EquiumDuo

More of an FYI post, I saw a few threads stating they couldnt get insurance through protek. I quoted and purchased site insurance through protek today. £2mil cover, house cost using their caluclator and no other additional cover apart from Legal for £800. We also have a basement/sloping plot.

Thats not always possible, we had this chat too and had some potential candidates. BUT the haulers (who are independent contractors) wont haul from the center of town because if they get stopped (which happens around here) they dont have the right paperwork they get done. So all our stuff has to go to a quarry who can give us the right paperwork for disposal.

Hi, I'm paying £22k for 1500 tons of removal from the center of town to a quarry. The site as it is doesnt allow the biggest lorries, so could be upwards fo 90x trips. Contractor reccons it will take him 2-3 long days to get it done. We are a site on a slope diggin into the hill. Edit: OUr soil composition is a sort of shale/clay mix.

Was expecting a nightmare after reading horror stories of people asking for a 100 Amp service and getting a bill for 15-20k etc. So I was pretty anxious about the upcoming request. Started to go through the online application, and its really thorough, and very confusing. Spoke to some friends who were electrcians and I was worried about asking for the wrong thing. I just put the least amount of info as I could, request a single phase 23KVA connection and also checked the box for the planner meeting. I should not have worried, Wetsern Power planning was fantastic. Called me same day from the local office to arrange a meeting at my site. Met the guy next day to discuss what I wanted. Talked through my nice to have vs must have's. The guy was really understanding, and helped guide me to choosing a 3x60A 3ph supply. Also informed me that, assuming I had the roof space (I don't) I can install 3x G98 approved solar installations (1x per phase) and he reccomended I try and get 3phase equipment where I can to spread the load. It also means that I can pre-wire the house for multiple 22KW car chargers (one outside, and one in the garage). I received the quote later that same day, £1400 to install the line (they dig up everything, I am fortunate to be living on a road with the cable under the pavement in front fo my plot. I have to supply the fence posts for the temporary box and then get the meter installed by my distributor of choice. Fantastic service. I know they get some stick(and rightly so) for the DNO's but I was so impressed. Pretty much 48hrs from submitting the request online, to having my on site meeting and receiving the quote. When I accept the quote they officially have 90x days to perform the work, but I am targetting July for my utitilites install, and they said that was fine. Happy days! Still a long way to go, but I'm grateful.

Not a abd idea for the bathrooms. One of my funky ideas is putting some electric UFH matts underneath the stairs outside. It does get frosty in the winter. Having the ability to turn on an electric defrost on the external stairs might be a nice touch. Worth the electric cost to ensure a safe way up to the front door.

Hi Bitpipe, Yeah this is all hitting points I feel I am addressing. Basement insulation will be 200mm EPS300 underneath, and 2x 50mm overlapping EPS70 on the sides. I feel very confident that the basement will be absolutely fine, I'm also going to run most of the utilities and water tanks down there, as well as some electronic equipment. Its going to be fine. It will be basically posijoist floor with a floorboard and UFH with heat spreader plates for the main floor/groundfloor, Only UFH in the ensuites upstairs. No other heating upstairs. There will be MVHR and there will be air conditioning. I want the cooling capcity for the summers. I feel like the potential PERCEIVED lack of heat capacity from the ASHP is WAY outclassed by the other benefits. I also plan on having an inline instant water heater for the hot water system to "top up" the hot water temp as needed when the cylinder starts to deplete.

The gas is very close to the house, in the pavement in front of the house. I want air to air heat pump to take advantage of cooling also. I read a blog by one of the guys here (the name is gone from me at the moment). Who used it to cool his UFH system. Great info in his blog. The opposition is my father (who is a builder) and my wife's father (who's not). I've agreed to speak with a heating engineer. So need to wait for the SAP calcs first.

Hi All, So we are getting into the gritty detailed design phase for our future house and I feel like I am coming up against some strong opposition for my ideas for heating/cooling/Hot water for the house. Briefly: Outer Concrete Block 50mm Airgap 50mm PIR in Cavity Timber Frame 140mm studs, Filled with PIR insulation) OSB outer with likely Tyvek HouseWrap Inner Dupont AirGuard 30mm service cavity. Plasterboard. The roof will be a warm roof, Again >200mm insulation (PIR) The windows and doors will be a high spec double glazing. Basment will have 100mm of polystyrene on the outside, plus some internal insulation. Basically a hemetically sealed well insulated rectangle. Nothing particularly special about what we are doing. With regards to heating, based on everything I have read, the blog posts etc. We are in a south facing plot (with about 20sqm of frontal glazing) and due to the sloping plot very well protected from the wind. I don't think a gas boiler is going to be needed. (We are in a gass supply area). We will have UFH on the mainfloor + the esnuites/bathrooms. We will have MVHR. I would very much like to go for an Air Source heating solution with large unvented cylinders for hot water storage. Based on everything I have read, all the youtube videos and all the other reading materials. I think we will need to cool the building more than heat it. We will plan to run the "heating" 24/7. Maintain a very consistent temperature throughout the day, with maybe a little variance overnight, but probably not. A gas boiler doesnt seem to fit this usage. I would describe it as a "Bang Bang" heating system. Not offering the relative granular control of what an air source could provide based on the actual amount of energy we would need. Would love some input on this. My opposition hasn't really given me a good challenges to my idea apart from "its better to have it than not, you'll regret it, everyone has gas, etc..." Co-incidently if anyone has a heating engineer they could reccomend, I would be appreciative. I've done some calcs myself but I'm just a novice with an excel sheet

Hello Wife! Finally joined

Ok, I've done some digging. The TP1 Title and Title plan cover the other/current house as well as the land to which we have the right of way access/easement. Thier title plan for this specifically states: "A transfer of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008 made between X and Y... contains restrictive covenants" I have a copy of that title transfer (provided by our solicitor) and that is where I got the info for my Opening Post, that states that the area allows access for both the house and the newly (at that point) created plot next door. Requiring both the building of a new fence (it exists so I assume this was done in time) plus the shared costs of creating and maintaining a shared driveway. At this point the person we bought from got the full planning permission and started on the footings in 2011, securing building control/regs and subsequently stopped building for their own reasons (Their daughter had a kid and they moved to be closer to them). They sat on the site for years before eventually putting it up for sale in 2019 and we found it in 2020 and are willing to take on the plot. As I said above the TP1 we were given states that the previous restrictive covenents are in place and are registers on "next door." All the ref numbers and dates match the docs package I have. I think its all in place, it just wasn't particularly clear to me. Tell me if I am interpreting this incorrectly? Thansk everyone for helping with some of these terms and some good questions to ask both the other party and also myself. There has been a lot of learning on my part.

Thansk for your patience in responding. I appreciate it. I will look into it.

I have the title and title plan, is that what you mean? If so, the plot is highlighted on the title plan, but not the easement. Only the hand drawn sketch for the 2008 title transfer. Where our title transfer states we are beholden/inheriting (whats the correct word here?) the wording quoted as: "The land has the benefits to the rights reserved by but is subject to the rights granted by a transfer of the land lying to the west of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008" So maybe this is me misunderstadning the terminology we are using?

No this was done by the previous owner of the plot. He bought it, updated the planning permission (fullg iven) and started building. He got to the footings done, building control approved (and locked in the building regs) and then stopepd building. We are trying to buy the plot as is, will build a variation of the plot (redoing part of the footings regarding the basement, the current is not so great), and then build a house on top. Maybe easement is not the right word? Is it access way? I thougth we are getting a https://www.landregistry-titledeeds.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/information/private-rights-of-way.asp Express right of way, and as above in my oiriginal post is how its laid out. We've asked our solicitors, but I was trying to better understand it for myself, rather than relying on our solicitors to say "yes, its fine."

To clarify, we are working with an architect who also oversee's the planning applications, he strongly agreed that the changes we want to make are likely to be accepted. Thats not a concern for us right now, msot of the changes are to the internal layout of the building, a non material ammendment is how it is classified on the planning portal, and changes to the look of the windows/styles to bring them to a more modern look. I don't think we should be worried about that right now? Its the right of way thats my main point for today.

Sorry for the double post. We don't own the plot so I havent seen the deeds yet? or maybe its caleld something else? I'll re-read what we have.

Yes the plot has full planning permission. The previous owner actually built the footings and secured the building regulations (confirmed by building control) in 2011. We are notifying our intent to change the design to planning, but we are advised that our change is under permitted development anyway, but this is good practise. If we wanted to, we could just build the house as it is currently planned. Sorry this wasn't clear, but thats why I am here.

Hi All, We are nearing the end of the purchasing part of the process, we were sent the contract, title and plan to sign. BUT we have a wrinkle that I need to understand, my google-fu is not giving me good results. Basically we are buying land as shown below: Our plot in Red circle, plus we were told it has an easement for the blue area to allow access for the plot. This easement is mentioned in some of the documentation and also confirmed by the seller himself that it exists. BUT its not specifically mentioned (to us) at all in the contract, title or plan we were sent to sign. One of the documents presented to us for the original splitting of the land has this part in it: And also includes an attached drawing: So I don't feel like anyone is lying or "pulling a fast one" with this matter. BUT I like to close out any open threads and in an effort to close any conversations before they happen, the house next door to our plot (which included this land originally) is being sold. We would like to make sure there is absolutely no room for interpretation. So to summarise my question a bit better: Despite evidence that there is an easement in place, its not specifically mentioned in either our title, plan or contract. Should we expect it to be? The most relevant term we can find is: "The land has the benefits to the rights reserved by but is subject to the rights granted by a transfer of the land lying to the west of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008" (The previous title transfer when the plot was sold to the current owner we are buying it from). Note: I have asked our solicitors, and discussed with them prevously. Very much the response is "its fine" and they didnt raise it as a concern themselves.

I haven't checked freecycle or gumtree yet. Things I want are temproary fencing (the metal harris fencing?) or sheet piles maybe. Thanks guys!

It is chaotic, but due to zero fees on facebook, all the cheap stuff is migrating there.

Thanks for the feedback, lots to consider. I definitely need to downgrade the amterialss where it makes sense.

Hi All, I'm trying to use ebay and facebook market place to track down things like construction site fencing. Pile sheets and other consumable sort of items that some people may rent or buy depending on the situation. Maybe I am naive, but I was wondering if its a case of stalking facebook or maybe ebay? Anyone have some good experience?

I've seen some of these details @Thorfun I like this design a lot, seems to require a lot less spoil removal compared to mine. Or at least perhaps a simpler shape. I probably should just wait to see what my structural engineer says. he's already suggested that I can ahve a more economical wall than I thought. I jsut don't know the detail yet.

Hi All, been a while since I've posted due to trying to buy the damn piece of dirt, but we now seem to be weeks away rather than months as we are imminently about to sign a contract. I'm working with a structural engineer to try and sort out a basement wall/structure. I'm trying to get ahead of it and I am not understanding how the insulation will fit in. Briefly this is a house on a hill, with an integral basement garage that we have decided to extend to fully open out underneat the house, effectively a 3x story house with the basement buried in the hill. The garage opens to street level. Typical rectangle house, 4x bed. 72sqm per floor. The garage/basement structure walls will look like this: How does the insulation fit into this? I am imagining that we fit EPS300 or something on top of the footing but under the concrete base. And also EPS300 on the esterior of the 100mm outer block? Then maybe use marmox blocks to prevent a cold bridge? Example: Whats the best practise these days?

This is the exact thinking that drove me to the design i chose. I think we can all agree that mineralwool/rockwool is moisture permeable, Looking at my wall layout, there is the hard line dupont airguard on the inside, and all breathable insulation outwards. I don't personally see the logic of adding insulation to the inside of that dupont airguard. In my mind that airguard is the boundary layer between what is considered inside and outside of my home. Insulation internally is driven primarily by acoustic performance after that. Not that I am not considering all your suggestions very carefully. I've modelled a lot of your ideas and its really interesting. I really hate the idea of the dense block because honestly I dont even see a point to it anymore, BUT thats very uncommon in my part of wales, so not sure how the powers that be will think about it (its even mentioned in the detailed planning as a condition of the external render look. "Textured render on dense block"

Once again thank you all for the comments, I'm thinking hard about what to change.