marsaday

Just found out this new house is in an article 4 area, so more restrictive on development. Dormas are not allowed, but this house has one. It has been in years, but there is no proof when it was installed.

I have fitted D/G units in a house in a different area. This is conservation, but everyone does as they like. So there was no come back. I might just go for it again on my own and not say anything. It is so expensive. Pre plan app is £60. Then planning is £205. BC is £98 for windows.

I understand i need to apply for planning if changing a window in a conservation area, but i thought this related to going from a wood window to a PVC one. Does anyone know if i need planning to put in new PVC windows, which will replace quite old PVC ones (20 + years old). The glass is all misted up on most of them and they are not opening and closing very well.

Why ? Because there is a room in there. I have added 50mm 6 yrs ago on the underside of the old lath/plster ceiling. So now i'm doing the roof i want to add 50mm more. It would be more, but the rafter depth is 75mm, so i need to leave a 25mm air gap. Not ideal i know, but if i get some air vents in then it should be ok. Someone on facebook said to put 2 slate vents at the bottom and 2 at the top. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

I am reroofing a pitch on a house i rent out. I am taking off the old tiles and will sell them. I am using spanish slate to replace. So i will fit 50mm insulation between the rafter and leave a 25mm air gap. Then fit tyvek supro breathing membrane, then lats, then tiles. Do i need to put some ventilation in ? If so do i do it across (from side to side), or from ridge to eaves. I am just not sure what to do. I will be reusing the current ridge tiles, but could buy 2 breathing ones, if this type of ventilation is needed.

The bill is even higher now. £120 for 100 screws and 2 tubes of silicone. I am really peed off and thinking about a small claims action. I have sourced the silicone locally so that is sorted. I have a load of tec screws from an old job so will use these. Speaking to the manager later today, but it sounds like their policy is designed to back themselves up if a mistake is made. Not customer focused at all.

Thought i would update this thread with info on my tata roof. I am very happy with the roof, it looks really good. It is a mono pitched roof at 12 degrees and covers about 42sqm. There are just 3 tricky square window penetrations to over come. Cost delivered was £3300 inc vat. I did the free course and all was good, but coming to do the roof is a bit more hair tugging than they portray. The roof went on ok, but the square penetration flashings are hard. The instructions are very poor and photos really hard to follow. Videos are really needed. Anyway i had a bit of luck as last week the main technical guy said he would come over as he was in my town doing a course and had a free day to kill. So he's been this morning and was a really big help. I can now weather proof the roof fully. However, there are a few niggles. I am short of 2 tubes of silicone and 100 self tapping screws which are needed for these penetrations. They didn't supply enough and it is not up to me how much to order, as they tell you what you need. I would happily have paid for more screws etc at the initial stage. I see this as their mistake and have asked for new screws and silicone to be sent at their cost seeing as i am loosing probably this week to get it water tight now. So lost time and inconvenience. The sales manager who i was dealing with referred it (yea right) and the computer said NO. So i have a bill for £120 for 2 silicone and 100 screws. I think the bill should actually be for £60 and i am waiting to see what they say. The guy who was out today said they are not customer focused at all. They have been deliberating about making some Utube videos about the install process for the last 10 years and no one will take it up. Really strange as they need these videos making as they would sell loads more product ! Another sales guy is now leaving pretty quick and everyone is annoyed about it. When on the course i did get the impression the place had that old nationalised industry feel about it. The product is good, but the service is not the best. I was lucky to be getting this technical help so this wouldn't normally happen.

The extension measurement has to be from the rear wall of the house, not the lean-to. I don't want to build with a timber wall. I can loose the space if needed. I haven't confirmed to the neighbour about the PWA yet, but i have said no work is taking place on the lean-to party wall so it will not apply here. Where it applies will be to the depth of my foundations. He is asking for one, but i am not in a position to say if it is needed at this moment in time. I will wait for BC to say how deep the foundation needs to be. Then i will let the neighbour know what is what. I have asked 4 specific questions in my OP so wondering if anyone can answer these please.

Ok, but if i do go for a 450mm void do you think i could build the outer leaf ok ? Working in that gap. If i can't manage to do this can you mix the insulation types up. So do this wall with the soft insulation and the rest with rigid ?

Hello Ferdinand I am the builder !! I will be doing everything myself. No chance am i building on his wall, as party wall complications, fees etc. He is really clued up about these issues and i don't want to go down that route. I might look into widening the gap. I won't be sacrificing the wall width as this is a tiny amount anyway and false economy. My wall is probably going to be 350mm in width as i want to use 100mm celotex in there as opposed to the minimum. The utility could loose some space or the main room. I do have some give on that as the area we create will be big. The issue then will be the change over at roof level where i break away from our shared tiled roof (original lean to). Both our lean to's are slate roof and glass. The middle section can't be seen very well, but it is slate. My new flattish roof in fibreglass will be built over the tiled/glass roof i currently have and extend out to where the conservatory sits and also fill in to the right. His slate roof will stay and run into my new brick wall which will be built upwards. I will then use a flashing to connect into the wall. The wider gap will mean i now need to provide some form of drainage for this very narrow section of roof as it will be draining into the gap. Here is another photo to show you how the current drains work now. I have a boxed in drain hidden by the conservatory currently, but this will come down obviously. My neighbour has an overflow drain if needed at the base of the brick coping.

I am planning on doing a small single story extension on the back of my house. Our house is a semi and i won't be building on the dividing walls of the houses or the neighbours garden wall which is 1.8m high. I will be building about 200mm away from this wall, so the foundation will be touching this walls foundation i imagine (if i go to the same depth which is currently 700mm as done a trial pit). I have spoken to BC and we are on a sandy soil in my area. I understand the party wall agreement comes into play, but only if i go below the neighbours foundation i think. So i need a bit of advise on the best way to do my foundations down this side. Couple of questions: 1) Is it ok to excavate down the side of this wall the full way which will be 4.5m. Going no deeper than the current footing. I have done a trial pit and it seems the wall has been built on a thin concrete base and then the bricks have been used to build up the foundation. I have a photo inc. The extension comes to the end of the current conservatory which will be going. 2) Do i need to place a membrane between the wall foundations and my new ones ? 3) My total foundation length is about 21m. If the depth of the foundation next to this wall is an issue could i lay a wider foundation which has some rebar in it. I have been reading sandy soils work better with a wider strip foundation, rather than a deeper trench. If i go wider, this means less worry at this wall side. 4) I don't want to use an engineer for this work and would rather just speak to BC about it all. I am doing the work myself and i have already had a chat with BC about this issue and he said to cast the outer two thirds of the strip and a few days later dig out the centre third and cast. I think i would need to use some rebar for this. Reading a bit more it seems all the foundation wants to be done on the same day so not sure if this is an ok idea. Thanks for any help and i can give more info if needed.