Alan Ambrose

I get the conventional logic of rain water pipes on the outside for single dwellings. But, it occurred to me recently that pretty much all commercial buildings and blocks of flats etc have the rain water pipes on the inside. So, there's really no reason that internal pipes can't work great. Sure, iron pipes rather than cheap plastic, but yes, that works.

@kandgmitchell If you follow the links, you'll see that 27 weeks is the median, these graphs give as indication of the spread: https://appealfinder.co.uk/Planning-appeal-success-rates-and-timescales.n48.html Here is the list of the dodgiest LPAs - i.e. the ones that lose the highest % of appeals: https://appealfinder.co.uk/LPAs-with-the-worst-planning-appeal-success-rates-in-2022-23.n61.html I'm not sure how appealfinder gets this data, presumably they have a deal with the appeals portal. Or they may just scrape the data from the ACP search facility. There's also meant to be a new government system coming up, with the old one (ACP) closing down, see: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-appeal-a-planning-decision-service-streamlines-and-enhances-the-process - but I couldn't actually see a link to the new system anywhere. Ah, apparently only Hillingdon and Bradford LPAs are testing it.

My shed / workshop has damp course, insulation, flooring. electrics, lighting, internet and a fan heater for the winter. It's still a shed though and BC didn't enter my mind. I could play darts in it, but it would take me two weeks to tidy it up enough to make space.

Very stylish. Oak? Who did you get to design / make them?

Hmmm, prefer centred on the sockets. The good news is, you won't notice either way after 5 minutes.

It could just be that they've got other things on their mind and your building work isn't exactly top of their agenda. Suggest you politely corner them and see if you can find out what's going on.

>>> we have a series of 3 boxes for emergency access, all hidden. The first one gives a hint to the 2nd one etc. You need to know us to be able to understand the hints. <<< If it was me, I would forget the answer after box 1.

>>> heat miser on the Ufh ... you can switch it back on your phone. You can do that with Heatmiser also if you have the hub thingy.

>>> My plan is that the lockbox will be the final “envelope” in a series of envelopes. Some of which are lockable, others are hidden. Presumably razor wire and machine gun guard posts are the 1st line?

I have been doing a little research on appeals. Let me note some data here, for anyone else on BH to find: Overall national averages for speed of LPA appeal decisions. We're looking at the 1st category "Planning appeals by written representations" - so around 27 weeks atm. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/performance-update-july-2023 LPA performance at appeal. % appeals 'allowed' (i.e. appellant won / LPA lost) by LPA district. We're looking at s78 appeals here. Quite a big range. Note that anything over 10% is considered ripe for 'special measures'. https://appealfinder.co.uk/Local-planning-authority-success-rates.p19.html Named inspector performance at appeal. i.e. what % does each inspector allow. A big range here also. https://appealfinder.co.uk/planning_inspectorate_appeals_search.p15.html Central Government limits for 'special measures'. The limits for when an LPA goes into 'special measures'. We're looking at 'non-major' developments here. The current limits are <70% LPA decisions completed within 8 weeks (or agreed time). And/or >10% decisions overturned on appeal. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1112048/Improving_planning_performance_2022_WEB.pdf

Looks like you're getting the hang of it then . Or maybe the LPA has figured that you were not going to give up...

>>> Been to A&E several time after doing a quick job and getting stuff in my eyes. I find angle grinders to be scary enough that I usually wear a full face shield. My concern is thin disks shattering. This kind of thing: https://www.screwfix.com/p/site-face-shield-clear/6540D?kpid=6540D&cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Safety and Workwear Fairly comfortable.

Yeah, saw that - was quite impressed with their enthusiasm. Also, a kind of low tech build that didn't need much in the way of special skills.

OK so, that sounds a bit like a 50/50 split. Oh to live in a place that takes 8 weeks. The longest here that I've seen (and I have not been looking much) is 54 weeks for something very ordinary and bound to get PP.

Coming back to this - perhaps you need some specific support for the cylinder as the joists will do about 125 Kg/m^2 and the cylinder weight will be concentrated on say a m^2, assuming it sits, say, on a m^2 bit of thick ply. I've recently twigged that there is a bit of fire risk with PV inverters, and a bit extra with batteries - so that and the weight of the (future) batteries may need to be considered too.

Yeah, if it doesn't have any power, probably not. Would help to know where the connections go...

Some kind of zone diverter valve maybe? Like: https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-27901sx-3-port-motorised-valve-22mm-22mm-compression/7091G

>>> Which flavour of Rockwool? Prawn cocktail for me.

It seem to be a policy at my LPA. I'm interested in other's experience and other LPA's. Tia, Alan

Hmmm, I wonder what this might imply besides the need to fix it? + did some odd load, a tree perhaps, hit the roof, is there other damage? + if not, is the roof built so weakly that it's falling apart? + did their SE, if there was one, make a mistake? + maybe there wasn't an SE, just a builder who made some not very good guesses? In any event, I think you need to ask the seller for a full report by a respected SE, with costings to repair. Also, to take a full look at the house to see whether there's anything else serious there. Alternatively, you could just walk.

I was just looking at the density of topsoil yesterday - a glamorous life eh? It's about 1.4T / m^3. Google says a sedum roof should have 70-200mm of topsoil - so 1.4 * 7% = 100 Kg / m^2 and 1.4 * 20% = 280 Kg / m^2. So, yeah - 100-280 Kg per m^2. Putting it another way, 120 Kg per m^2 is about 85mm of topsoil. My present roof (pitched tile) presents a load of ~1.6 Kn/m^2 i.e. ~160Kg/m^2. I appreciate yours is flat and probably more lightweight construction - tiles are heavy (I see they're about 1/3rd of the loading). So yeah, an extra 120Kg/m^2 sounds like it would make a sizeable difference.

https://www.engadget.com/scientists-strengthen-concrete-by-30-percent-with-used-coffee-grounds-221643441.html That should save some money then

>>> Tea, medals. Nice idea re the medals - you have campaign ribbons and all? I just finished 70 m^2 of ecogrid 30 for pedestrian use. Fairly pleased although it's not cheap. The company that sells it was dodgy over delivery though. Paid for 'next day' and it turned up on day 3/4 (I forget). Asked them to sort less than 7.5T truck as we live on a narrow lane. Arrived in a van after the truck decided he couldn't be bothered (we get 7.5s regularly). Had to unload an entire van full by hand rather than with a hiab. A kind of couldn't-be-ar5ed attitude.

>>> Does vaulted mean following the roof pitch (like a tent) right? Yeah.

I wonder whether the XPS will go down exactly flat - I'm not sure I think it will. Maybe a thin layer of ply to bridge point loads and smooth? I have something like that in my workshop - actually 'horizontal timber framing' with insulation between and ply over. Can't remember how I came up with that - probably to support the edges of the ply sheets. I was expecting some fairly heavy localised loads for machine tools. Be aware that 'self-leveller' doesn't - it needs some skilled help. Apologies if you already know this.