Gone West

Look, I get very little excitement in my life so the adrenaline rush from taking chances like this is welcome! You've answered your own question!!

So I should think!! White spirit leaves an oily residue, meths doesn't. Looking good by the way, my other half can't believe what you've done.

"There are two very different types of soakaway – foul water soakaways and surface water soakaways. Foul water soakaways deal with small volumes over a long period, whereas the rainwater soakaway may have to handle large volumes in a short time. ( A typical test for a surface water soakaway would be a pit 1000 x 1000 x 2000mm filled to the brim and the level recorded at various times until the pit is empty.) "

Is this soakaway for surface water or foul water? It makes a difference. Link gives percolation test details. http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/percolation_test.html

Yes, I was trying to point out the importance of using a SE because they will be involved with all aspects even the seemingly less important.

The cables are rated at 600V, 3A and 105C. I would have thought they would be fine but you could sleeve them with heat shrink.

I have a portal timber I-beam frame. It has 15mm OSB3 external racking on the walls and roof. The SE even details the spacing of the ring shank nails fixing the racking. The spacing of the I-beams varies all over the frame depending on the loading.

Our BCO is happy for us to have an open vent in the garden off the sewage treatment plant and AAVs in the house.

I contacted the CEO Openreach 'clive.selley@openreach.co.uk' when I was having problems with Openreach. The email was intercepted by their High Level Complaints Team who apologised and said the complaint would be looked into but they were as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Presumably if you use an in line heater you could use a standard thermostatic mixer shower? Would that be better than an electric shower?

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.