B (to pass the BC). The window guys designed and drawn a narrow door of C and D dimensions, respectively (c.5cm narrower than BC regs), and the final manufactured end product was STILL DIFFERENT and had dimensions of E and F! We could not believe it when we compared actual measurements to the drawing and found the TOTAL difference betwen A/B and E/F to be 11cm!!! And we raised this with window people. And they offered to make another door at half price (and they would take away the old one). Naturally, the reply from HWMBO cannot be quoted in polite society, but in the end they produced a new correct door free of charge. But we did get some grey hair...

Thanks so much for everyone's advise. I'm going to look long and hard again at ashp

Let it not be said that my emails are not effective. IQglass will repair the door for free and in essence agree ( how I read it anyway ) that the guy dealing with our install was a knob . If anyone wants me to send abusive but factual emails I’ll do it for free - because I’m kind ( and enjoy it ) to anyone I should add ! Not just IQglass . Neighbor, the council ( my favourite as they are lying (expletive deleted) ) , lovers , even that guy you hate at the end of the road - he’s sure to be a (expletive deleted) wad . Equally anyone on here ?

It will dry in slightly slower But fine to mix the same thicknesses of PB

If you are going straight through, then the length of cable covered by the insulation is short and will not cause overheating, so yes its ok to seal around the hole.

Short answer is yes You will need there permission to dig up there drive You may also find that while you have reasonable access This may not extend to lorry's and cranes Is there no other way to bypass there property

Ref Salus, our very own @Jeremy Harriswas using (and rating highly) Salus gear if I remember correctly. He was no mug either.

Just put a packer under the top edge, dont `seal` the back as water will get in but then cant get out

The interior area of that house is around 135 sq metres. Once something has been approved it should be easier to get something else approved especially if it is smaller. There may be more of an issue if they care about specifically how it looks and not just the size, siting etc. I know there are a few people saying they have build costs under £1000 a square metre, but generally they are people with some kind of trade experience, willing to do lots of work themselves, willing to project manage and willing to take a very long time to build their houses because of that. If you just paid a contractor to build the house you'd spend between £1500 and £2000 a square metre. If you project manage and take out the contractor's margin and spend more time looking for the best quote on everything you could probably save around 15%. Call it £1250 to £1700 a square metre. Then you can probably save 2-4% (very rough numbers dependent on all kinds of factors) for each interior trade you can do yourself, so decorating, plumbing, electrics, joinery etc. Also tiling and kitchen fitting can be pretty expensive. If you did all of them you could get down towards £1000 a square metre, but your house is going to take a lot longer to build. I get the impression that you are in the less experienced camp where costs would be at the higher end.

Google found examples of their decision discussed here.. https://www.stiveschambers.co.uk/content/uploads/2019/04/Modification-of-Restrictive-Covenants-article-final.pdf

Not done one but if thats the process involving the Land Tribunal I have read it can take two years. Backlog due to Covid as well?

Any help. www.homebuilding.co.uk/amp/ideas/timber-frame-houses-gallery

The expanding foam isn't good at stopping sound, and you are likely hearing a good deal of flanking noise coming round the window. Once the plaster board is on and is sealed externally it will make a difference.

You WILL need planning permission unless the land already has planning, or a certificate of lawful development, for a "Caravan" It is building regulations that a portable building is exempt from, but the drainage connection still needs building regs. If your building is truly mobile then you can use it for 28 days each year without PP then move it to a different location. If it was as simple as buy a bit of land, put a caravan on it and live in it without any permission, the whole of the SE of England would be full of fields of caravans.

I turn the stats down to circa 35-45oC depending upon the type of dwelling / emitter. It won’t pump 6kW in unless 6kW is required, the stats will simply allow the arrangement to crudely ‘modulate’. As I install these systems for Joe Public, I have to show diligence so I always aim at around 50-100% redundancy where it’s not cost prohibitive. The heating controls do of course need to be robust fir one, and I say that with the fact that I always fit low temp suited UFH setups to manage / regulate heat input to the dwelling ( ergo overheating has not ever been an issue ). You can drive a Ferrari to the shops at 10 mph I would agree with an ethos of fitting one, and buying a spare to sit on the shelf ready to go, but if Mrs Public loses the heating whilst the hubby / household plumber is unavailable, the double setup will be appreciated and understood

Unfortunately its not that simple. What is the land currently used for? You might need planning permission for "change of use."

Your Help to Buy ISA will be used for the purchase of the land, not the completed property, as it goes.

Its definitely possible but you have to do a lot of it yourself and spend time shopping around for the best prices. Internal spec can vary hugely and can obviously have such effect on the total build cost. The plans you show have a lot of glass and bifolding doors which is not cheap so that will take a big chunk of the budget. In regards to your help to buy isa, my fiance and I used our help to buy isa’s for our self build. It went on purchasing the plot, as long as neither of you have ever had a mortgage or house in your name before then you can use the isa towards the plot purchase.

Yes it is. The BCO wants confirmation (usually via an engineer) that the existing structural elements are suitable to receive the additional loading. These elements usually include but are not limited to lintels, steels and foundations.

On Something like an extension Your builder will dig the footings out Then call building control to inspect prior to pouring the concrete Quite informal If he needs anything else he will tell you Once he’s involved you won’t have anymore dealings with planners Good luck

I have just completed on an Ecology mortgage and we have a local conveyancing firm who acted for me - they charged £500 plus vat and £40 plus vat for the bank transfer fee. I would recommend them. I can message you the details or if it is acceptable can post them on here (I am not sure if we are allowed to post recommendations like this?)

We should stop using the old imperial measurements. And all houses for sale should state the plot size, and the building/s footprint size. Then half the confusion about price/m² would just vanish. If we did state things as they are, then we would not have left the EU, or thought that gargling with warm water would stop COVID-19. I often wonder why people are so reluctant to state basic information.

I had a 3 bed house, was identical, in area, volume and shape to the mirror image one, which had 2 beds. So quoting number of bedrooms, bathrooms etc, us not a good indicator of building cost.

Hi Happy Valley There is a thread where lots of prices are discussed.

They look like clay tiles and they tend to curl slightly when fired so that’s quite normal, concrete versions tend to be flatter but not as nice looking.

Looks acceptable to me. Tiles aren't a precision product, variations leading to small gaps are inevitable. The overlap pattern is designed to keep the roof waterproof even with gaps between the tiles. If you want a more even result I think you'ld have to strip and relay the whole roof.

Well, a few weeks have passed since my last past. We finished up the road and last post we had scrapped back the house footprint. I feel like we haven't come that far since then, but in reality we probably have actually now that I look at the pictures. Once we had scrapped back the top and subsoil we got the levels down to where I thought we should be. The house was meant to have FFL of 138.5m (referenced to sea level of course!) but I increased the height by 0.75m. It was just too low in the ground for the plot and the driveway would have ended up higher and now seems to be in the right place. So first full week at it, I was basically running around organising things as you do. I gave Jewson about zero notice of all the stuff I wanted. They gave me good list prices, 90% off with my self build credit account. I tested these on the internet and a few others merchants and they were decent. They delivered the mesh and underground drainage pipes, mesh castles, visqueen etc all in quick time which was good. I also took delivery of my container - which was much required and has been a god send to store everything. On the first day when I was out, the groundworkers were scrapping back to ground bearing soil, but found a soft patch at one end - instinctively they dug another 500mm deeper to get hard ground. Then called me to say we had an issue. They felt it was quite soft, I turned up - had a look it seemed softish but not overly. However I have no experience - fortunately I called the SE and he came straught by to have a look ...wasn't an issue and he told us to continue. Phew. I'd ordered type 1 for the sub base. I did price both type 1 and type 3, but there was quite a difference of 3-4 per tonne. I needed 120 Tonne (turns out actually 250 in the end). I checked with Tanners who had stated Type 3, but they said if it was a struggle type 1 would be fine. Plus I checked with a local guy who does passive foundations and he said they just use that so all ok. We continued the scrape down, then we laid a geotextile and covered with the type 1. What was immediately apparent was how wet it was, that extra dug down section filled with water quickly to form a lovely swimming pool. From here we tried to stone up a little more, but stopped due to rain. Then the guys decided we needed to get that land drain in to dry it up. I have used twinwall perforated pipe to do the land drain (under the guidance of my groundworkers) then added Tees wherever downpipes are going to be. This saves costs as then you're not digging another pipe above it later on. You can just roll the tees up and drop the downpipes into it. I discharge directly into a burn too so makes sense. I helped with the drains and we used the laser the set the fall ( @LA3222 ) I know why you like it so much, great tool and makes it dead easy. I did nearly make a schoolboy error and lift the full pipe up in the pea gravel...before the groundworker stopped me Once we had the drains in this has helped no end with getting the water out, and allowed us to continue a little more. In between this the power connection was brought on site, I had 6 poles put in from 3 fields away. I managed to also get them to hide the transformer pole in my woods which was ideal as I had planned it in the corner if the plotand that would have been visible always so a good win. The trench was also repositioned around the outskirts of the plot so that if I ever build another house ( my retirement bungalow) in the front garden I don't need to move it again. 6 poles put up in a day, then a week later cable pulled and terminated. The connection currently resides under the ground about 15m from the plant room, once I'm ready. I'll dig the duct to there and then I can call them back and pull it into the house at my leisure. We got a little bit of rolling done on the first layer of Type 1, but it's been mega cold and snowy for a few weeks which has stopped us. One thing that has been a pain was the test holes left big soft spots. We had to dig these out completely and fill with stone. The groundworks boys said he always have this issue and would be better if the SE put them off to the side. A good bit of info for others. So since that point it got basically rock solid cold. little happened for about 10 days just due to weather. Then last Thursday after postponing him 5 times, got the surveyor on site. I had marked up various times using the TOPO stations and tapes, but wanted very accurate positions on site for the walls and so I can get the ducts and drainage bang on. I spent days on the plant room design and layout which is now hopefully pretty good. The surveyor and I put all the profile boards up outside the footprint which went well, I was 400mm off the actual CAD position I had given for the house. Which considering I was using tapes from topo points which were 80m away wasn't bad. I had already cut drains in so we just moved house position quickly by offsetting using total station. The profiles are in and all good. So this week we managed to stone up more, the boys done a bit of rolling on Tuesday - in fact I even did the rolling while they moved stone around. The stone is compacting but not as hard as I would and as quickly. They had to put a thicker layer on that the 150mm due it being so wet it would just bubble up. But the stone is soaked, and taking a while to drain off through the type 1 as my stone seemed to have loads and loads of fines. Now If i go back to the start of this post....maybe I should have bought that Type 3, but we are where we are! We rolled it down, then got another layer on and continued to roll it. It was still quite spongy at the end of the other day in a few places but we haven't finished rolling this layer just due to it being wet. The boys definitely put on thicker layers than stated and we rolled the lower layer less than the required 16 passes. I was having a bit of a hairy canary when I cam home and started to doubt what had been done, I was checking the roller weight and spec religiously against the KORE manual, and then getting worried that it would leave the lower layers too soft. It's hard here as, how hard is hard enough as I don't have any experience of laying a sub base and reading on here it should be rock solid. So I was back and forth the next day to site, jumping up and down, seeing how hard it was. I made a plan the night before as it was concerning me, that if needed I would just strip it back down a layer and re roll that bit and not to worry myself too much (the boys keep telling me to put my worry beads away) that we can fix it. Now that we have had two sunny dry days with no ice, it has drained off well and feels better actually and I talked it through with the groundworker that i was worried and didn;t think we had enough passes, and he help reassure me somewhat (and I trust him) that albeit the textbook says 16 passes and 100mm layer that, it simply isn't possible here to do it in the 100mm layer as the roller would bring the water through at that point and we need a thicker lower layer. Now that we are up a but and it's drying it should compact better. It's now pissing it down for the rest of the week and we can't do anything. However he has left me the roller over the weekend, so I can roll it to my hearts content which will make me very happy. Hopefully we get a couple of days dry at weekend and I can et that done, then they will be back Tuesday to hopefully get the last layer or two on and bring it all up to the correct level and then we can mark the ducts and drains and get them dug in to the stone. I was quite surprised at how not flat my flat looking plot was. Standing looking at it is quite deceiving, at one end of my 20m length footprint, I needed around 150mm stone, at the other end I will end up with 4-500mm stone which is quite remarkable. To the eye it's very deceiving. Having the laser there is great and helps make it all very easy. Lots of challenges, on site with weather and generally getting organised. Also the stone compaction and not having done it before definitely caused worry which unsettled me, simply I think because there's nobody else really to take the responsibility as ultimately it's for me to say what's ok and what's not. Having a major responsibility is not a daunting thing for me, I work at a high level in a business and directly responsible for managing and being the technical expert for very large value and complex equipment. However there's something about being in unfamiliar territory here and doing it for the first time with nobody to else to take the responsibility which is both exhilirating but also slighlty terrifying. It's like when you take your first foreign trip without your folks, or when your new born baby won't stop crying. It's a challenge and when you get through it, it's good. You just need to feel your way through and make as best decisions you can and rely on the people around you. I can say I am absolutely thoroughly enjoying myself. I have loved being out my home office (daughters nursery!) and being out and about on site. I cannot wait till get further ahead, the kit comes, which is planned for April now, and I can work up there every night in the spring and summer. The kit has been delayed somewhat due to messing around with L shaped combination skylight windows for a week, I can firmly say trying to get them figured out has been a PITA. Also, I had added the angled reveals at the top and bottom (which I may scrap tonight!) but that's another post for another day.... Lots of pictures as that's what blogs are about. Test holes sense having them dug below.

Here's a prelim detail - there's a small number of changes due. Debating at the moment the sliding door support - block + extra external insulation, marmox + HDPE. The slab to the left is the base of the lower ground floor built off the compacted back-fill with a 50mm concrete blinding layer on top. Insulation on terrace is tapered, provided by waterproofing co (Alwitra), there is also 25mm on underside of the terrace not shown in that detail

We now have all our conditions discharged and agreed and can start to plan the real deal this year. Our build is a Class Q barn conversion, which like lots of people on this forum is going to be an almost total DIY job, partly out of satisfaction and wanting to know everything is done right, but in all honesty also due to a rather restricted budget. We had an architect draw a set of original plans (no measurements) and submit for planning, refused, we paid another few thousand to do the same thing again, refused. Part of the refusal, in both cases, was due to some reports not included. When discussing this the architect said that we shouldn't have to submit, such as ecology and if the LPA wants them then they should permit with conditions. Maybe this is correct, but I said let's do them anyway and the architect pretty much said no it was a waste of money. So, end of relationship. So, I went ahead, got all the requested surveys myself and I then personally submitted with my own planning statement, we had approval in 5 weeks. Since then I've been muddling along getting the conditions discharged and creating a huge spreadsheet of every material cost I can imagine, this came out @ 169k. But, what now? Now we are planning for the physical stuff I decided that I should look at insurance and warranty. But, I was surprised to find that, apart from sqm, it's also based on build time. As we don't have a definite figure, but know it is going to be a labour of part-time love it is likely to be 5+ years. This means that the insurance & warranty quotes are coming in at many 1,000's. I understand that this is because they are covering us for years, but it still seems very high. I know circumstances change, but there are a number of reasons why I'm not sure I want to pay about 5k for the warranty because of the slow build time. 1. The general opinion is that they are not very keen to pay out. 2. As we are doing all the work ourselves will this even be covered, the only external tasks are going to be a small amount of electrical and plumbing. If we build a wall, and do it wrong, we are not going to try and claim on any warranty. 3. We have no intention of moving within 10 years 4. Currently, there seems to be a total lack of competition, Protek are out of the game for the next few months, that leaves Buildstore who can pretty much charge anything. I'm probably not seeing the bigger picture. Building Regs: I've ready about these and know what regs we need to meet, but I don't understand how to do BR plans, what are these, what do they include and under normal circumstances who would do these. Do, I need another architect, a Structural Engineer or can I do these myself, I've never even seen any. On our previous renovation projects this has been organised by our main contractors. I'm no engineer, but I'm pretty good a calculations. The other big question is, what needs to be inspected. Some months ago, I spoke to the LA building officer and he said because we have to use our existing walls then he doesn't need to do any foundation checks. But we only have 3 walls, so what about the new one. Also, due to a low roof height we are digging out the floor to allow depth for slab and UFH. Should I be explaining all this and then having the existing walls checked in case of anything that needs underpinning. At the moment there is a floating floor on top of the original base, who knows why (maybe the pigs liked it), but it means we don't know much about the foundations. The SE checked the foundations on the outside when he did the structural survey for the planning. Our interior layout has changed since our original plan, the external ones must stay as they are. I spoke to the LPA and they basically said, do what you want inside as long as the external dimensions don't change from the plans. Can anyone help, tell me what they did etc on this so we can try and progress when it's not so freezing and covered in snow. Thanks

You definitely need help.

Tried to PM him but I’m blocked ( guessing everyone is ) . Last I heard Zoot had died of hypothermia......

Pocster. NO emails to Zoot the Hoot....You will only get another Black mark against your name. As you know, we would all hate to lose you buddy. The entertainment value of the site would go through the floor.

Other than that Bored shopper had a blast, and would do it all again in the morning,?

He will need planning permission to build forward of the front elevation. If he is ok, have a word. If he is a twat, phone the council and ask for planning enforcement.

I wonder if your pm could add the bottom bit to his CV Love it ?

Great moments - lots of them, particularly this huge sense of delight and relief when an item which you purchased on sale months ago is finally delivered - AND IT FITS!!! When your worktops turn out exactly as you designed them - even better! When the flow of the house is so nice you just love walking around. When the utility is everything you have ever dreamt of. When the sunlight starts reflecting from the mosaic panel which you have strategically placed there hoping it would work - and it did! Generally, we are still having this very great moment when I sit in the garden and look at the house and say to myself: "8875ng hell, we did build this!!".? Heart-sinking-cold-sweat moments also were in abundance: when our first team of scaffolders turned out to be a scum gang and got us into a massive row with our very sensitive neighbours and refused to take the scaffolding down to re-do it correctly. When the careless builders left Knauf slab insulation laying around on site and left and we got a call at 00:30am from neighbours saying our insulation is flying along the street like in a ghost movie. When a freak storm shuttered the low boundary wall and it collapsed onto the neighbours' car.When the builders stopped building and effectively left with our money. When the LPA killed my so-well-designed sunroom as it brought the ridge height 500mm above neighbours treshold. When walls started to crack due to wrongly placed steelwork. When the boiler drowned in condensation and nearly died. Oh, that's a big one - when BCO said that our front door (£3k!) was too narrow to pass the regulations, and this was not picked up neither by our shit of a PM nor by the all-awards-winning-grand-design windows company.... ?

Wait until a filter housing next to your crown jewels disintegrates at the same pressure. Then it sounds like a 6'5" bloke screaming for his Mum & praying nothing vital's been hit. Ask me how I know! ?

From what I can see in the pictures, it looks like they are using FM330 PU foam from Illbruck (could be Soudal), it looks as though they have not missed any spots. I do not know if they have used any compriband which is great for reducing sound as the sound doesn't just go through the window, it goes past the window (i.e. between frame and building). You'll have little to no foam at the packers (and is normal) but it is where the compriband comes into play. What I see in above pictures doesn't look bad at all, actually a decent application but the foam needs tidied up now that it has stopped expanding before plastering. It will make a difference in sound reduction. When are they coming back to finish? You're correct, although I have just sat down in front of the PC. Opened emails and literally I got a notification and seen you had tagged me. I thought aww naw, what have I done now

He meant the house build cost was £200k which equated to £815 per square metre. Trouble was he was driving with one hand and rendering a wall with the other, while supervising some tackers and quoting on another job, so the texting was not the perfection we have come to expect from young @nod.