Russdl

That was a great idea Russ, it's working a treat. I've used loads of the old bungalow roof timber for the frame, and a bit more to cover the soil pipe so it didn't look too much like a gas chamber (though I'm sure it will feel like one at times...). The plywood manhole cover is in two pieces so that I can lift half without disturbing the soil pipe and check that, er, all is in order. The flower thing had decided to grow in our bomb site of a plot so I dug that up to use it as an air freshner. Oh and a bit of old vinyl flooring to make the slopping out a bit easier. No AAV as yet, doesn't seem to need it but it hasn't really been properly stressed tested yet. I have...

@JSHarris, it turns out the helpful guy has retired Jeremy so no joy there. I spoke to the scaffolders and they are not at all concerned with the telephone cable so I'm going to leave it be and see what sort of problem it's likely to present as the build progresses. I'm not entirely sure if that is the wisest move but it's 'plan A' at the moment...

That's the little gem I need to confirm. ~~~ The Openreach wire affecting us comes from a telegraph pole and goes to an SSE pole and then on to the last house in the lane. I'm pretty sure scaffolding will be all around it if it stays put. Why has it taken me so long to realise this??

That's surprising.

@vivienz that was good news. Our flying wire serves 1 property, here's hoping that Jeremys contact might be able to help out.

I'd read your tale Jeremy. I don't know it that ruse is going to work for us because that would mean digging up many meters of right of way to lay the duct but I'd certainly appreciate the phone number as a starting point, thanks.

Help. I've got on Openreach 'flying wire' that looks like it's going to be very close to the new build. (@vivienz What did happen in the end with your Openreach cable?) We have a 'flying wire' that crosses a corner of our plot, to poles that are outside of the plot, and I reckon it's going to be very close to our new build so basically in the way, especially of scaffolding. I understand Openreach can 'fly wires' over property without Wayleaves providing it doesn't interfere with the 'normal business of the property'. I presume redeveloping the site is 'normal business'. Does anyone know where I stand with this?

@Patrick We've got over 50% timber/composite cladding and had similar difficulties for site insurance. We ended up calling the BIBA (0370 number) https://www.biba.org.uk and they put us through to a broker and within a couple of days had a reasonable quote for site insurance. May be worth a try.

A bit of both really. The shed is built (out of timber from the demolition) The toilet and sink are in (not plumbed yet). The light and water heater were going to lift it from 'posh camping' to 'glamping'.

Actually, that's a very good point. Whilst I'm saying 'temporary' it could be there a while knowing what I know about how slowly I operate.

Good morning all. I've built a little shack at the bottom of the plot that is going to house a WC and sink plumbed into the existing foul drain. I plan on putting a 3kW Triton electric handwash heater and a light in the WC. The temporary WC is 30+ meters from my Temporary Building Supply and to route any cable from the TBS to the WC would necessarily cross the access to the plot. What is the best way of doing this, temporarily?

You and me both!

@TerryE thank you for all that Terry, I'll definitely pin down exactly what is and isn't going to be done by MBC. I recall reading @Stones's comments re the female fitting on top of the risers, a good idea. That is definitely on the 'to-do' list, and maybe 3 of them - 1 for water (in and out), 1 for electric (in and out, bt etc), and 1 for last minute changes of plan! As it stands we don't have an ASHP in the scheme - it was going to be Sunamps all the way but my confidence in that plan is being dented in light of recent developments.

@Pete was that MBC? Did they ‘instal all pipes and ducts’ for you? @Russell griffiths some very sound advice there. Thanks.

I do recall your trials and tribulations with that. Water will be a problem for me as well, not sure how hard it will bite yet.

That was what I was thinking. It seems that for me it's going to be really straight forward but just the fact that I'm thinking that makes me nervous that I've missed something really obvious that will bite me in the backside on 'D' day. I'm planning to just have the hole dug and nothing else so that MBC can put the slab in it and then, after the slab is in, and MBC have left for a couple of weeks start connecting drains and services to the "pipes and ducts" they've left behind.

I remember reading about that in your blog Jeremy, my survey is referenced to a spot heigh at the nearby church. The IC cover I have on the plot is permanent fixture for the time being and so I was considering that my 'nail'. I have space to do that, great idea. I presume that means you had all the drains etc in position prior to MBC arriving and starting the slab? For me MBC will: "install all pipes and ducts to a distance of 1 metre from the edge of the foundation slab – leaving you and your groundwork contractor to connect onwards." Am I right in thinking that's different to what happened in your build?

? It clearly is complicated then if I can't even do some basic maths! I'll edit that, thanks.

Is this simple or complicated, can someone put me straight? We have a relatively level site, dropping 1.2m over 51m from north to south. Our southern boundary is a neighbours fence and our eastern boundary is an easily defined straight line. I know the elevation of the inspection chamber cover in the south west corner of the plot, 61.31m, and the top of slab, 61.74m As we are having an MBC foundation (which we expect to be of fairly standard depth) I'm going to need a hole 600mm below the top of the slab, and covering the footprint of the building (T shaped) plus 1m all around. To my mind, and in my particular circumstances, it looks like it's going to be fairly straight forward to do that. (15m and a bit from the souther boundary, 1m and a bit from the eastern boundary and dug out to 170mm below the level of the inspection chamber cover. Is there more to it than that?

@Ferdinand I'm going to build a little thunder box down by the drain in the bottom south west corner of the plot and plumb straight into that manhole cover (on the excellent advise of @Russell griffiths in a previous thread). The welfare unit will be at the north of the plot and I don't plan on connecting it to the drains. My thought is if I did the drains first then they would likely get damaged. I don't want to be up to the finished drive level during the construction phase and so I would end up with at least 1 IC protruding from the drive sub base.

Just reviving this thread as it's sort of relevant for us. We are going to have a turning circle for the fire brigade on our plot (wether we like it or not) and the hatched area on the drawing below is what has been accepted by BCO. It will of course be very useful in permitting lorries to turn around during our build as the the narrow access track will preclude lorries turning anywhere else or reversing out. My plan at the moment is: 1. Put down a sub base that will take the construction traffic. 2. Once major construction is finished, dig up what is required in order to lay the drains. 3. Top up with 150mm Type 1. 4. Finish off the drive with 40mm of gravel in a stabilisation grid. What have I missed? Also: a) Any problems with my plan/order of doing things? b) How deep should I make the sub base for the construction traffic (were are on chalk after digging down a wee bit)? c) On the drawing it says that the driveway should have a minimum carrying capacity of 12.5 tonnes, how do I know if I've achieved that?

@AliG Thanks for the comprehensive reply, I may well steal a few of your ideas there.

@AliG I presume that gable end cladding was custom made? Looks very smart and similar to the look we are after. Can I ask who supplied it and how it attaches? Apologies for drifting the thread a bit...

@Bitpipe That’s really useful, thanks for digging that out for me ?

Hopefully relatively close to the house and eastern boundary and big enough to put cars in and still use as a workshop.