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Weebles

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  1. Weebles
    Thanks. That's very useful. Assume the same theory applies for all other services? Gas / elec? BT?
  2. Weebles
    Last question (still probably a daft one, sorry).....if we run the water pipe in blue 32mm MDPE to our new build, can that pipe go under (or in?) the passive slab foundation (we are an MBC client) and come up in the right place or does it have to go around the foundations and into the house through a wall? Thanks
  3. Weebles
    Yes, just supplies our house. Our assumption too is that it is the supply pipe and that it is our responsibility. We don't want to get into a situation where we need to repair it, at least not through building our house. Sounds like boundary boxes on our land are the answer to our temporary and permanent supply issues, connecting them in to the pipework from under the road? That way we don't dig up the road. Now need to check if pipework is lead. If so, I guess we might have to / want to replace the supply pipe back to the boundary box (with the meter in it) and that will involve digging up the road......everything we look at opens up a can of worms, expensive ones.....
  4. Weebles
    The pipes are already under the road so we are hoping not to touch them and cut the pipe within our land to put a boundary box in. The meter is on council owned land (only just though, the private road to our neighbour's house starts right there). Nothing in our deeds / searches when we bought the house mentions water pipes or easements. Thames Water didn't know where the pipes were and there are no plans. However we now know that our meter is about 3 m from our boundary, the other side of a road that is public, just). A few years ago a car drove on top of the meter boundary boxes, causing damage and the loss of water supply (this is before our time at this house) - the council repaired it then so I think that infers they own it.
  5. Weebles
    Thames Water has confirmed the meter is ours. It is in a boundary box (thanks for the terminology) but not on our land. It's sited across a road (no other properties near it) with one other boundary box serving a property down a private road next to our property. So we believe the pipe under the road and onto our property is our responsibility. Can we put another boundary box or two in? Are these for where the water pipe effectively surfaces and makes a connection i.e to the caravan etc?
  6. Weebles
    Stupid question alert. We have finally located our water supply (without breaking through it with a digger bucket ) and hope to get some advice on how to run a temporary and then permanent supply. We will be living in the current house still for a few months so need to keep a supply to the house. We need a temporary supply directly to our caravan and outside loo for the duration of the build. We will also need to provide access to water for the build (some sort of tap set up?). The meter / stopcock is not at the boundary (over the other side of the road). We have located the pipe at the boundary. Can we turn the meter off, cut the water pipe, install some sort of three way connector in to take the supply in different directions and then, when we knock the main house down, cap off the bit of the pipe that serves the house? Firstly, is this in any way a sensible thought? If not, what do you suggest? If it is, are we allowed to do it or do we have to notify Thames Water and pay them to do it?
  7. Weebles
    In case this is helpful to anyone we have just sorted out our site insurance. We got quotes from (with the actual insurance company in brackets): Buildstore (Catlin Insurance company) Buildzone (EC Insurance) Protek (QBE Europe) Self Build Insurance (Zurich) Self Build Insurance (Zurich) were almost 30% cheaper than the other 3 so definitely worth a call. We have gone for 24 months as it seems that lots of people on here end up having to renew half way through and premiums can be hiked at that point. Hope we don't need to use it. And hope we get it finished within 24 months.....we are starting tomorrow with knocking down our garage and will attempt to finally locate our water supply (where Thames Water, a diviner and alot of hand digging has failed hopefully a digger bucket will do the job ) .
  8. Weebles
    We are another MBC client but just at the drawings stage. We are about a year behind @dogman and learned alot from visiting their site and also going to @Bitpipe house (further ahead again). We started with an architect about 18 months ago. We know alot more now than we did then, thanks largely to all the shared knowledge on this forum and alot of reading and research. We still don't know enough and probably never will. Planning permission is granted. We no longer have an architect (£12K seemed a bit steep for building regs and some drawings). We are working on the building regs ourselves and we are taking one small step at a time, trying to deal with one small job each day, even if that is just reading something or making a minor decision. We will do as much as we can to keep costs down and hopefully the preparation we do now will make the build itself go more smoothly, thus saving some potential costs. We are also in the caravan brigade and hope to be moving into it early next year to knock down the bungalow we are currently living in. Going to plumb a toilet into an old wooden playhouse to save money on toilet rental.....(cost savings to be made everywhere!). Hope to start slab / build in March/April (fingers crossed). You are welcome to visit (we are south Oxfordshire).
  9. Weebles
    Thanks @PeterW that drawing has made everything alot clearer. Are you referring to building regs for soil pipes joining the main stack? I can't see anything referring to two soil pipes running next to each other i.e. before they join the stack....but then I haven't read the whole lot just yet.....
  10. Weebles
    Have you sculpted that soil pipe into your Celotex there?
  11. Weebles
    Just doing some bathroom planning so this thread is really helpful. We were thinking of the 112cm Geberit Duofix frame but we have two bathrooms next to each other and the toilets are currently back to back (design stage only). This looks like it could cause a problem? We could make a thicker internal wall between the two rooms to fit the two frames in back to back (?) but what about the soil pipes? Even for a single Geberit frame with a toilet on an internal wall what width wall is needed to fit the bend of the soil pipe within the wall? The frame seems to be 12cm wide but it looks like the soil pipe could extend wider than that? Anyone got one fitted who can advise?
  12. Weebles
    Looks fantastic - what a transformation in only a few months.
  13. Weebles
    Has anyone actually gone through the process of getting a warranty certificate issued from either Self Build Zone or Protek? These are the cheapest quotes we have (both around £2,900 for warranty plus BC, for 330m2 £475K build cost, 24 month build). Just wondering if we should lean in any particular direction - any good or bad experiences out there?
  14. Weebles
    Thanks all. Interesting to discover our LA requires notification of any demolition of greater than 50 cubic metres so it looks like our garage demolition is notifiable anyway even if we feel this is preparation work for the real demolition and build. Sounds like that notification will "start" the project. Going to sort the CIL before the demolition notice so they can't catch us out. Thanks all.
  15. Weebles
    We have addressed all the pre commencement conditions (all paper conditions) so will need to do some root protection fencing but that's it. Thanks for reminder on CIL exemption - its an easy one to overlook. What about the building regs and building control? I was planning to get that done whilst we are sorting out the temporary accommodation and utilities (after demolishing the garage). But can we "start" the project without building regs?
  16. Weebles
    A bit of advice needed here please. We are completely new to self build and progress has been slower than we hoped. Planning permission for "demolition of existing house and garage and building of new house and garage" has just been granted. We are just considering what to do first. We are thinking about knocking down just the garage to start with. This should allow us to dig to locate our utilities (still haven't found them so resorting to a digger), and then put our static caravan in without covering over said utilities (only one potential site for the caravan). Then we can move onto demolishing the house afterwards. If we do this, we assume our build will "start" as the demolition is noted on our permission. Is this correct? We plan to sort out the CIL with the LA before we "start". But do we need to have a building control inspector involved? Do we need any building regs stuff done before demolition? Site insurance? Or is all that just for the building phase? Anything else to consider at this stage? Thanks everyone.
  17. Weebles
    Thanks everyone. Will get reading and pulling information together and will likely be back for more help at some point.
  18. Weebles
    Just signed on the dotted line with MBC for our timber frame and slab. My question is on building regs. What exactly is needed for building regs? I believe MBC / their SE provide calcs for the structure / slab which covers off that bit. Does anyone have a list of what else is needed? What other drawings might be required (even if not for building regs)? And are these needed at the start? Or can we sort those as we go along. Our architect is trying to scare us......
  19. Weebles
    Brilliant guys - thanks. Not about to do this just yet but wanted to set my mind at ease that it was going to be OK to do ourselves. Will be sending photos when get this bit started. Now got to buy a caravan, think about SAP calcs, sort out finance..... There is alot to do isn't there? As my boss says "eat the elephant bit by bit" (bit weird but feels appropriate).
  20. Weebles
    Here's a photo of the set up. Grey BT box on wall of existing house. Grey cable goes off underground and off the property (boundary is only 1.5m or so from the house here, to the left). So we could dig back to the boundary. The problem is that the caravan will be at least 20m from this bit of cabling. We can't put this external box on the static van as it won't reach. Does it need to be mounted or can it just be left on the ground (in some makeshift housing). Or should we splice extra cable before the grey box to enable it to reach the van? The BT open reach internal box is in the house about 20m from the point of entry of the black cable (that comes out of the grey exterior box). Please could someone walk me through what to connect to what? I assume we need to keep the internal BT open reach box? Many thanks.
  21. Weebles
    To anyone who has done a demolition and rebuild, and lived on site, what did you do with your BT phone / broadband supply? can we just strip the BT box off the exterior wall of existing house, recover the internal cabling and somehow connect to a static van temporarily? or is it going to be more complicated than that?
  22. Weebles
    Though having re-read Bitpipe's comments I am just checking with our LA.
  23. Weebles
    Thanks all. As the kids will be living in it too that means PP needed. council tax is still expensive in Band A - well over £1k a year here.
  24. Weebles
    Do we need planning permission for a static caravan on site? Caravan is intended to go within 1m of boundary (certainly within 2m) but will be within the garden of the house that will be demolished. We have planning permission for the new build and are sorting out the pre-commencement conditions and tweaks needed with another application. So could ask for temporary planning permission for a caravan on that application....is it needed? I can't find anything definitive online (South Oxfordshire) but it seems we might need permission.....?
  25. Weebles

    Larder

    Weebles replied to Weebles's topic in Introduce Yourself

    Sorry to be a bit thick but if we did use an Ecocent to vent into the larder and cool it why would the larder have to vent into a heated space? Can't we vent it to the outside?
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