Roger440

Probably also worth saying, i did it with him, which he encouraged. Useful learning experience too!

It is specifically ones that discharge to water course. Discharge to soakaway/ land drain etc is unaffected. Came into force 1st Jan last year.

Exactly, but the tank looked ok. But what i know about tanks is next to bugger all, apart from what ive learnt today. Steep curve!! Accoring to the goverment page, it says if you sel your house, you HAVE to upgrade it to sewage treatment. Here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/general-binding-rules-small-sewage-discharge-to-a-surface-water But after 3 hours on interweb, i can find nothing to support this legally. Prob ought to put up a post in the right section.

Primarily just the usual stuff. Modern plaster on the walls in the old part of the house. Some modern render (part rendered) on the front wall. A bit of salt leeching from the chimney externally. However, the prime concerns (which may be linked) were, on the extension, so 8 years old, The bricks below the DPC are rather damp. The worst area is under a down pipe off the roof, that was blocked so overspilling the gutter. But its pretty much all along the back wall, but gets better the further you go from the butter.So, may be simple, or a leak underground? Cue the drainage system. Property, (and next door) has a septic tank. Old, discharging to river (licensed). However alarm bells rang when he saw the down pipe and kitchen waste share the same drain!!. There is a inspection point in the garden, roughly in line with the back of the house, which had sewage in it. The fall is near non-exsistent to the tank, not the end of the world, but if its got rainwater in it, that rather buggers it up! Try as we did, we could not find the discharge into the river though. All fixable, at a price, EXCEPT, the fact that next door, probably, is the same. ie, discharging rainwater AND sewage into the septic tank. Got the feeling this could be tricky?

Well, the good news is, once we got past the hurdle of actually getting a reply to phone or email, appointment was made and man came. Clearly knows his stuff. Found some stuff i really did need to know too. or may that should be

Neither can do over 15KG. (hermes not at all, interparcel at far higher cost than our current couriers.) 95% of our stuff is in the 20-30kg bracket. For upto 15kg, Hermes is the same price to everywhere. Sadly its double our current price, though it does come in £2 cheaper for highlands than DPD. But only 15kg. I think our problem with Parcel Farce is Milton Keynes Depot. But thats where we are! I dont think there are any easy answers. Im guessing the big boys reduce the prices in the "busy" parts of the country to compete, leaving the out lying areas exposed o higher prices.

I can. I use Parcel Monkey to book Parcel Farce. But they are still hopeless and lose stuff. And rarely pick up on the right day or at all. Believe me ive tried. Its just to painful and expensive replacing stuff. Most of our products are above £250.00 so gets expensive really quick. As i said, id love to have an answer, but i just dont see one outside of Royal mail and Parcel Farce. :( To be honest i struggle to see why anyone actually uses them anymore, other than they are cheap. The service is appalling, and you can certainly never get anything sorted out if it goes wrong. If i could find a way, id have the edge over other companies. We send a lot of stuff to the highlands.

But time IS money. Doing things properly takes time. Which is why nothing is done properly!

Ahhh, the highlands and islands issue. Not sure there is a way round that. We have a contract with DPD. So using someone else is not really an option, because i dont have an account with them. So my only option is Parcel Farce or Royal Mail. Problem is, they are absolutely hopeless. (unless it will go in an envelope). The amount of stuff that goes walkabouts never to be seen again is nuts. Put simply, i cant afford to use them as im forced to send out replacements at my cost. All assuming i can even get Parcel Farce to collect, a major challenge in itself! Seriously, id love to know what to do about it. I frequently get the grumbling, especially from people in Northern Ireland. DPD lass that as an island!.

All rather relevant! Having done and faced exactly the same problems, i pretty much came up with similar solutions. I see no possible way not to have a thermal bridge of sorts. In the end i accepted this, but not happy about it. I cut the EPS away to a depth of 50mm, and then laid the block paving over it (50mm thick blocks). As PeteW suggested, stick the dpm to the slab just below the surface. Sure, i guess over time some water will get in, but surely not enough to worry about. Now the bit where i really got it wrong. Like you, my slab came forward of where the door ended up. Ie the door is recessed into the building approx 6 inches. Leaving 6 inches of slab outside. What i should have done is stepped the slab in here, but due to a chronic lack of planning by me i failed to take this into account. So now i have 6 inches of the slab outside If its not too late, have you considered cutting it back? Id there steel reinforcement i it? Last, but not least, because of my 6 inch sticky out bit, and to prevent water ingress, i took one of those hilti hand diamond floor grinders to the 6 inch bit and ground it such that it slopes away from the door. Also gave it a rather nice finish, which i then sealed with some sort of whizzo sealer. The reason for the last bit was so i could bond down the the door threshold strip, which in my case is the lowr door runner (see pic). So far not a single drop So yes, water right, but thermally a bit of a pigs ear. That said, i cant see you can retain a thermal envelope on a garage. PS, not sure where you are, ut if you wanted a borrow of sad floor grinder, you are welcome.

Good point well put!!!!

I said it before on Ebuild and i'll say it again. All this talk of how rubbish our regs are is, rather irrelevant. The issue is as Declan52 says, Enforcement. Talk of improving regs is utterly pointless until the enforcement issue is resolved/sorted out. In fact doing so without sorting it out is likely to make self building even harder as, lets face it, self builders generally have to comply. So more complication etc. Not every self builder wants the super high standards alot here achieve. But if they achieve current regs, they are likely light years ahead of the mass home builders. Sadly, enforcement by councils, and they way a lot of council types behave, ie, find a reason that you cant do it, pretty much rules that out as a viable way forward. When building my garage, i went to private BCO so i could have some common sense applied to my build, which involved being near trees! The previous (10 years ago) effort that i never built the council were insisting on 3 meter trench foundations, which of course would have cut through all the tree roots, never mind the practical difficulties! Rank stupidity, and thats being polite.

As alluded to above, currency rates can have an influence, but id suggest the root cause is they didn't get a very good deal as the UK distributor! Either that or they are working on mad margins (as in big) That said, as i know only too well, costs in this country are high, not least premises and wages. The difference in costs between us here and my polish counterpart are quite amazing. Even their shipping costs are half ours despite using the same company. Im comparing the cost of shipping to poland and their cost to send here. Our cost of rent and rates, frankly is bonkers. But what choice do i have. Move to Poland or similar is the obvious answer, but im afraid thats not for me..................

Hmmm, prob best if i post a pic. The bit that has rotten timber is the bit on the left, partially out of shot, which has a shallower angle than the roof of the main part of the garage. Since i built the new garage have replaced some of the felt where it joins the new, but the rest needs doing. I was going to do it in steel, same as the new one, but this makes the job much bigger, and i dont have time, money or the inclanation to rip it all off. Geting the timber off the main roof would be a nightmare job. Its 3/4 ply well screwed down. I know, i did it. Hence just looking to re-do it in felt. If it last another 10-15 years that will be fine. Or are you thinking stick it over the timber deck?

Im having to re-roof part of my old garage. Its currently 1/2 ply and roofing felt. Its totally knackered. Some of the ply is rotten where its leaked. As it looks like im moving house, im just going to re-do it. But my question is, what should i be replacing my ply with. More ply, OSB? Its got a very slight fall on it. only a few degrees. Not really sure whats my best option? Any suggestions welcome.

Welcome

Welcome back. Good to see you have found something to buy. Maybe not what you were looking for, but hopefully will get you a step nearer

I built mine in a "well" of 100mm EPS. Really can tell the difference compared to my old garage which is a slab on the ground!

Indeed I have. But I would much rather go off recommendation. And an actual understanding of old buildings. But looking like I might have to resort to your suggestion.

Whilst I don't doubt they know their stuff, they are not very business like. I'm struggling to even discuss what's required, never mind come up with a date. Must have too much work? Does anyone have any other recommendations?

Dave, if i read it right, you have no mortgage, which means you own both outright. Correct? I know you are both self employed, but to keep the ball rolling, surely taking out a mortgage on your existing house has to release some cash has to be an option at this stage? Theres a few wiling to do 4 x salary now. Then either keep trying to sell, or rent it out. Renting would cover some/all? of the mortgage in the meantime. Or have you been just a little too efficient at managing down your income? Im inclined to agree, that if its not selling, you are going to have to take some pain on it. Probably auction? I know you said you wont sell below £250, but unless you rent, looking from the outside, im not sure you have many options as long as the crazy people are running things north of the border!

Thanks for all the words of wisdom. Much appreciated.

I shall give them a call. Thanks

The offer's made! No time for hanging around for a property like this. It's not a project, and on the face of it, needs little work. But that's just my assessment. I think you're right, I should get one done.

I am well into purchasing a property at the moment. Having got the ball rolling on mortgages, solicitors and all that other guff, I've turned my thoughts back to the actual building. Its an approx 180-200 year old cottage with a significant modern extension (bigger than the original cottage). Having looked at it twice, I've seen nothing to get excited about. It all seems in pretty good shape. My take, based on what I can see and what the vendors tell me, is the extension build ran out of money towards the end, so some of the finishing work is not the best, but all seems in order. I know a guy I have used before for surveys who was well versed in older buildings, but sadly he retired earlier this year. I asked him if he knew anyone else competent. Sadly his reply was that he was attending said chap's funeral later that week. So, in the absence of anyone I know and trust, do I actually bother to get one done? Sure, the mortgage company will do one, but based on previous experience that won't be worth the paper it's written on. Not doing one makes me nervous, it is a lot of money being spent, but realistically, unless it's about to fall down, any minor trivia I would just accept. If I don't buy it, someone else will, no doubt about it. I certainly wouldn't be talking down the price as a consequence. Any suggestions what you would do????