LSB

We are converting an old barn, with the existing walls build from block. But, the barn was built in the 60's so the blocks are imperial. Does anyone know what is the difference, yes I could go and measure, but it's dark, wet and cold. We have to partially knock down and rebuild some of them, we would do it all, but the LPA say no. Can anyone foresee any issues with walls have mixed blocks. The walls are going to be plastered inside and cladded outside.

that sounds really good, would suit us well. our current sewerage system is 3 tanks and a soakaway, never causes us any problems, but although that passed a check for regulation changes earlier this year it's not allowed for new installations.

we are pretty limited, as a class Q barn conversion we can't change anything external and have to leave most of the existing walls, that is what's driven the size of the utility, bedrooms 2 & 3, bathroom and ensuite /wardrobe. It took us years to get planning as the LPA don't like conversions of 'modern' barns so we had to jump through lots of hoops. I think they got bored of me in the end and gave in just to get rid of me ?

not heard of that, something else to investigate. all the magazines and articles say that there are huge numbers of decisions and I'm finding that now, and we don't start anything until next year. I'm trying to plan in advance, but for every decision I make 10 more crop up.

oh gosh, I'm only 25 years so I have a way to go

you are right, I do need whole house, sounds like you know more about this than I do. I have 240m2 to cover.

thanks, I will have a look

thanks, I shall have a look over the weekend

good idea, but won't work as the house is right at the very top boundary of the site, at the top of the hill. we really don't want a tank on the roof if we can avoid it, but it may have to go back to the old farming days and we build one on a brick plinth and then hide it somehow.

AKA clean room, we have dogs, cats, horses so we are always getting dirty and I really want a room where only clean people and animals are allowed. We will have to get used to keeping the family room clean, at the moment we have a tendency to shut the kitchen door and leave it a mess. And, my husband sits in the lounge to watch the telly with his grubby clothes and even his boots at times.

Thanks for your comments, all the windows are North facing, so I don't think overheating is going to be an issue, also having the covered area to make sure. Privacy is not an issue, the only house we can see is the one we live in now and that is the side of it with no windows, the road is at the bottom of the hill so we will see car lights, but too far away. I'm planning on blinds though at night though, not curtains, it's not that sort of build. Both of us work from home some of the time hence the office as we need to be apart for phone calls etc. We thought about having 2 offices, but that looked wrong and they were then too small. The utility needs to be big to allow for all the gubbins that goes with ASHP, MVHR, dog washing, washing machine, dishwasher and tumble dryer and anything else we want to hide. I think it will end up feeling rather small. At the moment we have an outside toilet so we wanted one near the entrance that we will use to stop muddy footwear in the house.

I know, I mean a treatment plant, just using old terminology, but thanks for checking

thanks, I shall investigate this as well. we want to self install if we can and just have it certified.

Thanks Ferdinand for your explanation, most of the rooms are about 4x4 so I'm hoping that one will be enough, except the family room which is 70m2 so will need multiple. The house is only on one level and won't have a loft so we will need to find a different way to get pressure as there won't be a header tank. When it was pig sties they had a huge tank outside on a brink plinth to get enough water pressure. I think we will go for pumps as that was pretty ugly.

Thanks Mr Punter 20mins, that would be remarkable here, but the biggest issue is that our new build is 120m from the road up a hill on a grass track so the appliance won't get there. That's why planning are saying we must have, but it's good to hear that they work well and only in the locality of the fire and not the whole house.

My planning says that we must have a sprinkler system because of the distance from our nearest fire hydrant and because a fire engine would not be able to access the house due to the driveway and the restrictions placed on that. Please can someone explain to me how they work, in simple terms, how do they get the water, how do they know when to run, are they all linked so if the one in the snug goes off will the one in the master bedroom 20m away also go off. Do they need electricity. Do they ever fail, we will have a wood burning stove and sometimes the smoke 'leaks', will that set it off. If they go off, will insurance cover any damage done, assuming it is an accident and not a fire, which is obviously covered. TIA Jill

At last, after a huge amount of discussion and lots of 'what about this.....' we have decided on our final layout. Due to cost constraints, the windows are smaller than originally hoped for. As the rear of the barn has a low roof I have a ground worker coming on Sunday to look at digging down. The floor currently has 4 different levels, I want them all taken down to the lowest so we can basically start from scratch. We want UFH, but as the roof and ridge height are fixed by the LPA it will need to be slimline. At least the slope of the roof is south facing and there is lots of it so PV panels will be beneficial and should provide enough hot water. The ASHP will do the UFH. Only the cess pit, rainwater harvesting and utilities to still plan. I'm now focussing on exactly what we want in each room, last night I did the snug and that took 2 hours so a big task. But, I can't get proper estimates until we know what we want. I'm a bit vexed that I have received an invoice for the phase 2 contamination gas monitoring, soil survey and report, when it won't be finished until the end of the year. I said I wasn't happy and they just sent me the T&C's showing that I must pay for what has been done. It just seems odd that the total price is 5k and the invoice is for 4k, hardly a correct breakdown in my opinion. It seems to me that lots of costs are nothing to do with actually buying stuff and building. We've had 3 planning apps, structural surveys, 2 contamination surveys, possibly a remediation report and, of course, architects fees. And we still need structural designs, building regs, asbestos roof removal (luckily only a small bit of the roof), all before we buy anything that is part of the house. Any thoughts on the above layout, please go ahead.

I live in a long thin house and the new build is a long thin house. We have rubbish BB here, one of the 5% rural areas where fibre is a future dream. BT say, maybe next year !!! They have said the same for years. Currently, I have a router at the BT socket and a booster to get the signal to the end of the house as it doesn't get a reliable signal, old houses, thick walls. In the new build the router will be pretty central, but I'm still planning on some cat 6 as I find printers and PC with wi-fi adapters run better with a network cable. Our completion is still some time off, but I do need to talk to BT about getting a line as we are 120m from the nearest post. Ideally, we will dig a trench and put underground ducting which can be used for water, electricity and phone. One of the many tasks to do on the project plan.

I'm planning to borrow money from my current house to finish off the new build, when I get that far, don't hold your breath. As my current house is 170 years old it never had any sort of warranty, in fact it doesn't even have foundations except for the extension, something that has never been asked for normal insurance. As we are literally self building ourselves, block by block the conversion is going to take years. Most of the warranty products I've looked at seem to quote for 1-2 years, the expected length of a standard build, so I wasn't going to bother due to the overall cost. I've not looked at getting our insurance yet either as we are starting next year and the existing barn is in our field, but I realise that is essential. So, is the insurance an annual premium. It's also not clear about building regs inspections as it's a conversion, I spoke to the BC office, but they just said that they only need to inspect new stuff.

I have been using some layout software to layout my barn conversion to see how to layout my rooms. I have been doing this gradually for weeks now without finishing as furnishing and moving in is probably years away. But, today I went back to my original plans showing the barn dimensions and realised that I have been doing the external size totally wrong in my layout. The architects proposed layout didn't have any dimensions for the individual rooms and we changed those anyway, but don't have formal drawings yet. We currently have an overhang of 24m x 1.2m which is including in the planning approval, but as we have to keep the existing wall that is not going to be included in the build size.. That means that I only have 223m2 when I was working to 240m2. That's not a particular issue, its the fact that I now have to plan all over again the kitchen layout, bathrooms, etc. Looking at the architects drawing of how it is now he has the left hand side @ 16.755 which includes the overhang and the right @ 9.075 which excludes the overhang. The building is and L shape so that has affected the other walls. This is what I now have to work with showing the correct size. I didn't notice because the software just adjusted some of the meqasurements. Luckily, this is only on paper, imagine if I had given the planned layout to the steel frame company. As they say measure twice (or more preferably) and cut once. On a better note, the 3rd gas monitor reading today again showed absolutely nothing, we are now half way through that. Not good at all is hubby has been asked to take a pay cut or redundancy because of Covid and lack of work as many of their customers are not placing orders. One of the problems of working for a small company. This is going to make our project even longer as we are saving as we work, which is now going to stop, so once the money we have saved now is gone then we have to stop until more comes in.

Ok, I sit corrected, we are converting a barn and that is 5% and I was under the impression that any sort of conversion of a non habitable building was the same.

Conversion VAT is 5% whereas new builds are VAT free. I guess you need to look at what you are allowed in your planning as that should include details of what you applied for.

thanks for that, the new build is a barn conversion in a field at home so keeping watered won't be a problem. as they are in our front garden I will probably go that route rather than digging up outside the house. thanks for you advice, greatly appreciated

I have 2 trees that have sentimental value, they are not very old (3-4 years) as their predecessor got knocked down by accident (incompetent builder) during previous building work. I plan to move these from my current property to the new one. I know that we have to dig them up whilst they are dormant, so during the winter. I don't want to replant them for a couple of years to reduce any risk of the same thing happening. But, am I better off digging them up now and putting in them in huge pots, they are only about 10' tall, until we are ready to plant or am I better leaving them where they are even though they are growing quite quickly and will be more difficult to dig up.

Well Joe90, maybe constant cutting will work for you, but after 20 years here it hasn't ?