LSB

These SE's have dug 2 trial pits, one when they first inspected for planning and again before producing the above. This is a single block wall barn, no steel involved, but we assumed that we would need steels for the roof, but no mention of that. If we do it say, room by room, will we be able to do 1m foundations, do you know. This is our current plan / hope. Also, out of interest, if we do this how do you 'join' the different foundations in a straight line. No BC yet, this report was to get the architect do do BC drawings.

Getting hold of planners at the moment is very difficult, and I don't think they have any sympathy for anyone, but they may agree to a new build in exactly the same footprint, one of the paths I'm going to investigate. Busy weekend coming up .

As my hubby said this is the low end of the building with a flat roof so it will be taking the majority of the weight. I'm also going to talk to the SE about steels to support the roof, which don't seem to have been specified. No basement, just a single storey build with a flat (12 degrees) metal roof.

They are a well established and locally well respected SE company. My only thought is that most of the work they do is commercial rather than residential so maybe they are used to deeper pockets. They did the original ground survey and raised no issues with the ground, I'll dig out the report and see what the exact terminology was. The site is as good as flat, maybe 10 degrees. The building is at the edge of the site, but I can't imagine that the ground changes much in 9m, the distance between the back (2.4m) and the front (1m) Anyway, talking to them today so I'll have more details then.

thanks, that's encouraging. I've got a meeting with the SE & his boss tomorrow over the phone so I'm going to ask some more questions. But, going to a different SE might work.

I haven't posted to my blog for a couple of months, mainly because we haven't been able to progress until we got the Structural Engineers report. This was promised in 2 weeks and ended up taking 10. I now suspect that this was because they didn't want to tell us the news. Our build is a barn conversion so we've had to jump through lots of hoops. ,making lots of money for other people. But, particularly for the SE, first it was the report where they said to planning that the barn was convertible. Then the 1st phase ground contamination report, no issues there. Planning approved with condition of phase 2 contamination report. So, back to the SE to do this, no problems with that. Then we started preparing the site, documented in previous blogs, we did this thinking that it would benefit us with the SE report to get the building regulations drawn. How wrong we were. One of the limitations of the barn conversion was that one side of the building can only be 2.2m high. We worked around this by designing rooms so it wasn't needed for walking. Yesterday, I received the report, only to be horrified to see that this low side of the building, 2.2m remember, needs underpinning foundations of 'at least' 2.4m. How can a single storey build possibly need foundations deeper that the height of the building. The opposite side is 3.15m high to the roof, here the SE say we only need 1m deep foundations, figure that out. The soil is not clay, not sand, there are a few 3" elm trees that are being knocked down so no large roots. But, it gets worse, they say that this must be done 1m at a time, doing 1st meter, then 3rd meter, then 5th meter, then 2nd meter etc.etc. This particular wall is 25m long. They have no issues with the existing internal walls. I've never been so glad to be stupidly busy at work to take my mind of this fiasco. So, what do we do. The thoughts I have are: 1. Can we knock down the back wall leaving the rest and build only 1m deep like the wall on the opposite side, but I would still need to get planning. 2. Do we write off all the work we've done and all the money we've spent (lots) and try and get planning to start from scratch with a kit house. It would have to be self build though due to the extremely limited funds available. 3. The long wall splits into utility, 2 x bathrooms, 3 x bedrooms and a pantry. Do we knock down the wall for each room and then rebuild it bit by bit and with what foundations. 4. Do we start on the high side of the conversion and work backwards ignoring the problem for now. The sides vary from 1m front to 2m foundations at the back. The most disappointment I feel is that the SE passed the building as fit to convert, including digging holes to look at the existing foundations with no mention of anything like this. I don't know if it makes any difference, but the original SE was probably about my age, in his 50's, whereas the recent one (same firm) was barely out of nappies and didn't want to talk to us when he was here to discuss anything. What I have done is: a. Requested a meeting with the SE and his manager to ask why so deep and about a new wall. If we can knock down the wall and put in 1m foundations then that is manageable as with the digger we can knock the existing one down and dig the trenches before getting a groundworks crew to do the rest. b. Started compiling an email to send to the planners, but with the current situation I don't think I will hear anything. Also, I'm a bit wary, if we say what is required can they pull our planning and still not allow us a new build. c. Started looking at some kit companies who provide self build kits to get some ideas of costs. The one thing that we cannot do is dig down 600mm x 2.4m a meter at a time. Maybe a groundworks company could, but at what cost for what, in reality, is a tatty barn which, if we could have got planning we would gladly have knocked down and crushed. I spoke to the planners after we got planning to ask about this route and we told that we had no chance. Here's a little reminder of the layout. The wall is the bottom one up to where the ensuite wall is and the top of the WC on the left. I now feel so demoralised, building is stressful for many reasons, but I didn't expect it to be quite so impossible. Time for whine I think ? Enjoy the heading picture of the kittens, to cheer me up.

what we did was knock out all the broken blocks and put new ones back in. all sorted in the summer

I'm not sure about the existing buildings, we were exempt because of planning to live in it, but our ag barn is 240sqm and was liable for CIL.

My understanding is that CIL exemption is only available for a dwelling that you plan to live in as a self builder for at least 3 years. Holiday lets are businesses so it is payable. But, others may be clearer on this.

what does HMRC have against Gnomes ? So, does he charge 5% thanks

I'm just booking some fencing around what will be the whole site including the garden. Can I claim the VAT on this, and as it is being done by a company, do I need to ask them to not charge. Also, if it is claimable, what % as my build in a barn conversion. TIA

it would be great if they would. I've just spent an hour tidying up as it seems to have got into a mess recently. But, we are waiting on SE at the moment with some drawing for lintels and roof steels

Sorry, been working (paid) from 8am - 6pm with an hours drive each way so nothing to report. Except, slightly more in the coffers, will be like this until after Xmas when project finishes. But I will try and do something. Good to know that someone is watching.

I was watching an old episode of GD, the one with the house called The Lighthouse. It was never finished, despite spending millions they ran out of money. It is in Cornwall Does anyone who lives in that neck of the woods know if it was ever finished or it they even did any more than the shell that was left in 2017

we put a time capsule made by the kids in this extension and we are going to do one with our grandson in the new build. Over the years we've found many newspapers, grafitt and lots of cloths under the floor in a house we were renovating. Not sure what we've lost, won't know until we look for things. We did view a house for auction once, completely empty except for a gorgeous circular walnut table that sat 12 people which couldn't be removed. Makes me wonder how they got it in there in the fist place.

there is something on tonight that I've recorded about extensions, not watched it yet though

no sign of this in my neck of the woods

Looking at some of the EON prices, can someone explain why the costs differ depending on where you live.

Well I was on the fence re the heat pump, will definitely be going ahead. I'm lucky in that at the beginning of Sept I fixed my electricity (no gas) price for 2 years. I can't remember off hand what it was, but almost definitely better than what's happening at the moment. That's with EON so probably safe, unless someone knows different.

I don't think a separate building will be PD, but I could be wrong

I wonder when this will be available and how much it will cost, and more importantly how reliable it will be I love the idea of having this, but looking at their site it doesn't look like it is going to be any time soon.

welcome and good luck

we've thought about that and checked with the removal company. what we are going to do is lay a track across the side of the garden covered with the plastic matts with grass and they will be able to reach the tank from there. we considered a different place beside the drive, but decided against it as it is the opposite side of the house to the drains. the location is also on the access to the barn for lorries when it was used for pigs. thanks for the thought though.

we haven't finalised on which plant to use yet, still looking. the treatment plant is going to be in one of the paddocks and not in the actual garden, but we don't want it sticking out above ground. it will be fenced off so the horses don't 'play' on it.

and how many access points and rodding points should we have over the 65m i.e. is there a set distance apart for them. in our current house we do have some issues as the access to the cesspit goes under the road and over the years all the traffic has bent it. this won't be the case with the new one, but we want to be able to access if necessary.