LSB

I would say to rebuild to look as much as possible as it was previously, from a distance. But, if you at any time are thinking about a dwelling then agricultural to dwelling is a well trodden path. As IanR says though if you change the use to workshop then you will need to wait 10 years before you could ever consider converting. By the way, there is no such category as 'countryside', they is agricultural, amenity and residential (including gardens) so I guess it's still agricultural if it was never changed, but that shouldn't make any difference to you using it.

I don't have any experience, but ask the neighbours surveyor that question as I'm assuming that he is insured and if he is prepared to do this then he must feel comfortable as it will come back on him. But, and it's a big one, won't you need access to his land to build your property and have you had a structural survey to confirm that his wall is good enough to hold up your new house.

welcome

our private BC company have recently contacted me saying that they need to visit every 3 months, this is like the OP 3 years into the build. When I questioned this they mentioned changes in legislation. He came out last week and is coming again Wed to meet with the SE on site. No mention of charging, but our contact, which I questioned at the time, said visits for each stage however many times that is all included in the price. As we are building in 4 or 5 phases and only just moving to phase 2 then he will be here a lot. But, he's been really helpful and has suggested cost saving ideas, hence the SE meeting this week. He is a biker and has a massive stately home project nearby so does tend to pop in when he's passing.

I have class Q and it was passed as structurally sound. But when it came to BC and SE drawings it had to be underpinned. It has stood since the 1950's and is only single storey like yours, so be prepared for this eventuality and how expensive underpinning is.

We have already been years on our build and are still on phase 1 of probably 8, many times I've considered giving up. the only reason we haven't is because we live next door and I couldn't stand seeing someone else doing it. We are a totally DIY self build and we've made mistakes, had bereavements, job losses and the consequent money issues. Do what is right for you, but consider how you would feel if you sold up, if it's total relief then do that, if it will be regret then battle on. You can always sell up in the future, but won't be able to buy back once you've done it. Good luck with whatever you decide and I hope it works out for you. Feel free to reach out to the BH community and maybe find someone local who you can physically visit and see their progress / finished results. By the way, we are in our 60's so you are not old 🙂

my daughters partner doesn't drive and isn't interested in learning. that is until he needs to get somewhere and she isn't available to taxi him. it's feasible to reduce the no. of cars, but we need the public transport for evenings / weekends / emergencies without having to get expensive taxis. another daughter came to stay and couldn't believe that we have no uber here and that's East Anglia

it's actually block / block, but I couldn't find a picture online showing that. So, they will both be covered by plasterboard

Where the opening is both walls are 'inside', this is primarily an internal wall except for the top 2 blocks when the inside of the hall becomes an external wall.

Thanks, the SE is a total waste of space, he takes weeks to respond to anything. But, I'll talk to the linter supplier, good idea.

Hello We have a block / block wall that will be mostly internal. The only external bit is above the hall roof until it gets to the barn roof. In this wall there is a doorway from the hall to the kitchen Originally this wall wasn't going to be, it was a steel above and open from the hall to the kitchen. But, due to various situations it is now a wall. It is a cavity wall as part of it will be external and supporting the main roof. When I spoke to the SE he just said, it will need a lintel ! Well I know that 😄 But, he wasn't forthcoming with the lintel design and now appears to be ghosting me on this and other questions. I need to order this lintel so we can progress. All the other lintels we have are thermally broken (block / block not brick) with DPC cover and weep vents To me this doesn't seem right for my current opening. The gap is 1370 and will not have a door. the insulation will obviously not be in the opening, unlike the diagram, that is the rest of the wall. Please can someone advise what we need here The hall roof is 2 blocks above the opening and the main roof 4 blocks. It certainly doesn't need weep vents at the lintel level as they would be inside the rooms, these will be higher up where the roofs are. TIA Jill

there is a DPC, it was cut back about 10mm just to give some grip to the edge.

no steel thermally broken ones

so @Dave Jones lots of criticism but no help on the issue i was asking about.

hubby made them when it rained for 3 months, kept him busy and dry and is pretty harmless in the bigger picture.

it's cladding not render

there was a prop when the inside was done. not sure why it's wasn't there in these pics

brickie is hubby

Hello you lovely peeps. Just a quick question. We are installing lintels and the inside is going well. But the blocks on the outside won't stay in situ. We've cut the DPC back slightly, but it seems to slope outside. FYI, this is block / block with 150 cavity and 150 thermally broken lintels from IG. We've got the others in by grinding a tiny amount off the block so it tips inwards, but that's quite time consuming. Any suggestions / options on a quicker method. Thanks

we have got them, in the storage shed and will dig them out, thanks for the reminder

Is your BC private or council. Ours is private and he is inspecting each step of each phase at no additional cost. So as everyone says, FF everything then make each room habitable one at a time. We are planning the same as we know the money will run out before everything is finished. Shell + FF then Family room + bathroom + bedroom, then move in. The rest can be finished later. May be an issue with VAT reclaim though.

Over the last couple of months we have made steady progress. But, I've been very remiss in taking photos. Last time I posted we were busy building up the walls in phase 1. It's now ready for the lintels, which we waiting a month to be delivered. This one requires some blockwork changes as the overhang is over a block joint. This is the inside looking North looking down over the valley. This is the outside looking in, again some block changes needed. We used thermally broken IG lintels, which were on a 4 week lead time so to fill some of the time we have been prepping for phase 2. We realised we didn't have enough space for concrete lorries and storing the spoil so we moved the soil spoil heap further into the field. This doesn't look much, but it took 3 days and countless repeats of load dumper, move and tip, and repeat !!!! We've also moved into one of the horses winter fields, but we will return to a field when we've finished. Apart from putting block on block and repeat we've bought a few items at auction. We got some windows that are exactly the same model as we are ordering, maybe not the exact size, but we can make them fit. Of course the cill will be replaced. We also got a lovely sink for the utility room. For the first time in months we are dry on site, not sure how long it will last. At the moment I'm trying to order the posi-rafters for phase 1, but I need some input on a beam from the SE who is being very un-responsive. We've realised that we have a beam on our SE drawings which say 'B3' and no details. He initially responded saying it could be either an RSJ or a flitch beam, but that was 2 weeks ago. I was told last week that the rafters are also on 4 weeks lead time. Once we have those then we will be putting some of the barn roofing on as a temporary measure as we'll get the whole build roofed at the same time. I'm horrified at how little we seem to have done, but as I'm no longer working at home I think the work force (hubby) may be slacking 🙂 More soon, when I have some proper progress to show. Jill

To get CIL exemption you need to live in the property for 3 yrs after completion. It doesn't sound as if you are planning on living in the annex yourself, but do correct me if that is the case.

round here it's sheds and they want chainsaws, quad bikes and power tools, and in our case my husbands fishing rods - they left our chainsaw. turned out later they had already nicked one from the guy next door. we think he had a shopping list, but liked fishing so that was personal. they used bolt cutters to get in the shed through the padlock, the shed now has an alarm.