Big Jimbo

Yep. Been there, done that. Leaked into the cavity from day One.

I never leave any of my Kebab. I also have mice living under a tarp, which i believe means i dont have rats. My daughter had rats in the void of her flat roof extension. Chewed the lighting wires right through. I cut a hole in the ceiling and fitted one of those small plastic hatches. I spoke to a pest control friend who said he would have to come on a monthly basis unless i could find out where they were getting in. He gave me Three different poisons that did the initial kill. (Very sweet sickly smell for about 10 days. Her extension is built on the boundary. Fortunately a neighbour pointed out a rat hole near her building. I dug it out and found the hole went in under her 300mm footing. From there they were going up the cavity wall, and into the roof. All i could do was use a stick and stuff loads and loads of wire wool down the hole. It has done the trick for the past year but I expect at somepoint they will be back. She lives in a mixed use area, with fast food and warehousing. Sometime during the day you will see One just strolling down the pavement. No fear, just chilling. Waiting for the fast food places to open.

@jayc89, Aquastrap is the stuff you are thinking of. I used it on One bath and 6 showers 9 years ago, and never had a leak since.

I've got a vented, timber floorboard floor. 9 inch solid brick walls. Single glazed old metal framed windows. Concrete tiled roof with no underfelt. The truth is that the house leaks like a sive, has zero insulation. When the weather is really cold it is actually warmer outside than inside. To be honest the house is not fit for purpose. However, the majority of our uk housing stock is like this. I know some very rich people with stupidly large houses. Heating is on 24 hours a day. If it gets too hot indoors they open all the windows and doors. Thats how they adjust the heating ! That, while some old person on a state pension sits with a blanket over themselves. People with low incomes (The majority) are not going to pay out thousands of pounds to have thier houses upgraded. They struggle to find hundreds of pounds to pay the monthly bills. If put into the position of broken heating, and you say i can sort you a new boiler for a grand, or a new Carlos fandango system that will save the planet for 2 grand. 99% are going for the grand option. .......It's a mess, and i don't know what the answer is.

Had my daughters garage signed off by a fully qualified electrician about 2 years ago. He said that the regs no longer require the armoured cable to be burried. Said it can be surface mounted. I dont know how correct this is ?

All good questions from Temp above. If he is a Limited Co, have a look at his previously filed accounts online.

Have him make you a couple of 300mm ish deep 45mm wide pillars for the Chimney breast sides. They would be scribed back to the wall and fitted flush with the front face of the doors. Get him to plant Two fillers on the wall sides, and also bring those out flush with the front face of the doors. The cornice at the top will need to be re-done, but as its being painted could be joined. This will give your robes more of an in-frame look which will be more in keeping with your old house......And expect to pay. Dont order hand built furniture without having it drawn up in the future if you are fussy. To be honest, i think they look cheap, but for a few quid could be made to look much better.

Bloody hard work lifting them on your own Buddy, but has the advantage of not having to hurry because you are paying somebody to help you.

Should do, as long as it's nice and wet.

Defo putty. Common, back in the old days.

Magic Man, right at the end of the job.

I honestly thought that you lived underground.....If you could do it at One height, i think it would look better. I would be a bit concerned about the large void underneath providing a home for rats etc. If you are going to do different levels, i would perhaps do some planters to One side, or the end of perhaps One of the walk on glazing units. It might be nice to see a bit of Green when looking through the glazing from below. Need better pics to be honest. Drone etc.

Welcome Niall. Love County Donegal. Just to let you know, we love pictures.

Well done. I think keeping water out has to be a lot better than sorting it out once it is in. So were your Two external methods enough, and do you put in any measures internally ?

Has anybody else seen that the old BS from 2009 relating to Basement building has changed to BS8102 in 2022 ? It makes interesting reading and would appear to be quite a change. The onus now appears to be that the ingress of water should be stopped from the outside, and that the fill of any excavation should be left open untill any remedial work to prevent ingress is carried out from the outside. I would appear that the days of letting the water in, and then dealing with it once inside might be over. My own thoughts are that it might now make it more difficult to build basements from materials such as ICF, Blockwork etc. The suggestion seems to be that the trademanship of building basements has always been allowed to be poor, and that water ingress will be dealt with when it gets to the inside of the building. This seems to no longer be acceptable. I think that the cost of having a basement built by a contractor is going to soar due to the new B.S

You need to offer shelter to several fit, young, good looking females. Otherwise, it will be a very dull new world for you.

All round to yours when the nukes start falling then.

You can normally find the email, and sometimes a telephone number published on the council web site. I would try ringing them. Do you have somebody acting on your behalf ? If you could find out why the planning officer is not going to support your application it might be helpful for the planning meeting.

The planning system is broken. NPPF written badly, Local policies written badly. Bods with zero training getting to decide........

Tough, thats true. Some councils get so sick of the local Parish Council that they no longer take there comments into account. All councils should do this IMO, so that p.c's comments have no more effect than a neighbours. I would not allow P.C's to vote on any planning applications. Nimby's, old duffers. Zero training.

I wish that was the case. Planning officers often take the easy option and go with the Parish Council. Many councils opperate on the basis that if the P.C. objects, but the planning officer want to support, then the application has to go in front of the committee for a vote. That then adds a whole new set of people with little training that gets to decide your future.

My local councillor was against my proposal. I reached out to the other members of the panel, who i found on my council web site. I sent them copies of my plans, and a statement telling them why i wanted to do, what i wanted to do, and asking for thier support. Might not do you any harm. First thing i would do is try to find out if the planning officer is going to support your application. If so, i think you are more than half way there. If the planning officer is not going to support you then, i personally think you will have a very limited chance, and it is even more important to try and get as many people on your side as you can. In life the majority of people will take the easy option. Easy to support what the planning officer recommends. Best of luck.

My own expierience was.... My Parish council object to virtually everything because we are in the Greenbelt. If they object then it has to go in front of the planning com, if the planning officer wants to support it. My local councillor usually advises the planning officer that he can refuse it under delegated powers, but that if he wants to support it, he want it called in. Unfortunately, the planning officer usually just goes with the Parish Council, "Over development in the Green Belt" because it's the easy option, and less work. In my case, the Parish Council objected, but the planning officer supported it. This ment that it was going to go in front of the Planning committee at the council. I'm told by a couple of local Planning consultants that the Planning Committee usually vote in line with the planning officers recommendation`. In my case , (A ZOOM meeting) i found that the committee members were not all a bunch of old crusties, I did use my 3 minutes to address them. They voted 11 to 2 in my favour, but as previously stated they basically went with the Planning officers reccomendation. If i was you, i would speak.

I have used the orange internally before. Building inspector did not have a problem. They won't like you using the black stuff outside underground.

If i had the choice, i would go for a sump pump. Saniflow will make a bit of noise, and you will have to elevate the shower tray. Much nicer if you can get that on the floor. + quite easy to block a saniflow.