Alan Ambrose

p.s. there’s a third option - a ‘drill guide’. Usually aluminium with hardened drill bushings. This kind of thing, or without the vice (I picked this one at random). Drillpro 3 In 1 Adjustable Woodworking Doweling Jig Kit Pocket You can find some much cheaper and simpler ones. Also, you can make your own cheap version of this with a flat bit of 2x6 or aluminium block and your mate’s drill press. Probably accurate enough for your needs. Hardened bushings optional, but add some accuracy.

I would say that most people, including me, don’t drill (or nail) very straight. That usually doesn’t matter and often makes things stronger. The usual solution, for smallish items, is a drill press. For larger items or items that can’t be moved there’s a device that can be fixed to a hand drill. These are not precision, but they help. Buy a good one, the cheap ones are a waste of time. e.g. Wolfcraft 4525404 Multi-Angle Drill Guide Attachment

Firstly, thanks for doing this analysis and putting it up for us to see - very interesting. In that last graph is week 0 beginning of Jan? I’m surprised to see low pricing then?

Take a look at Schiedel ICID system. The ‘distance from combustibles’, plinth, fireproof detailing through the roof and chimney height are important. Probably a BC / skilled installer thing and/or demonstrate you have ‘obeyed all the rules’.

>>> I presume I can work backwards from known energy use and use that as another data point? With some approximations and some hand waving I think you should be able to.

>>> Unfortunately I have very little idea of just how bad it is in this house. You can get it measured if you like. You can probably even diy it if it's for your own use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_changes_per_hour about 3/4 of the way down.

p.s. these are the LPAs that should be in 'special measures': Calderdale Council – 97 per cent for April to June 2023 Cotswold District Council – 72 per cent rolling two-year average; 88 per cent for April to June 2023 Epsom & Ewell Borough Council – 66 per cent rolling two-year average; 95 per cent for April to June 2023 Guildford Borough Council – 55 per cent rolling two-year average; 82 per cent for April to June 2023 Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council – 55 per cent rolling two-year average; 90 per cent for April to June 2023 Peak District National Park Authority – 62 per cent rolling two-year average; 85 per cent for April to June 2023 Pendle Borough Council – 74 per cent rolling two-year average; 97 per cent for April to June 2023 Portsmouth City Council – 65 per cent rolling two-year average; 99 per cent for April to June 2023 Vale of White Horse District Council – 78 per cent for a two-year rolling average for non-major applications and 99 per cent April to June 2023; 68 per cent for a two-year rolling average for major applications and 93 per cent for April to June 2023 Waverley Borough Council – 71 per cent rolling two-year average; 97 per cent for April to June 2023 from: https://blog.planningportal.co.uk/2023/10/12/10-local-planning-authorities-wont-be-designated-at-this-time/

From here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-planning-application-statistics You need tables P154 - quality of non-major decisions i.e. how often the LPA is over-turned at appeal. And P153 - speed of non-major decisions i.e. how often the LPA hits the 8-week target. OK in 2021/22 Elmbridge had 43% appeals over-turned, 22/23 was 29%. (29% btw is the national average.) In the 24 months to end of March 2023 Elmbridge turned around 86.2% of their 'non-major' decisions in 8 weeks. (Note that this excludes any 'validation' period.) That is, they're a bit below the middle of the pack. BTW the theory is, that if they go below 70% they go into 'special measures'.

You have our sympathies. I'm sure some LPA's are OK, but ours is similar to yours. I agree that the system seems to be designed to perpetuate the 1940s or earlier - as though everything built back then was worthy of being emulated. In truth a lot of our building stock is atrocious thrown-together cheap garbage, and the last thing that should happen is it being copied. p.s. which LPA are you, I'll look up their stats?

You can, of course, do this just in the app my making one profile and adding all zones to it.

Often called 'pig-nosed' bolts.

>>> What I am realising now, is that we are overly constrained from a zone point of view (wish I had realised this back in the day....) Maybe you could explain why this is a problem - HP cycling or...? It's very simple to set-up whatever zones you want - yes a bit of wiring, but it'll probably take longer to explain to the electrician what you want than it will take them to re-wire.

Suggest you need to take it apart and figure out what has gone wrong / take the rigger it to someone who will do the same / see if you can buy new riggers off the shelf / figure out an alternative mechanism yourself.

>>> You may have noticed that Travis Perkins has issued a warning about trading conditions Interesting - a report below. I find the guys in my local TP fairly helpful, so maybe the squeeze will sharpen pricing and encourage service even more. Sees FY profit down 19%-27% Q3 pricing declines 3% Shares down 12% LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Travis Perkins (TPK.L), Britain's biggest supplier of building materials, downgraded its annual profit forecast by as much as 27% on Wednesday, blaming ongoing tough conditions in the new-build housing and renovation markets, hitting its shares. The group said it now expected 2023 adjusted operating profit to be in the range of 175 million pounds ($215 million) to 195 million pounds, down from the 240 million pounds it had guided to in June, itself a 12% downgrade. "Market conditions remain challenging with continued weakness across new build housing and domestic repair, maintenance and improvements," Chief Executive Nick Roberts said in a statement. Shares in Travis Perkins sunk by as much as 12% in early deals, hitting their lowest level for over three years. Britain's housing market has cooled this year after a jump in interest rates, which is deterring house-building and dampening the house sales that often prompt improvement work. Moreover, a squeeze on disposable income means consumers are not spending on their properties.

>>> If we take the current design to full planning permission and they reject garage position will they reject the whole design or could they say no to garage yes to house. Depends on how good an LPA they are. Most LPAs would 'negotiate' with you over the garage position if they thought the overall proposition was good. You might check the government stats for LPAs to see where they fall in the league tables - which may give an indication on whether they're in crisis mode or not. I'm surprised that your architect has already given you their opinion on this point though. Press them?

OK understood.

Along the front of our plot, there's a little ditch (which I've only ever seen dry) and some bits of 300mm plastic culvert with a bit of hardcore thrown over where the entrance to the plot is. This is also the end of the ditch as we're on the top of a very, very shallow hill. Extract from topo below - see the bit marked 'ditch' and 'line of u/g pipe'. It drains to the left/west. I think we have to re-make the entranceway to support concrete trucks etc and I'm wondering whether we should just fill in the ditch entirely after ensuring we have adequate drainage there - maybe with 300mm concrete culvert instead of plastic with junctions for french drains etc from the driveway. Can we do this with minimum official faff? If not, I plan to just redo what's there already and re-instate with a tougher make-up. Any thoughts?

The American products are interesting - they suggest that a 50% hole can be supported with something ~40cm long with a 40mm flange made from 2mm steel and screwed. FWIW it wouldn't be a big deal to get those custom made. Besides destructive testing, I wonder if they can be modelled?

About 1/2 a degree then...

How old is the building? I'm a bit fascinated by the way we (me too) instinctively want things plumb and square and at-the-same time love the out-of-shape quirkiness of old buildings, old furniture and old industrial artifacts. I'm not being facetious - is there any chance that in 10, 50 or 100 years someone will think how wonderfully quirky and full of life that out-of-square wall will be?

True but.... (And I guess this is an attempt to reduce some of finger pointing 'oh I didn't think it was my responsibility, I thought someone else was carrying the can' sad behaviour of the organisations associated with the Grenfell disaster.) ... if you have one or more principal designers & contractors, the domestic client is mostly 'off-the-hook' except that they are supposed to check and appoint the right people: "Although the client can delegate tasks, they cannot delegate responsibilities and must ensure that those they appoint have the right competencies to take on these roles." "The new dutyholders being introduced under the Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 will be the client (including domestic client), the principal designer and the principal contractor as well as duties on designers (including the sole or lead designer) and contractors (including sole contractor)." This suggests that we self-builders should demonstrate that we've done due diligence on the 'principal designer' and the 'principal contractor'. "The client, meanwhile, must take all reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the dutyholders are competent..." "Although the client can delegate tasks, they cannot delegate responsibilities and must ensure that those they appoint have the right competencies to take on these roles." The model seems to be that a client will appoint a principal design & contractor (and those parties get to manage the rest of the contractors and designers) - which establishes a kind of chain of command. That's fine for big commercial projects, but a bit non-obvious unless you have a very hands-off approach to self-build where you let, say, an architect and a main contractor run the show.

You can always use a bureau e.g. 3dprintuk - more expensive but zero faff. Great for small stuff - the price is generally based on build volume.

"On 17 August, the government published new regulations for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) and major changes to the Building Regulations that will enable further parts of the Building Safety Act to be fully implemented in England on 1 October 2023. These changes, which implement what has previously been set out and consulted upon, will fundamentally reform the way that design and construction appointments are made." https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/legal/will-the-building-safety-act-end-design-and-build-22-09-2023/#:~:text=The Building Regulations (Amendments etc,of clients%2C designers and contractors. I appreciate we're not building 'HRBs' (well not in that sense ) but has anyone figured already what this means for self-builders re CDM and principal designers etc? Maybe this is a better summary: https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/building-safety-act-regulations-updates-2023

>>> Frankly it sounds like I should probably give up on burying any water "loops" in my garden and just work with overground minisprinklers or (gasp) no sprinklers at all. By all means put a bunch of garden taps everywhere on proper 25mm water pipe - you can/should use black rather than blue above ground. Run this with any anti-backflow valve / pressure reducer you want and with enough shut-off valves and drain down points to be helpful. You can attach one or more watertimers and mini irrigation stuff until you're happy. Or maybe bury 13/14mm standard irrigation pipe with pop-ups. I preter the screw on connectors for this as they're less faff.

Maybe my LPA is a bit different - but they don't seem to care much about 'sustainable' in practice - although, of course, their policies enumerate it. My model is that planning (for dwellings anyway) is 'look and feel' only. So, I wonder whether you need a good planning consultant rather than one with 'sustainable' qualifications. That makes the net wider. I'm assuming that you're not going for a para 80 home in the wilderness - correct me if you are.