Gone West

At my LPA the Head of Planning told me that there were no planners with design qualifications and as a result asked the Conservation Officer to look at my application. He also told me one planner may approve an application and the same application not be approved by another planner in the same office. He told me it was subjective. In my experience an accepted planning application is first looked at a few days before the eight weeks is up and if it looks reasonable and there are no objections it's approved. Anything out of the ordinary and you're in for a long wait. It's not rocket science it's all down to the planner allocated to your application and whether they had a good nights sleep or not. It makes a joke of Planning Policies and it's a shambles in some LPAs.

Unfortunately planning policies are worded in a suitably ambiguous way to allow the planners to approve, or not, what ever they want. It also depends on your LPA and their competence.

Hello James, welcome to the forum. Are you asking about the steel frame because you think that would be quicker to erect than a timber frame in order to get the roof on. Mine is a portal timber I-beam frame which went up quickly.

Our DPM is above the foundation insulation and was taped to all the penetrations through the DPM. The square block covered in DPM is the waste for the wetroom shower.

I would have thought the workers have all died off by now. I saw a queen wasp today looking for somewhere to hibernate.

That's the same waste I used in my groundfloor wetroom. I have an Isoquick insulated PH slab and I cut 110mm holes in blocks of polystyrene and pushed them down over the soil pipe down to the foundation insulation and sealed over the top of the soil pipe. After the slab was finished I cut out the polystyrene blocks, cut the soil pipe to the appropriate height and fitted a 110mm push fit connector and the waste.

I've got glass pocket doors and there is enough room between the metal frame and door for narrow conduit. If not, and you don't mind the door not being central in the wall, you could build a false wall to accommodate the conduit and wall box.

I've used the same black granite in the bathrooms as in the kitchen.

Mine said that as well, shows what a low opinion they have of planners!

Excellent news! Well done for sticking with it and beating the b@st@rds. I know how it feels having been through the same lengthy process myself. Hope everything goes to plan for you.

Hi, good luck with your project. Are the lakes coarse fishing or trout waters?

That is certainly the case, which is why I didn't treat mine. I would still have preferred to have kept the original colour if possible. The silvering process is really uneven. It's been up a few years now and some areas where it doesn't get washed by the rain it's the original colour and other areas it's grey.

Just another job to add to the list!

Vfast also do VoIP and you can keep your old number.

This is the first time I've heard of a response from Openreach which is the same as I have had! I don't want a pole in my garden either and have decided not to have an Openreach supply. I am going to use a Fixed Wireless Broadband connection provided by Vfast. I have had nothing but hassle from Openreach.

Yes, I've got a sample SolarSlate sitting in my loft that's been there eight years.

A friend converted a barn and built his own oak staircase and the BCO was happy with it. He didn't use a SE, just common sense.

Whenever I hire a Rubi 900 they ask me what I'm cutting and give me a new wheel every time, hire cost and cutting wheel £20 a day. Rubi, they're the bees knees.

I was told by Openreach that because I already have an overhead line to the existing bungalow, which is to be demolished, I would have to pay the full amount for an underground supply to the replacement new house. If I have an overhead line to the new house then I qualify for the £3400 subsidy.

My house is 700mm above road level and the road slopes gently past my property. My BCO wanted me to discharge surface water into a SUDs system. I pointed out that the water table is at road level through the winter and disposing of that amount of water wouldn't be possible using SUDs. I spoke to the local highways dept. who agreed to let me discharge directly onto the road and the BCO accepted the idea. I live out in the sticks, the water flows away down the lane into a culvert and eventually into a stream. Highways and BC were pragmatic and helpful. It is often the case that they will accept a sensible option if put to them.

I bought a Monument kit with some extra bungs, it was cheap. It didn't work very well and the BCO said air test kits rarely do. He told me to block the soil pipe in the inspection chamber and fill the system with water and leave it for a few hours. It didn't leak and he was happy.

Several years ago I saw engineered timber windows where the timber was laminated with layers of cork. That would reduce thermal bridging and may still be acceptable to the planners.

So it's a similar sound to plastic guttering expanding in the sun is it? Are the joists nailed or screwed to the hangers?

When I started using plastic push fit back in the 90s it recommended using silicon grease, which I hadn't heard of, and since then I've always also put a smear on compression fitting threads and olives. It makes it easy to judge how tight its done up because there's much less friction. It's also easy to clean up if you ever take the joint apart. It's probably not the correct way to do it but it works for me.

Hi Vivien, welcome to the forum. We also designed our self build ourselves because we knew what we wanted it to look like and what layout we wanted. It's a good to have an idea of what type of construction you want to use because it may impact on the design you want and how much, if any, of the build you want to do.