Alan Ambrose

I have direct experience of the planning inspectorate using very long 'validation' timescales e.g. 4 months. I suspect this is to manipulate the .gov stats. Is anybody having difficulties in the time for applications moving from the 'planning portal' to LPA systems? I have one at 1.5 weeks so far.

I think you'll need a sum put aside by the vendor (or knocked off the price) for the two issues. Or delay until the vendor has fixed both. >>> Does anybody know how much water there could be between zero bar and 1 bar in a 4 bedroom central heating system? Water isn't compressible much: ... 4×10−5 per unit atmospheric pressure i.e. bar. So if your heating system has say 8 off 10l radiators, then that's 80 x 4 x 10^-5 x 1 ~= 3ml i.e. a small teaspoon worth. i.e. quite a small leak, say one that you might see dripping v slowly or detect slight wetness on a pipe. I might go around checking all the valves, pipes, bleed nipples and see whether any are at all damp. Of course, if the water is hot, it'll evaporate reasonably fast. If you like, you could get a plumber to pressure test the system in sections until they find the culprit.

An old mate of mine designed radio & TV studios most of his working life. He said - 'there's no substitute for mass'. I'm thinking sand... I might also check out the sound booths that wind instrument players can practice in.

Bedec black barn paint. Like painting with yogurt. On softwood if you like (can come ready with basic stain/paint from factory) or hardwood if you want longer life (the wood, not you unfortunately). Then there's a bunch of grilled wood options - search the forum.

>>> I feel strongly about the Grenfell situation Yeah agree, Peter Apps's book is good btw. I'm not convinced that the CDM regs will stop Grenfell-style shenanigans though.

@DevilDamo - so does that mean GL (a)?

Yeah, agree with that.

Besides the window detailing, which are the other areas which are not resolved to your satisfaction?

I don’t know what area or price range you’re looking in, but I’m finding (based on a small number of data points) crazy money slopping around in the capital, lazy agents and mediocre properties at high prices. There is a real sense that agents can get anything sold in a week. Buyers are often prepared to put down big cash quickly without knowing the most basic information about the property they’re buying. Not that you can’t make your economics work, but you’ll need to be both clever and careful.

Haven't used it yet, but I believe there’s a specific high strength grout for filling smallish gaps below RSJs. Maybe this kind of thing: https://www.sealantsandtoolsdirect.co.uk/sika-sikagrout-111-gp-flowable-anchoring-bedding-grout-compound-527763?language=en-gb&currency=GBP&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADx-2OKUoquVV-r9mmQBVO6w7J6RI&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInuTWivy6iQMVy4dQBh0brCu2EAQYASABEgK5zPD_BwE

As they’ve done quite a neat job so far, yes I would be around and be prepared to interfere - but I wonder whether they’re just going to insert some new posts without disturbing anything. Is that possible?

Did you decide your new route yet? I imagine that the remaining private BC companies are incentivised to find the least painful route for your transfer to them.

>>> those new uv mats google says: greatly enhances play in the dark ooo, errr?

>>> I don’t think it does….. <<< OK take this real life example - not a million miles from what I want to do. Imagine an extension with ridge and eaves as below. Question is, am I measuring the 'ground level' as GL (a) or GL (b)? The difference is about 3 bricks i.e. ~0.25m / a foot. No so much, but by the time we get some decent insulation in, we would like to get the max height we can.

Ah that muddies the water … that implies something more subtle - not the highest ground around the building, but the highest ground next to the building where you’re putting whatever you’re planning to put there Seems to me that contradicts the eaves diagram, although I can see why. I’ll do a bit more careful measuring up.

OK. We're not on much of a slope - but there's 80cm between one end and the other.

Ah interesting, did his view stand up? I think I have mostly convinced myself that it should be the highest bit of ground near the house. From here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d77afc8e5274a27cdb2c9e9/190910_Tech_Guide_for_publishing.pdf “Height” - references to height (for example, the heights of the eaves on a house extension) is the height measured from ground level. (Note, ground level is the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building in question, and would not include any addition laid on top of the ground such as decking. Where ground level is not uniform (for example if the ground is sloping), then the ground level is the highest part of the surface of the ground next to the building.) And:

>>> yes 8 homes & 7 retaining walls. Then maybe some of the neighbours have decided this issuse before?

Hi, Having recently won our PD rights back, I thought I might scope out a rear extension on our detached barn conversion. I see the 'rules': Single Storey Extensions – between 4m and 8m for a detached house – max height of 4m and not higher than the ridge-line of the house – max eaves height of 3m if within 2m of a boundary and not higher than the eaves of the house – up to 50% of the original space around the house including any existing outbuildings or sheds etc. My question is about 'max height'. We're on a small (5%) slope which runs parallel to the road and the main axis of the barn. There's also a step at the back of the barn from FFL to GL of about 55cm (image below) - measured in approx the middle of the building. At the front door the step is a normal 15cm. If we had an extension, of course, we would prefer to have it at the same floor level. So, the question is - would 'max height' be measured from the rear or front GL and at which end of the barn?

Ah, this is one of the organisations hoping to make a bunch of money from this reg. I see the numberer £150m mentioned... https://environmentbank.com/ Environment Bank’s Culver says the firm typically has, at any one time, live enquiries, which indicate interest in more than £150 million worth of offset sites. But, she says, there has been a mismatch between this “extremely healthy pipeline and the challenge of actually transacting”, with only “several” sales so far completed. That is, they're off to a slower start than they wanted in extracting money from the system.

Oooof, that sounds a complete nightmare. Maybe SIPS is the new double glazing?

>>> And the relevant columns for self-build applications are headed "Non-major development excluding householder development"? Yes, that's right. Why would planning call it 'minor' when you can call it 'non-major'. There are two good measures - 'time to process' (% processed within 8 weeks) and 'quality of decision' i.e. % of appeals the LPA wins. And, call me suspicious, but why are these presented as big old spreadsheets with confusing headings rather than easy to view graphs or charts? Note that times are time from 'validation' rather than submission, which gives the LPA some latitude to play games with validation time. For Dorset, I'm seeing 43% made within 8 weeks, 86% made within '8 weeks or the agreed period' (and we have no idea what that period was). I'm also seeing 89% of all (major and 'non-major') granted. I've never really understood what happens if you don't agree with your LPAs proposed time extension? The appeals stats are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planning-inspectorate-statistical-release-24-october-2024

Thanks for the update, I'm just about to email my own councillor to see if they can help speed the process up a bit.

Yeah, unless you're slagging off Dyson or someone who does SLAPP orders, you're pretty safe if you're just reporting facts. Even better if you have evidence, like photos. Just don't communicate anything that you wouldn't want read out in court or reported in the press (which is my own guideline for anything I say publically anyway). I appreciate some people's reluctance to be transparent, but otherwise this thread is a bit of a tease without any content. And if you don't tell us (a) some of us are going to fall into exactly the same trap, which we would prefer not to, and (b) the organisation in question has every incentive to carry on carrying on.

Guys, I haven’t had my breakfast yet.