Alan Ambrose

Hope that goes well and a fit of common sense breaks out at the LPA. I assume you don't have CIL there? Beware of submitting another full application if you do - it may well be very costly.

OK here's my 10c. I've installed a three of these and I've had a couple installed elsewhere (not by me). The comments above are kind of true. You don't mention what is below the 'light cement floor' or what room this is. Bathroom? It makes it so much harder if we have to extract the clues from you like some kind of cryptic crossword. My floors were all in flats so it wasn't like there was 300mm of concrete below. 4 bathrooms, one kitchen. I think these were laid on the subfloor in all cases (probably chipboard) with a thinnish (maybe 6mm) 'tile backer' board. I would have used a thicker board knowing what I know now about insulation. The three I laid were all heating wire rather than heating mat. Two had ceramic tiles over (I didn't lay those two), one plastic tiles of some sort, two resin (Suba I think). You might want to put in an extra thermistor btw for redundancy. They all work(ed) fine (one flat is sold now). All on a thermostat and a timer. Not too expensive to run. Very quick to heat up. Quite effective I think. Lovely if you like warm feet in the bathroom. One failed - due, I think, to something leaning against the controller causing it to overheat. I have UFH in one bathroom now at a different property. Works fine again, much slower to heat up. Not sure what's below it.

Yeah, I think it's answered here: i.e. a '4m' tower has a 'platform height' (bit you stand on) at 2m, a 'tower height' (max height of safety frame) of 3m (i.e. 1m higher than the platform) and a 'working height' (reasonable height you could reach up to) of 4m. So, if you need to actually reach a widget at a height of say, 8m, you need an 8m tower. Ladders are similar. This assumes you can reach up 2m higher than the floor. Even as a short-arse I can do that, at least for a while holding some light tools. Holding a heavy SDS drill all day drilling into concrete? Well you probably need something 1m higher so you can hold it at waist height.

Suggest giving the whole services in the wall thing a miss. Use surface mount plastic sockets and plastic conduit or metalclad and plastic or metal conduit. You might want the sockets above desk height for ease of use and it's possible you might want a group on a big switch so they can all be turned off at once. Sure in a ring main around all the walls. Philips square led panels for my money - but screw straight onto ceiling. Ensure all insulation and heating is going to work properly - you don't want it to cost a bomb to heat. Ditto windows - it may be cost effective to install double glazed and better frames. Maybe a quick stab at the J Harris spreadsheet to check. Wall mount remote controlled fan heater for quick heat up before you start work. Whatever heating you're comfortable with after that. You could fix up the wood burner if you really like it, but it'll take up quite a lot of effective space once you keep everything flammable away from it. Strictly, the install/recommsiiosning should be (or if BC is not required, for your own peace of mind) Hetas or BC-notified. Don't ignore solar gain either - my workshop gets crazy hot in the middle of summer.

For associates: daily rates vary between £450 and £1,700. With the 10 most extreme values thrown out, the spread comes down to £800 - £1,050. So, say £925?

For anyone following along at home, I'm finding 2023 daily fee rates are: Partners/Directors £1,240 Associates £920 Other Chartered Planners £680 Which if you assume an 8-hour day is £155 / £115 / £85 per hour. This compares to the solicitors rates:

3 water strikes plus standing water at the surface - no indication how much. Surprising to get standing water in July, but maybe it just rained. Standard Penetration Test value of 7 at 1.6m? Cone Penetration Test value of 50 at 4.3m? Surprised to see both in the same bore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_penetration_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_penetration_test So suggest v. soft @ 1.6m, quite hard at the thin sandstone layer. I think you need to just get on and either run a proper SI or use a digger as suggested and/or ask local BC and/or engage an SE. There's only so much you can accomplish sitting at a desk. Personally I would do the last three to start with. You find out in a matter of minutes what's going on down there with a digger. Even better if you have BC or SE there while you dig. Doesn't preclude geting proper bearing numbers / particle size analysis / shrinkage / chemical analysis using an SI later, but gives you a good clue what's going on with groundwater and you also get a rough idea how firm the ground is. What founds are you thinking of? Strip?

Great views, very nice. Yes, I assumed you were designing in longhouse style.

>>> My only concern is storage Nice design. Looks like you have ample room for a big shed once you've filled up the loft space in the garage. 😀 Put up a picture of the view to make us jealous?

>>> screws are screwed, rather than hammered I've seen my dad use something he called a 'brummie screwdriver' (i.e. a hammer) to sink screws most of thier length. And he won a few prizes for the wooden sailing dinghies he made.

Personally, for the hassle factor I would always go Plasson. You will find that as soon as you get away from bog standard fittings (and 32mm is just starting to get non-standard) that the prices vary wildly - so you need to shop around and ask for discounts and be prepared to order on-line and wait. This isn't B&Q stuff anymore.

Yeah something like that - you're just ensuring that any water runs off. Usually no need to hold down, just do something subtle with a leadworkers mallet. Re the flue - you don't say which make it is, but they usually clip together with an airtight seal, very simple. Check the stove instructions - the outlet is usually sealed to the flue with rope and special 'rope glue' e.g. https://www.solidfuelappliancespares.co.uk/product-category/spares-accessories/stove-sundries-accessories/door-rope-seal-kits/ A CO monitor, smoke test etc and you're done. This kind of work is notifiable to BC if it's not done by a hetas person.

Well congrats

My vote would be replace with EPDM - but we’re a bit short of details. Size, pitch, complexity? A picture always helps.

FYI there is a record low in both planning applications & planning approvals - so how are they overworked? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn034n47528o

>>> I'm now stuck, as I don't know precisely what investigations to commission and how to scope these. What would you guys do? Ask the SEs (who are still at presales stage) to advise? Contact some geotechnical companies and ask them? Something else?? <<< An SE will spec your GI for you for a smallish fee, say £250. Check yourself that it seems to make sense.

>>> You need to play nicely. Yeah, our neighbours did - and their non-contentious application took the LPA a year. By which time the economics of what the neighbours were planning had changed for the worse and so having gained permisssion now, they don't intend to use it.

>>> Appealing to the inspectorate for non-determination means a guaranteed delay of about six months though. Actually a year. I have seen before an informal appeal used to the case officer's boss - the org chart of your LPA is probably published like ours is. Another avenue is the councillor for your area - if anything like ours, that person and their contact details is shown on your planning application on your LPA's portal. An increasingly common problem I think, let us know how you get on.

That’s odd. Ours puts out so much heat we often have to open the windows to cool the place down. We’re fairly tiny at 85 m^2 though. We’re an EPC E on paper, although it’s possible we’re actually a C or D. This is a Rais Viva 100L. Pretty much the only heating we use.

>>> I'm perplexed as to why all the SEs I've spoken to so far seem to be being so very cautious Well, looks like it's quite soft going to 2m or so. The problem is that your ground may not be exactly the same as the ground 85m away. Your soft layer could be at 1m or 4m. Which it is, is important, of course. The route of the storm drain may also be an indication of extra water local to your plot. So, you probably need at least a couple of bores / digs near your proposed foundations. The alternative is to just start digging your foundation trenches and be prepared for BC to say 'you need to go down another metre or two' or to have to order in an expensive pump on the fly.

FYI, there’s no problem adding more than 4 materials with the free version.

BTW you can have quite large faults in timber due to shrinkage that don't affect the strength much. It's all crazily oversized anyway, that's the joy of it, for me at least.

Some tarmac in bags from a cheap DIY store and a welly boot?

OK then there are two problems: (1) the 'engineering problem' of how do you make the roof & veluxes work, and (2) how to get that solution implemented in a sensible way without impacting the warranties. Those are (kind of) parallel problems in that can be solved independently. Question is: whose responsibility was/is it to solve the engineering problem and does any of that responsibility fall on him? On you? Someone else? Was there any written agreement? Has no one seen this coming up in advance i.e. there were not some SE drawings to build to which included this detail? In terms of getting him to be more tractable, maybe a warning shot letter from a solicitor suggesting that it was 'obvious' that the roof and veluxes needed to work together (or include terms from the agreement) and/or suggest 'poor workmanship' if you feel you can justify it. Suggest it would be better for everyone if you worked together to solve the engineering problem. Ask him why it is that he has never encountered this situation with roof and veluxes before? Is he inexperienced? Tell him he doesn't get his final payment until the problem is solved and/or if he doesn't help to solve the problem you will appoint an expert to solve it at his expense. Tread as softly as you can but make make it obvious you carry a big stick. Maybe a third party to help solve the engineering problem - most of this isn't rocket surgery after all? Post up some images / drawings here?

Oh dear, that's disappointing. Suggest first sitting down with them to see whether the problem can be resolved. Start off by saying you would prefer not to have a time consuming and expensive conflict. Is it obvious what practical change needs to happen? - cutting slots out for the hinges, for instance? If so, you can discuss how to get that done without breaking the paperwork. The warranties are probaby worthless except to make a mortgage company or later buyer happy, so I would focus on the above - how can the required physical changes be made with them still providing their standard warranty? You can also very subtly hint on the bad reviews you're likely to post ('I would like to be able to post some good reviews') - that means a lot to all businesses these days. p.s. I would definitely hold the final payment until you have a solution at hand and has been implemented. Presumably this could be as simple as a some careful multitool work and (a) agreed in advance and then (b) signed off ... by whoever is installing the veluxes.