Bitpipe

Given the TF company need to produce a set of calcs and drawings to build their frame, why would they charge you £2500 for the same? Was this in advance of committing to the frame purchase? MBC did my detailed design after deposit was paid, so once the final tweaks etc were done, I had a full set of drawings and calc package to share with BCO. They also fielded follow up questions and took a few recommendations on board during the build to keep BCO happy.

Similar sized house, architect quoted £15k for BR drawings & discharge of planning conditions, this was in 2015. I did it myself, using the timber frame company's drawings plus other easily found details to satisfy BR - this worked for me as the frame design inc. SE calcs was all part of their package. If you're going for a traditional build route then does not sound crazy but as ever, get 3 quotes to see if it's comparable. What will the SE package cost?

Nope, walls should not shed any dust. Your floor may though as it's just tamped flat vs cast so you may need to seal that.

To be honest, if you're bolting stuff to the walls the PB would just get in the way!

Well done. It looks beautiful - quite a shame when all the concrete gets covered up though - I kept the walls of the plant room un plastered so I could still see it.

What's your exposure if you use him? Agree that you should be buying the materials and payment in arrears for work done. From the company that did my basement to the guy who did my landscaping, they all said that you can be one bad client/job away from bankruptcy and its never the domestic clients but the commercial ones who owe them ££. Bloke who fit our balcony and balustrade system was screwed for about £20k when the company I bought from went into administration. Rose like a Phoenix from the ashes though but he was out of pocket.

Great achievement. Looks uncannily like ours did with the main basement and adjacent box. How are you taking ground level services in and out of the basement box? Have you cast in any knockouts or will you just core drill what you need?

NMA, as the name implies, is only for non material amendments (the materiality is determined by the LA). We did one for our build, slightly increasing size of street facing windows (from 1000mm to 1200mm), adding Solar PV to rear elevation and tweaking layout and size of Velux. However the second, adding PV to front elevation, was rejected as being a material amendment and requiring PP. As it was, we were allowed to do it under PD so became a non issue. If you were allowed 2 beds in roof as a NMA they must not have materially impact the street scene etc. Would removing the staircase and rooms in roof change the external view - i.e. would the NMA require additional Velux etc? If not why bother removing them? I would not worry about local objections derailing your approval - the planning officer needs to determine that based on local policy and planning law. Objections need to be addressed by them and if sufficiently high in volume can pull the application into committee. You can appeal if you believe planning decision is incorrect. Also, planners can only approve what is in front of them, not what has gone before or may come after - they will be dealt with on their own merits. Have you discussed any of this with a planning consultant? Some architects are on the ball in this respect but some less so.

You need to balance out the lack of office gossip, tea and fag breaks with the new temptation of Cash In The Attic and Homes Under The Hammer.

Great news Dave - It's a nice feeling when it all gets sent back with no challenges. I wonder, given the backlog, if they're taking a lighter touch on the reviews.

Congrats! If you think you were busy getting married just wait until you are married. Have you got your 'to do' list yet

Yes and no. If it's issued by the render manufacturer (Weber or Parex) then the installer needs to submit a design, which is approved, and there is some liability if the system fails. You can also fall back on your latent defects policy if there is a materials issue later. If it't not insurance backed or just issued by the installer then yes, likely worthless.

I can PM you the freelance fitter who the balcony firm used, he was ace and did a great job despite being messed around (and eventually not paid) by the firm. Covers all of the UK I believe.

TBH most local glass suppliers could do the laminated units to whatever size is specified, it's the measuring, fitting of the supports and then installing the glass that's the tricky bit. We had internal & external glass fitted by a now bust firm. Even though they came and measured, they still cocked up quite a few panels but as it was on them I was not particularly fussed. The kitchen backsplash glass was even worse - templated and about 60% of the glass went in the skip first time as had been ordered wrong. Took three more visits before it was all done. Strangest part was it was keenly priced but no-one seemed that bothered about the endless mistakes. They went bust too Lesson learned was to pay by CC as we got back some of the balcony install money that way when they couldn't resolve some snags.

You can DIY if you're confident but any mis-measurement / damage is on you. If you supply and fit, the whole package can be zero rated for VAT. Also, supply & fit will also measure up and it's on them if they make a mistake. I think you need to decide on your style first - floor mounted or wall mounted? Continuous support (rail) or individual supports per panel?

Independent ground workers are the way to go, I thought for that price it was a 'basement company' who normally charge a premium. I wonder if he had the ground conditions already determined and a SE approved plan or if it was a budgetary 'worst case' figure. Until you've spent some money on the investigation, you really can't design (and therefore cost) the basement with any confidence and need to accept that you may find conditions that go beyond what your budget allows. However the report can still be useful for foundation design so not totally wasted money. Site conditions can also determine costs, especially if things are very tight wrt neighbours and access. Sheet piling may be required if you don't have the space or soil type to batter back the excavation and the party wall rule starts from the edge of the hole, not basement wall.

By who? What were his ground conditions & site conditions? These are the two biggest variables. We built a 120m2 basement to a passive standard for £100k and given we saved on traditional foundations / slab the incremental cost was about 60%. This was in SE England in 2015 so I appreciate that prices may have gone up. The fit & finish happened at the same time as the rest of the house so extra electrics, plastering, joinery, decorating & flooring but it was not noticeably driving up the cost of the build - economies of scale and all that.

The general rule with basements is the smaller they are, the more they cost /m2 as there are fixed costs to consider and economies of scale. So this could end up being a very expensive space to build, adding very little value to your house and potentially becoming something of a logistical challenge to get kit in there, service it etc. Remember that a UVC will need means to vent hot water externally, ours has an outflow pipe next to the external door but was a proper head scratcher for a while.

I'd go with your ground worker's spec as they will be contractually responsible to you if it is incorrect. Get it in writing though. Are you ordering your own concrete? Any reason the GW didn't want to do that?

It's more that just water table - you need a geotechnical survey to the satisfaction of your SE who will be designing the basement structure. This will be a mix of desk survey (historical investigation) and onsite ground survey (this element should be zero rated for VAT as it it involves 'tools' and is materially related to the construction, per HMRC guidelines) to determine: - Ground composition : required for both structural design and also construction design, i.e. do you need retaining structures during build etc. Also required to calculate muckaway as different materials bulk up differently when out of the ground and you pay by m3 vs weight - Load bearing capability : fundamentally required to structurally design the basement, will a slab suffice, how thick etc, piles? - Soil contamination : may be requested by your LA if there is any historic likely hood. Also required to know how to dispose of the soil - needs WACS testing & classification - Water levels : required for your waterproofing design (and maybe also build strategy if water level is higher than your excavation). - Gas levels : required for your gas permeability design (membranes) The other factors for basement design will be - intended use (sleeping, living, storage, plant etc) which will drive BC requirements most obvious of which is alternative means of escape or fire suppression. - full or partial footprint : is the basement the foundation also (like ours) or do you have a hybrid approach? Is the house above designed so the SE can take the loads imposed into consideration? - insulation : our basement sits on 300mm EPS and has 200mm EPS to sides (all EPS grades calculated by the SE) so it needs no heating and is always @ 20o ambient temp by virtue of the other heat sources in it (appliances, plant, people). - light : natural light is great for basements but needs lightwells to be designed (can be structural or bolted on GRP etc). - services: will you want wet services (toilets etc) in the basement, if you you will need a sump and pump or macerator to surface level foul drainage. - ventilation: if you're having MVHR, it will need to serve basement. If not, how will you get fresh air to circulate? Note that adding a basement to a 2 story house makes it a 3 storey house and so the fire regs step up, minimum FD 30 doors to all rooms off the central stairways, possibly hire grade fireproofing. Now, that all sounds a bit intimidating but it's just more detail to contend with and the only expense you need to commit to is the survey to understand if you can build a basement within your budget. We had a full technical survey that comprised 10m probes and a few 6m cores. For one of the cores, they sleeved it, put in a gas and water monitor and capped it. Returned after 3 weeks to take measurements - no water found (and this was in October). Given basement excavation was 3.5m that gave confidence that WPC and a good drainage strategy (to a soak away 4.5m deep) would do the job. No piles required but chalk substrate meant the slab needed to be a bit heftier than ususal.

Can you post some pictures from ground level? The upstairs view exaggerates the effect a little. If they dropped the deck and summerhouse 30cm, would you be happy (aside from their other antisocial behaviour). Interesting that your garden extends up the slope and theirs does not? You have play equipment up there so you can obviously look down on them from that position - not sure that is material to any planning consideration. Would maybe consider moving those to lower garden in advance of any visit though?

You need to be a squeaky wheel, ring them once a day and then twice a day until someone comes out. I get that they are young and a bit selfish but they need to learn how to behave. I used to live in an end of terrace house share in London with 4 other lads. We were mostly well behaved but had the occasional party which would get out of hand. Neighbours had kids and would politely complain the morning after and we were usually mortified and apologised, wine & flowers etc. If they are ramping up the obnoxiousness after a complaint then you can't live your life like that - it's bullying plain and simple and it will only get worse. If there is even a whiff of trouble like that again, call the police. Can you smell them smoking anything in the evenings? Being loud after 11pm - (you can get apps for your phone that measure noise levels)? Keep a nuisance diary and photo or video any nonsense. You don't say how old your kids are. You could express a concern that they could be observed (or even filmed) by your neighbours (or their friends) when they're in the garden. That's one brush they won't want to be tarred with. Sadly you may need to fight fire with fire here.

We had OSB deck, 6mm insulated tile backer board (screwed down), primer, WarmStar electric mats, 2 part latex levelling compound to top of wire then adhesive and tile. Total build up was 25mm as we had a shower tray of that depth that magically was flush with tiles. Remember to put down a conduit for the thermostat which should go in same time as the mat. Get a testing box for the mats (detects earth fault and N/L shorts) and a digital multimeter to take the readings necessary for warranty. You can get decent kits with all the bits, usually with a cheap wall stat that you can replace with something nicer if you wish - I got the whole lot from WarmStar and fancier stats from UFHSS. Latex on eBay I think.

A girl, luckily the chew phase was quite short lived,

You'll pay, say, £300 + VAT / 20t truck to take the rubble away and the same to buy graded crush back in. Depends whether cost or time is the key variable. I recall looking at the economics of crushing our demolished house & founds on site and could not get them to work. You need a decent sized crusher and it was not cheap Maybe go for a hybrid approach - stack up the big bits to go away on a grab loader and use the smaller bits on site, run through a crusher if the hire makes sense. Then buy in the shortfall. If you have a pecker, maybe use that to break up the bigger bits (but assuming you have just one machine may not be an efficient use of plant).