LSB

have you had your phase 2 done? that did take ages for us as they had to monitor gas for 3 months. flood zone didn't affect us as we are at the top of a slope, the valley we look at is flood plain, but we are 6m higher than that luckily.

I submitted my CIL commencement at the same time as submitting the plans to satisfy the conditions, CIL replied by email same day saying, great thanks. I don't think the timing matters, just make sure that it's done before you do anything. We are converting an old agricultural barn and started clearing the site whilst waiting for the conditions to be discharged. Taking apart doesn't seem to be a problem, building anything may be a problem in my experience, so don't do those drains, but interior panels should be okay. By the way my conditions were discharged in 3 weeks, they just wanted a Phase 2 contamination survey, which found nothing so I guess they just looked and did it then, so it may not be as long as you think.

thanks, I shall investigate that as well.

Does anyone know re insurance, is the digger covered by the site insurance, which does cover tools, or do we need to get independent insurance for it.

That's a good idea, we are going to store inside a shed, but even so if people see us using it they might decide to pay a night time visit. With all the other farm stuff we have as well we could be in a lot of trouble if they take the whole lot.

Whether you are converting a barn, like us, or building from scratch I just don't know where the time goes. Agreed hubby works full time and although I'm only supposed to work 3 days per week I've been doing a lot more lately as we are so busy with the work new build. It's also been dark and cold which doesn't inspire enthusiasm to get outside to do things. I'm also very limited in what I can do, I'm not very strong and don't always know how to do things. I've also found that keeping the site clean and tidy is a thankless and time consuming job, but essential, last week we lost a crow bar and took days to find it buried in a pile of old newspapers that should have been thrown away. One of our bigger issues is the barn being so full of all sorts of things gathered over the years before we even start, as it was pig units it's split into 7 large areas with a corridor with a wall down the middle. Some of the stuff is rubbish and can be disposed off, but I'm loath to get rid of anything at this stage in case it may have a use in the future. One area we used for hay and horse feed, which they are almost through being the end of winter. Of course by next winter I'm going to need somewhere else to store this, it may be next year that it's still in the barn as we are most likely still going to be putting the outside together. The other areas have tack and cat food, another one wood, then there is the farm implements, the tractor, the digger and other machinery. So, to store the things we really need I cleared out the old bike sheds, these had collapsed roofs which had to be removed, cut up and taken to the tip. Then to provide us with storage space they had to be rebuilt. The wood wasn't a problem, over the years we have knocked down lots of old sheds so we had lots of wood around which was good enough for this purpose. We also had some roofing sheets from old sheds, enough for one of the bike sheds. Even though the sheds suffer from subsidence they should be good enough for the duration of the build (we hope) when they can be knocked down. We then needed more sheets and some long lengths of wood to put a roof on the 2nd bike shed. So, I had to take some off the roof of the barn to provide what we needed. Not being a building expert in any way I was surprised at how much was involved in this, with battens, insulation, rafters, roofing sheets attached with lots and lots of long nails. Also, after that more wood on the top of each wall, wall plates I guess, I thought that they would be one piece, but oh no, it was battens with 2 pieces in between, lots of mouse nests and more nails. So, that's one shed, with the roof off, only another 6 to go and then the corridor. Each roofing sheet is 20' plus and far too heavy for me to move so I remove the nails with hammer and crowbar and then get hubby to get the sheets off. This week I've also removed the old gutters and what used to be wood holding them up. It did make me wonder, this barn is about 50 years old and lots of the wood is completely rotten, so what protects timber framed houses. I guess that they are just not exposed like this. This side of the barn is south facing as well so gets lots of sun. This lower roof that I'm removing at the moment will be raised to be the same height as the other part which along with digging out the floor will give us enough roof height at the lower end to pass muster. We also went shopping this month and spent a large chunk of our budget buying a digger, wacker plate, breaker, nail gun and some tiles. All auction purchases at Cheffins plant sale in Ely. We spent more on this than intended because of the VAT that we can't claim back, and will lose when we eventually sell it. But, it's going to make our life so much easier. The first task though is to dig out some huge troublesome brambles that have spread very quickly. Good practice before we need to dig out the floor in the barn. That will be done once I've finished removing the roof. Another urgent task is to get some concrete fibre roof sheets removed as they may contain that pesky asbestos. These are on the 'L' part of the barn, the majority is the metal sheets. On as more sedentary note I spent many weeks going through everything that I think we need for the build from nails to zinc roof. This was 100's of items which I then manually searched for the best price for. Then I contacted 8 builders merchants asking about trade accounts, only 4 responded with Wickes saying "do it yourself from our website". The big boys didn't even reply at all. The 3 that did respond were all local merchants who returned my spreadsheet with largely varying prices, but all offering good discounts due to the volume of stuff that we need. They also said that they sometimes have special deals, in one case 75 - 80% for some items. Of the 4 I looked at 3 priced Kingspan insulation whereas one of them listed Celotex. This is what is in the barn at the moment to keep the piggy's warm, is there much difference as the Celotex was a lot cheaper. During April, I want to get the rest of the back roof off and also get the asbestos cleared and removed from site. This does necessitate some water and electrical changes as this roof is in the area where the power and water come in from the host house.

my planning specifies 1 fast EV charger and 1 overnight, so I think the fast is 32amp. showers, not sure yet cooker is hob and 3 ovens as I cook and bake a lot so want main oven, second oven, baking oven (no smells) and grill. I will need to speak to hubby re 3 phase equipment, the workshop is his domain. what sort of things use 3 phase as he is up in the barn at the moment making a door for the storage shed.

final decision not made yet, I'm hoping to run from tank, but need enough hot water for 4-6 people so also at the least needs emersion, I'm hoping to get lots from solar

when I was talking the person I was talking to said similar, chargers 1p and workshop 1p except he wasn't sure that 1p would be enough for ASHP & MVHR & Solar PV. To be fair he was there to quote to replace our current oil boiler and said he would get the company sparky to help me, but I need to chase him. In our current house we have 1p in the house and 1p in the annex and 1p in the workshop / garage / stables etc.

I know, but UKPN are asking me what KVA I need and although I've looked I don't understand the calculation to get this. I asked my sparky, but he's a bit slow on answering.

Hello Our electric board UKPN has asked for our KVA requirements to complete their quote. I may have posted this previously, but I can't find the answer. This is for 2 * 32amp EV charging 3 * power showers 2 * cooker hobs 4 * ovens 4 bedrooms office with 6 computers plus 2 x printers 3 * TV's plus DVD etc Solar PV, 10 - 12 panels ASHP MVHR Cart-lodge / Garage / Large workshop Water Treatment plant 120m drive with lighting and electric gate at road side We have asked for 3 phase, which is available, but they want to know the KVA needs TIA

They can be had for about £45 per m2 for a u value of 0.14 which is very cheap. That is cheap, we have been quoted between 25 & 40 for standing seam zinc, house is 240sqm so between 100 & 166 per sqm. This is what has put us off as it eats so much of our budget. Other steel is cheaper, totals about 20, but that's still quite a lot, but I do prefer the look of standing seam. As far as the cavity versus EWI, we have permission for EWI, but not to build a second cavity, planners being what they are they have their idiosyncrasies. I'm beginning to understand that it is impossible to understand all the different build methods, planning, conversions. If I could do what I want I would attack the barn with the tractor, dig up the site and start again, but when I spoke to the planner it was made very very clear that this would not be allowed. There have been all sort of comments on this forum about building one wall then another etc., but if I got caught then I would lose out big time and it's just not worth it. I will stick to what I'm allowed, including using the existing walls, openings and the roof structure.

our roof has to be metal, ideally zinc, but that's pretty expensive so I'm looking at steel. It's a single story barn of 240sqm so a lot of roof. We are also going to have Solar PV. But, the above does link does look like a viable option as it looks very similar to the existing steel roof. We can't reuse that as it is rusted in a lot of places and has no insulation. It was a barn for an intensive pig rearing unit, only stopped when the regulations changed. I must say that I'm happy about that, looking at it when we first purchased the site it can't have been very pleasant for the pigs who would never get to see any daylight.

Thanks for your suggestion, but we decided on EWI because of how much space we would lose internally.

Thanks, good idea to try it out and see how we get on. Current walls are block, no brick at all, but some of the mortar joints are not very good and there are definitely some parts of the wall that need to be reduced to about 1m and rebuilt due to some sort of metal support frame that has rusted. I think this frame was the fixings for the pig pens that were in there. Old barns have limitations, but we have to use the walls as part of our planning.

Currently the walls are one block thick, it's a barn, I can easily use Graphite EPS. Cladding is a planning constraint, we can use some render where the walls are bare block, but as part of the barn currently has wood cladding we have to replace it so it looks the same. The choice of Kooltherm was a suggestion by someone, can't remember who, I think it was one of our local builders, but I don't have any particular affinity with the product. We don't have any overhangs now as the roof is being replaced. Thanks for the details.

our boiler was installed in 1983, oil, now making odd noises so looking at replacing. Will have to be oil as house leaks like a sieve and is not really possible to insulate enough as it is 200 years old and single skin.

Hi, it's DIY and the above is how I understand it needs to be. I was happy with the render path, I just wasn't quite so sure about the cladding as I was worried about the join between the insulation sheets, but you seem to be saying that it isn't an issue. The build is an L shape so 6 walls, 3 are render and 3 cladding so the join will be corners, there will be cladding to cladding, render to render and cladding to render, and I haven't yet thought about joining, makes my brain hurt ? Suggestions welcomed, it will be a year or slightly more before we are doing this, I'm just planning it out at the moment. Our planning permission just agreed with our statement of 'render or cladding'.

The instructions we have been given are to attached the insulation with dot and dab adhesive and 5 screws per board. We have not been instructed to tape the board joins as the adhesive & render will stop any cold bridging. Obviously we can tape if we can attached the battens direct to the insulation with very long screws through to the block. I was also wondering about DPM / vapour mesh (breathable) The insulation is Kingspan K5 external wall board 70mm thick

I'm using EWI on our single skin conversion, but everything I find about it talks about the top coat being render. The last bits being fibreglass mesh & basecoat on top of the insulation, then the render. But we are mixing Render & Cedar cladding. It doesn't seem right to put the cladding battens directly onto the insulation as there will be cold bridging issues around every insulation board, but is the basecoat / mesh just for render. Thanks

We have just started our Class Q conversion. It was made very clear to us not to remove anything that is considered part of the barn and therefore part of the conversion. Our LPA removed planning from someone local who took their barn down to rebuild it using the same materials. He was then refused any planning as it was considered a new house in the countryside, just using recycled material, they didn't care that they came from the same site. This was spotted by a planning officer just driving by for something else completely rather than someone reporting them. So, the best you can do is rebuild what you have, but don't do any new work and then talk to a planning consultant. It does depend on where you are, but around here Class Q is not liked by the LPA so they are very strict, including the complete within 3 years rule. Luckily that is just to make it habitable rather than completing everything, this is our saving grace as funds won't be available to do the whole inside within 3 years as we are doing DIY when we have the money.

UKPN have agreed to supply me with 3 phase electricity, but they want to know what my KVA requirement is. Build is Barn Conversion. UFH ASHP MVHR PV panels 2 ovens hob usual white goods 2 power showers cart lodge 2 EV charging points. I'm sure that there are other things, but nothing out of the ordinary. I asked my sparky, but he hasn't come back to me yet so I thought I'd look into it. Does anyone have any ideas on the needs of each of the above.

totally agree, if it was possible I would have knocked down and rebuilt, but the LPA, they say NO NO NO. So, conversion of nothing. We also considered once we had planning selling the plot, but whoever bought would then be our new neighbours and I would hate seeing someone else getting the rewards.

I'm also a Suffolk barn converter so someone else local.