Carrerahill

OK - I've had another think - you would probably be better keeping it as a renovation/modification rather than a new build. So, I would demo all the bad stuff and if that means that you end up with 2 walls of the original house and nothing much else then so be it, your then doing a renovation with modifications and extensions, and not a new build. Also, you could probably leave very little of the old walls, a nod to the original building sort of thing.

Yes I get that but the original parts are you going to build the same? So in doing your "new build" you end up with your "old" house in a modified state? So anything you need to knock down and simply rebuild will be like for like and the new bits will be new and as per planning? If it was me, I would just do it, but that is me, PP are not going to tell you to take it down, they might just get upset, act daft, they would give you retrospective or say, OK in the interests of taking down a a dangerous building we will leave you alone - if I was in a very compliant mood I would speak to my BC guy and say, look, whats the deal here, can be just pull this all down and rebuild, PP won't care will they? Act daft.

Are you going to build it identical to what was there before? If so then take it down rebuild it as "restoration works". I would not even tell planning, in fact, they would be hard pushed to tell the difference between a fully renovated original and your new build by the time it is finished in all reality. Only person who will want to be involved is BC - but they have been so your sorted there, do BC know the state of the old walls and appreciate that you are making good on shoddy building?

May be an option to try the Marley Dblue acoustic pipe - if it is all installed and you are happy with it then probably not an option but might be. What are your floors made of? If concrete you could pour concrete in around it. Cast Iron pipes never made much noise because they were solid and would not vibrate or carry sound - adding concrete would have a similar effect - probably against reg's... but... https://www.marleyplumbinganddrainage.com/products/soil-systems/dblue/

I am going to be doing exactly what you describe above, my plan is to return the warm fresh air into the loft bedroom or the upstairs hall - it is my understanding that having only the extract in the bathroom this will negatively pressurise it, drawing air in from the hall and thus ensuring that the bathroom air is being circulated, if you put the return into a smallish room like that you are going to create a fairly balanced situation and the extract side of the system may not be as efficient. You also then get the benefit of the warm air returning into the house freshly somewhere you might actually want it. I am going to do a kitchen unit and a bathroom unit.

I would suggest they are pre-occupation then...

So you must have had pre-commencement conditions. OP may have pre-occupation - which for material finishes tends not to stop commencement as founds etc. will not be seen.

It depends on what they have applied to your PP - the condition type will be listed. Are they pre-commencement or pre-occupation conditions? If the former you don't actually have planning yet if the latter you can start - there is also performance conditions which don't need discharged but yours is material so your going to be one of the "pre" options.

Photos! Sounds good. I intend to go down a similar route but I will keep a real log burner in the living room.

There is the flip side in my reply. Nothing wrong with heating with wood. When the power plants go down and gas is banned people with wood heating will be the ones that survive the cold winters!

A friend uses a Bosky, installed it all himself, couple of tanks in the loft, has heated his house for free for years. Wasn't overly costly to install, UFH in his kitchen etc. he has immersion heaters for electric water heating in the summer. His situation works well for him though, unlimited access to wood, lives on a smallholding with a tractor and log-splitter so he can prepare the firewood himself. He also uses some smokeless ovoids in the winter so he can leave it unattended for longer but only £100 a year or so in smokeless. These look good too, interesting video of an old guy on YouTube who has one of these installed and has had it for 40 years or something: https://www.garn.com/

Wait 48 hours then try it - it can take 72 hours till it feels solid.

Yup, I am hearing you. I know for settlement I want the concrete sill slightly lower than the window and it's own stub sill or whatever I opt for so as the frame shrinks it won't end up lying on the concrete sill. I think what I will plan for, is exactly what you have just mentioned - my block will go up before my windows go in annoyingly or else I could just fit my windows as they need to go and my brick layer would just bring his blocks up to suit the windows. I have old windows, I am going to take the bottoms off them and sit them in position as a guide for the sill position, he is a good brick layer and knows his onions bricks so he will leave sufficient settlement gap.

Yes well my plan had always been to do it something like this, frame out the opening with 50x50 then install it flush to the front of the cavity which would put the inner glass pane into the insulation area, just and the block would come up to the face of the PVC. I should just go to the same height with the wall and use a the PVC sill.

Thanks for that. I did do a deal with the merchants that they will take the sills back for a small fee - I could be tempted to find some like this... Hmmm...

I have my sills sitting outside ready to go in with the block work, they are 215x75-50: http://webtrack.jwgrant.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?pg=437&pl1=344&pid=2407 My question is just exactly how the concrete sill and the timber frame opening will work together, I have 50x50mm treated that I was going to frame out the window and door openings with all the way around, however if I do this then I will end up with the sill sitting 115mm out over the block work, so really the sill needs to sit back into the cavity. I was thinking like this: So you can see the block wall and the render on it, the sill will sit overhanging into the 50mm cavity by 40mm, I will put a piece of DPC along the back just in case, then I will add my 50x50 treated to the sides and top (not in sketch), the window then fixes to these and it sits on a stub sill with some brackets holding it to the sill trimmer, sitting on the concrete sill. Does that seem right? I was actually just going to bring the blockwork level with the timber frame opening, close the cavity all the way around and use a PVC sill to sit from the cavity closer out over the block but my brick layer said order concrete sills, there is no detail in my BC drawing for this so I am not sure how to proceed - concrete certainly would be more robust and in-keeping with the rest of the house, but I am not sure how it all goes together now! Photos or details of those of you who have done this or seen it done would be great. Thanks

Can you not pour the walls you want to look like this in concrete with board forms?

Ah, be careful, you are getting mixed up with MCB's - This is an RCD - a fault/danger can exist that will NOT cause any tripping until something, i.e. a human with wet hands touches an exposed live on say a grazed electrical cord. Short circuit protection is quite different.

Let me guess, he ballsed up new colours to an older red, blue and yellow installation?

Jeremy, that is how the Merlin Gerin ones worked, albeit built into the RCD, and I thought many others did too now. Down and dirty testing is often pretty good! The thing with RCD's is that they are essentially a relay, with the coil current coming from a fault imbalance, it is like a light, one stage rifle trigger, it's a hairspring and a small current should create enough of a field to trip the latching relay. If they are not used for long periods and are exposed to damp, i.e. a garage install, damp basement, it is entirely possible the mechanics of it can gum up. Now this is from a theoretical report, but from what you have said it sounds like that could be the mode of failure. It is your experience which makes me generally dislike 18th edition boards.

Rolls Royce of switchgear!

I didn't know that is how the plug versions work, DIN mounted RCD's such as in our DB's use two methods, either a post coil live and neutral but the test button operates a small additional winding via a resistor on the core opposite the relay winding, thus this creates an imbalance. Merlin Gerin RCD's (the rep used to come in and offer to have designed all our panels on projects and would talk about specs of their kit) used to have a test button with a small resistor to the earth from post coil live, it would dump 20-25mA - whatever it was to earth. They were famed for claiming this made their RCD more robust as it was not relying on a secondary winding to create the imbalance but rather the real circuit was going to detect the imbalance. This also proved the coils were not degraded. Anyway it appears now there are potentially 3 circuit options! I only suggested it as when my wife inadvertently presses the test on the lawnmower it would trip the outside power RCD on the DB and I was always under the impression the cheapo plug RCD's were the resistor to earth option as they are cheaper to make.

If it is a small property then something like this in the kitchen and bathroom would help - basically you just need air changes to get the moisture out, this would do that and retain heat. Wire it into the lighting so she has no choice but to use it. https://www.fastlec.co.uk/hr100r-vent-axia-hr100r-rs-heat-recovery-units.html

Planning documentation can be a bit bamboozling, especially since it is largely written in construction industry language that it's always clear to those not in the game. I would happily explain it to you but, I don't know your exact circumstance and don't want to advise you blindly, you build something, then you end up with issues. My advice would be simple, get a location map of your plot, draw or sketch it out on the plan with dimensions, email it over to planning and ask. They are usually very helpful, might take a week or so for a reply but if they say no, with that email you also have an audit trail.

I now have some membrane! Thanks to both Christine and Jamie for offering, I took Jamie up on his offer, it transpired Jamie and I were only a couple of miles apart when he was at his work so it was logical (if I run out of this stuff Christine, I will be messaging!!) So this afternoon I collected from Jamie a part roll of ProtectTF200. The man was a gent and would not take the money waved in front of his eyes. I owe him one and this forum can be witness to that. Thank you Jamie, and it was nice to meet a fellow forum member in person.