oldkettle

Congratulations!

I am not saying they take it for free. But it is not good enough to say "we want to build more houses here so here is your 10% and f. off". When we were looking we had a choice between buying a significantly larger updated house with a tiny garden and a tired relatively small bungalow on a large plot. We chose land over house and never regretted this choice thanks to the degree of privacy we've gained. I discussed our extension plans with friendly estate agents and they said there was a limit on the uplift we could achieve (well, obviously). I always maintained that I don't care whether our plans would be profitable because we want to live here for a very long time. I didn't take CPOs into account though, it has a potential to ruin any plans. A law can be unjust.

This is pretty shocking to me. So the council can at any point decide to take somebody's property and then share the proceeds with developers. Nothing wrong with this at all apparently. I am really worried about it as our little oasis of 5 houses has "unusually large gardens" and is constantly attracting attention. 10% uplift is nothing if you can't move into comparable area with a comparable house and land.

Thank you for the link. No proper rules exist in this area, no consistency. You can have a bathroom. No, you can't. You can have a pool. No, you can't. Somebody who doesn't attend a gym is telling people what size they believe is suitable for a home gym. If the neighbours / council are concerned that people rent accommodation out then they should go and prove it. Otherwise I can't quite figure out what their problem is.

Thank you. This is exactly what I had in mind and the reason I mentioned glulam. With sips the load does not sound too bad. I am just trying to get an idea for what is possible: maybe 10m is indeed too much, maybe not.

They seem to be referring to the existing house? As long as I have something to fill this place - which I will do - I am not worried. It is not wider than the existing house and will be 30m away. Much more concerned about actually building it.

Sorry, missed this bit. Aren't we allowed 4m ridge? Ah, I see you point. This just means we will have to step 2m away from the boundary on the gable side. There is plenty of space for this.

I appreciate this. However we already have planning in place to extend the house to 200m2 and our garden is quite large. Taking into account we both have been working from home this is actually our best bet to get our own offices soon (we both get calls quite often). The gym I have in mind requires some space and one of the reasons I want a vaulted ceiling is to allow me to perform certain exercises. Also thinking of getting a ping-pong table at some point - we both like it very much, don't want to be hitting the joists constantly ?. With regards to using as a dwelling, obviously, there are no such plans. A temporary habitation strictly as long as the main house is not habitable is a different thing.

Sorry, what do you mean? BC? Insulated slab? Wrt to the latter, as above, I expect to be spending quite a lot of time there. I like comfort and I want to be able to drop a weight without worrying about breaking the suspended floor. ?

The boundary - at least the boundary line - will be 1m+. Since it is a row of shrubs there may be slightly less than a metre from the branches. The outbuilding is planned as an office /gym, although we hope to be able live there if we ever get to rebuild the main house. The total floor area is 110m2 IIRC.

Hi, I was quoted £1200 to produce construction drawings for a 10m by 6m simple rectangular building with a pitched roof (to be built under PD). A further £600 is projected to be SEs fee - my understanding is it's on top of the fee for the raft foundation. Does this sound reasonable? The build method is not fixed yet and we plan to agree on it before moving forward. Separately, I would like to have vaulted ceiling, ideally no joists. Is this technically possible? Feasible? Can't find spans that would give me a definitive answer. 3m rafter run is clearly not a problem, 10m glulams seem available, but would the load (SIPs or similar well insulated construction) be too high for this? Concerned because the message I was given was >> A light weight steel frame with infill timber or block panels / load bearing block & joist roof but the spans would need to be reduced with steel posts TA.

First of all, congratulations on living the dream. Thank you for sharing the details. One number that surprises me is the percentage spent on the superstructure. 18% including the roof looks very low and as there is no separate section for the insulation I gather it's also included. This is quite a result.

Thank you. I must admit this is quite odd and frustrating. The foam is not new and they have been advertising if for cavity walls for years. If - IF - this were an approved method it would be a nice alternative to beads which require a much wider cavity to achieve the same u-value.

What about http://www.uksprayfoam.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Icynene-UltraSeal-Select-Cavity-Fill-Agrement.pdf - are these not accepted in England?

Hi @ADLIan I know it's an old thread, wanted to check whether this message is only applicable to Walltite or any cavity spray foam? Icenyne http://www.uksprayfoam.co.uk/icynene-ultra-seal-select-cavity-fill-closed-cell-insulation/ seems to have certification?

It was my initial reaction. But then I thought we only get to see a part of the picture. It may well be that the architect realised (or was told) that the clients were able to spend more money and showed them the light. And taking into account they really wanted to improve the look of the house that was not necessarily a wrong idea. Not many can afford it but good for those who can.

I suspect moving the entrance and not building the grand porch would not let them balance the front of a three-storey house. Apart from a typical Grand Design budget mismatch I am not a fan of the back-sloping roof: a recipe for future problems. But I think they are perfectly capable of paying for a regular cleaning. Also curious how they get shopping in the kitchen.

Hi Gus, From your post it seems the SE needs to be local? And what is the deliverable of this exercise - feasibility study, list of surveys to do before any basement or foundation design is possible? Advice - certain number of hours? Basically, I am pretty sure any SE would like to limit the time they spend for a fixed fee which is perfectly reasonable. And I would also want to be clear about what I am asking for.

This is the thing : as a professional you notice things I just ignore. To me most people say "I have that much, do your best, these are the things we are after". Although I think in many programs the budget wasn't that low actually. It's in Sarah Beeney who had several people in a row planning to renovate for 7-10-20K. The Irish guy loves his bench seating and split levels and weird stuff. Pods, upside down building. Some of those look really good but practicality is almost invariably lacking. I think in one of his designs you'd have to walk 50+m to get from the kitchen to the main bedroom. Bench seating may be OK for rare occasions but OMG it's such a hassle when you have to use it 3 times a day. I have no vision, imagination, but I really like most stuff to be practical, substance first. Some people can afford both - I can only shrug and say "I could go for it if I had too much money".

I didn't want to be the first to say anything. To me this was an example of architects using client's money to try new ideas or enhance their portfolio. I found the internal black box with a roof window right next to it just a shockingly bad decision. I must admit I am a big fan of Laura from "Your home made perfect". Don't think she had a single design on this show I didn't like. Doesn't mean her real clients get the same treatment but this down-to-earth approach is great.

What kind of roof have you built? Did you need any calculations for it or is there a span table that covers it? I thought 5m was too wide for simple joists.

Who did the excavation of the old slab? The builders? Any chance you could indicate the cost involved / size, possibly, pm? I have been getting wild numbers for this.

Are you claiming OPEC sell below cost for years? EU make producers lower energy prices? Are oil and coal getting special treatment making them cheaper? And please don't tell me energy should be more expensive due to global warming. This is irrelevant (and wrong, but it does not matter).

The paper seems to be about the US. I don't buy claims about trillions in negative externalities, the rest of "subsidies" seems to have trivial value if you look at the size of the industry. More importantly, here the consumption of energy is heavily taxed so cannot see the relevance of your link. Everything government does makes things more expensive, if not immediately then in the long run.

You've missed/hidden in mere "tax" the elephant in the room : government meddling.