LnP

Check the drawings held by the utility and get a drains survey done in case there are drains which are not on the drawings?

I agree with everything @Conor said but would add ... We're doing the same kind of project (demolish and rebuild) and will live on site during the build in an outbuilding which we've fixed up. The outhouse is heated by a gas boiler and we need all the utilities to keep going during the build. I decided to move the gas and electricity meters into new free-standing permanent boxes on one side of the plot. I decided to upgrade the electrical supply to 3 ph after playing around with this demand calculator. Our water meter was in the old house which was built in the '60s. I asked UU to relocate the meter to a box in the street by the stop valve which was straightforward. Don't recall the cost but it wasn't much. I was wondering what to do about the phone/fibre connection which is still in the old house where we're still living. Haven't sorted that yet. So apart from that, I'm now ready to isolate and demolish the old house and keep all the utilities going to the outhouse.

Just an update. Another client of my planning consultant has been told by his mortgagee they will not lend him the money if he signs the UU. Not surprising, since it would mean that if he defaults on the loan within three years, they couldn't repossess the house without the permission of the local authority. Since most self builders require mortgages, Warrington Borough Council's policy of requiring a UU effectively eliminates the possibility of self build for most people in Warrington, unless they do the BNG demonstration. I spotted that there is a de minimis threshold specified in the Planning Practice Guidance. BNG is not required if the impact on the site is: Less than 25 m2 of on-site habitat; and Less than 5 m of linear habitat (hedgerow) In our case, the new house will be placed on the footprint of the existing house and its surrounding hard standing, so there is no impact on habitat and BNG should not be required. I've asked my planning consultant to try that one with the LPA.

I completely agree about keeping one's eye on the prize. The case officer has also raised concerns about our proposals which our planning consultant thinks are not valid. Nevertheless, we're prepared to make the requested changes. But signing this UU is not something you can appeal. Once you've signed it you're committed. I'm not prepared to lumber myself and potentially my family with these onerous obligations which as far as I understand, the LA have no legal basis for imposing.

No. For your particular site, you have to follow the Small Sites Metric scoring system prescribed in the guidance and use their spreadsheet, both available to download here.

It's Warrington. I'm attaching their proposed agreement. Our application was accepted as valid and they subsequently brought up the need to sign this UU. I'll discuss your suggestion with our planning consultant. Self Build - draft UU26.9.24 - FORMATTED 16.10.2024 CLEAN (1).docx

We’ve already had the bat survey which was money for old rope. This is another nonsensical professional fee. £1500 was just a guess btw.

Indeed. They’re just making this up as they go along. There’s no legal justification for what they’re doing. Good idea to take it up with local councillors 👏.

Not sure if you’re up to speed on this. It’s about new requirements which came into force April 2024 about getting an ecologist to assess how you will achieve 10% improvement in biodiversity. They have to use a very prescriptive scoring system. It’s not just about planting a few trees, although that might be all that’s required by the assessment.

My wife and I have a planning application in the system which has been received and confirmed valid by the LPA. The application was made on our behalf by a planning consultant, who is very experienced and knows his stuff. As allowed by the regulations, we claimed exemption from having to demonstrate biodiversity net gain on the ground that it is a self build. The LPA are concerned that we might be cheating and that it is not a self build. Initially they asked my wife and I for a letter saying we're building the house for ourselves and will live in it, which we did. In the meantime, they have decided as a matter of policy that all self builders claiming exemption from BNG will have to enter into a Unilateral Undertaking with the following terms: we have to pay their legal costs to execute the undertaking and they don't say how much that will be; if there is a mortgage, the mortgagee has to sign the undertaking as well; they will put a charge on our house; we cannot dispose of the property for 3 years. the only get out is that in the event of a "change in our circumstances", the council may "act reasonably" to release us. I think this is outrageous over-reach on the part of the council and it raises all kinds of issues. What happens if my wife and I need to go into care and need to sell the house fund it? What happens if one of my children who does not live nearby has a problem with childcare and we decide to move closer to help? What happens if we die? What will mortgage companies make of this? Anybody any thoughts or experiences on this? Maybe we just swallow the ~£1500 for an ecologist to do the study and whatever the requirements are to achieve the 10% net gain. Our project is to demolish an existing 1960s bungalow, so the baseline will be low and things we would anyway have done will probably achieve the required gain.

Jensen C-V8. Very nice. So could the car in the banner picture be an Interceptor ... or maybe an FF?

You can get cost estimates with dimensioned planning drawings from e.g. Estimators Online.

+1 . I had screed on a workshop floor. The small print on the floor paint tins I looked at said they were not suitable to be applied to screed. So I went for a two pack product.

Sounds like you have things well in hand. Regarding the Principal Designer role, I've come to the conclusion that in the timber frame self build world, very few clients appoint one. I had a conversation with the operations director of a timber frame company and asked him, how many of their clients did he think appointed a PD. He said less than 5%. Bear in mind that according to the guidance, a PD should be engaging with the timber frame Designer, and the Designer would send the pre construction information to the PD to put in the H&S file. Meetings between timber frame Designers and PDs apparently just don't happen. If there was a PD, the timber frame Designer would know about it. If it's a self managed project, the vast majority of his clients are apparently taking care of the PD role themselves. If anybody on here has gone through a project with a third party PD I'd be interested to hear if they thought it was helpful, i.e. did it do any more than tick a CDM box. My suspicion is that it's possibly just another cheque to write for a professional service that doesn't add value. All a third party PD will do is collect the pre-construction information into the H&S file and forward it to the client. A self managing client can do it themselves. I'm not sure what you mean by, "we will have to decide who will be the 'main contractor' on site if we have a few trades at once". According to the HSE, if you the Client are self managing, it's the Client's responsibility to comply with Part 4 of the CDM regs. It's as good as saying the Client is the Principal Contractor. If your groundworker is digging a hole for a sewer chamber, it's the self managing Client's responsibility to ensure his plumber doesn't fall down it (Reg 22, Excavatiions, which is in Part 4). The groundworker won't be responsible for that. Btw, I think most diligent, self managing clients will naturally take all this on. It's not onerous and just about trying to run a safe project.

Very interesting thanks. I'd assumed there wouldn't be much more for the PD to do after they'd handed over the Health & Safety File and you'd prepared the Construction Phase Plan. What ongoing involvement are you seeing for the PD? Perhaps you could expand on your way through on the learning curve. No, I don't have much building experience!! Learning a lot though on here and as I discover new things I have to read and figure out.

I've discussed this in detail with the timber frame suppliers we're getting quotes from. If the off site fire risk assessment using the STA methodology indicates mitigation is required, the expectation all of them described is to replace the 9mm OSB external sheathing with cement board on the relevant elevation. The membrane will go on top of the cement board in the same way it would have gone over the OSB. The additional cost will just be the difference in price between OSB and cement board. I guess you'd have to wait and see what the risk assessment says though.

Interesting ... but do you think this is something to be considered in the purchasing decision for a timber frame kit?

I'm wondering if the PD role is another example where CDM 2015 isn't really a good fit for self builders, although the legal duties apply. I've not been through this process yet and maybe somebody who's seen how it works in practice can comment. But the selfbuildportal.org.uk says that PDs: "Plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase of a project. This includes: identifying, eliminating or controlling foreseeable risks; ensuring designers carry out their duties." What authority does a third party PD have over e.g a timber frame designer? Or are they just mail boxing the pre-construction information into the Health and Safety File and passing it along to the client/PC? In which case maybe a client could appoint themselves as PD and do just as good a job ... and save another bill for professional services!

For a self managed project, I don't think it does, although to be honest, I don't think CDM was written with self builders in mind. Nevertheless, you need to think about who's in charge when you have more than one trade on site? Who's going to prepare the Construction Phase Plan? CDM 2015 is intended to clarify that where there is more than one contractor, there should be a single PC taking responsibility for those things. HSE have a web page regarding CDM for self builders which points to the Self Build Portal. For self managed projects, it stops short of saying that the client should appoint themselves as PC, but it does say that the client has to comply with all the matters in Part 4 of the regs. Consider the situation where the timber frame company is erecting the frame with a tele handler and at the same time an electrician comes on site to install a temporary power supply. You can expect the frame company to be responsible that their own people are not at risk from the movement of the tele handler (reg 27 in Part 4), but not for the electrician. The client has to coordinate that. Maybe as a self managing self builder one doesn't appoint oneself as PC, but the duties are effectively the same.

We're also currently comparing timber frame quotes but are not quite at the point of being able give comparitive numbers. The scopes are all different, so as you mention, it involves estimating the value of the differences. As well as Potton (KTS) and MBC, we're also looking at Fleming and Frame Technologies. Your numbers confirm how it's looking for us though, that Potton are cheaper than MBC for the frame. Additionally, MBC look expensive for the windows, assuming we would get them from the frame supplier. We'd like the frame supplier to do building regs for the whole project. We have an architect, but splitting BR between the frame supplier (who logically should provide the required information for the frame) and the architect for the rest, creates an interface I'd prefer to avoid. Potton will do that. I'm not sure about MBC. @zzPaulzzHave you talked to the frame suppliers about CDM roles yet? I'm planning to self manage which means I'll be Principal Contractor. I'm comfortable with that but the MBC sales manager gave strong advice against it, unnecessarily so in my opinion. That would mean engaging a main contractor, which I'm not planning to do. Also, Potton are the only ones of the four we're talking to who are prepared to take on the role of Principal Designer. In my opinion, the frame supplier, especially if they're doing BR for the whole project, are the only sensible choice for the PD role.

No reason apart from ignorance 🙂!! I think we'll change it! Good question. I don't have that information at the moment. Good advice which I'm going to follow! Nice idea thanks. A creative solution. We'll give that some thought!

Indeed it is .... and one could concluded it's not a good detail. Just that that was what this timber frame supplier proposes. But I'm asking myself if there's a better way, so yes it looks like that detail would need to be changed. The build up on a warm roof will present a bit of a challenge though. We were planning to make this flat roof a balcony/roof terrace and if we put all the insulation on the top , there will be some head scratching to work out how to avoid a big step up from the FF door onto the balcony. Using shallower joists on closer centres would help but maybe not the full solution. Anybody any further thought on the cold bridging question? Thanks

@Redbeard thanks for that. There's nothing hidden by the blue arrow. The stud is 140 mm and as drawn there's already only about 100 mm of the joist sitting on the stud. If the joist was shortened to make room for say 50 mm of insulation, there'll only be about 50 mm of the joist sitting on the stud. Is that enough or is there another solution? Thanks

I'm interested in comments on this flat roof and parapet detail. 1. Am I right in thinking it's a cold roof? 2. And is the 18mm OSB deck in the wrong place and should it be moved to be on top of the firring (red arrow)? This would give the possibility for ventilation between it and the insulation? 3. What do people think about cold roofs and the risk of condensation if the VCL gets perforated? Is the risk manageable or are warm roofs always preferred, assuming you've space for the additional thickness? 4. What about the cold bridge along the bottom of the joist (blue arrow)? If so, what could be done about that? Thanks Still learning!!

I searched AeroBarrier and Aero Barrier but got no hits. Sorry if I missed it.