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Apologies if this has been covered before, but the few recent threads I found linked to products whose links had broken. What tape do people recommend for ensuring the junction between aluminium windows/sliding doors are airtight. The only tapes I have found are really expensive (over £3 a linear metre) and are much wider than I need, at about 60mm or 75mm wide. I have very narrow framed windows so probably can do with much narrower tapes than that. Or am I missing something here - is wider better?

Let me put it another way: I think @Digger1 you are putting far too much faith in the BCO. He is not going to check your concrete has been mixed to the right consistency, or that the dimensions of the blocks you are casting are the right size, or that any reinforcement bars are of the correct spec and in the correct position. Most BCOs, as far as I’m aware, don’t have any special qualifications. Some may have surveying of building backgrounds, but most don’t. They are effectively underpaid pen pushers, some are very good at what they do, but many aren’t. It’s completely luck of the draw. Maybe you are extremely confident in your ability to follow your SE’s plans and in your SE’s ability. But the fact you are enquiring about insurance suggests to me that maybe somewhere you have some doubt. I can also say that even the best professionals make mistakes, and good teams consist of members that will spot other’s mistakes. My SE is good, occasionally a bit slow/lazy but on the whole has helped us do things I didn’t think were possible. He did however make a mistake in one of the beam designs. Luckily, my builder is very experienced and spotted the mistake before he ordered all of the beams. Who is going to spot your SE’s mistakes? Who is going to spot your mistakes? If you think it’s the BCO, then you are, to an extent, elevating your BCO to that of a project manager or site foreman, with a level of expertise that I don’t think they have.

By the way, I checked the building regs compliance: In terms of building regulation compliance, the reality is that the council have to take action within 12 months of the work being completed, although it is open to them to serve a dangerous structure notice at any time if there is reason to. So if they deem it a fire hazard, they could enforce at any time. At that time, you would have to rectify it. At which point you would reset the 4 year period under planning, so the planning dept could enforce. But in reality, it is rare for Council BC depts and planning depts to liaise with each other. It can happen, but usually the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. So my view remains that the most pressing issue is your neighbour who could help those two depts communicate with each other, or speak to a litigator and work out how to sue you.

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.