Dreadnaught

@Conor, good question: nobody. Its one of those really old roads that nobody owns but everyone has been using for access since time immemorial. It is shared by one other dwelling and about eight boathouses as their sole access. I had to do all legal the searches, etc., with the planning permission.

Thanks @Conor * @Mr Punter, good idea! I have the contact of local moling specialist. I will email him now and report back.

There's something slightly puzzling about my water-connection quote from the local water company. The connection and the meter are specified as only 15mm, see below. Is that normal? Should I ask for 25mm? I will be installing a 22mm communication pipe down my 40m access road.

Thanks @Conor. Good to know. I didn't say but its not a one-off job: I would be offering this contractor all the groundworks. Thanks everyone. OK, time to "negotiate" I think.

Thanks @SuperJohnG. That's helpful. Good luck with your borehole! And thanks @Adrian Walker, good points. If anyone else has a cost-per-meter for off-site trenching, I'd appreciate hearing it?

Have a quote for laying a new 25mm water pipe in my access road. Is the price sensible? Quote is £4,000 (zero rated for VAT). Length of road is 35 metres, so £114-a-metre. The road surface is thick concrete, no steel. Includes the pipe, all back fill and making good. And 1x grab lorry for muck-away. Quote allows for one circular-saw blade for cutting the concrete. Extra blades will be at cost. The road is private, if that is relevant, so no permit costs, etc. What do you think?

Oh, maybe I am getting my terms mixed up. Maybe it was a Technologist, sorry. So we have: Architect, £££ (£)? Architectural Technologist , £££ Architectural Technician, £ Any others? EDIT: Just checked and it was an ACIAT, so yes got my terms wrong.

Slightly unrelated to your request for a name, when I was looking around for ATs, I found their hourly rate was typically about £75 per hour + VAT (Hampshire), which is the same as many architects I found around the Southeast. (That was too much for me, so kept searching until I found a good-one charging less). Out of interest, I would be interested to hear the hourly rates that others have been paying for architects or ATs around the country.

On one of your points, it is my understanding, that so long as the designs and drawings are used for the construction of the dwelling for which they are originally produced, there is no concern over rights. A concern would arise only if you were, for example, to re-sell the design to others for profit. With some architects obtaining the CAD files, on the other hand, can be tricky. Not with my architect I should add; I have all of mine for my build.

Now that's a good idea. I don't have a house to demolition but I do have some old bricks on site that would otherwise go in to a skip. I could keep some for an electrical kiosk and perhaps even some planters. Thanks!

Would it be easy to bend this this aluminium profile by a few degrees? I have an external corner in my façade where there return is not 90º but about 105º. I'd be good to use this profile after a bit of bending. Thickness 1mm, length 3m, link. Would it be easy-peasy? Or end up looking rubbish?

Thanks guys! Great advice. That sounds like a solution: use Cedral stop end profile and open-up the perpends.

Thanks @Mr Punter. … slightly opening or closing up the slips … That sounds do-able I think, thanks. Do these return round a corner? Good question. The rear face of the building (around that corner) transitions immediately in to Cedral click cladding*. I am not sure how to make the transition from bricks to cladding look good. So don't know … Return around the corner with a pistol corner slip, and then transition to cladding with some sort of profile? Corner end aluminium profile? Something else? * I will never see that side around the corner, only the neighbours will, which is why I went for cladding rather than slips: to save money.

My architect is designing my brick slips elevations. Note: they are slips not full bricks and they will come from by Eurobrick if that is relevant. See the 62mm gap at the end, what to do about it? Do I … Re-design the timber frame? Absorb 62mm into the mortar joints between the slips? Cut the slips? Something else? I have zero experience of brick-laying or slips. What do you all think? Now is the time to make any design changes, if needed.

On the subject of escape windows, I found my particular window supplier (Ideal Combi) was well clued-up on the requirements. I was able to simply say to them that I wanted the smallest compliant opening section and they specified it, including taking account of the angle to which the window would open.

Bedroom above bedroom, noise transmission through the floor? Rearrange so they are not stacked? Which way is north: path of the sun around the dwelling?

That's a good idea! Thanks.

Thanks all. I'm on site at my plot tomorrow meeting Anglian Water. I currently live 2+ hours away so cannot visit every day. Will have good nosey around the plot looking for evidence of anything underground before taking it further.

Thanks both! OK message received although my screw piles look puny compared to that beast in the photo. Looked in my files, I do have a map of the both the water supply and electricity cables in the area. These were supplied with the quotes for the connections. They both show no services on the plot. Is that sort of map good enough for the purpose do you think? The only ones missing would be gas, which I am not connecting to, and which I would need to check; and drains.

Great advice and tips. Thanks! Looking forward to hearing how it holds up over time. Considering LVT for my build.

I was just chatting to a setting-out engineer. He was urging me to check with each and every utility for any services under my plot before the screw piles go in. Mine is a rear garden plot and I am almost certain there is nothing there. The legal search at purchase-time revealed nothing. All the services are accounted for in the access road next to the plot. There are no manholes on the plot. There are no obvious reasons why any service would cross it. There is only one old terracotta land drain that I know about on the plot. On the other hand, the piles will descend up to 8 metres. I am reluctant to spend the time and cost of contacting every utility. Am I being foolish?

? not quite what I was imagining!

What sort of building kit runs off these 16A sockets?

@joth, did you ever get a reply from OSO about direct sales?

@nod, great advice. Where do you look, eBay or elsewhere?