Mr Punter

I once had a house with a cellar that would flood when it rained. I just use it to store non-vulnerable items. We were on clay and the water would force its way between the wall and floor. If you would be best with type C waterproofing involving drainage membranes, a perimeter channel, sumps and pumps. Expensive and disruptive but effective. You will lose a bit of floor space. I am not sure what the drainage issues are but you could fit a non-return valve. More investigation needed.

Have we paid for the war yet? Which one?

I meant less sought after locations with lower house prices.

This would be advantageous for those in crappy areas and bad for those in smart areas Council tax amounts by band seem fairly similar throughout the country, so each band reflects a similar house. The less well off areas would see savings of over 60% and the affluent area increases of the same amount. I cannot see it being a vote winner in London and the Home Counties. I also cannot see how it will be balanced - it looks like they will need to raise further tax elsewhere of increase the rate.

There is a drive towards simplifying tax but SDLT and Council Tax are both simple and easy to collect so I don't think there is any efficiency savings with the 0.48%. It would mean a lot of time spent revaluing because the bands were quite simple and they would need to be accurate.

Just spent £40k SDLT so would not be the best of luck.

Nice. He recently gave an update on the lad who was working for him. Always a good read.

What is your question? If you want flush floor throughout you will need to build up the lower floor. You can lose a bit of change of level via a threshold at or near a door.

Easy Tiger! I don't think he was seriously suggesting shooting at the crows. It would likely damage the EPDM in any case. On that subject, a neighbour had kids who liked to play football. One morning her husband had gone to work and she cam round to our house in tears because a crow had got caught up in the football net and was very distressed. I valiantly and hastily went round to free it and it bit the hell out of my finger. Bastard!

If that is a cavity wall I favour locating the window a fair way back (80mm?) so that it is mostly in line with the insulation. I cannot see cavity closers in your picture so not sure what cavity width you have?

I used Russell Timber Technology a few years ago and they seemed decent value and quality. They are in Glasgow and do timber and ali clad.

Hi @sean1933. Aside from the 10mm lump which may be caused by the mortar bed and lintel, I would want written confirmation from the lintel supplier / engineer that it is acceptable to land the joists on the lintel as proposed. Instead you may need to use the special masonry restraint hangers on the block/brickwork above to reduce the point loads. This would also resolve any issues with joist levels.

If it is modern with cement based mortar it is probably only good for hardcore. Don't mix it with other materials as it is useful and can be easily recycled. You could leave it aside and use it for the base of the new driveway. Once it has been tracked with a large digger it will be good and stable,

So not the best idea and neither the worst. How so many things are. Many of the other elements are 5*, some 4* and the basement heat concept 3*. Meanwhile there are millions of flats and houses in this country that are 1* pissing heat away and no practical solution.

Yeah yeah we are all suffering in lockdown, but cut them some slack!

I have a kitchen (with epic extractor) / dining with living area but with a separate living / TV room. Agree that the all in one is not for me.

Posted too late in the thread...

I am using a brick called Forum Smoked Branco, which is a light grey. About £1 each. Have not started but agreed with planning.

I would give it all a spray of water to moisten slightly, get the foam gun nozzle right to the back and squirt in. Don't apply so much that it drips or falls out. You may need to do a few passes after the first has partly cured to make it fill properly.

The difficulties are your income and lack of capital. However you finance this, if you aim to retain the property it seems you will need a mortgage / loans of £650k with an income of £85k which is 7.7 times income. I doubt many lenders would go more than 5.5 X. With only £100k of your own funds and no experience I can't see the construction being possible to fund either.

Will a can of expanding foam not fill that? Bear in mind that if you use it you will struggle to get to any of it later. Also it can push stuff about as it expands.

+1

If it is not fixed the contractor or supplier can just remove it if they are owed money. Once fixed, they can't (legally).

I have not seen that as a planning condition before. It may be worth looking at the council website to see applications from a year or so ago that have the same condition and copy what they submitted? Intellectual property theft is the sincerest form of flattery.

What do you need this for? I ask for risk assessments and method statements from our subbies, for health and safety compliance.