FarmerN

Can you lift a stained block out to experiment on? Try different things. Brick acid, very strong hypochlorite /washing up liquid mix, different solvents ? Apply and leave to soak rather than scrub. Care needed ! Don’t mix chemicals! Good Luck.

Are you suggesting no inlet ducts to the bedrooms or have I misunderstood?

I can’t help on fitting Panels on old roof , but we had a 1890 roof retiled a few years back, no felt etc . It was bone dry in the attic and very well ventilated ! Roof only lasted 120 years! Timbers all very sound, the bit that was failing were the batten nails. You could see the odd bit where whole battens were sliding. This would be my worry with putting panels on an old roof. Just built a new house, the bit that annoyed me about the new roof was the battens were nailed on with a nail gun, OK they were galvanized nails , but the nails were so thin and the coating very thin compared to hammer driven roofing nails. I think they will slip a lot sooner than the roof, on the old house. They used Copper nails for the slate but that seemed almost pointless as it will be the batten nails that fail.

I cannot get my head around Discharge of Planning Conditions. Do all Conditions Require formal Discharge by the council? We have had written approval now for Pre commencement conditions and others requiring the councils written approval. ( Four conditions) What about the remaining nine conditions, do I need to do anything, submit an application to Discharge or not? The only reason to worry is in case we need to sell. We have no intention of selling but at 73 you never know what the future holds. The conditions of the PP I’m not clear about are briefly- Commence within three years. Build in total accordance with plans. Use materials specified in plans. No work in summer without a nesting bird survey. Provision of bat roost and boxes. Provision of EV charge point. Provision of protective fencing during construction. Notification of any contamination found. Testing of any imported soil. We have now fully completed the build and been living here for a full year, though the builder still has to complete paper work to sign off with building control and complete hand over to us. I’m satisfied that we have fulfilled all the conditions, but do we need a formal Discharge from the Council, or is it just assumed as done. Full wording of conditions not discharged - 1. The development hereby approved shall commence within three years of the date of this permission 2. The development hereby approved shall be carried out in total accordance with the approved plans; 3. The materials to be used shall be in strict accordance with those specified in the application unless different materials are first agreed in writing with the Local Planning Authority. Development shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details 4. No removal of any vegetation or the demolition or conversion of buildings shall take place between 1st March and 31st August in any year, unless a detailed survey has been carried out to check for nesting birds. Where nests are found in any building, hedgerow, tree or scrub or other habitat to be removed (or converted or demolished in the case of buildings), a 4m exclusion zone shall be left around the nest until breeding is complete. Completion of nesting shall be confirmed by a suitably qualified person and a report submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority before any further works within the exclusion zone taking place 5. The proposed development to proceed in accordance with the recommendation made by section 3.2 of the submitted Mitigation and Enhancement Measures Statement (Amenity Tree Care, 08/09/2020) unless varied by a European Protected Species licence subsequently issued by Natural England. Agreed features for roosting bats shall be permanently installed in accordance with the approved details. 6. Prior to first occupation of the dwelling hereby approved, one electric vehicle charging point shall be provided to that dwelling, made available for use and maintained and retained thereafter to the following specification; • A single Mode 3 compliant Electric Vehicle Charging Point for the property with off road parking. The charging point shall be independently wired to a 30A spur to enable minimum 7kW Fast charging or the best available given the electrical infrastructure. • Should the infrastructure not be available, written confirmation of such from the electrical supplier shall be submitted to this office prior to discharge. • Where there is insufficient infrastructure, Mode 2 compliant charging may be deemed acceptable subject to the previous being submitted 7. (a) No development or other operations shall take place except in complete accordance with the tree protection measures and methodology identified in the Arboricultural Impact Assessment and Method Statement report and associated Tree protection plan dated July 2020 with measures to be implemented under Arboricultural supervision in accordance with BS 5837:2012 Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction. – Recommendations. (b) No operations shall be undertaken on site in connection with the development hereby approved (including any tree felling, tree pruning, demolition works, soil moving, temporary access construction and / or widening or any operations involving the use of motorised vehicles or construction machinery) until the protection works required by the approved protection scheme are in place. (c) No excavations for services, storage of materials or machinery, parking of vehicles, deposit or excavation of soil or rubble, lighting of fires or disposal of liquids shall take place within any area designated as being fenced off or otherwise protected in the approved protection scheme. 8. If, during the course of development, contamination not previously identified is found to be present, no further works shall be undertaken in the affected area and the contamination shall be reported to the Local Planning Authority as soon as reasonably practicable (but within a maximum of 5 days from the find). Prior to further works being carried out in the identified area, a further assessment shall be made and appropriate remediation implemented in accordance with a scheme also agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority. 9. (a) Any soil or soil forming materials to be brought to site for use in garden areas or soft landscaping shall be tested for contamination and suitability for use prior to importation to site. (b) Prior to occupation, evidence and verification information (for example, laboratory certificates) shall be submitted to, and approved in writing by, the LPA.

Is the "plot" clearly defined in the PP application, is the existing house within the "plot" ?

I spoke to our DNO ( SP Energy Networks) when planning our new build about 4-5 years ago. They assured me there was no need for an external box so long as meter was within one meter of external wall, so ours is in the plant room. The idea of an outside box that anyone could tamper with did not appeal, to say nothing of appearance. Had a builders box outside during build, the duct to the plant room ran back to near that and then an undergrond connection was made ther to connect the new house. I had expected the DNO to run a new cable all the way to the pole useing the ducts already in place, just connecting the duct to the builders box with the plant room duct, but no, they used the cable already to box and made an underground connection. One more point to fail ?

We laid our Indian sandstone last spring, supplied by Westminster Stone. They were indifferent about sealing, but as I wanted to seal supplied “Mattstone H2O Seal 2” We only did part last summer , it still went a bit green over winter but not as bad a unsealed part. The downside to sealing was it was like a waxed car, great droplets of water collecting on the surface, the unsealed part dried out much , much faster after rain. Both areas needed a good clean this spring. Wesminster Stone recommended not using a power hose to clean it with saying this would make the surface more open by washing bits out. Suggested that we should wash when needed with proper cleaner, ( which of course they sell !) I used dilute acid , a brick cleaner, first and after rinsing, washed again with a soap bleach mix . I’m sure domestos or similar would be fine, but I used agricultural Sodium Hypochlorite mixed with fairy liquid, mixed at about 750ml Hypo +250 ml fairy to a bucket of water. Use with care splashes will sting and bleach clothes. Brush over, leave to soak and wash off with hose. Worked well for me all green washed off. Think the bleach is the important bit. Do Not mix the bleach with the acid !

Check local records, local knoledge that your water quality will be OK. I spent a lot drilling a borehole, good water supply at 50 M but it was so sulphurous it was not fit to use and treatment costs prohibitive. If you left the water in a bottle over night it stank of rotten eggs next morning. I should have guessed the water was 'special' as there used to historic health spa next door!

Our brick and block walls went up 4 years ago , 125 cavity with 115mm Kooltherm. The builders did try hard but it’s impossible to keep it flat against the blocks, no matter how well laid they are. You therefore end up with a chimney effect and therefore thermal bridging, who knows what the actuall u value is, problably 20% - 40% below the calculated value. Equally impossible to maintain the 10mm residual cavity. The builders turned up with some cheap tape for the PIR boards, I insisted on Kingspan’s recommended tape , cost , in excess of £1000.00 ! for a 210msq bungalow. The floor on the drawing was also Kooltherm, we just changed to a much cheaper PIR and put 180mm in , deeper than the planned Kooltherm but still cheaper. As we are beam and block foundations it was easy to adjust the drawings to accommodate this.

Start here? https://www.allbrickandstone.com/brick-library/ 1000+ bricks to look at. Find the best match on line, get a sample and compare. When you come to build , matching the mortar will also have a big impact.

Hi Thats exactly what we did. Do you already have Planning Permision, or have you submitted plans? Good Luck.

Cherry trees do have a habit of suddenly dying, normal life span is 10-30 years I think. Wet roots is a common problem. Did yours die during this last wet winter ??!!

Thats basically what mine said, plant, replace dead plants, suitable care etc. Fence on the other side of site.

Don't actually 'Like' last three answers but yes I think perhaps I need to get conditions applied with somehow. Thanks.

Would having planning conditions that have not been discharged be an issue if we did have to sell the house. Much more likely a future problem for my children than me. Thanks for all the replies so far.

The Planner at the time just did not want us to build so slapped on as many conditions as possible, nest boxes, bat boxes, specified materials, EV charge point, etc. No enforcement notice , yet. Fence replaces old fence and is shown on plan , but should have had permission for materials and design! I don’t think we have damaged trees or hedges, time will tell.

I’ve just been checking through the twelve planning conditions that came with the original planning permission. We have clearly failed to comply with two of them, though the rest are fine. Any advice on the best way forward now. We have no intention to sell in the next ten years , but you never know what the future will bring. 1. A six foot wooden lap board fence has been built without prior approval. We should have had written approval from the Local Planning Authority for the boundary fence. 2. The protective fencing erected at the start of the project to protect trees, hedging and their roots has been removed , again we should have had LPA written permission before fence was removed. ( Heras fencing ) We are at the end of our Build and living in the house, though not yet got all the final documentation off our builder. I don't blame the builder, think this is down to me. For a variety of reasons we hardly used the architect after the foundations went in, though never fell out with them. Now regretting this and wish we had kept him on board.

White Stone Effect shower tray here. The one we have isn't slippy. Set flush with tile floor, open one end and works well. Needs a scrub with soap once every couple of weeks, easy and quick to do.

We like our Sandstone paving ,Indian Sandstone from Westminster Stone, it looks great, a bit bumpy or rustic looking, which is the look we want. It’s only 12 months old. Just starting to go green and will obviously need a good clean as spring approaches. Didn’t seal it, maybe sealing would have stopped it going green.

Our Rationel alu clad /wood windows had internal split tape, then Illbruck FM330, and Compriband expanding tape as the external seal . The internal tape provided a very visually convincing seal, whether it was really needed I have no idea. We did however have trouble covering the tape with plaster and ended up putting beading round the reveal to hid excess tape on the frames. Which actually looks fine. Removing excess tape is impossible and our problem covering the tape arose through using wet plaster on the reveals not plaster board. My point is if using internal tape , as already said in earlier posts, take great care tapping accurately and know how you are going to cover it on the frames. The external Comriband tape worked well against our brick walls and looks very good. Time will till what it will look like in 10-15 years time.

Zender MVHR unit currently showing Extract air 18 deg C 53% RH Outdoor/ Sullpy air -0.5deg C 94% RH Various digital RH meters round house showing all sorts of ridiculously low figures- kitchen 21.5 deg C 39% RH I don’t trust any of the digital readings really and keep meaning to buy a Wet/Dry bulb thermometer to see what that says.

As stated in earlier posts, I thought there was some merit in having them on the same facade so as to avoid wind pressure differences between intake and exhaust . I’m certainly no expert.

We fitted two consumer boards, only one is supported by the battery during a Power Cut. The heat pump , treatment plant towel rails etc are all on the unsupported on. Ensures the battery is not drained too quickly ,leaving power for Fridge /Freezer, lighting, hub and other essentials. The cooker and all sockets have battery back up so still needs a bit of care during power cuts.

We have a Clearview stove, UK made , it's a traditional design, with direct air supply through the slab. Love it, It's massively more efficient than the stove we had in the previous house. It can overheat the room, but not a major issue, so tend to leave the room door open when it’s lit. Our house is all electric ,and it was nice to have the stove during the recent storm when the power was predicted to be off for 2 days ( it wasn’t). Being a traditional flat top design meant we could boil a kettle on it and heat a pan. I’m told you can bake potatoes in the ash can beneath the fire, but haven’t tried that yet. The ulimate backup.

How important is the Walk in shower ? You say a good sized bath so to state the obvious, a shower over the bath is the easy solution . That’s what we did and it works well. Can you put a walk in shower in another room altogether, even down stairs?