Lincolnshire Ian

The blurb talks about swifts being very clean birds with no requirement for cleaning. Apparently, the adult birds poo away from the nest and even eat the chick's poo to keep things nice and clean!

Hi Our planners are keen for new builds to incorporate swift boxes. I researched this a little and realised that Wienerberger not only makes integrated swift boxes but also boxes for other bird species, bees, and insects. We have a two-storey, north-facing gable end that seems to fit the bill for the swift boxes, but I was wondering if anyone else had fitted other habitat integral bricks. We want to avoid bat boxes so that we aren't involved in all the protected species stuff. Any shared experiences/advice would be great. Thanks

Thank you everyone. If our application goes to the Planning Committee (not guaranteed at this point), we will need to consider our next steps carefully. Thanks for your help, it really is appreciated.

Hi everyone Thanks for your feedback. We have seen the Probity document and he has a "predetermined" view of what house design should be on the plot. He actually said during a Parish Council Meeting, "I believe that the replacement dwelling should be a bungalow and no-one will change my mind". This should be enough for him to be excluded from the Planning Committee decision making process, but I guess that he is too self-assured to realise this and I may need to write to the committee chairman.

Hi We are applying for planning, and we have received an objection from a parish councillor who is also a member of the district planning committee. I understand that this councillor should now remove themselves from the planning decision-making process. Does anyone know if there are any guidance notes/codes of practice that would prevent a councillor who serves on the district planning committee from publishing an objection on a freely accessible planning portal? Thanks

Hi @Conor Was that full planning or outline planning. We already have outline, waiting for the full planning approval. Thanks

Hi We have bought a derelict bungalow with outline planning permission and have started the demolition process of outbuildings etc. We don't have full planning approval yet (it's in the system). Even though we don't have Full Planning Approval can we start to: a). Have vat zero-rated services such as demolition and fence rection. b). Claim back vat on items we buy (we may erect our own fence and just buy materials). Thanks

Hi We have around 200m of fencing to erect, a combination of 6-foot featherboard fencing and post and rail. Does anyone have any nuggets of information regarding good places to buy this stuff? We are located in Lincolnshire. Thanks

Thank you everyone for your input, this is invaluable. @Benpointerthank you for sharing your quote.

We wanted to install the fencing to use the 3 months wait we will have between clearing the site and demolishing the bungalow. We have still got the heras fencing at no cost. It's purely a scheduling issue.

Hi everyone We are demolishing our plot in two phases, everything apart from the prefab bungalow first followed by the bungalow (we can't demolish the bungalow until we have full planning permission). We are doing this because there is a restriction on the demolition window to avoid nesting birds in the many sheds, trees, brambles etc. that surround the bungalow. Phase 1 demolition has started and heras security fencing has been erected. We will have a 3 month window between the two demolition phases and it would be good to use this time productively. The CDM regs are really vague when it comes to site security fencing standards. Would it be OK to replace the heras fencing with a 4 foot feather-edged fence. We would also attach the usual site security/building site warning signs. Your thoughts will be appreciated. Many thanks

Hi We are demolishing a prefab bungalow to build a new house on the plot. The plot is roughly flat, but sits below the height of the road, we have been asked to get a topographic survey to make sure that all the levels are OK. The bungalow is still in situ but I was wondering whether it is possible to do a topographic survey before demolition, which is likely to be January 2025 so that we can push ahead with our building control plans as soon as we have Planning Approval? The existing bungalow and the new house will overlap in footprint by about 8 metres. Thanks

Thanks everyone. As a benchmark (this might be cheap/expensive, no idea). We landed on Protek, it cost us just over £1500 for rebuild value of £475000, cover for hired plant and equipment and a storage shed.

Hi everyone I'm shopping around for self-build insurance. Buildstore Insurance, Self-build Zone, and Protek are currently on my list. When I fill in the online quote form, I notice that the forms for Buildstore Insurance and Self-build Zone seem to be identical. Are these two "brands" part of the same company, and if so, has anyone got different quotes from each? Or are they different companies just using the same web designer? Finally, does anyone else have a suggestion for any other self-build insurers? We are demolishing an old prefab bungalow and building a new house. Thanks Ian

Hi We are building a timber frame house with a brick outer skin. We like the look of a brick plinth around the house. Apart from the additional cost of bricks + labour to build the plinth are there any extra costs involved such as wider foundations? Thanks