ToughButterCup

Change 'so maybe' to 'is definitely.' I was in the business.

We're all just too knackered.

Welcome Your budget is tight. Join the club. But budgets aren't just about money. How much time do you think you have? You might want to talk to relatives about that ..... especially, ermmm - yes her.

I mean look at what we all do for @Pocster what with his glazing, leaks and cracks. Poor lad. Such a nice man. (They say)

Yes I agree , words and the way they are applied matters.

Morning! I see you've brought the sunshine with you ....🙂

Where will the discharge (as opposed to the treatment plant) be? Better said where will the treated water exit the outflow pipe ? As written above, it appears to me that the problem might be solved by lengthening the discharge pipe by a few meters ( in your case at least 5 meters). Ours is 80 meters from the treatment plant.

Who decided you need to apply for a Discharge Permit? You, or The Environment Agency ? If you, then why? Why in any case do you (or the EA) think you need a Discharge Certificate? Are you really going to discharge more than 5000 litres a day? Really? (see General Binding Rules here : Rule 2)

That's one of the consistent themes of our (any?) build - risk offsetting. Entirely understandable when you're a contractor - but not when it's your own build. Every risk is owned by me. Problems are defined by what they are not - as much as what by they are, and what they may reasonably be thought to be.

Yes. But if needs must enough, No.

At this remove we can't tell. The answer is likely to involve local politics (not party politics - just simple chemistry). And its really hard to find out because ' the office' isn't the representative who comes and weighs up what's happened. In your situation I'd ask around local builders and agents and listen to what they have to say. Not an easy job because to get a good 'feel' for the answer, you're going to need to talk to lots of people. As usual @nod is bang on the money (above) . Our experience exactly.

Your laziness (so called) is probably about self-care. Working efficiently. Being canny. We all need some downtime. .... You appear to me to be a reasonably hardworking person - for a Brizztolean that is. 😑

Yes. And here's why It happened a good few years ago. The eventual outcome was very positive ( I subsequently wrote a good few post about the consequences and outcomes) But I still get nervous. There is now no good reason to be, but trauma takes ages to heal. Here's how I cope (to an extent) I prepare. I scan Met Office Weather Alerts and any that affect the area around Morecambe Bay I read in detail. We are exposed to the East, and Northwest. I look more at gust values than the system wind numbers. Gusts in excess of 50 mean that it's worth cleaning up the site, trying things down and checking that the chainsaw works and has fuel. I charge the floodlights and put them ready in the kitchen. Car moved and parked in the wind shadow. Outside sheds locked. The wall which collapsed is now full of concrete that's over 5 years old. That's the strongest part of the house now. Doesn't concern me at all. But my stomach still churns. I'm no shrinking violet, enjoy some slightly risky sport (still). I used to sail a lot. And would deliberately go sailing at the start of the season in the biggest Spring storm I could find. I'm happy testing myself. But not happy being tested out of my control. But the trauma of the wall collapse still gets me - every single time there's a sustained 60mph or more gust. There's no way the house will suffer. It's the lack of control . So I go for a fast hard hike up one of the local mountains - where it's inevitably windier. Come back down to relative calm. And sleep better when knackered.

Thats a very neat hole @Pocster, very neat. I have a (suitably professional) feeling that you're getting warm

Any external cracks by the way?

Apologies for my somewhat tart response earlier....😑 Nothing is going to happen quickly, it's very important but not urgent. Over the next year, Inspect, measure, document, plan , execute. Replan. Rinse, repeat. Build a list of facts. When that's done,the job specification will write itself You might want to look at similar houses in the immediate vicinity. Repeated patterns? Anyone else locally had the same thing happen? Who fixed it, how? We inherited a house with similar symptoms and found that there were at least 6 others with exactly the same problem in the same row. (Broken foul drain scouring out the foundations leading to multiple diagonal cracks in the stair well - " broken back" ) Been up on the roof yet? The surveyor taught me a simple trick about the cracks... Insert a piece of card (paper or plastic) in the crack leaving enough of the card outside the crack such that the card is able to move with the fissure (but not fall out in a bit of wind). In other words create a telltale. Watch it. Or photograph it over the next few months. That will show you the rate of change. Helps you decide how urgent the issue is. Now, how's that leak - leaking or not?

We still scroll past them.....

Being a Mod is hard work @Pocster.

Slightly, uniformly pitched the correct way 😑

Who wrote the report? If the author was employed by the LPA, commission your own report. If you paid for the report above, don't submit it. Get the BS5837 Impact and assessment report done. If needs be, compromise. The issue is getting a house built , not merely protecting a tree.

The fundamental problem is that it involves a relatively inaccessible area. One that costs money merely to observe. It's a bullet biter @Pocster. You know what to do.

son, that's uncharacteristically modest of you.... bless.

Staying sealant smear free that is. There's summat about sealant (CT1 or otherwise) that makes me revert to the carefree snotty-nosed 6 year old I once was. On this build, I've been using the stuff for 10 years. And still - still - get it everywhere. Trousers is a favourite, knees mostly. But yesterday I sat in a smut of it and - you're there before me dear reader - distributed it round the house. Sofa was worst, followed by the toilet lid ( how Ian, how? ) , the cat's fur, the dog's fur, my wife's weeding 'chair' , the grandchildren's tent, my marker pen, the wheelbarrow. Best of all on a jar of marmalade. Figure that one out - - - - All because I sealed a slot drain in place with CT1. A ten second job. You can tell the plumbers and tilers in our pub : look at their work trousers - there's a few dozen white coloured finger smudges round their pockets. So its not just me. I bet there's a practising Buildhubber who can let us into the secret of how not to get sealant everywhere. If you know, tell us all please.

No. 'Approved ' means approved. Are the council going to dance on the head of a pin?

I think that people who do no more than consistently dream about self building are also self builders. Because - for now - that's the best they can do . Every single one of us on this site started with a house build dream. A chat in the pub, snatched looks at building sites, sneaky plans to buy an expensive tool - useless today but will come in handy 'on the build' . (Mine was for a HiLift jack) You notice every damn digger sitting doing fekall in a field. Sitting there leering at you. Whispering 'buymebigboy' You know that with a tweek of those now semi formal plans you could might should ought maybe possibly will buy one and sell it soon as we're finished with it (and make a profit).. The business case writes itself dunnit.... Stands to reason. Just need to get it past HerIndoors. Hmmm. Another night's lost sleep or tumescent dream. You pluck up courage to whisper half formed thoughts to your partner, then a year later to mates. Suddenly you realise you're routinely saying 'We're thinking about applying for.....' That's it. Hooked. You are a self builder. We had that first dream in 1985. (Land purchased for £1000, 0.385 hectare) 40 years later we still don't have sign off. Next year eh?