ToughButterCup

Are you sure? Honestly? If you want a bag full, Junction 33 on the M6 : we are 5 minutes (or less) away. You'd be welcome any way - we're perfectly placed for a stop-off just before (or after) the Lakes. We're really close to Forton Services

Yes, I have. Hilliard's informal view is that it may well not be viable. But that statement needs to be put in the context of a sensible estimate of what piles are going to cost. And that depends on a fair comparison of the tenders. Hence the concern about pile lengths - and diameters. Simply put the question is: do fatter piles need less depth than skinny ones? The Soil Investigation  (SI) report shows roughly 2.5 meters of MADE GROUND (page 17 for the diagrams). I had no idea what that (MADE GROUND) term meant until we had our Phase 2 Site Investigation - also confusingly called by some an SI report). We're sitting on top of quarry spoil, and that sits on top of what the glaciers decided to dump: clay and ground up sandstone. I had no idea you could get sandstone cobbles. We've got some to spare at just £5:00 each. Bargain!

Well, whatever size they end up, my eyes are going to water. That much is certain. Here's the thing: our SE has given us a comprehensively specified pile design. More than good enough as the basis for a tender. And slowly, the piling companies are coming round to visit the site, and then submit their tenders. But each company has specified piles of differing specifications; In terms of diameter ; one company suggests 220 mm, the next some 150 mm, and the rest 168 mm Is it simply a case of the bigger the diameter of the pile, the shallower the 'drive' is likely to be?

While I agree that the humble shed doesn't merit too much thought, there's a hint in the original post (...small workshop/shed...) that a Lawful Development Certificate may be useful. Context is important. Where I live there's a generally hostile 'feel' towards many local projects, even very small ones. Unless you have long-established contacts. There's a good deal of interesting ignorance-sharing at official meetings, locals who object-then-think-then-get-defensive. And the only way to be sure is to do-it-right. Here's the Planning Portal stuff on the matter

Welcome. You need less insulation in the South East too!

Just in case you haven't seen this here's chapter and verse on what you can and can't do Ian

Here it is: as accurate as I can get it. No pretense of getting it done cheaper than anyone else. Just the raw numbers and a few words to explain context if necessary (why did I buy a chain-hoist for example). Yes, you'll probably get it cheaper. That's excellent. The point is openness and telling it like it is. March 2014 Home Building and Renovation Show NEC: £100, including fuel and tickets Phone calls about £15:00 extra, and about £70:00 fuel. July 2014 Land: already owned Planner: £1050, plus £70 initial consultation fee, (in cash). LPA Outline Planning Application fee £770 Phone calls: about £15:00 extra, and about £50:00 fuel. August 2014 Ecologist: £1390.15 (works out at about £1 per Great Crested Newt – a further £2000 budgeted for. But see below June 2016) November 2014 Topographical Survey: £540 January 2015 Trips to Timber frame companies and various local suppliers : £50 fuel Subscriptions to various magazines: £70(ish) February 2015 Architect: £4000 (design plus all other matters up to and including submission for Full PP application) QS: £630 – feasibility study Legal: £360; altering title LPA fees: £385 Structural Engineer: £1782; foundations calculations Land registry Fee: £40 Contamination Desk Study and Geophysics : £1260 (plus possible indeterminate decontamination costs) Phone calls: about £20:00 extra, and very little fuel. March 2015 Discharge of Conditions Fee £97.00 Health and Safety Services are being handled for free by a colleague: I’m coding his website in exchange. Notice: no site insurance yet……. :huh: I’m just too mean. Projected cost £568.65 (May 2015) August 2015 Architects fees £2000; from award of Outline PP to Full PP (6th of August) and £40 for bottle of champagne to thank our him: his judgement in relation to what would pass was exactly right. Read paragraph 9 of the Delegated Report (here) Trip to Swindon to visit the NSBRC Fuel £36, overnight stay £85 Strimmer: Polycut head, and set of knives for strimmer £46.60. (No lawn for Salamander Cottage: at last, no mowing…… bliss) September 2015 Legal Fees; alteration to title status £232 October Purchase a four wheel trailer (new) £2500 Purchase a Mutts Nuts (Nick’s term, not mine) Bosch Laser Level £250 First Aid Course (ref. H+S policy) £80 Chainsaw Course £130 December Off mains drainage legal agreement Legal fees and £1000 for access to the land to discharge to stream (wayleave?): £1862 (£300 over budget) Cladding Preparation for processing the wood; Serious Stihl saw (660) and ancillary equipment £2000 (resale value £1000) Trips to open passivhauses £50 + Off – road parking (ground matz) £2800 (resale value £2500) January 2016 SPONS Architects and Builders’ Price Guide 2016. Can’t do without it. And there’s an App that goes with it. £150 Small shipping container (for tools) £300 (resale value £400) Base for container: 4 tons of 20 mm to dust from my mate: £35, yep £35 New wheelbarrow £97 (French made Hammerlin: two flat tyres (in 2 weeks) and a stupidly forward C of G so the damn thing tips forward ON ITS OWN... sodding thing) Local Oak trees (for the shakes and cladding) £1200 (1 square meter of oak shakes retails for £100!) T.K Knipe Allithwaite. £100s of pounds worth of free advice. 1 Sweet Chestnut tree (high tannin content) £140 5 local oak trees £100 (they were going to be cut up for fire wood - I kid you not) Another container (you can't have too many): £1000 (resale value £1000) February 2016 Small hand tools and boys toys £1500 May 2016 2.5 tonne Mini Digger = £14,000 (PV Dobsons, Levens) EPS Licence £1200 (I still haven't paid the bill - because of some really unprofessional behaviour.) Red Diesel £15 120 meters of Temporary Amphibian Fencing (TAF), 80 stakes (37 by 37 by 700) £267.37 Lifting gear: a 2 tonne chain block and tackle 2 shackles, and two beam clamps £181.03 (to run on the RSJs below) 2 RSJs, (6 meters long to span between the two containers) £230 +VAT Filing frame to assist sharpening my chainsaw chains £97 Site signage (ebay) £10 for several (more needed) Plastic Barrier Fencing Safety Mesh Fence Netting Net With Metal Pins £50.95 (for the edge of the car park and pedestrian walkway) Three stillage cages to store material on the site (one cage fitted inside the container) £50 Another two stillage cages today. £25 And £80 worth of 2 inch wire mesh so I can weld it to the stillage cages: slows light fingers down Two (full-on-big-boys) deck brooms £24 A grease gun for my digger and two cartridges of grease £22 Another High Security Digital padlock and hardened, sheathed, hardened chain to secure the buckets (that aren't hooked up) for my digger £55 A 2 Tonne x 1.5 meter Leverhoist £79.95 2 off 2 tonne Beam Clamps £25.98 4 off 2 Ton Alloy Bow Shackles, with Safety Pins £11.96 The above is initially for lifting trees and heavy objects safely off the trailer (on my own) Later the hoist and clamps will do the same job, but in a small purpose-built workshop. 100 meters of 16 amp electricity cable. £71.89 Building Control Fees £600 Red Diesel £18.21 June 2016 Two more stillage cages £25 A Douglas Fir tree and a Larch tree. £40 (Fir tree £10) Will produce stock worth about double that (conservative estimate) 20 8" coach screws £4. 4 sheets of reinforcing mesh £20 (16 by 8 foot for welding to the stillage cages to slow down thieves ) Structural Engineer £1774. And worth every penny (so far) First Aid Kit (10 person HSE Approved) £7.57 (tried getting one locally, couldn't get one for love nor money) Security marker pens £1.99 (a requirement of the Site Insurance: all scaffolding poles must be security marked - not the digger or the saws!) "Curiouser and curiouser" Wood for lining my container £81 HERAS panels, feet, clips, struts, pins for the struts £200 Some steel stock to practise welding £12 (making a small tool table for my SuperJaws clamp: cost on the open market £30) Four Point Lifting Chains ('shorten-able') £139. Fed up of worrying about the webbing strops - they are quite worn already Site H+S sign. £24 ( and I begrudge every penny: it's expensive wallpaper... why do I say that - read on - last but one point) 2 tins of Hammerite for the rust spots on the container. £28 The ecologist had the good grace to halve his bill given the less than prompt approach to fulfilling his contract. £900 July Builder's Merchant bill: £704 - bits and bobs, sand 25mm water pipe and stuff like that August Builder's Merchant bill: < £100 all sorts of tiny things September Builder's Merchants bill £1379.24, Ply wood for the stillage and to make some internal storage in the container, a DeWalt nailer (luxury beyond compare) It starts to get serious now........... Piling will be about £6000, Groundwork price yet to come in, site clearance - I've hired a lumberjack who's coming from Canada - muscles coming out of his ears - off mains drainage and site drainage.... Off to Harrogate next week. (4th of November)

Hmmm, interesting. And good luck! Full Planning Permission? Soil Survey?

So, you're 2 mm short of a picnic? To me, in terms of oak, that's outright success.

HT's opinion was, that with 4.1 meters of topsoil to get through (we are on the top spoil of an old quarry) it probably won't be economical. Having said that, the final decision will be taken next week. Not looking forward to it. £20K for 40 piles and an appropriate ring-beam.

Planning is exactly that, planning. Building Control will need the evidence of commencement. @pauldoc 's post above should do much to reassure you.

As I read it this would be enough '...the digging of a trench which is to contain the foundations, or part of the foundations, of a building;...' (The Town and Country Planning Act 1990) Get yer shovel out.......

Hammer, suitable block of softwood, to soften up the opposition, and a bit of prayer. Perhaps.

Idiot roof question. There but for a syllable.... We like all sorts of questions Sorry ...couldn't resist it. Ian

Foundations: piles and ring beam - roughly £20k

Is the cheque in the post yet?

Here you are Barney. Not exactly what you need but nearly....... Using a simple sensible guesstimate of the raw volume of material in situ, the Excavated Material calculator is closest to what I think you may need.

@ProDave and @Crofter ... you've got me seriously thinking. How about a nice 18 foot clinker dinghy to potter round Morecambe Bay, and maybe to pop over to the Isle of man? Or down to Angelesy and back? Your posts made me remember how good it is to look forward to a good sail somewhere - even if the trip is hard work. Maybe when the house is finished. Now there's some motivation.

Hello Jane Just in case you haven't read this,.....

It's probably both. @Triassic Let's wait for hard data on costs. We won't have to wait long to make meaningful comparisons... Two years maybe. And then when we see that, think about benefits at the same time.

Have a word with @MrsRA, she'll be glad to hear your experience. Ian

And it's easy to answer. Two days on your computer will see the job done.

Makes you completely understand why many buck the system wherever they can.

Those hundred things you haven't thought of yet can wait a bit. While you take pleasure in what you've achieved. Well done. Me? I'm off to get the washing out, the salad picked, the dogs de-fleaed, Sid wormed, the gates taken off, the TAF ready for another night of newts, the door lintel pinned so the next postie doesn't lose his toes, the HERAS up and secured, the soup ready for when @MrsRA gets back (her pipe and slippers by the fireside, the Guardian ironed and laid out where she likes it, the gin on ice and a few cheques for her to sign ). And there's you basking in Devon sunshine. Lovely.

@joe90 and @Temp, I think you might be missing the final twist in this sorry saga. @Barney12 has done all that's been asked of him at National Level. Despite that, the LPA's ecologist has imposed additional conditions - as I understand it design requirements - that the build should follow the original plans. Has the design of your house changed from the design submitted for Full PP? '...Of course she is technically correct, our original planning permission was granted based on standard design and the accompanying mitigation strategy...' (Barney's original post above) In which case, the original ecologist submitted the correct Mitigation Strategy (because it was accepted by NE) . If all of the above is correct, then ask the ecologist you already have (who may well not know anything about the design change in the house) for an opinion on how to meet the LPA ecologists conditions. Your case won't be unique. How have other TF builders solved the problem locally?