Jilly

Very sorry about your wife. I was told the application stays open for 2 (or was it 3 yrs, I’m not certain) after your last inspection. I can’t see how you can get out of the fee. My BCO officer told me to call them out to keep it live if the project was going to be protracted but only when I mentioned I wanted to delay the bathroom. He did say I shouldn’t have asked him, and he would probably have signed it off without 😭 You might be able to compensate with insulation elsewhere if there isn’t enough in the cavity, or could you add external wall insulation?

Well done! It’s very satisfying to sort stuff out, even if you don’t quite know why…

Buy a freestanding cupboard from eg Neptune…?

It’s very thin super NASA type insulation, for various applications, including iwi for narrow spaces such as yours. As others have said, be mindful of interstitial condensation. I used it on some steels to try to reduce cold spots.

Have you come across Aerogel?

Welcome!

How about putting a thick curtain up to help? Most cats would figure it out.

The builder and I are having conflabs: The kitchen extractor fan exits exactly into the cavity wall off the extension (my design fail!). Sooo, we have fashioned a duct with 100mm Manrose ducting to get round the awkward space, and stuffed insulation round it. (I thought the flimsy stuff could tear). However, I don't want it to exit close to the eaves vents of my precious cold roof under the porch overhang (builder and BC didn't mind but it seems counterintuitive to me). I want a chimney to duct away from the roof vents. However, I can see that we need it to be insulated (builder doesn't think so) as I think we could get condensation in the ducting. We are struggling to find a suitable 100mm product which looks good (Conservation Area) and doesn't let rain etc in Any ideas? It will have to have a total of 5 right angles (2 in the wall).

Do you know exactly where the soakaway is located?

I was very surprised to find that conversions are exempt

Well done!

Plenty of schoolchild errors here too. I've done a stable conversion and was under the impression you can't demolish the whole thing (that would require demolish and rebuild planning permission), so bits were gradually rebuilt. Quite a palaver sometimes, it was very difficult to get quotes because of the unexpected nature of some things. Some of the Building Control regulations are less strict, which can be helpful, depending on your viewpoint. Look out for the Buildhubber who suddenly found after unexpected delays, he had a window of just 3 years to complete, in order not to lose the warranty.

I'm pretty sure it's correct that the pond water can be tested for GCN DNA to save having surveys. Be careful, it's a criminal offence to injure/kill protected species such as bats and GCN. Even putting up exclusion fences needs a licence. I saw an article in the Telegraph about someone who developed his barns and spent £10K on bat mitigation, so be prepared.

It can be worth getting a second opinion on the bats. Local enthusiasts sometimes do surveys very reasonably, but I'm not sure if they can count as official surveys. You can also discuss/negotiate the mitigation plan they come up with to better suit the building. I didn't know any of this and spent about £6K (I weep to think of it) all told on surveys/natural England licence etc. I was present at the hand strip of the building and we found one bat which flew off and didn't make use of the posh box provided for it. I have a friend with a pond and the surveyor found a single GCN egg (which my friend was obviously suspicious of!) and they spent many thousands on surveys and a building a hibernacula. I want garden pond, but I am worried about encouraging the wrong type of newts if I build a garage. Apparently they can now do a DNA test of the pond water for GCNs which saves a fortune in surveys.

Same here, but a bungalow, we rarely heat the bedrooms.

I just asked BC what regs I need to adhere to and they said any exterior wood, plastic or aluminium and to check with planning because in a conservation area.

We are on a Building Notice for the extension and I would like to use a joiner to do bespoke external doors. They looked a bit blank when I mentioned BC compliance and will only do 14mm gap double glazing in the door. I'm having triple glazing Aluminium windows. What gets inspected? I looked at doors at a double glazing showroom and composite doors only looked to be thick lumps of wood. We use the patio as the front door. Should I use someone else?

An environmental initiative. You could look on your local council website to see if they are doing it.

Lots of councils are offering free trees/hedging this winter, probably not edibles for your forest garden but might help on the boundary.

Oh, the self building sleepless nights. Our brains play nasty little tricks. Are you certain new builds have to have a warranty to be mortgageable? Maybe speak to a broker to set your mind at rest (hopefully)

Woo hoo!

OMG that's awful.

How about using the other loo and shower in the morning? The actual ensuite close to the bed might wake him up? Just use the proper one when you have guests or when he's awake?

I would say, unfortunately you need to trap it asap before it gets too cosy and brings its family too. I think I would do this before sealing up, as if something gets accidentally trapped in the pipes and dies it could stink and block the vent. Once the culprit is identified then mesh up would be my take on it. Be wary of poison if you have pets as secondary poisonings are quite common, by ingesting the slowed down mouse/rat etc. Please don't use a glue trap, they are the most horrendous inhumane things I've ever seen.

It's unusual to have the washroom in the wardrobe rather than the bathroom. Maybe I'm OCD but you would have to touch the door before you've washed your hands after visiting the loo, so if either of you were ill it would spread germs (or even if you weren't!). The first impression will be cupboards rather than a 'ta da' posh bedroom, but maybe you want the privacy?