LSB

They took away 2 sheets a few years ago, but when I checked this time they said that they no longer offer this service.

this cheap quote is £690 for 40m2 hence my suspicions that they are not genuine

how much did that cost and do you know what m2 it was, ours is about 40m2 once I include gutters, ridge sheets as well as the roof sheets. this is what we were planning, but by the time we costed the skip and the huge quantity of DPM as they wanted each sheet wrapped twice.

We have a small part of our barn which has concrete fibre roof sheets, which includes some asbestos, not high grade. We are planning on having this professionally removed and taken to a proper facility. One of the quotes is much lower than expected, we have asked them about being registered and they have said yes. I've now asked them to send me a copy of this as well of details of where they take it as I'm concerned it might be the layby in one of the country roads. I've said to HID that I'm not going with the cheapest quote unless I am 100% sure that it is safe and legal. What registration should I be looking for, I know where the nearest facility is which takes it. I have other quotes which are considerably higher hence my suspicions, but we also have a tight budget and this wasn't included so is additional to our expected costs. I'm well aware of the statement, "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is", but on the other hand the optimistic side of me thinks that they might just be a local company that isn't expensive, as long as it's not the local travelling community. I'm also concerned about security, will they use this as an opportunity to see what we have on site. As you can tell I'm not happy, but HID want to use them.

Do they deliver nationally? I've checked their website and they don't come as far as the east coast, but I've sent them a message to ask if they would consider it. I love personal recommendations as you get a better idea of who you are dealing with.

definitely don't want to be using a wheelbarrow or mixing ourselves for this amount. that's fine for little things.

thanks

we do have a digger, but I was using my truck and trailer at the weekend to move some hay and it's now very muddy. I haven't done anything about chutes or pumps yet, I'm still working out what is needed. We were planning on some MOT type 1 for the whole area around the barn as it's a bit of a quagmire at the moment as the horses have been on it. We aren't doing any building at all until late spring, so it may be that they can get up there when it is dry. More investigation needed, as per every area of any build.

One of our fairly early tasks is a new base slab on our 240m2 barn conversion. When investigating about concrete it's made me wonder about delivery of readymix. The barn is 120m from the road with a rise of 5m and the track is a muddy track, certainly at the moment, our planning specifically says that we are not allowed to create a driveway to stay within the vernacular it must stay looking like a farm track as it runs through agricultural land to get to the barn. So, baring in mind that the track rises 5m and is slippery and my truck only gets up there in 4WD, will I be able to get readymix to the build, i.e. how long can their pipes go and how will it cope with going up a slope. TIA Jill

I've read in many articles and books that you cannot project manager a build and work full time, even when you live on site. They are right, I've made barely any progress over the last month since work has ramped up to full time. Originally, the new factory move was planned for end Feb with the offices end March. But, this has now been delayed with factory at the end of April and the offices May. That's great for work stress less, but bad for self-build stress levels. The extra money will also be very useful as an addition to the build budget. The only saving grace is that we are busy doing nothing whilst we wait for the conditions to be discharged by the LPA. Just at the end of Dec I sent the notification re the CIL commencement. I was very surprised when I got the response with the acknowledgement the same day. At least that is something of the project planning list. Ironically, a friend of mine put in a planning application for stables & menage the same day as my discharge planning, and although it had to be checked by the parish council it was still passed in 4 weeks whereas my discharge which is simply to get a phase 2 contamination report approved is still waiting. One big concern that we have currently is theft, there has been a lot in the area in the past month, historically we lived in a very low crime area when suddenly sheds are being raided, actually breaking in rather than opportunistic actions. HID has been looking for a digger for 3 months now, but cannot find one, we have a healthy budget, but apart from new Chinese ones, which we have been warned against, we have not been able to find anything. A few have appeared in auctions, but they are 100's of miles away so there is the added cost of delivery and ideally we would like to view as well. They also have VAT added meaning that a guide price of 6-7k ends up selling for 9, then add 20% VAT and £500 delivery and it's way out of our budget. As soon as we get the go ahead this will be a big issue so we may end up hiring one after all, something we are not keen on simply for the flexibility. I'm still working through the detailed estimation, I've just got the big things left to do, the family room, utility room, roof, water treatment and other outside items. I'm not sure what to do about the utilities, we have power / water from the host house, but I do need to consider the cost of those for the budgeting. I guess the best thing to do is to get the guide price for now and hope it doesn't go up to much. Without the above the current material estimate is at 60k, I'm hoping that this will reduce as this is the published price for items in catalogues / websites and in many cases includes VAT. I've been absolutely amazed at how much is needed in each room, when you consider things like grout, EWI mesh or compriband tape. The initial thoughts were about the big items like plasterboard, but the little things are easily the same price again and looking at windows & doors, I had no idea how expensive decent ones are. Once I have everything done then I will get a professional estimate to compare the difference. I've also been really surprised at how long it's taken to do this. If it wasn't for Covid it would never have happened. But, I want to get an estimate with pretty much everything included to stop too many financial surprises when we build. Like most people we have a tight budget and are planning on a majority DIY approach. The first of the bike shed repairs has been completed so we have a shed that is dry for storage, I've been moving wood from the barn to the shed a bit at a time when I'm going from one to the other with the dog or dealing with the horses. I've moved all this wood 4 times now over the years so I hope this is the last resting place. Today, as it's actually not raining for once I'm going to get the dumper to move a load of hay from the current storage place to the barn. This will be the first time we have used the dumper for anything since we bought it last September. This planning period really is the calm before the storm, but it will be great when something physical actually happens. So, for the next month I'm determined to finish estimating and hopefully get the conditions discharged. Talk again in February when I may have something to actually say.

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I'm the FB lady ? Hope you get your answers. I also have 2 old uns retired here, one isn't old, but is an ex racer who can't cope with normal riding life so lives with my old cob.

I was reading a thread yesterday, but didn't have time to finish and now I've restarted my PC. Is there a way I can find something that I have looked at recently? Thanks Jill

Current house is opposite side of the roadside to the main, but slightly higher, so I would say main inlet is about 4m distance and 1m up. How do I measure the water pressure, we have an outside tap very near where the water comes into the house. I haven't even thought about size of tank, utility / plant room is 4.07m * 3.8m so 15.5 m2, although we do want a toilet in there in a cubicle. Also need the gubbins for ASHP, CU's washing machine, tumble dryer (can be stacked). I've also allowed for a shower, but that's more for the dog than us, just designed for where we get very grubby and don't want to trapse through the house, but again isn't essential. I haven't allowed for an airing cupboard, which is where our current tank is, but I could just lose a bit from one of the spare bedrooms for that if it is a better solution. It's great that I'm only planning for the inside so things can be changed, but it's quite scary thinking about everything that needs considering when I'm not yet sure about lots of things.

We will be having a new supply, currently the barn has water from our house so I haven't looked into this yet. The barn is 120m from the water hydrant (opposite side of road) up a slope totally about 5m, so I can't imagine that we will have very good water pressure, although the 2 taps are not too bad just through a pipe we put in 20 years ago. When the barn was used for pigs it had a huge water tank, like a petrol tanker size, raised on a brick built platform, I assume for water pressure. But, there was up to 2,000 pigs in an intensive breeding unit so they needed lots of water. Rules changes, pigs gone, house sold at auction to use about 2 years later, that was 20 years ago. So, I don't know how I can find out what the water pressure will be, can the water board tell me ? If I needed to budget for an accumulator and pump what specification would those be, then I can add this to my estimate as I'm looking at worst case cost to start with.

We are planning on UFH with ASHP & Solar Panels and then just to be extra sure a backup oil boiler (no gas here). I thought we needed pumps because of the water pressure we require. We sometimes use our current tank emersion element if we need hot water quickly and don't want to wait for the boiler to do it. I'm not a plumber and have very little knowledge in this area so please be gentle with me. As we have pumps now (one per shower) to get the water pressure we need then I assumed that we will need one per shower in the build. We have very limited ridge height (thanks LPA) and it's not high anyway, hence no attic space. The roof is slightly sloped so the pipes will go in the highest bit, but all machine type things will be in the utility room.

Good Evening and Happy New Year My next question for estimation. Once I have listed everything that I think that we need and got my approximate estimate I shall send off, but right now I'm listing everything and pricing it myself, this is what covid does to you when you can't go to the pub. My single storey barn conversion has a flat roof so there will not be any form of header tank, there will be an emersion tank in the utility room. We will have 3 showers for which I need pumps. But, all the ones I look at say 'gravity fed', which sounds to me like they need a higher tank. These pipes will need to be horizontal, one at 2m, one at 12m and one at 25m, all from the DHW tank. It is very rare that multiple showers are used at the same time, but not impossible. I'm not worried about the hot water, we have 2 showers with pumps in the existing house and it has not been an issue waiting for hot water. My issue is that I don't know what type of pump I need. I know one of ours needed replacing recently, at about £200. The existing pumps are on the same level as the showers by the tank, but we do have a cold water header tank and I'm not sure if this makes any difference. Do I need the same as we have now. TIA Jill

thanks, not too far then.

what is that distance, I hadn't got that far

thanks for all your help, lots to think about.

So, the badly coloured yellow is the barn, the black is the garden. The rest of the red bit is slightly odd as adding that in would make an area of 375m2, so not for conversion. I guess the LPA can only do regular shapes ! The blue is the edge of our land, so one side of the barn is right on the perimeter, we have about 6' and we are not building right to the end as the existing wall on that side is 1m from the edge. That is the side where all the bathrooms and some of the bedrooms are because it is a steep bank into the next field, which is about 2m higher at that point, so not a lot of light and no view. The LPA has not told us where to have the garden, that is up to us, only what the maximum size is, but we need to be aware in the future of what land we will keep and what we will sell. Anything outside of the curtilage will stay as ag land so should not be used as garden. The view is from the L side of the barn.

this plan doesn't show all the post and rail fencing. I've just been talking to hubby about that, but we are stuck with agricultural land versus curtilage. the curtilage can only be the same size as the footprint of the dwelling plus the driveway, so anything to the right of the 'L' is a no go area. Of course, the chances of any of this causing a problem if we went ahead is very low, but I really don't want any risk of being told to move the tank and drains, costs enough the first time. The fence between track and field goes from the left of the L.

wish I could, but this is a barn conversion and we have to keep the walls, floor and roof ? this makes our options a lot more limited.

within the blue square, planning to place just above the the label saying track.

tanker can come up the drive, we will have a huge soakaway and then the final soak will be into our field, as happens now, it mustn't go to a watercourse. the original location was the opposite end of the barn which only have 4WD or tractor vehicle access. the barn is at the top of the slopes and it goes down all around. we own all the fields in the site plan and also some others. our house at the bottom goes to 4 tanks over the road and then into one of our fields.