Gone West

We asked one of our parish councillors who wasn't on the Planning Committee to support our application and he spoke in our favour at the hearing. Nobody ever objected to our application except the Planning Department. We obtained the names and addresses of the Planning Committee from the council website and took the document to their home addresses during the day and put them through the letterbox. The committee made a site visit and we had a presentation showing all the drawings and a scale model. We also marked out with spray paint on the ground the footprint of the proposed building. We were not allowed to speak to any of the committee members but the planners had a representative from another area supporting their claims. We also had support at the site meeting from the Parish Council. We didn't previously know any of the committee members or people at the site meeting.

A chap living in Canada who was on another forum used spray foam behind the lath and plaster and apparently it made a huge difference. It obviously requires the right type of foam and care in application.

@oldkettle we were in a very similar situation with errors stated in the planners refusal. A week before the Planning Committee hearing I hand delivered a document to each of the committee members outlining what I felt were errors and what we were trying to achieve with our build. At the hearing I spoke for three minutes reiterating what I had put in the document. The committee members overruled the Head of Planning and it was passed unanimously much to the annoyance of the Head of Planning who was furious. The planning department had concentrated so hard on refusing my application that they forgot to remove permitted development rights and allowed a balcony which originally they didn't want.

It depends whether the 160m2 is the external footprint and it has thick walls.

Welcome to the forum. If it is a nice looking, well built farmhouse I would not demolish it. I would improve and extend. I have done renovations and a new build and I found the renovations much easier. Others will disagree. Good luck with the project whatever you decide.

A lot quicker than doing it by hand using a rasp which is how I did all mine. Wish I'd known they existed a few years ago.

All I know is I won't have to order oil again but I do have to get rid of the oil tank somehow.

We're hoping to to have all the rubble crushed on site and used for our driveway etc.

Unfortunately it has rained a couple of times recently and I've removed most of the roof, only the rafters to go. The floorboards have got wet and swollen so unless we have a dry spell they might not come up too easily.

@jack I have the softener drain pipe and overflow pipe both running into the same waste pipe. The drain pipe might cause some resistance if it remains at 10mm for a long distance but if it opens out to say 15mm I can't see any problem.

The Roughneck looks ok, I wonder how it would cope with thicker boards and cut nails. I guess there's only one way to find out.

@Onoff the Screwfix version looks a bit puny compared to yours. Isn't there more danger of the boards splitting if the lifting plates aren't articulated?

Even the recommended ones sometimes come with cautionary tales. I asked @MikeSharp01 if he could recommend an asbestos removal company which he kindly did and he added that there were things they didn't do. When I asked them to quote I listed the things Mike said as well as every possible aspect of the removal I could think of and got it in writing. Fortunately it went smoothly.

My slab had voids in the concrete as a result of the concrete 'going off' too quickly resulting in areas of weakness. Different solutions were proposed none of which I considered worth the risk so it was agreed that the slab would be replaced completely.

That is correct. I had never heard of MBC in 2009 when I was researching for my build. My frame was supplied by a local company and is a completely different type of design and construction to that of MBC.

Yeah they're cut nails. Thanks for the offer, I'll have to have a measure up when I've finished taking the roof off. It's a dismantling not a demolition of the bungalow so it's taking a while, but then so did the build.

I hadn't thought of that idea but that looks good for when I want to remove the floorboards in the old bungalow. I want to reuse them, along with the 4"x2" frame timber, to build a shed.

Well I wouldn't want one even if they had been proven to work. I want soft water with all it's advantages, not hard water that doesn't 'fur' up the pipes and kettle. Maybe I'm in a minority or maybe it's not a popular concept.

That's not quite right. Icynene is open cell and the company will carry out an interstitial condensation analysis for your wall construction to see if a VCL is required.

Hi and welcome to the forum. It would be good to hear about your plans. Good luck with the project.

If there was a way to keep an even thickness I would be tempted to use a spray foam, such as Icynene, which would solve the airtightness and insulation issues in one go.

Yes I understand, I bought very nice looking stainless steel bullnose vents with built in insect screens but when considering the loss of flow through the 90 degree bend and the insect screen I decided not to fit them. Shame really they did look good.

It's got 62% open area which is fine for my grille and ducting size.

When we were building our house we took the hedge down to allow access for cranes etc. This left a nice large area of front garden which people thought nothing of parking in and then taking their dogs for a walk. One day I caught a chap parking and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing parking in my front garden. He was apologetic but said so you want me to move the car. I must have been having a bad day because I told him in no uncertain terms to shift it straightaway. After that several piles of pallets along the the frontage stopped further incursions.

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I'll be ordering something like this https://www.themeshcompany.com/products/-12-Mesh---1.67mm-Aperture---0.45mm-Wire-Diameter---SS304-Grade---Woven-Wire-Mesh--68.html#SID=60