TheMitchells

Typical - we just think we've sorted out one problem and we find another. I have been reading Building Regs Part B5 which states that the Fire Vehicle must be able to get to within 45m to all points of the building. Bu&&er! Its not much but the rear of the house will definately be over that distance and as the access is only 2.4, dropping to 2.2m at the back, a Fire Tender is never going to get to the back of the bungalow. And it depends on where they start measuring from too. Is it from the road or will they allow the driveway to be used? If I use the 15.5 metre garden of the current bungalow as the scale, its a little over 46/47 to the far corner of the proposed 1.5 storey house. And now we'll have to wait till Monday before being able to ask either Building Control or the Fire Service. Will we have to apply for new planning and move the house nearer the bungalow? Looking for the positive aspect to this, at least that way, I will get to design the house to suit us. although I quite liked the design that was passed, with a few internal changes. Oh Poo!!!!

For anyone who fancies having a listen, Jeremy Harris has done two podcasts with Houseplanninghelp.com and can be found here. http://www.houseplanninghelp.com/hph154-the-challenges-of-building-a-new-home-in-a-rural-community-with-jeremy-harris/ http://www.houseplanninghelp.com/hph155-do-you-really-need-an-architect-to-design-your-house-with-jeremy-harris/ I was amazed - he sounds completely different to expected. (I thought he would sound much older...) there isnt much additional info for someone who has read all his blogs but still nice to hear about his build.

I am always amazed by the knowledge on this site! Is there anything you guys dont know?

yes, thats something I'd be interested in too. @Nickfromwales did recommend a company on another post. I shall see if I can find it.

it wouldnt surprise me that they tanked the bathroom wall as there was an issue with damp outside that wall along the side alley a few years ago. that got sorted in 2015 and it all seems dry now. I shall scrap off some of the black stuff to see if I can get a good key for the render. Hopefully the rest is still sound and I shall check before doing that wall. Its a small bathroom (2 x 1.5m) so we dont want to loose any more room than we have to. @ProDave that pillar is going anyway when we get beams installed across the opening. But the pillar they will be sitting on is almost as bad. I can get most of my fist into one hole and thats certainly something that will be sorted; before the beams go in. Hopefully that will happen next week!

On this same subject, we have decided to apply internal wall insulation across all the external walls, probably using something like Gyproc Thermal Basic which is 22ml EPS on plasterboard. Its cheap yet will make quite a difference to the uninsulated walls. however, before we get to that stage, I have lots of holes in the walls. I applied a 50:50 water/pva glue mix to all the holes last week and now I am thinking of filling in the holes before applying the insulated boards. Here are a couple pf pics of the sort of holes I am talking about. there are rather a lot of places like this across the whole house. The walls are either rubble or double brick. and the rubble walls seem full of holes! This is a pillar holding up the back wall! This one is going when we open up between the two rooms but there is another pillar almost as bad. Should I use a cement mix (like render) or a plaster mix to fill in the holes? it only has to be roughly smooth as we'll be applying the insulated boards over it. But I assume the wall should be as level as I can make it and certainly fill in holes where cold air can get in. The walls are all dry; we have not had any problems with damp on these walls. Any advice?

That looks very expensive - to install and run.

thanks - have had a look and the house looks impressive! Site is wonderful - I am very green! But then I suppose we always have the option of moving somewhere cheaper where we may find something that good. Was the land already yours? Before you got planning?

Would be interested in reading your blog - whats the details, as I cant see it here?

Thanks @Nickfromwales I have been wondering how to do that! welcome Ness - good luck with sorting out the issues.

From jeremy as sent to me - hope this is enough. Scale model house I've posted the info on the model a few times, here's one of the posts with photos: http://www.ebuild.co...nks/#entry78433 I used the standard white foamboard bought from the local stationery shop, WH Smiths IIRC. It was white and came in A4 or A3 sheets. I used a scale of 1:50 and printed the plan and elevations out then stuck them to the foamboard with spraymount (also from the same source) then used a steel rule and sharp craft knife to cut the parts out. I glued it together with quick drying modellers PVA, from a local model shop, who were also able to sell me a bag of 1:50 size people, to give an idea of scale. My wife was concerned about the shower size, but didn't appreciate the lady in a bikini I stuck in the model to show her how big it was! To get the external wall thickness right for our build up I used an extra external layer of 2mm Liteply (available from model aircraft shops, it's soft and easy to cut with a craft knife). 2mm is also a reasonable approximation for the width of internal stud walls at 1:50 scale, so I made the internal walls from Liteply. I went OTT with the staircase and machined it to scale with a milling machine from a block of solid oak, silly really, as it took me an hour to make, whereas the rest of the model was done in half an hour or so! Jeremy.

yes, I have been looking at your threads but I thought thiis would be something that could stand alone. For example I remember being told that Howdens have their sale in October so if anyone wants their kitchen from there and can wait, they'll know to wait. But your discount of the week is excellent and I keep an eye on it. Can we get it pinned to the top of that section?

I just received the latest BuildIt magazine and they had a leaflet in for Victoria Plum - will have a closer look.

I am looking at buying a fair amount of stuff for our renovation in the next 6 months and I have been looking at the current lot of sale offers. Did we have a post which indicated when was the best time to buy at certain shops? I am sure I remember one - here or on Ebuild but I cannot find it. Does anyone remember where it might be or do we need to start a new one? I'm thinking of Ikea or Howdens for the kitchen, Nichols or similar for the bathrooms and varius for the wood, insulation and plasterboard. But do these companies have typical sale times or is it just pot luck. We dont have a huge amount of room to store stuff so I am reluctant to get things now that we cant put in for several months. But I dont want to wait and find prices are much higher than I can get in the sales. The Post 'Discount offers of the week' is a great idea and I am keeping an eye on that but timings of sales would also be useful. Any thoughts?

How did you get on, Alexphd1? Did you manage to get the cementing in before the bad weather?

I think the Woodstock house cost around 100k for the whole renovation but that did include a new extension and replaced windows too. if you contact Paul Williamson at Beattie, he seemed happy for people to visit. He did his around 10 years ago now and would do things differently now. They used his house to learn about the system and see how it could be imporved. And they do have a stall at the Swindon Renovation centre and are often there to chat to.

Checked and we do have that one - OH agrees with above comments but found it great for light work, ie. fencing panels. It is big and unweldy compared to modern equivalent but ideal for now.

I think we have one of these that the OH borrowed from work - I'll check and let you know. That seems a very good price.

Have a look at Beattie Passiv as they have an excellent system that is like a tea cozy - they come and drop it over the house with new roof and it gives a fab warm house - one of the managers lives in Woodstock and has done it to his house. we went and had a look and would certainly be considering this for any future renovation that we planned to live in. Just another idea for you to mull over. http://www.beattiepassive.com/

This site may be of use for you and Oxford isnt too far away from Berkshire so some of the contacts may be useful. http://oxfordgreenhouse.co.uk/ This was a full renovation and I think they were taking it to Enerphit level.

Hi Peter, welcome to BuildHub. I am doing a renovation too (see the blogs - Scooby Cottage) but we are planning on selling so we arent doing too much in the way of insulating and installing expensive items that we would do for ourselves. Is your renovation for you and for long term benefit as that makes quite a difference in what you may decide to do or not? I dont see any benefit in doing too much for our project as there is little payback at the moment - not enough people appreciate low energy/Enerphit to pay extra for it. Looking forward to hearing about the plans!

Looks great! Nice that the digger driver was so helpful.

I noticed that some had stairs without any banisters - isnt that against the regulations? And I too find bits and pieces that I think I may use. That house with the central staircase had beautiful lengths of wood going all the way up, instead of stair rods and I love that idea. Hopefully I'll be able to use that in Scooby Cottage to let light into the downstairs from the landing. We have opened it up but it needs some work yet. Like this. Good job I have a good imagination.

I wasnt too sure about this house but I can see why it won. It was certainly different and amazingly designed. I liked the private house in Cumbria which used local stone as well as modern sections and yet it fitted into the Cumbrian town perfectly. I'd have lived there happily.

Great news!! looking forward to reading all about it.