Patrick

What's the advantage? I take it that anything that works most likely cost more than hiring an electrician to run a cable or even doing it yourself. Timesaving in installation? Reliability wise it s probably a no brainer to use non-wireless, a.k.a. Standard switches. what else is there. I'm always very interested in alternative solutions but with this one I'm struggling to work out the benefits.

@Russell griffiths I think I can just stop posting on the forum and start texting you with the questions I have directl, as it seems so far that your built (at least the ground works) is pretty much what I am going to do. Copy&paste foundation ?

OK. Just cause I always prefer to read the ending to stories, I give you the result :Emailed my SE, asked if she could do cantilever calcs for what I sketched up at the top of this thread. Answer was 1. Not a problem, takes 2 hours, cost about 60£ 2. Probably don't need any adjustment (subject to calcs.), as the existing piles and RC beam are massive anyways. Excellent result. Thanks everyone as well for chipping in.

Yep, it already is going underneath the stream. Digging down and rerouting the stream and putting a new Sewer pipe in definetley will be more expensive than redesigning the foundations, as we are on piles anyways. This will be the Plan B , if Plan A should be not possible .

Ok, fair enough . I was under the assumption that this was fairly typical for a SE . Following a lot of others on here, this seems quite a wide spread criticism with the SE profession . But I am sure there are obvious exceptions out there .

My SE will be able to design it. She is a good Engineer. I just wanted to know if that is the best method or if there where alternative ideas out there. My SE definitely won't come up with any creative alternative solution (should it exist) and will just go with what I tell her to do or, if in doubt, bang a few tons of steel in.

That would be great, but there is a stream which would need to be redirected or dug under, so even more expensive than cantilever over the existing sewer I believe.

That's the word I was missing. ??

Yesterday the guys from Wessex Water came over to check the Sewer Pipe that runs underneath the property and give their ok/opinion on it. Good news is that the Pipe are all fine , not cracked or broken , so we will be able to go ahead with building over the sewer. Bad news is : Our rear living room wall sits more or less exactly on top of the sewer pipe.(see Plans ) I dont want to change the size of the building and we cant move the building elsewhere , as the plot is too tight to move it significally. I was told that Wessex Water requests at least 500mm distance between any Piles and the sewer. So how do I support this back wall? I know I have to give this too my SE eventually to get it sorted, but unfortunately my SE does have the creativity of a Strawbale so every "creative" or "alternative" solution that was developed throughout the planning, I had to come up with and SE was just twisting the numbers to see if it works. On the other side , my Architect is VERY creative , and I could give it to him, but chances are that he comes up with a plan that involves a curved bridge over the property that is build out of carbon and supports the entire house via electric magnets , available for just under 9million £ (to be calculated by SE) My best Idea so far would be to build a kind of Foundation-Balcony Like this: Where the Piles sit back from the end wall for aprox. 600-700mm (giving the sewer the requested 500mm space) and the Concret RC BEAM just extends over the end of the piles to form this little "blacony" Fortunately, our house has a small flatroof, single story "extensions" on that end , so the weight on that overhang will be minimal. Any other , alternative solutions? Does this make sense or is it rubbish? And any other flaws in the drawings?

I ve done just that. SE designed the frame. Cost around 800£. I'm not building yet, still stuck in demolition mode. So wouldn't be able to tell on how enjoyable its going to be putting the frame up. I got a company that supplies the timber and they do really bare frame kits a well. (basically just the walls, no roof, no windows, no insulation ), but only as traditional frame, no portal frame. I wanted portal frame and decided to just get materials from them.

Yes. Prefab makes a lot of sense. Just when they starting to get silly with the prices, it makes no sense then. I remember the doors and windows all being around the 25kmark together. That's katzbeck with passive certification. But when I asked, they wouldn't want to deliver frame without windows. Either theirs or no frame. But maybe that changed.

@oldkettle quote was a rough guess of what Peter might have to pay for his with that company. Not my quote. Mine was without foundations but with windows and insulation. It came in at somewhere around 120-130k if I remember correctly. No internal partition and no finishing. Hence why I stayed clear of it. I have 160sqm so it might sound OK. But the bits I could check itemised(windows and doors) where massively overpriced and around double the price I can buy them for on the same quality so that put me off massively. In general I think the system is great, that's why I'm going to do it, just stick build in place. @PeterStarck Can report more about the ins and outs of the system in general as he was/is using it (check his blog)

@PeterStarck It is the follow up company as far as I understand. With the difference if yours costing approx. 36k, they would charge you more in the region of 90k. Had a quote and few emails forward and backward with them but dismissed it really quick.

Been in touch with them. It really depends on your definition of "budget". It s certainly not mine. about as much as porsche is "a budget sports car".

100% agree. They have the exact same attitude problem in Bristol for approx. 1-1.5 years now. Exactly when they changed from council run to privately run recycling centres. Before, it was nice and easy to drop in occasionally with a van or a trailer, just had to speak to the boss on site and have a good explanation and it was good. Now they are kicking off because of absolutely everything. Even start asking question if they recognise your face (with regular car) because you turn up 2days in a row with garden waste.

Tbh I found Wiltshire amazing. Went Trowbridge loads of time, sometimes 3 times a day. Had a chat with all the guys there to start with and try to help them out the best I can. And they let me go ahead with my stuff without any problems. Much better than my Bristol experience, where the whole staff is just extra anal about almost anything

@Pete Don't listen to @Russell griffiths I cleared an entire house through recycling, giving away bits on gumtree and the local council recycling centre without paying a penny. This was approx. 5-6 regular skips worth of rubbish ?

I completely disagree. This is not the definition of social housing. You can put social housing into flats, or council houses, the result will be the same if you put poor people into ghettos and let them just get on with it without any support (Banlieus, anyone?). This however is a completely different topic than the building itself. There are , even in the UK, examples of high quality flats build with a full maintenance service included. This doesn't have to be more expensive than buying houses, it really should be cheaper. The problem is with the regulations, and in my opinion partly also with this stupid "freehold - leasehold" difference that has been established in the UK. Plenty of examples why the Leasehold system is a bad idea and should be changed. But that's a different topic.

Hence why I said it works elsewhere and needs to be addressed on a higher level. Living in flats and building blocks of flats is quite the norm in most metropolitan areas in Western society, because it makes a lot of sense. The social problems that come with it are not caused by the flats, but by the government/society around it and how you organise this whole thing. Like you already pointed out in your Singapore and "executive flats" example

100% right. Well insulated and with balcony/roof terrace space, these can be nice and there are a Quite a few examples (abroad) how to do it. the central utility is a great thing as it is really silly doing all the heating / warm water / PV but even washing machines and dryers individually for each house. unfortunately this is how it works at the moment but doesn't mean that there are more clever ideas out there (which even been proven to work)

If you want lenders to be happy, insurance to be happy, and a fairly cheap system, go with what is standard. Rendered Blocks you mentioned might be your best option. Price wise they are fairly cheap and I don't think you will find a much cheaper system without comprising the mortgageability or limiting your Insurance options. I these two are not important to you, there are endless options, including stapling carpet tiles to your walls like Them

I've got around 25 of those left over. What would be the going rate for those in your next friendly bathroom ripoff outlet?

@Ferdinand ah yes, this was some art project from the local secondary school. Had a stone masonary carving guy showing them how to do statues . Each kid done one a few years back. It s the local Park. That s my neighbour and thats where my Tree came down.

Yep, it is annoyingly slow to deal with them. They are all overworked and underfunded. This doesn t help when you are in the situation waiting for results. I had 2 delays of a few weeks each time with my applications. They each time asked me "if it was alright" to delay their own deadlines for another 14 days . when I asked my Planning Consultant at the time, what my options are , the answer was: "grant them the extension and it will hopefully be permitted, deny them the extension and it will most definitely be refused" So not much of a real choice.

Where?