ProDave

I wanted to do a self build when I was young, but then I lived in the SE of England (where I suspect @maison d'etre lives judging by plot price) but it was never possible. The very few plots that came up for sale had a plot price equal to a ready build house. So were not for someone wanting to self build an ordinary house. It was only when we moved to the Highlands that plot prices were sensible (and a LOT more available) that I got to realise that dream.

Surely if it is a party wall, the centre of the wall will be the party line, which is what it looks like from where you have drawn your red line?

But there is not much flying there any more. That was my point.

I was going to suggest a rat had been exploring your drains and is stuck in the saniflow.

Buy yourself an air test kit, they are not expensive and test as you go. You want to make sure your drains are all good BEFORE you cover them with plasterboard and hide them. And testing as you go means if you have a leak, you know it is in the last bit you did. You fill all the traps, plug the vent pipe and connect the test kit wherever is convenient and plug the rest. TIP: Some top access shower traps with a lift out "bucket" that lets you clean them from above will not withstand the test pressure and will pop out. I had to cut 2 thin strips of wood to wedge ours down in place to get the pressure test to work. Our BC wanted the test done to 100mm H2O but that is impossible, it will pump up to about 70mm the depth of seal of your smallest trap and any attempt to go further just blows bubbles through the trap. They accepted that.

Just decide what lighting you want. Don't skimp, because you can't add more later, so make sure you have chosen enough lighting. Then submit a site plan showing what lights are going where and send details of make and model etc. Better to choose too many lights now and not use them all than wish you had more. The worst that can happen is they say too many and you have to try again with fewer.

I was badly advised on our first build and the ST was just backfilled with pea gravel. I worked around that situation by only ever getting it pumped out in the summer after a long dry spell when I was reasonably sure the water table was low. And then immediately running a hose to re fill it with fresh water rather than waiting for it to fill gradually. But I did see one float out of the ground. It was a treatment plant I don't know the make but it's design seemed to be the water level in the system was quite low and after heavy rain one morning it just pushed it's way up out of the ground.

We once tried to buy a wooden bungalow with a subsidence issue years ago. It looked like the subsidence had stopped and it had been re roofed with a custom cut roof that corrected the previous wonky roof but the building had been left with one outside wall that had clearly sunk leaving one room with a sloping floor. Our plan would have been level that floor and do nothing else, and in the longer term it would have been knock down and rebuild. But we were outbid and it sold for more than we though it worth.

I would not hesitate having a junction inside the contactor box. Always give new terminations a tug to see if they are really tight. I have found MK sockets especially bad at having poor binding screws that feel tight before the screw even touches the wire, yet plenty of people still think they are the best.

I worked on a new build looking directly onto the runway ar RAF Kinloss. ALL the windows facing the runway were triple glazed non opening with no vents whatsoever. All ventilation was achieved by vents and other opening windows on elevations not directly facing he runway. Kinloss closed just a few months after this build was complete.

SWMBO visits every 4 weeks but she is no plumber. I went once before to fix other issues and it has been plumbed previously by the plumber from hell. I bet any attempt to do a simple thing like uncouple the trap to change the waste fitting will end in tears and a trip to the plumbers merchant. So if a new plug will do it with nothing else, then that is good. She has had great trouble finding plumbers, and any that have been have done the one job and never returned to do anything else. I suspect they have all clocked how bodged everything is.

The failed one looks like this. https://www.toolstation.com/mcalpine-bwstss-top-basket-strainer-waste-plug/p94986 The technical drawing looks correct https://cdn.aws.toolstation.com/items/manual/manual-bwstss-top-94986.pdf If only they would put more dimensions on that drawing. I will now do what will make all engineers shudder, scale from that drawing to see if it matches the one we want. P.S I don't want to suggest changing the whole fitting because if I do, I know who will be making the 600 mile round trip to do so.

How does this work then? You need a certain area of infiltration field depending on the Vp measurement of your soil from a percolation test. How can this magic plastic box with some holes in it reduce that area?

Well I don't but my sister in law does. So SWMBO went to visit her and took one of our "spare" plugs It did not fit. Of course I should have known, this is plumbing, there is no such thing as a standard plug. So HOW do I go about determining what type / size it is to get a new one. The top one is SIL's old plug. the rubber is perished and it does not seal. The bottom one is our "spare" one. you can see ours has a larger diameter "boss" and the rubber washer but is akin to a low profile tyre rather than the high profile of the top one. So what measurements do I need to take to work out which sort we need?

We had similar. I don't even know the make or type, the builder supplied them to the SE's specification. They pass over the top of the ridge beam as one piece and down to the rafters either side. They looked quite substantial metal not like most joist hangers.

What do the neighbours say? If you block the upstream fence your downstream neighbour may do the same and that would leave nowhere for any water that does get in to get out again. Any solution of trying to block it would have to be agreed with all of you. Does your garden slope much, so if it does flood how much higher would it have to get to flood the houses? We have similar where in very heavy persistant rain the farm field behind us floods (shown as such on the flood risk maps) but it has a safe path to drain into the burn sometimes crossing part of our garden, but at no time threatening the house.

To me knock down and rebuild only makes sense for really really derelict houses that are probably unmortgagable, and priced accordingly, or for a tiny house on a large plot where the buyer wants a large house and complete rebuild is usually better than a large extension to a small old house.

That plot is large for the house so has great potential. However the house is not so easy. The gable end of the house faces the road. Most houses of that type I have seen extended they continue the roof line down, in this case to the left and then put a dormer on the side to create headroom upstairs. Or build a flat roofed extension which in many cases looks awful. I am going to throw in another possibility for that plot. Taking the garage width and the extra parking alongside the garage, subject to actual measurements, that looks to me like you could fit a second house in there next to the original one. Subject to planning permission of course and any covenants or finding something under that gap like a big water main that might stop you doing it.

This is the thin end of the wedge. It highlights what to do with old houses to upgrade them and who pays. At the moment, it is only landlords being made to comply. Perhaps those that set the rules think landlords have bottomless bank balances and have worked out how to defy physics and fir more insulation than there is space, while not disrupting the lives of the tenant living there. There have been discussions, certainly in Scotland that these minimum standards will apply to home owners as well. Though quite what they will do if a private owner has an EPC worse than C and does not have the means to improve it. All it has done for me is confirm not being a LL is the correct choice, and if I were ever looking to move (unlikely) then I would expect a house worse than EPC C to be valued as a renovation project and valued lower to reflect the cost of the work needed.

We only ever had plain ordinary grass under swings etc. When I was at school the school playground had tarmac under the swings and climbing frames. You learned NOT to fall off. Just saying.

We have ONE just after the sopcock on the incoming water. What makes you think you need more than that one?

We had two, bought as buy to lets. The 1 bedroom flat had mostly short tenants rarely staying ,much beyond 6 months so with the cost of changes, void periods etc, that one made more from capital gain than rental profit. The other was a 2 bedroom terrace house that had longer term tenants so made a lot more from the rental profit than capital gain. After we sold both of those we thought we were done, but market timing meant as we built the new house the old one did not sell, so we let it. So slightly different situation but it got us out of a situation and it all worked out. The lesson from being in the rental business for nearly 20 years was don't assume a property is always a liquid asset. Selling the flat took months as the market had crashed. And likewise don't assume it will always be boom time as sometimes tenants took a while to find. It is not just a cash cow.

Different in different council areas but here in Scotland all rental properties must achieve an EPC C to get a licence. There is nothing to say that won't change in the future. It was all the other red tape and the 3 yearly renewal and sheer extra costs that made us sell. Our last property sold to the tenant so at least no eviction needed.

I have said before, sell up and retire. Being a LL is not worth it these days. Let someone else have the "fun" of upgrading that to the required standard.

And the roof tiler just stacking them on, not a nail or fixing to be seen, and walking all over the tiles he had laid. Oh and the forerunner to the hi viz jacket, the Donkey Jacket. I think I still have one in the loft.