Gone West

It could be that with the new 0.99% fixed rate mortgages people are reconsidering what they could borrow!

We sold our last house in September 2007 and someone in the chain had a problem with their loan. It was because of the banking crisis kicking off and I suppose this may be connected in some way with the EU problems?

Back in 2009 I made a 1:50 scale model of our proposed design using foam board and balsa wood to help with our planning application. It turned out to be useful in many ways not just for the planners.

The interesting thing about the filter bed was that it was two stage. It was a rendered brick box with a vertical slate separator with sand in each side. The inflow from the gutter downpipe flowed into the first side then over the slate, through the second, and into the tank. The tank was 4' diameter and 8' deep.

My previous late Victorian house had a rendered brick underground tank for holding rainwater. It was filtered through a sand filter and the water was always clear. Originally a lead pipe took the water into the kitchen and then the old copper.

On the outer porch door I made an oak sill which the low threshold door sill sits on. The inner door into the hall is an Internorm low threshold sill. It's the door etc that's dusty not the camera lens!

I shall be crushing only breeze blocks and concrete. I'm hoping I'll be able to remove any cr@p before it goes into the crusher. The type of crusher I'll use allows different sizes of output material so hopefully it will compact. My neighbour's builder had several loads of rubble delivered, most of it half brick size, which I thought was rubbish.

They were 215mm deep with a 5 degree drop.

I'm hoping to reuse the rubble on site by using a concrete cruncher and reuse most of the timber building a workshop. Whether the radiators, copper pipe and fittings are worth much from a small bungalow, I doubt. The hot tank is a less common size and not too old so might be saleable.

My demolition is a condition of my planning permission but will take place after the new build is finished. So I will just do it.

That looks very smart. I like the sharp look, excellent!

It's also down to the manufacturer to produce something fit for purpose. If you have to test everything you buy before using, it will slow down work ridiculously. Have you gone back five or six years later to check the stainless steel inserts. Do you know what grade of stainless steel they are?

I first used Hepworth Hep2O in around 1994 after seeing it at a self build show. I thought it would make replumbing my house much easier than using copper. Everything went ok even if the fittings were a bit clumsy. After a few years a radiator rusted through and I thought I must have used the wrong amount of inhibitor so flushed the system and put in new inhibitor. Then another radiator rusted and I started looking for other reasons and discovered that Hepworth hadn't used a barrier in the pipe. After contacting them I was told they now produced a barrier pipe and I should replace the old pipe with new at my cost. So after telling them what I thought of them I did replace the whole system but with Speedfit and never had any problems. I never go back to using something that caused me problems in the past, even if they have improved.

I've got standard folded ali sills as in your first link and I've had no problems. As you say the other profile could result in people catching on it.

Yes it does sound like Himalayan Balsam which is a problem around here along the ditches and streams.

I haven't included the cost of tools or paperwork but have included landscaping. It's coming out at £1634/m2 at the moment.

Yet another related question I'm afraid. To calculate the cost per m2 do you include paperwork such as SAP, air leakage, architects fees, BC, planning, etc?

Thanks Jeremy I'll contact them.

My borehole, which was drilled six years ago, isn't on the database. Where did you send your data to?

Thanks for the link, it is useful seeing it in drawing form.

Thanks Jeremy. To clarify one point, is a porch a non-habitable area. Mine is around 4m2 double glazed and insulated.

I hope this is in the right category if not please move it. What is the standard way to calculate the overall cost of a build per m2? Do you use the external dimensions multiplied by the number of floors or the internal dimensions? If it is the internal dimensions do you subtract the area of the internal walls?

I dug a 2.5m deep x 1.2m diameter hole down to the running sand and then had a 47m deep borehole drilled. It started off as a deep bore soakaway but when the drill finally hit chalk we found that was water bearing as well so we ended up with a borehole. One day I'll install the pump and use it to water the garden. It cost me £3000 plus the cost of the pump, controller, etc for something I don't really need.

Our case was almost the same. They don't want to go to tribunal and if you have a reasonable case and don't back down, they give up at the last minute.

My neighbour is having a bungalow built next door. The builders installed a Klargester BioFicient, with a central anchor. They filled it with water and concreted it in. They pumped it out the next day and it popped out of the ground, the water table can be high here! After lots of digging out and then back filling completely with concrete they got a tank which is not level and can't be moved or adjusted!