AliG

It is one side of a dormer. We designed the house as "modern arts and crafts" as we felt that fixed in with the area well.

We are black and white. Downpipes generally tucked into corners.

I have noticed over time a lot of discussion re induction his with built in extraction. How about this beauty I saw on Facebook today - https://www.novy.com/en-gb/products/worktop-cooker-hoods/novy-panorama/novy-panorama-120-pro/41120/

I guess looking at this picture the plan is to make everything white which would then be OK. The earlier picture with black windows and gutters was confusing me? The number of downpipes required is driven by the amount of roof and expected run off. That small piece of roof would be fine with only the downpipe in the corner, it doesn't need two. You would just create a run to the end where the pipe is. However, the roof above that then runs down onto this one is large, you will need to be careful with the pipe in the corner running off the top roof. It might be better to have a wide flashing and the pipe run into that rather than across the tiles. By the time you have brackets etc, it would never look like shown in the picture, the pipe at the end would stick out from the house with a gap. In this kind of case the better idea would be to put the pipe round the corner on the side elevation. Similarly you cannot put a pipe as tight in the corner as you suggest, it needs brackets to hold it up. You cannot put the downpipe through the soffit as it needs a run off from the bottom of the gutter. It would be too high in the soffit and also the standard connectors attach to the bottom of the gutter not the side. I am pretty OCD about hiding things and keeping things as tidy as possible, but there is a limit to what can be done. For example relative to the picture you will also need a strip of flashing all along the top edge of the tiles and at the left hand side. These will be harder to see from the ground than the angle shown. You don't really notice them once they are in. What people notice is things that are odd, like horizontal downpipes across a wall or pipes right in the middle of the front wall of a house.

Assuming that your soffits and gutters are black/dark grey then a white downpipe connected to dark gutters will look a lot more jarring to people than a dark pipe hidden in the corners. Don't forget the pipe doesn't go straight up to the gutter, it has to come away from the wall to meet the gutter, a large white piece under a dark soffit would look very odd. The key thing is to try and design them to be in hidden corners and as unobtrusive as possible. So on the house above I would be looking to put them in the corners either side of the wall that sticks out above the front door, not at the ends of the front of the house. I am not sure about square versus round, I think it is more what suits the look of the house. I would recommending more expensive metal ones though. The plastic ones get damaged by the sun and look poor over time.

I think the minimum time it will take is 4 months and more likely 5 with delays. You have the issue I had with my builder. I work to date has taken longer than expected, why would you not extend the deadline by that amount of time, plus an assumption that future work will also take longer than expected. Instead they will say they can make up time, when the evidence says the opposite happens. Are you are you have actually listed all the work there? There is no mention of woodwork and doors. That could be another couple of weeks work easily. What about flooring? How long has he allowed for decoration? This is where we thought we were almost finished but time ran ridiculously over. Decorating a 5 bed house with 3 coats of paint, all the woodwork etc is going to take a month.

You should just appeal and go through arguments against the reasons for refusal one by one. You could get a planning consultant but by giving you three clear reasons you have three easy points to argue. Frankly the map you have provided seems to show that 11/14 houses have all but identical extensions. It seems crazy to refuse yours. It also shows all the other nearby end houses with similar extensions. Is there a local right to appeal before going to a full appeal? I would right this up and threaten them with an appeal if they do not reconsider. It seems like nonsense. 1. Just for clarity the amenity they mean is outside space, you having more inside space is not relevant, otherwise everyone could just keep making their house larger. You need to gather as many similar applications nearby with the size of their gardens and extensions. Usually around 20 years of applications are available on line. It does look like you garden is a bit shorter so this may be an issue, but I doubt it is massively smaller. Again the house at the opposite end of the terrace also seems to have a very short garden, why was it not an issue there, the other two red boxed houses also have virtually no garden. Get their measurements if you can. There are probably also local guidelines on the percentage your garden you can build on. If it is 50% then why are they arguing against their own guidelines. Find the guideline and give the numbers for your extension. Often just putting these in writing negates subjective arguments e.g. the extensions cover an area of xx sq meters which is xx% of the garden ground compared ed to a guideline of yy% Also you should point out that they are contradicting their pre application advice. 2. Planning usually is a bit harder in end terrace/corner situations as they are more visible. However, this looks to be nonsense as the refusal gives the impression that the wall would be looming over a narrow footpath but in fact it appears that there is open space to the other side of the path. Did they miss this due to no visit? Again pictures and plans of similar approved extensions nearby, as shown in your red boxes. These look actually to be in a tighter situation than you. Why did conservation officer not object, yet planning thinks it is a conservation issue? 3. This again looks very dubious. Your extension is considerably further away from the terrace behind than many other extensions. Measurements again are your friend. Extensions at house x, y, z are xx metres from the opposing terraces. We are yy metres and much further away. In particular the extended house to the left in the map is way closer than you are, it is very tight to other buildings.

I found a list of people responsible for new connections in each area. P37-39 of this PDF has the person responsible for each area. I just emailed them direct. The document also includes details of internal cabling requirements. https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/dotcom/images/shop/downloads/New-Build-Handbook-v1-63.pdf There is also a form you can fill in here, but it seemed more designed for larger developments. https://www.virginmedia.com/lightning/network-expansion/property-developers

I have exactly the same situation and VM sent me a form to fill in. I hope they don't give me this response when I am ready to fill it in and be connected.

Found them if anyone else wants them- https://www.wehandleitall.co.uk/excel-architectural-hardware-precision-am60-magnetic-tubular-latch---60mm---satin-stainless-steel-4226-p.asp Precision AM60 magnetic tubular latch

I am going to buy a Neoplug as it extends the RF signal. Seems a lot less hassle than moving the RF switch. That can be done but it is neatly away in the plant room at the moment and I don't want to have it out on display. Expensive for a smart plug but does the job and I will put it in the hall freeing up the one I currently use to turn Christmas tree lights off and on. https://heatmisershop.co.uk/heatmiser-neoplug-smart-plug/

I have deleted and re-paired the thermostat a few times. It definitely pairs because you can then turn the circuit off and on if you change the set temperature. But it seems to keep losing pairing and then goes into this weird default mode. For the moment I have turned the default mode off. There are a lot of walls between the thermostat and the receiver although it was working fine before and it still works sometimes.

OK, digging into the small print in the manual I have found the issue - "Feature P3 - If the RF switch fails to receive a signal from the thermostat within a 40 minute period it will activate the output for up to 12 minutes every hour" I have tried re-pairing the thermostat with the switch and then tried switching the heating off and on via the thermostat which seemed to work, but clearly there is a problem with the pairing which has resulted in this default 12 minutes per hour switching on. If I cannot get them paired up, I can switch this feature off at least now that I know about it.

I was lying down on the sofa and actually heard the circuit click on just now. This is a wireless Heatmiser circuit that we had added as an extra circuit after the system was installed. Not sure why the controller is switching on the circuit when the thermostat is switched off. It must be switching off and on randomly through the day as the floor has not yet completely cooled down. I could just switch off the Heatmiser controller on the manifold until I need the heating on next winter but obviously better to fix it. I recently changed the batteries in the thermostat which I think is part of the problem.

Looks good. I concur that open plan houses are very noisy. Does that external door in the kitchen area serve a specific purpose? Otherwise I would just do away with it. Would look much nicer with cupboards down to the end of the room. Also you could have an eye level oven whereas it looks like you would have to have it under counter at the moment due to a lack of wall space(assuming the x is a large fridge freezer)

Very weird. The circuit was on when I went and checked the manifold, even though the controls say it was off. I have reset the controller. I hadn't been and checked the manifold so early in the day before, it seems like it was coming on during the night even though it wasn't supposed to. Didn't matter when it was cold. From this, it looks like it has been turning itself on at 6am every morning. The hall has been getting warmer and warmer. It is hard to tell though as this is also when the sun comes out, so the whole house gets warmer. The hall does face north though.

A warm strip through the middle of the hall this morning tells me it is the actuator. Now to figure out, is the actuator broken, or is the loop being turned on during the night even though it is switched off.

Thanks. I should have said that I had removed and refitted the actuator a couple of times but it hadn’t made a difference.

Had an idea. I will swap the actuator with another circuit and see if that circuit heats up. That would tell me that the actuator is not pushing down hard enough on the pin. If the same circuit stays warm presumably it’s the pin.

Hi, I have noticed that one loop in my heating has been warming up even though it is not on. The actuator seems to be closed. Could it be that the pin valve is not sealing properly, or maybe the actuator is not applying enough pressure? I have heard of pin valves being stuck closed, but not open. Should I try and free it or do I likely need to replace it? I was wondering if I could get a manual cap to screw onto it just to see if it is a problem with the valve or the actuator? Thanks

Not started working yet but the aluminium band isn’t an off the shelf item. It would be just sheet aluminium that was cut and powder coated. We did the same for the eaves on our current house. It did take a while to find someone to do it.

I sent an email copying in the planning officer, his manager and the head of planning and today finally got a response. There was a convoluted explanation as to why neighbour notifications had not been made. It sounded like it was not the officer's fault, although if he had looked at the application in the 13 weeks it had been in then he might have noticed it! He said that once the notification period has expired, 11th June, the he will try and get the decision issued as soon as possible as well as the variation. This is roughly when I was expecting the he variation to be done in the normal course of events anyway. I sent a reply thanking him for responding and made sure to mention that I hoped we would get a response soon after the 11th of June. I don't want to make trouble for the guy, I just want to get started building. I'll be back in a few weeks to confirm if we get our response. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Thanks. I already have looked at the formal complaint procedures and will move onto that next. At least you seem to be guaranteed a response with 5 days going through that procedure.

Sorry 0.3kwh/metre/day, so the room needs around 10kwh a day of heat input on the coldest days which the AV equipment seems to provide.

Depending on how you look at it they are probably in front of the house. The house will be built end on to the road.