Tony K

The house has to sit in a slightly excavated position to ensure that the building isn't too tall in respect of neighbouring properties. That was a key part of getting it through planning. The other issue is threshold level for building regs.

Thanks but I feel I'm too close to neighbouring houses to drive piles.

No, but then neither does my existing house and we’ve lived here happily for 17 years. There's a story here though... The new build plot is basically a detached second garden which came with our house - it used to be the bottom end of an adjacent garden, but was bought by a previous owner of our house years ago. I work in planning, and for years discounted the idea of ever building on the land as there is no vehicular access, so certainly no parking spot or garage. The chronic need for housing is such that planning standards are more realistic now. They just can’t miss out on the prospect of a new house being added to the overall stock just because there isn’t vehicular access. Where I live this used to be a deal breaker. It isn’t now. My planning application started life with plans showing the use of a nearby neighbouring bit of land for parking, just to show that we were not adding to levels of local on-street parking. The owner of that land messed me about a bit, and so following a conversation with the planning officer when he came to see the site, I amended the proposals to discount his land, instead providing a parking survey using the Lambeth Beat method to show that there was plenty of room for me to park on the street locally. Permission granted. A house with its own parking is of course more valuable and sellable, not to mention convenient for many, but the above is worth thinking about if the lack of parking access is the only major drawback on an otherwise good plot.

I wouldn't have anywhere to put one, and to get the skips to the highway is over 80m, so it would be a huge crane. It's a shame none of the nieghbours need a mountain of clay soil! All the advice on here has firmed up my initial instinct. I will split the groundworks up into parts rather than one big contract. I will hire a mini digger and driver, along with a mini tracked dumper (and possibly driver), or even two. The dumper will be the one with the greatest capacity possible that can still fit down the footpath, but need not have a shovel fitting. The earth will be dug out, and taken away down the footpath to the roadside, where it will be wither piled up, or placed in skips or a large container. Muckaway lorries will come and collect the muck. Frequency of collections will relate to how quickly the skips can be filled up. Once the levels are correct I will get a piling firm in to pile it. Either they or I will deal with the muck generated by the piles using same method as above. I will contract a groundworker for the slabs. They will do the formwork, including rebar, void formers and arrange for cement to be pumped in down the footpath. I will give notice to the neighbours, and pledge to make good any damage to fences or to the path itself. Thanks all.

The path can't be widened. At the end of the footpath is my development site, which is next to my current house and my neighbours house. Adjacent to our houses (and the site) is a garage block serving a private cul-de-sac. The residents of that cul-de-sac are nice people, and have put up with myself and my neighbour bringing HGVs down their private road to unload building materials when we extended our houses over the last few years. For some obscure reason, freehold ownership of the roadway and garage block in the cul-de-sac was never passed to the current residents (normal practise is that you buy a share of a management company along with a house in a private street), and so they struggle to arrange repairs to the roadway. End result is, I will take materials down the cul-de-sac when they can't go down the path, but won't abuse the generosity of the cul-de-sac by trundling 100m3 of soil up and down it, or bringing grab lorries to it. Putting boards up to protect the fences has occured to me, but its an 80m pathway with fences down both sides, so 160m of boarding! Thats a lot of board.

Nope. The whole site has to be reduced. I would investigate the usefulness of the shovel as part of my planning. I agree that it looks like it might not cope well with clay soil, but I'll check. If it can cope then I have the option to get the digger to do his bit and then go, leaving me to it with the shovel/dumper. Less cost for the digger that way. I will find out for sure that the shovel could cope though. Path cannot be made wider, its more like an alleyway really with fences all down both sides. I'll be looking around for the biggest, deepest, strongest dumper that fits. My instinct is that conveyors would be hugely expensive, but I'll check. Thanks

Ah, yes then in that case I have thought of soil bulking up!

Do you have an example of a 1-5 tonne machine you can point me towards at all? Not sure what you mean by calculating the soil bulking up? Whats that mean then? Thanks

Both of those options have weight limits do they? Sounds like its back to good old skips.

My only observation about the green one is whether I could drive the tracked dumper actually inside it, or would the floor of it split under the weight? If I can't drive into it then I couldn't use most of the area inside the skip as I couldn't reach it. The blue one might not hold as much but most track dumpers come with a lift up-and-over function to get stuff into skips, so would work well in that respect. Yeah I had thought of that. The access path is about 90cm at its narrowest, so I'd be looking for a dumper quite long and thin, and also with a shovel function ideally. Thanks, I will contact you.

Do you know what..... I had discounted the idea of a skip for muck storage as it was too small and would fill too soon. Didn't even think to get a second one! What a plum I am! As you rightly say, the last two skip loads can be taken by the skip firm too. You are spot on about groundworks firms. Its all no quote for ages, and then after endless chasing I get a sky high price. Am now quite looking forward to splitting this up and getting stuck in myself. I have recently seen a type of track dumper that has a lifter shovel on the front, which would be very useful. That way the digger driver can get on with the digging etc and not waste time loading up the track dumper every time in returns from the skips. This is the type of thing I mean: Thanks for all the advice.

1. Open to the public, but not Council maintained. The path is the access to our house and the site, as well as to a few other neighbouring houses. 2. I should have been more specific. The slab is split level, the higher portion bridges over the tree roots. The rest of the site is reduced by 60cm. 3. Depends on how much muck the dumper holds I suppose. They seem to be able to handle up to 1 tonne, which I guess is more than a square metre of earth (?). I guess I'm looking at less than 100 trips. The neighbours are OK, and I'll make good any rutting on the path. Even if they are grumpy I've got right of access. 4. There is space. I will put down boards on a wide verge at the end of the path and section an area. 5. Path is 80m long. I believe I can pump cement that far, but will check. Thanks for the comments and advice!

Hi all, Commencement of our new build is being delayed as I am struggling to get a groundworks firm to take on the footings. It's a fiddly little job.... I have no direct access to the road (long footpaths from the road lead you there instead). The land must be reduced by about 60cm all over, equating to about 100 cubic metres of muck is to be taken out and away. Tree roots must be protected, so piles are to be used with a raft on top. The engineers design presumes 46 piles, each about 6m deep (soil test to confirm). The reinforced slab will be poured on top of void formers to create space for heave etc under the slab. Oh, and the slab is split level. All of this can be achieved. A range of smaller diggers can access the site. Track dumpers can be used to carry the muck away to the roadside for collection. A mini-piling rig can access the land and install the piles. Setting out the formwork is fairly standard stuff. A pump can be used to get cement to site from the road. But.... It's obviously more of a headache than most GW firms are used to, and it's putting off the relatively small number of local contractors who could do the whole job as one contract. My question is, how feasible is it for me to break this down into separate parts? I am thinking of hiring a mini digger and track dumpers with drivers to lower the site, then hire a piling contractor direct to do the piles, then a groundworker to cast the slabs. I would perhaps need to hire a surveyor to set it out too. Has anyone had to attack groundworks this way? Would it likely affect warranty? Is it feasible to split the work up this way? Thanks

Thanks all, very useful advice.

Hi all, We are considering external timber cladding, shiplap style. It will be painted black, like this: I would like class 1 or 2 (Very Durable or Durable), but that mostly means things like good quality Oak. My reservation about using something like Oak is that the cost seems to reflect the way the wood will age well and go silver over time, which of course is irrelevant to me if I'm painting it black anyway. Does anyone have any suggestions for less expensive durable shiplap I can paint? Building regulations regarding fire risks are not relevant by the way as the walls in question will not face boundaries. Thanks

I haven't looked at the wall being able to take the wind force, as I only envisage this awning being in use to block summer sun, and not in the winter. I will be attaching the awning to the 6m long steel that sits over the top of the bifold doors.

Cheers

That's very useful to know, thanks. Would you be willing to tell me which firms you went to, if only to save me a little time finding some?

Hi Our self build has 6m wide, 2.3m high opening for bifold doors / large sliding panels, leading from the main living area on the the garden. I envisage floor to ceiling glazing panels. These dimensions immediately rule out 'off the shelf' door sets which are all about 2090mm tall, as standard. Does anyone have any experience sourcing, ordering and using custom sized glazed doors? Was it hideously more expensive than off-the-shelf alternatives? What are the potential pitfalls with tailor sized panels? Thanks

My self build has a 6m long chunk of floor-to-ceiling south-facing glazing, and so overheating was an obvious concern, partly for building regs approval, and partly just because, well, because of course it is. My solution is certainly an awning, and I wanted one that projected up to 3m. A few firms struggle to provide a single awning to that dimension. I got one quote for what looked quite a posh one with a smooth front profile (‘..disappears completely into a wall or precisely into a recess)!. Other features listed were.. 1 No. Markilux 3300 Pur folding arm cassette awning complete with bionic tendons Size: 5800 mm wide x 3000 mm projection Electric operation complete with 1 channel remote Vibrabox wind sensor Framework – Made from durable aluminium and powder coated in a choice of 7 standard colours For this I was quoted £6,120 to supply and fit. Haus suggest I will be looking at over 8k for one of theirs, whilst a Markilux 6000 is £4385 ex VAT. At the other end of the price range (and I presume the quality range too) Primrose do one 6m long one as per the original post on this thread. I have also considered an alternative approach – to buy two 3m wide awnings and fit them side by side. This might open up the market a lot, though I am struggling a little to find off-the-shelf 3m wide awnings I can just buy in a shop and take home with me. I’d be keen to know: 1. What the drop off in quality is like from something like a Haus awning to a Primrose one, and how much it actually matters? What are the implications of buying cheap? 2. Where to find decent quality 3m wide off the shelf awnings?

I appreciate that there are lots of economics to think about, and I think I'm getting my head around that. My question is more to do with the actual construction of a pool. Is it basically a case of building a blockwork wall 4m x 2m (for instance) and floor, then tiling the inside space, making sure I have added the pump etc and a cover? Or is there far more to it than that? If it is, then that affects the economics of the project as far as start up costs go. Is there a basic guide to the construction of a pool anyone can recommend?

On a much, much more modest scale, I am building a small family house self build, so small that every inch has to work for us, as you can see by the floorplan: One idea was to have a hot tub or jacuzzi under the decking outside the lounge, with a lift up cover like this: Then is was only a small step to thinking of an 'endless pool' instead, especially if it had hot tub features, allowing chilling out or swimming. This would be a partly sunken pool, though the top two thirds of it would be above ground, albeit under the deck. Anyway, the pool companies who offer a suitable product seem very difficult to pin down on price. Or even at all. This has got me thinking: Surely this is just a matter of digging the right size hole, building block walls up the sides, screeding it, tiling it, then filling it up with water, before getting something like a Fastlane machine at one end to create the current to swim against? I'm only looking at one max 2m wide and say 3-4m long. Thats OK isn't it? Eh? Surely? What am I missing? What do I need to know that I currently don't please? Any advice gratefully received!

Yes I noticed the difference between static position time lapse videos and those comprising different angles, and even a combination of time lapse and real time footage. It certainly does make for a more interesting video. There is a thing called a cam do (I think) which works that way.

Thanks JSH, that is a significantly better price than some of the options I was looking at. I've now had a look on youtube for some gopro construction time lapse videos, and I was a little surprised to see that the image quality didn't actually seem that much better than the brinno. I wonder if this is a case of the angle of the camera / the light source etc being as important if not more so than the camera?

Looks like this person agrees with you! http://www.thinkoholic.com/2014/01/21/construction-time-lapse-gopro-hero3-brinno/ I am tempted by the gopro if only for the far better resolution. The brinno100 seems fine other than fairly poor quality images judging by their youtube videos.