Omnibuswoman

The average age in the village is considerably above ours, so I have had the same thought. We’ve potentially another 40-50 years to enjoy there, long after the naysayers are pushing up the daisies. It also occurred to me that with the population being as aged as they are, memories are likely to be short! ? Seriously though, I’ve asked the council to remove offensive stuff, but you may be right about the risk of legal letters inflaming tensions. Whilst I anticipate the closest neighbour continuing her campaign (she has already reported us to the police for “crimes against bats” and to the council for breach of the TPO because our warning poster on the heras fencing got wet and became unreadable), the others are not direct neighbours of ours and will in all likelihood simply accept the build as inevitable once the permission has been granted.

Spoken like a true foreigner ??

I've seen on the local facebook community pages people having pissing contests about how 'local' they are, and how many generations back they can trace their roots etc. Honestly, it is farcical. When our particularly hateful neighbour first met us, she turned to my mum and asked 'and where are you from?'. My mum's reply, naming a Devon hamlet three miles away, won the response 'Oh!' and a disappointed face. I think the neighbour had wanted to have a go about 'foreigners' which is the local term for anyone not born in the county. Sigh! The profound irony of the unpleasant gossip is that the elderly gentleman we have been accused of mistreating had actually telephoned me to agree our boundary hedge proposal, and in that conversation offered me the benefit of his wisdom about how to settle into a village like this when moving from elsewhere, as he had a couple of decades ago.

You're not wrong about negative feelings towards 'up country' people. It's peculiarly strong in the Cornish it seems... The principle in law is that the council would be liable because they are the publisher of the defamatory comments - the comments are reviewed by the council before being added to the application page. The law concerning social media sites is a little bit different because people effectively self-publish, and the social media company can only react after the fact. Internet providers have also been sued for hosting libellous comments, but without success to date.

Thanks @AliG. You are absolutely right that these represent malicious gossip, and likely stemming from one particular individual with whom we have already had some problems, whose purpose in life seems to be sh*t stirring in general. And I agree with you that there are no meaningful planning issues here - we don't overlook anybody, and issues about traffic are irrelevant to the changes we have applied to make. I met the planning officer when he visited the site and he seemed immensely sensible, so I've no concerns that he will turn down the application - even the balcony isn't especially contentious as the house in front of us, the fancy one, has a balcony (as there are lovely views to enjoy). However, in a small village, and without being there to counter these allegations (especially the one about the elderly neighbour and the hedge), I'm concerned that the well will be poisoned in advance of our moving there and it will be difficult to build relationships in the local community. I grew up in a village, and I know how powerful local gossip can be (hence moving to a major city as soon as I left school - ahh the anonymity was glorious!!). Despite what was said on one of the comments, it is actually going to be our forever home and we want to feel welcome there. The origins of this started during lockdown when we couldn't be there for months and months. In our absence we had several quite nasty emails from people who had somehow obtained my email address (probably from the unpleasant neighbour), making allegations about us that were clearly local gossip. We were really upset, and when we were able to return after lockdown lifted we felt very uncomfortable there for quite a while. That eased off eventually as we were back a lot over this summer building the workshop, but these planning comments repeat some of those allegations and add a few extra ones. It is really difficult not to imagine this becoming a more malicious gossip again unless we nip it in the bud by sending some legal letters threatening those involved with libel, and asking them to retract their defamatory comments. Ultimately, people will say what they want to - we are not naive about that. But leaving this sort of thing unchallenged feels wrong, and if nothing else our threats will give them something to gossip about. I'm not for a minute thinking that any of this will end up being heard in court - the idea is to send strongly worded letters asking for the comments to be retracted, and for a statement of apology to be made public instead. I've already emailed the planning officer to point out the council's duty not to publish defamatory comments, so hopefully that will result in some of them being removed early next week. Watch this space...

Has anyone any experience of having had defamatory comments about them (made on their planning application public comments section) removed by the Council? I reviewed our simple S73 application last night, and found 8 new comments made by members of the public, many of which contained wholly untrue malicious gossip about us. I am astonished that the council did not do a better job of vetting what was published. Has anyone else had personal comments made when commenting on planning applications? How did you handle them? Thanks

We’re in the very fortunate position of having our whole budget available which should be enough for everything, if we are careful and keep a close eye on costs. But I have been very concerned about doing a timber frame in such a wet county, in the winter. If we weren’t relying on Dan the Builder to do all of it for us I would be looking very closely at pre-fabricated systems like MBC etc. Having said that, at the rate things are going, winter will be nearly over by the time it starts going up. I’m still dallying about organizing the trench for water and telecoms ?. I’ve put it on the too difficult pile.

Thanks @Russell griffiths and @keith65. Our builder is passive house trained on the Plymouth Uni course with Peter Warm and his daughter Sally, so he does know what we’re trying to achieve. (I agree with you about the general standard being woeful.) It was just an unexpected surprise when we met with him and the SE a few weeks ago and both put forward clay blocks as an option. We had never heard of them before. I’m yet to be convinced that it’s better than a stick built timber frame. We prefer the method with the least amount of carbon possible, and the least amount of concrete. I’ve been in touch with MBC to get a quote. The total for foundation plus frame was about half of our budget, which made me a bit nervous when considering all of the remaining things that would need to be covered. I’ve heard that stick builds are cheaper, although there’s a lot of uncertainty around costs with prices being so volatile and inflation rising… ?

Thanks @AliG As we were not planning on a brickwork construction in the first place (our first preference was timber frame) I'm not sure that there are any real benefits to this system that make it worth the downsides. The builder, Dan, proposed single skin build with render inside and out to get the airtightness we want (we are going for a passivhaus), but I am concerned about the lack of cavity in which to run services etc. The only upside might be that these might be more suitable for a winter build, but the way things are going, it will already be nearly spring by the time our foundation is down, so it becomes a moot point!

Yes we do have plenty of room on the plot to store materials, so that's a good idea. I know that the local timber yard have a minature lorry that their amazing driver was able to get up the drive with some 5m lengths of timber for us. I did think it would be sensible to order as much of our materials from there as possible if they can get it all the way into the plot. The builder is currently building his own extension in wide clay block, which I think is partly why he has suggested it for us as well. I've heard such mixed things about them, so I'm very uncertain indeed. I don't like the idea of having to chase all of the cables into the walls. And I understand that the render inside and out takes a long time to dry.

We have a DPM and radon barrier underneath the concrete slab which laps up and under the blocks around the edges, although where it ends and at the corners is a bit messy and I'm not wholly sure what we should do with that. But for the most part i think it's ok.

brilliant! Thanks so much. We have plenty of timber, and no ceiling on as yet, so will have no problem doing this.

Can I resurrect this thread? @AliG @Torchia any thoughts on this method? one reason this has been suggested is the ease of getting the blocks into site compared to timber - we have an 75m driveway that is at points only 2.2m wide. Difficult to get anything but a small lorry up there. I'm concerned that this system has some downsides that haven’t been put forward by the SE or builder. what are your thoughts?

Thanks for this Mark. Are you able to point me to a YouTube video or draw a quick sketch of what you’re describing please? I have never used a jack before and can’t quite picture what a timber on top of a jack looks like!! (Total novice here)

Thank you! Yes I did wonder how strong the wind would need to be to lift this lot up as it is all fixed into the blocks at the base. I’ve got a few metal plates that span the layers of the top plate holding it all together.

Thank you! Can I use a car jack for this? I’m guessing I only need a few mm to work with to get a dpm slid in..

In our semi built workshop we have two rows of breeze blocks, on top of which is a strip of DPM, followed by the wooden frame for the walls. On the front wall we forgot to put the DPM on top of the blocks before putting on the frame, and now we are thinking about whether or how to add a DPM there before we add the cladding and finish the structure. I've tried digging out the mortar that sits on top of the bricks with a multitool, but without much success. I also tried to get a saw in there to cut out some mortar, but again without any real success. My questions are: how important is it that we have this DPM strip in place? Is there an alternative to removing the mortar that is easier? Should I consider just paying someone who knows what they are doing to do this? I've added a picture that has the wall in it - it isn't a picture of the wall as such but it was the best one I could find.

We are almost at the end of building our new workshop, but have not put in any ties to hold the roof to the structure. The rafters are fixed to the top plate with L shaped galvanised plates that are nailed down with about 36 galvanised square twist nails on each side. The top plates (4 of them) are screwed together. I've bought a pack of metal twist ties to nail the rafters directly to the frame, but am now stuck about where to fix them, and whether it is too late to add them. We have already almost finished the external cladding, so it would be difficult to nail these to the outside of the stud frame, but on the inside we have plywood screwed directly onto the studs. Should I fix the ties on top of the ply, and just have them visible? If I try to put the ties underneath the ply I won't be able to screw the ply on properly... The other option I'm considering is fixing plasterboard on top of the ply for a smooth finish on top of which to paint, because the ply boards have all gone mouldy (see my other thread about mouldy ply!). If I did that, I might be able to hide the ties behind the plasterboard. All suggestions welcome!

good idea. We have a blowtorch here and some ply that has stayed unaffected. I’ll do a controlled test - one Japanese charred and one not. See what happens! However, for my workshop, I don’t favour the “had a fire” look, so will be trying the zissner paint first.

i bought a tin of zinsser white anti mould paint a couple of days ago, preferring it over the dulux anti mould because it had more sinister health warnings on the back ?

Very interesting. I will have another look tomorrow, but I think it is both! Certainly there is a slight coating of the wood present, and a further type of mould which is a turquoise/green colour which is only on the surface and easy to brush off. The black mould can be brushed off (it is powdery), but seems also to be ingrained - as you describe the blue-stain mould. I may see if I can find someone interested in microbiology to have a gander at some samples under a microscope!

My dad's school-age nickname was Yogi Blair *smiley face*

I haven’t got a monitor yet, as the building is still open to the elements, and a hygrometer is therefore likely to measure the atmospheric conditions rather than the building per se. Inside mum’s cottage the RH is 68%, which mum said is not unusual in wet weather (it’s mizzly outside) even though they have taken multiple steps to try to reduce the humidity. It’s also a damp microclimate down here in the valley. We thought that our place would be drier being at the top edge of the valley, but now I’m not so sure!

Crikey!!! I’m going to give washing it down and painting with antimicrobial paint a go, but am open to needing to replace it all if that doesn’t work. In the meantime I’m wondering if leaving the front doors open might be a good idea rather than sealing the place up with no heating in situ yet. I’m sure it’s going to get worse.

To be fair, I think the house should be condemned. It’s about to go up for sale, and I think only a fool would buy it. The cottages were built for mine workers by the Duke of Bedford in the 1860s, out of the rubble dug from the nearby mines. A sort of philanthropy on the cheap. As the doors and windows have been perpetually closed since February, and there’s been no heating on, the whole place has a sheen on mildew - every carpet and wall - and the black mould is even worse than before. It’s an absolute health hazard. That said, Auntie Rene is still going strong at 94 (now in a care home) having lived in those conditions for over 55 years. Maybe it’s possible to acquire a health benefit from living in such an environment…