LSB

having a baby during the build is very Grand Designs 🙂

After some tooing and frooing with the BCO and arch I have received some more details from the architect who insists that they were sent to me previously, not that I'd seen them. I sent these to the BCO and that has answered some of his questions, but still need more. He says that the MVHR needs to be fully designed before starting anything. He is also talking about fire resistant cavity barriers, which surprised me on a block / block wall. The Fire Protection looks like being quite a big issue, we are 120m from the nearest hydrant up a field slope which cannot be converted to a driveway, planning restriction. BCO is saying that the Fire Appliance must be able to get within 90m of all of the dwelling and have a turning circle. No problem in dry weather, but pretty tricky when wet. We can increase turning space, but only by going into one of our fields which can't be included in the curtilage. He wants all the hot water design. He says we can only have 1 solid fuel stove when we were planning on 2, we have lots of trees and therefore wood so were planning on that as our main heating in cold weather. He says that we are not proposing enough floor insulation, but I can't even find where I've said how much we are having. Windows - we can only have 1 pane per window which I don't understand and don't want, more discussion to follow. But, he is happy with our specified U values, which is confusing when we haven't given him any details. What is the understanding of others about what you have to provide up front, or during the build.

We visited the Swindon centre at their last open day and HID was very taken with the Unico system which offers 'air' heating and MVHR from an ASHP. Has anyone used this or looked into it seriously and what do you think. This doesn't have UFH. My concern is that you end up heating the ceiling not the whole room and also what happens outside of the heating system when you still want ventilation. The good thing seems to be that UFH doesn't need to be installed, that the ducting is small and with a flat roof we don't have an attic so that's useful. Interested in the thoughts of others. We are doing our own research as well, obviously. One thing I really want is to see it installed somewhere and talk to the home owners about what they think. Jill

We love where we live, but have always wanted to build so converting one of our barns seemed like the ideal compromise. Hindsight is amazing, I still feel like bulldozing it sometimes 🙂

They are quite a large architectural firm with lots of branches and did come recommended. The others which I tried first were more local whereas these guys are the other side of the county. And now the 1st one I spoke to has left I'm working with one who is over 300 miles away so won't be coming to site due to the expense.

I had none of this, we spoke to a number of architects, but most of them said we had no chance. I guess when the ones we used said we had a case then we jumped at him. To start with he was very good and advised how to make our genuine agricultural building look more agricultural. We had used as a horse shelter, nothing more, but that was enough to cause doubt. The refusals were to do with the previous use (pigs) and contamination, nothing to do with equestrian which is not allowed. But, at no point did he or anyone else in the company explain the whole process to use. We only had an SE involved because it was one of the conditions of approval along with the contamination and bats. It's 18 months since approval and no one has ever mentioned these extensive drawings. I have seen these before when I was PM for a company having a new build and I was the liaison between company and contractors. But, I made the silly mistake of assuming that they were because it was a commercial building and that a self-build would be simpler.

I am in the state at the moment of wondering why...... I never realised it was going to be so complicated to get all the paperwork sorted just to lay some blocks with holes in for windows and doors and a roof on top and preferably some heat, cooking and washing facilities, but I would even have considered giving up on those at some point. Due to the complete lack of time we decided that the builder (HID) would take voluntary redundancy and early retirement and then build the house himself. Trying to do this evenings and weekends was just impossible with us both working full-time with an hours commute each way, no home working for us. So, in a few short weeks I'll be the bread-winner thanks to a new job (home working) with more money and HID cashing in a pension policy and HID can build full-time. Or, so we thought. We have planning We have SE drawings We have BC drawings - or so I thought. I contacted our appointed BC (private) and he said great, but can I have .......... This is before we can dig any trenches even. I know that we need to make the decisions on windows, doors, roof, floors, insulation, fire control and engine turning circles and access, water, power as well as many other things. But, I didn't realise that some of this is needed before doing anything. We do have the foundations specified and have sourced blocks, concrete etc for that. So, it's back to the architect to find out about the rest of the BC drawings, apparently what he sent was the overall plan, not the details and to get those we need to go back to the SE with some questions. It seems that there are lots of books out there for self building, but none of them cover all the preliminaries that are required and we just didn't know. The site is prepped, we have got quotes from builders merchants about blocks, concrete suppliers about concrete and pumps, looked at U values. Also, ASHP, MVHR, UFH, and countless other acronyms, but not signed anything. As a barn conversion we have to use as many existing walls as possible, but we do have 1 1/2 sides that never had a wall. I stupidly thought, well we can build those up and then continue on the existing ones that need underpinning, seems that's not how it's done, why not. So, it's back to the drawing board, literally, so work out what I don't know that I need and get it somehow. It's also frustrating that all these professionals have the luxury of working Monday to Friday so when I'm free they are not and when they are free I'm working. Good luck to all you self-builders how there and hope you have more luck than us.

that would have been really helpful for me

I agree that our SE was expensive, but he did do the following Application survey of barn for conversion. Contamination survey Soil survey Structural plans. I think the mistake we made is that we went with a big commercial SE business who do hospitals, schools etc and don't really cater for self builds. It's similar with the architect Drawing for planning, plus changes for the refusals Then more drawings with changed layout (not dimensions) after he convinced us to try for knock down and rebuild, total failure with our LA, cost us 3k. Then this BC drawings, which are not complete. already 3.8k I'm waiting to talk to them on Monday about the rest. What I didn't appreciate is that the BC wants lots of details about things like window specs, insulation rating, ventilation, heating, electrical usage, water usage, hot water usage, fire protection planning and fire engine turning circles, just for a start. All things that I thought could be worked out whilst we built the walls. It's also not clear about what regs we have to meet, we have planning in Nov 21, but only instructed BC (private) Nov last year after the change. I'm trying to find out, but BC doesn't seem to know either. We will plan for new ones anyway, but it would be good to have the fall-back if something doesn't go to plan. We were discussing blocks with builders merchant this morning and he said 'these are cheaper', but may not meet new regs, whereas 'these are more expensive' but are 0.11. He was also talking about using insulated blocks for the interior part of the cavity to get EPC, but then said that they're not strong enough to hang anything on. And we don't seem any nearer to actually having a building. I hadn't appreciated how much time is needed when we both work full-time. HID knows about building, the physical side, but he's always been told what to do and not been involved in the planning and prelims.

I sent the drawings that were provided by architect, he also wants all the specs of windows, doors, EV charging, water treatment etc. All the things not done by architect. SE was so expensive because they also did all the soil analysis and checking foundations of existing barn.

Right, now I understand, but do I have to get the same architect to do these. The one we use has just charged us £3,800 for what I thought were these drawings when they are just one page. The SE charged us 5k to do the engineering drawings.

Help, I sent the building regs drawing and SE plans to my private BCO. He has come back with lots of additional info, most of which I know about, but he has asked about they below, I thought that was what we sent him and I'm loath to contact him and ask so can someone enlighten me and how this differs from all the other things I've sent him. Please provide copies of the full building regulations drawing package and specifications.

my brother and father are / were self employed all their lives, different industries, dad a shop, bro alarms / locks. Both were raided, vans and shops, even insured the costs are not covered and certainly not the stress. Bro chopped his finger off 2 days before his wedding, home owner complained about the blood and wanted to know how soon he could come back and clean up as well as finish the work, although she did put the finger on ice for him, it was reattached, but off work for 6 weeks. He had to pay someone else to finish the job and a cleaning company to get rid of the blood. He's also has other health issues, currently a knee, in total in 40 years he's probably had a year off sick. No one seems to have mentioned pensions (no employer contribution) either and NI stamps to get the state pension. He tried getting 'bigger' and sharing the load or employing, but it never worked as others didn't meet his standard and clients only wanted the boss. And employees need paying even when there is no work. Covid was dreadful for him, couldn't go into peoples homes. His main business now is repos, sad, but a state of the economy where others can't pay. Remember it may sound a high daily rate, but also consider all those people who are horrible to work for and think you are overpaid.

when I joined a company they had boxes of obsolete marketing material that they said to just chuck. this included 5 boxes of 12 tape measures, so they all found there way to our bin (shed). by the time we gave them to family, friends, visitors, postman and anyone that would take one I can't find one anywhere 😞

Thanks Jilly, we have lots of walls like this, and even our architect (off the record) said that no one would know if they 'fell down' when a new one was built. I'm just aware that the barn (old pig stys) can be seen from the road which is probably regularly travelled by planning officers. We did decide deliberately on private BCO just to avoid the above being quite so likely.

We have undertaken a class Q, but our planning kept our PD rights so it might be worth double checking. This was included in our planning approval document. That said, we have been told that we cannot extend our curtilage into our agricultural fields under any circumstances. This is slightly odd as our access is through a field, which was approved, and I'm not sure how that can still be agricultural as it would be no use as either crops or grazing. What we have done in this field used for access is plant over 200 trees, which will be lovely after I'm long gone, but are still very small. This field also has some old sheds, block ones, which are very tatty, but will ultimately be converted to nice ones and although it will always stay agricultural it will increase the feeling of space. One thing in your posts that is slightly contradictory is that you say you are not overlooked by anything, but then you say about neighbours extending into fields or is that a different property. As others have said it does depend on your LPA, ours is very strict and fussy.

Hello Next question. On Sunday we started digging out the floor of one of the areas of the barn to investigate further the underpinning requirements. The existing floors are concrete on concrete on concrete on and on. We were planning on removing all the existing floors to put in new ones with insulation and UFH. But, we have now found the below. On the first picture the wall that needs underpinning is showing the end, a new block / block wall is going off to the right from there and this wall will have EWI on the outside or possibly a 2nd skin with cavity. We have to keep this wall. This picture shows the top level of concrete we are removing, about 3in with ballast below, breaking up very easily, not attached to the outside at all so no idea why they needed this for the piggies. Wall is 6.6m long, the wall facing is an internal wall that is going to be knocked down and is no longer attached to the outer wall except by a couple of rebars. The wall above the DPM is also not attached. this shows where we removed a large lump of concrete with a steel post above, not attached to the remaining wall to the right. Attached to the internal wall that will be knocked down facing. The existing foundations are about 50cm and we have to go down to 1m. The wall is stable at the moment. Question is; are we likely to have to keep this floor and DPM, if we do then we will need to step up into this room (snug) as the rest is lower. We are concerned that if we remove it that the wall will become unstable when our plans say that we must keep it, but underpinning, even at 1m at a time will be much more tricky if we don't remove. If we keep then we will add insulation and screed as the floor on top of the DPM is not level because of the previous use and the requirement for drainage. The BCO is coming out soon, but wanted thoughts before I discuss with him. Thanks J

I watched the episode yesterday building a big extension, they showed the trenches, almost entirely in clay, yet only 1m. We have been told we have to have between 1.6 & 2.4 where we have clay. Original house had already been underpinned. Also, the concrete they poured had a very high (or is it low) slump, looked like water, and then said it could be built on in 2 days which I was surprised at. But, this program, in my opinion is much better than some of the others as they do talk about some of the building bits.

I totally agree, but will leave for HID (building) to discuss with BCO as that's beyond my expertise. Got slightly more complicated now as digging down yesterday to expose some of the existing foundations we have found a DPC across the whole floor of this 'room' which, as it's nominally a conversion, we may be required to keep which will lead to multiple levels in the dwelling. We were planning on underpinning then when the walls were stable digging down to start from scratch. There is no insulation so that will need adding which will raise that particular level from the rest quite a bit. None of the other floors had DPC when we dug down.

but we already have the gear apparently.

I use Draytek's as well, the one I got with the BB, recommended by the ISP and a similar one I had lying around, who knows where from. I do have 'business' BB as when it was installed it meant I had a static IP and I could connect here from anywhere. I've not looked lately if any of the bigger / cheaper boys will give you a static IP. I have a long thin old house with thick walls so from one end to the other it had to go through 4 walls and rarely did. Now I have the extender at one end it even stretches to the annex where my daughter lives. No fancy set up just log on as admin, being Draytek the default IP was 192.168.1.1 in both cases, so easy to change one to something else and change the name. Now I have upstairs as well through the floors. We still have holes in the ceilings waiting to be filled from when we had ethernet to the kids bedrooms many moons ago. Our wifi is reliable, but slow as still on copper. A number of neighbours have managed to get FTTP, but have drop out for some reason. As I WFH I can't risk that so waiting to see what BT are doing as they are both with BT. We are a long way from the green cabinet, further than either of these neighbours so it's a wait and see scenario.

thanks very much, that was really interesting, I need to read a few times to digest and attempt to understand. Then I will explain to HID which will test if I have really understood. The height of the roof at that point is 3.013 (existing roof height of barn) so even more to consider than you example. And I thought the foundations were complicated.

I see what you mean by quality UPVC, we had ours installed in 2001 and they could all do with being replaced in reality, just won't be happening at the moment. But, they were supplied by the builders who were renovating at that time when we lived a long way away so probably cheap as chips with the same quality.

we are only a ground floor 🙂 single storey barn conversion, but the wall shown is our not-wall, i.e. it's the open side where no wall exists All the rest must be kept. We do have steels specified for the roof, but of course they do need something to rest on. The steel experts have not been consulted yet, they are in the factory next door to my hubbies factory and are on-site today, just not our site.

I would only add, if you can get planning permission, over the border from you in Suffolk, that's just not possible in the countryside, believe me we've tried