Anthony Crown

Hi, I am building a loft conversion on a victorian terraced house in a conservation area. The council planning officers have requested that natural slate tiles should be used for the roof. Which seems to look very nice in matte black. Now my question. What material should I chose? Is it worth paying for something fancy? What are the considerations to be made when choosing natural slate tiles for roofs? Cheers, Anthony

Hi, The house I live in has previously been affected by subsidence which has been resolved. However, the previous owner lost the certificate of structural adequacy. I would like to have a new one issued. Where do you go to find a certified engineer who can issue such a certificate retrospectively by inspecting the house? Cheers, Anthony

I am putting together a planning application by myself. One of the requirements is to have a location plan (a map of the neighbourhood) in 1:500 scale, with the boundaries of the property marked in red. I see on the councils planning application database that other applicants have nice maps used with all property boundaries drawn with numbers and all, so my question is, where do I find this type of map to use to create one of my own?

I won't be living, we have to blast the entire stuff out, turn the water off for weeks so that won't be a problem.

I am using a gas boiler, so I suspect that water temp for keeping the old radiators would not be an issue.

Hi, I am renovating my Victorian terraced house. We are going to replace the suspended floor at ground level with concrete, insulate and install warm water underfloor heating in it. We are going to add a loft and since that will be brand new underfloor heating is a no brainer, but for the existing first floor (which currently has hot water radiators) I don't know what would be best, should I rip them out and install underfloor heating there too? We are going to replace the existing floor so having to rip it out is not a complicating factor -- its going anyway. Would I be wasting my money, or could it make sense? (We are talking about 2 big bedrooms, ca 500 square feet). Cheers,

Thanks for all the input! I've made measures of the house, and I've made some small adjustments but I am now confident that the drawings won't cause a big stir as they are correct in dimension and scale.

Hi, I am currently preparing a planning application for a loft / rear conversion of a victorian terraced house in a conservation area of London. As the work is very standard, and several neighbours have done close to identical extensions, I've decided to do the planning application by myself. However, when it comes to drawings, the only stated requirements I've identified are that of what drawings are required to cover, and at which scale the drawings should be in, but I can't find any further specification. Are there any? I've had a pre planning meeting with the councils planning officers, which sent me a response on relevant rules and regulations concerning my particular renovation (to which I've adjusted my current drawings), but this does not detail exactly the specifications of the drawings. Is there any information on requirements? What type of measures do I need etc. When I look at previously accepted planning permissions in the councils database, I see very simple drawings, which do not even have size / measure explicitly stated (beyond the scale which I guess, from which you could derive all measurements) Does anyone have an idea?