Adsibob

I would not invite them to list the evidence you want, because you will probably only fall short. Rather, I would provide ALL contemporaneous documents you can gather, by which I mean documents that came into existence more than four years ago which in some way evidence your construction of the thing. I would supply that and say: as you can see from the enclosed copies of documents (don’t provide originals), the building was built in [whatever year you actually built it], which is more than 4 years ago and accordingly the Council has lost any right to take enforcement action. i would then see what happens. They may back down. If they don’t, at that stage I would start to gather actual witness statements.

I agree with this. I actually think what you have done is a little bit selfish. ButI say that from the perspective of someone who has gone through a long an arduous path to get planning and built my property on the boundary, like you have, but knew that the only way to do this was to spend £££ on bespoke guttering and a complicated roof design so that the guttering is concealed within the structure of my roof,and it doesn’t overhang my neighbour’s property or the boundary line. Perhaps you could speak to your neighbour and ask him what changes he wants to be made so that he can support your retrospective application / not sue you.

Except that a specialist has thousands of hours of experience. How many hours’ underpinning experience do you have?

You are joking, right?

It also depends on what you mean by “a corner”. If it is just 1m either side of a corner, I would just pay a specialist who can provide you with an insurance backed guarantee. Underpinning should cost about £1000 a linear metre, although it can be less if it doesn’t have to be too deep. I think I ended up paying about £650 a linear metre, although I was buying in bulk, because we did a lot! Almost two walls of my entire house. i think it’s the type of the thing that you either do with a professional taking on all the work or you don’t do it at all. Really not appropriate for DIY work.

I found those too. But if you look at the close ups of the brass/gold it looks really sh!tty quality, almost painted on.

How did you find this?!

This is a good question. If I buy the Le Klint ones that are pictured in my OP, I’m sure they will as they cost £480 each! If I go with these very nice looking ones I found on Etsy for a fraction of the price, who knows! They are made in China, by some random, no idea of quality.

That’s the type of thing, yes. Any more? I kind of liked the mix of wood leather and brass in the picture I posted. But I can’t pay £400 a pop, which is what they are asking for that.

I’m looking for a bedside table spotlight that is suspended from the ceiling like a spotlight and pendant combined in one. Basically, like this but cheaper: anybody have any suggestions?

You might be about to purchase historic aerial photos, which would probably show it and give you evidence.

+1

Definitely not PD then. To be honest, I think any planning application would fail. It doesn’t even try to blend in with the surrounding buildings, and it’s not really “exceptional design” to the extent that it would be excepted from that general rule. If you want to or keep it, you better find that polycarbonate receipt.

When you said “an outbuilding to house a fridge freezer and washing machine” I thought something that would be 1200mm, 600mm deep and maybe 1800mm tall. That’s enormous by comparison.

My architect tells me I will. Now that he had told me, I probably will notice. 3000K is more than 10% cooler than 2700K, so probably.

Thanks @MJNewton but unfortunately that won't meet our colour temperature requirement of 3000k. We are using 2700k outside, but inside everything is 3000k. £14 a pop is cheap compared to the cost of a Soraa GU10 3000K bulb (also available in 2700K): https://lamptwist.com/en/product/soraa-gu10-vivid-color/#/2117-bulb_gu10-soraa_25/1275-kelvin-3000k the thing I like it is that apart from coming in two different colours, one can also choose between three different beam angles. I find that when combining wall lights and downlights, if the downlight beam is too wide, it ruins the light from the wall light.

Yes, you are right. Hence the alternative: https://www.corston.com/collections/plaster-spotlights/products/albion-spot-light-fixed-ar11-plaster Now I need to find a 300k dimmable GU10 that comes in different beam angles.

I have found an alternative which uses removable GU10 bulbs. Can anybody recommend a really good brand of dimmable GU10 that is 3000k and come in a choice of 12 degree and 24 degree beam angles?

I need about 7. Replastering wouldn’t be terrible, I guess. I would make a note of the diameter of the bit imbedded in the plaster work, measure and cut it out with a Stanley knife, then replace and replaster. But if a pain though. Could they really last 15 years plus?

Was about order several Collingwood 1901 downlights/luminaires, which look perfect for our needs, as they come in a choice of colour temp, beam angle and baffle colour and are all dimmable and can be concealed within the plasterwork so that the only part of the fitting which is visible is the bit emitting the light, not the housing around it. But then I noticed: “ NB. Contains built in LED lamps which cannot be changed.” As these lights are imbedded in the plasterwork, when the bulb eventually goes, we would have to replaster the local area of ceiling. We wouldn’t need to repaint, as we are leaving the plaster bare (it’s a textured clay based plaster that is decorative, so there is no paint on the ceiling. The lights come with a 7 year warranty, and at £66 a pop, are quite a bit more expensive than a standard downlight, so u would hope they last a really long time. But how long can I expect a good quality dimmable LED to last?

I'm pretty sure this method is no longer allowed in England.

If it is a terrace house or on the attached side of a detached house, you'll also need to serve a party wall notice before removing any part of the chimney breast.

The spindles we're having are actually made of steel. I think they are hollow, which should give them a bit more rigidity. We have specified a wooden (oak) handrail because I think it will look really nice with the rest of the hallway. I'm not familiar with the Burbidge fusion system. What's its advantage?

Below is a snapshot of a design I've received from the company doing our staircase. As you can see, two steps from the first floor landing there the stairs begin to turn 180 degrees around a rather tall and chunky newel post. I don't love this newel post but the staircase company tell me it's important for the stability of the staircase. They say they can remove it, but the staircase and particularly the handrail won't be as sturdy. Surely there is some way of engineering this so we could have a thinner less dominant newel post but still a sturdy handrail. Has anyone got any experience of the structural engineering of handrails? Just wondering if it would be feasible to replace the cuboidal newel post with a round steel post that was thicker than the steel spindles/balusters (shown in black) but thinner than the current wooden cuboidal newel post.

Fair enough. I'm probably skewed by the extortionate price per square foot of property where I live. It's so high that whether or not a place has UFH is largely irrelevant. I have mortgaged myself to the hilt for the next 36 years to buy a damp, old, leaky wreck of a place that needs everything doing.