Tom

Restoring or converting?

I'm 100% sure you're right

Are the screw piles themselves isolated from the concrete in the raft? Thinking about thermal bridging...

... or get rid of the concrete. Struggling to see why you need both? You're essentially paying for two floors, but will only ever get to stand on one.

Looks great! We got Part Q permission for our barn in March but have just applied for full planning to completely rebuild. Might have to pick your brains at some stage! Looks like you're not too far away, we're south Devon

Spoke to LPA yesterday: due to COVID, new guidance from central gov re advertising planning applications has allowed them to delegate to the applicant, so I should soon get emailed the site notice and asked to put up myself. I will then need to take a photo as proof apparently.

Ours was close to double that (in the south west) and was frigging useless. Prefer not to think about the thousands... Reminds me, final invoice for 2k due, groan

If it's not done, will that invalidate the application?

Aaagh, really?! It was done by the LPA on our last application...

Hi all - so the full planning application has been in for a few weeks, but there is still no site notice uploaded on the portal or put up at the site. Will this be a problem? Can the planner turn round at the end and say the whole process has to start again as they'd omitted the site notice? Am I overthinking this and should just sit back and relax with a cold Argus 2.6% continental lager from Lidl? Tom

As in access to their own en suit - a safety thing? Possibly. Not planning on selling though, but never say never... Good point, not sure on the regs south of the border, any one know?

Still thinking about the internal lay-out/design of our barn conversion and got some interesting responses to a previous thread on the topic - one of which was to lose the family bathroom and have en suits in all the bedrooms. This has got me thinking, and I'd appreciate the thoughts of the assembled hive-mind: do you actually need a family bathroom? If all bedrooms have en suits and there is an additional separate loo somewhere else - what is the point of the family bathroom? Any views welcome Cheers

More chance the suspended timber floor will suffer from rot/other damp problems now that you've lost the air bricks ventilating the suspended floor in the side-return. Taking it all out and starting again with a well insulated slab sounds like a good idea.

Yes, I'm well aware of the restrictions of a Class Q change of use, having just gone through the process myself. You certainly can't knock the existing building down as it has to be a conversion, therefore you have to use the existing structure . What I'm suggesting though, is that now you have the change of use granted you apply for full planning permission for a replacement dwelling - which will mean you CAN knock it down and start again. There are several such successful applications near me that have done exactly that. There is planning case-law as a precedent: search for Mansell v Tonbridge and Malling BC [2017] EWCA Civ 1314. In essence it seems the argument is that as the conversion to residential has already been established, and there being no reason why this conversion can't go ahead, a full planning application would be for a replacement dwelling - and therefore would be looked upon more favourably. Certainly worth exploring in my opinion (if you haven't already), not least as starting from the ground up will be significantly less hassle but the more favourable tax implications for a new build v conversion.

Yep, looks like it. If you look at the error bars the upward tick at 15kg/min is not statistically significant