Alan Ambrose

OK so we just put in for planning with two alternative designs and specified for each that 'we would include a basement if soil conditions allow'. I would like to answer the 'if soil conditions allow' question nice and early. The site is rural meadow on clay. The designs are both oak frame with timber cladding and pantiles - so reasonably light. One design is single storey, one is 1 and a half. The basements would both be simple oblong concrete boxes the whole area of a floor, maybe with light pipes, but almost certainly with an outside pit / stairs / entrance. Mostly 'non-habitable' and used mainly for storage, plant room, workbench etc. Given that we don't know which (if either) design will be allowed and are therefore we're not ready to actually have the basement designed by an SE ... what's the best way of getting a soil investigation done? I guess I want to include ground strength / chemical analysis for muckaway and concrete / permeability for drainage and/or soakaway / water table for ease of build. I'm hoping to actually get the basement built winter '23 / spring '24

Well it would be very interesting to compare PH building methods between the US & UK. And I use my real name here too, as I take the view that anything I say on here I would be happy to repeat in a court of law. For me, life is too complicated to pretend to be several kinds of separate digital beings as well as one organic one.

>>> the detonated yield turned out to be 50,000 times greater than anticipated That's often what happens when you calculate in imperial.

Add a smoke detector maybe?

Thanks Phil, Interesting re B&B and basements - to be honest, we've just done the 'look and feel' so far for the planning application together with the overall oak frame sketch, and I've yet to get into the detailed build stack-up. I'll look into that. Alan

If this is a tiny company (rather than a larger one that the liquidator might try to find a buyer for) I suggest you simply agree with the liquidator that you will use your retention money to pay for someone else to do the snagging tasks. Theoretically the liquidator could decide to honour the contract - i.e. do the snagging and retrieve the retention, but I suggest the likelihood is low. Hopefully you get a response from the liquidator promptly.

He he. You have to remember that this is consumer grade equipment so pretty basic - you can’t expect industrial levels of precision. 0.5 kWh per day is probably a few % of your consumption - about as accurate as consumer grade gets. 0.5 a day is ~20 W bulb i.e. ~10mA i.e. very little current. Probably about as accurate as a consumer grade CT gets. Yeah, there could be an adjustment on the inverter to zero out the error, but 99% of owners will have no idea and care less. p.s. Nobody evades the unit police

Bringing us back on topic? Like herding cats no

@Nickfromwales >>> What provokes that line of thought? Our flat, which weirdly, is on 3-phase is not energy efficient, uses electricity for everything, and uses about 10.5 MWh a year. That's 5.3A on average. The phases are fused at 63A each, so we're using 2.7% of 'capacity' on average. I'm guessing (I don't have detailed metering) 25% of capacity at peak times. Our 3-bed build should be a lot more energy efficient and use maybe 3 MWh p.a. - that is 1.5A on average i.e. 1.5% of a 100A single phase supply. And, we plan to use PV to reduce our imported electricity supply costs and also batteries to smooth the peaks out. Do we really need 3-phase?

Ha ha, left hand, right hand etc. I moved away from Eon.Next to Octopus on 31st March. Yesterday, they sent me another of their 'we're ready to fit your smart meter' letters.

My view is that one of the big building design objectives for most of us here is, overall to be energy efficient and reduce running costs. So my view is that it is probably helpful to keep our energy use to single phase anyway. That may mean finding ways to manage peaks of demand or generation.

From Wikipedia "Screw piles were first described by the Irish civil engineer Alexander Mitchell in a paper in Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal in 1848". I wonder if there are any lifetime analyses anywhere? Seems to me with steel, we like to go with the working assumption that 'it lasts for ever' when it clearly doesn't. I'm not trying to generate any extra anxiety here - but I would like to know.

Includes wireless ffs. 'Must be able to deliver 30 Mbps', i.e. very little. I was watching an Artisan Electrics video yesterday on a French property - they had slim green flex conduit (maybe 20mm) as standard from somewhere on the outside of the building to the CU cabinet so a fibre cable could be pulled in easily at any later date. Plus some already installed network cables led to the CU cabinet and some space in that cabinet and a power outlet ready for a router/switch. I guess most of the macbuilders still don't bother to put in network cable. The usual sledgehammer to crack a walnut BC tactic.

@AD1 - very interesting that the thing which swung the foundations design decision was the cost of the muckaway. It is possible to put up some rough numbers for the two options you were looking at so we can get a feel for the comparison?

Looks good . What roof slope is that btw.

Ah I've missed that. As this is a new thing, if you can't find an example to amend, then you can probably make it up as you go along. Then everyone will copy that I think a house plan, with a few lines for network cables / fibre optic cables will do fine. You're probably planning to put those cables in anyway. The Connected Home – Building Regulations Part R maybe?

>>> so I'm studying re-applying myself as the Architect is likely to charge 5-8K as my guess I see no reason to use the architect just to file a copy of the same docs. But even if you did use them, this would only be an hour's work for their assistant. Add an hour if they actually read was they filed last time. I just came across this table in Atkinson for clay soils - it suggests, as saveasteading says that 70-100 kN/m^2 (see column c) is OK i.e. 'stiff clay' for standard foundations. Begs the question of how heavy your design is, of course.

To be cautious, I would also go with the piles assuming that the 2.6m wasn't just a single lump of something / wait for Tanners to catch up (bug them a bit) / do my planning re-application in the meantime. The latter should just be a case of filing the same docs with a prominent one page note explaining the history. You should be able to download and check the old docs and file them again yourself in an hour or so. Check with your planning officer that nothing has changed and ask nicely for the LPA to process the re-application quickly? Probably other things for you to be getting on with anyway - services?

The thing that stands out to me is the 'refusal at 2.6m' - which suggests something hard and amply load bearing (and therefore helpful). You're using Tanners (as lots of people on BH do and given that they're based in Ireland)?

There are some issues with them being not flat - there was a thread about it here recently. Unlike smaller tiles, you will probably need a 'leveling system'.

>>> They’ve replied saying they have filed their accounts on time but it could take weeks to update. Is that normal? I've had it approved filed and and up on the Companies House site within hours. I'm sure an admin person at their accountants can take a few weeks to get round to it though. You can always ask them for a copy of the accounts - they're going to be up for the public to see shortly anyway.

The meter cupboard needs to be a standard box somewhere accessible on the outside or a 'temporary supply kiosk' somewhere close to the build (search BH for info). The CU can be anywhere protected but obviously power needs to get from the meter cupboard to the CU. The DMO willl usually put in a 100A supply, but check with them. Its possible that ASHP + EV requires 3 phase for extra current capacity - you need some simple sums. Do your own trenching if you want to save money. There are lots of threads here on all these subjects.

>>> had no idea of 3 phase Par for the DNO course I think. Most of the employees that deal with consumers have absolutely no idea what 3-phase is. I think OVO and Octopus are actually the best ones for 3P smart meter, and they're not great. You will get more sense if you get an installation engineer to visit as opposed to a call centre person - you need that anyway. The engineer will be able to figure out (a) if there is 3P anywhere near you and (b) how much the install will cost.

Hmmm, that's very curious. What kind of soil is it (should be on the report)? Has your BCO been able to throw any light? They usually know what kind of founds are OK in each area they deal with. Assuming no great changes in the local LPA plan - it should be fairly low cost and effort to extend your planning.

Oh, the 2003 Sainsbury's bagged citrus fruit debacle? I wondered if you were going to bring that up.