ProDave

Sadly this would have been good to discuss before the planning application and I am sure we all would have advised against describing it as derelict or disused.

Our VAT clam was submitted in February this year. Today a big fat envelope arrived in the post with all my receipts returned and a covering letter telling me the claim has been approved in full with no deductions or contested receipts and payment will be made by BACS within 20 days. So that's a little under 6 months All very handy as our 0% credit cards are due in a couple of months so we will now have the funds to clear them and not need to find somewhere else to roll them over.

Another potential problem I see is the new house would have little or no garden. The "caravan" idea might solve all this and allow you more freedom. I would tidy up what is there and make it look habitable and get an application for a certificate of lawful development to get it's status as an existing residential caravan recognised. That at least puts you on a better footing going forwards. Do some research on "portable buildings" It is quite possible to build a very nice very well insulated comfortable dwelling that fits the definition of a "caravan" There was one on Grand Designs some time back, it went right to the size limit for a "caravan" at just over 100 square metres. To qualify as a "caravan" it must be possible to split the building into managable parts and transport it, and that can include lifting by crane onto a low loader. There are a few on here who have built such "caravans" Buildingit to fit the definition of a caravan does not mean it has to look like a flimsy poorly insulated caravan on wheels.

That's a good point about it being a "caravan" Apply for a certificate of lawful development for a residential caravan, and I believe then you can then replace it with any other caravan without further permission or even building regs. I am not suggesting you buy another caravan, but that you build a new well insulated building that is capable of being moved and fits the definition of a "caravan" and for that it does NOT need to be on wheels.

So are you saying that ramshackle collection of "sheds" that look to be built on the back of the garage has been lived in as a dwelling until a couple of years ago? Was the planning application therefore considered as a "replacement dwelling"? The obvious thing to me would be only have high level or obscured windows facing the bungalow and put larger windows looking out to the side over the adjoining field.

Post the plans. It is all to do with distance between facing windows (usually)

Just went to get some decking planks. The Evanton sawmill only had 5.4M lengths and after I took my few they only had 5 left. That will be another unobtanium very shortly.

The "economy" has a built in tendency to go through boom and bust cycles (in spite of one previous chancellor claiming to have eliminated that.) The best time to build is during a bust cycle, as long as your own finances will allow that. During a bust cycle everyone is afraid of spending money, afraid of loosing their job, so demand is low, no competition for material and labour is plenty. As soon as you get a hint of a boom cycle, everyone starts spending like they have to buy it now or they won't be able to afford it later, so demand goes through the roof, prices go up and it becomes hard to find material or labour. This is not the best time to be building as you can't proceed with much certainty about when it will get done and how much it will cost. But this is where we are now. A lot of people have spent the last 18 months doing nothing, spending nothing, shut up inside worrying. All that pent up demand and cash is now flowing. But few have the luxury of choosing when to build. Other circumstances will dictate that. My own guess: If this "boom" is just fuelled by the Covid lockdown and pent up demand, it will be short lived. Perhaps 2 years would be my guess? Then the realities of debt and inflation are going to hit home hard for a lot of people.

We are almost complete for £1000 per square metre just for the build not including land, services or fees. But behind that figure is 5 years of DIY work and some serious hunting out of bargains to keep prices down. Perhaps more worrying is difficulty actually getting material. A friend is about to start a new build and has been pricing materials, and in that conversation he has been quoted > 6 months delivery time for roof tiles for instance, so even though he has not broken ground yet, he is thinking of ordering the roof tiles now just to stand a chance of having them when needed.

You have 640mm from the sink unit to the bare wall. A dishwasher is 600mm wide and you need 10mm of clearance. Plenty of room to attach a 25mm batten straight to the wall to support the end of the worktop. Tile above the worktop and in front of it,. allowing 610mm for the DW and clearance, you have 30mm to get your 17mm tiles plus adhesive plus any base coat plaster you choose to apply.

I had to get permission for ours as in Scotland SEPA discourage waste discharging to a watercourse and you have to get permission. But I think the riparian rights you are talking of just mean you must not pollute the water and must not extract or add more than permitted amounts. Since the output from a recognised treatment plant is allowed to discharge into a watercourse, then by definition discharging that is not "polluting" the watercourse.

So your garden extends longer than next door? Who owns the bit that wraps around beyond the end of next doors garden? That is where I would accidentally seed a few Leylandii

In Lidl (in the middle) at the moment. Lots of drill bit sets all for £3.99 Masonry drill bits HSS drill bits Router bits Screwdriver bits and holders And the one that caught my eye a set of 3 HSS step drills.

And in Scotland you pay double on an empty property.

Are they actually in the way if along the side of the plot? It depends how close you want to build to them. As a ball park estimate, it cost a self builder local to me about £10K to have 100 metres of 11KV overhead line buried, including the connection for his new house.

You only need permission of the landowners to lay your pipe (and permission from the EA to discharge to the brook) you do not need permission of the downstream landowners. As riparian land owners they have to accept whatever comes down the brook and through their land.

The only fair comparison is gas system boiler with UVC Vs ASHP and UVC both excluding the radiators / UFH (as you need those whichever you install) excluding subsidies and assuming installed by an ordinary plumber and electrician (not some over priced scheme with a bumped up price to deprive the customer of any benefit from the subsidy schemes) Anything else can be skewed however you want it depending on how the green energy subsidies are manipulated.

Diversity. One double socket on a 16A radial. Tell him it's for the "laundry"

The caravan itself will need some rewiring. It might only have a mini 2 way CU with a 16A circuit for sockets and a 6A circuit for lights. You will need some upgrades, e,g, an additional circuit for the washing machine etc. But you biggest issue is going to be voltage drop. Whatever load you end up with after upgrading the installation in the caravan you will have to calculate the voltage drop over your 100 metre length, I am almost certain the voltage drop will determine the cable size not current carrying capacity. You only need a 2 core Steel Wire Armour cable as you will be using your own local TT earth. You really don't want a washing machine in the caravan, try and find somewhere else for it. If you are happy to ration your use (never use WM and TD at same time) then a second 16A radial circuit for their socket would keep your total load down and help with your cable sizing calculations.

I am just back from collecting my Timber Cladding for the sun room. Jewsons were the cheapest by some way and they had it in stock, so I went straight away before that changed. There was not much left of the 150mm planks after I had taken my lot. I asked about Promix Lite plasterboard joint filler, as everyone had been telling me there was none in stock. If I run out (likely) I think I can call in a favour from a joiner friend who says I can have some from his tub.

A CT is a current transformer. Depending how it is configured (load local to transformer or load in the measuring device) the cable will be conveying a 50Hz voltage or current. All you want is that signal to arrive at it's load with no loss, and not picking up any externally induced signal, hence the twisted pair.

You certainly don't have a Hilmor then do you?

Probably a single twisted pair cable.

£25 oak internal doors at Wickes This landed in my inbox just now https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/wickes-york-oak-3-panel-internal-door-or-cobham-oak-4-panel-internal-door-1981mm-x-686mm-for-ps25-free-click-collect-at-wickes-3747694?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=position_9_image&utm_campaign=2021-06-20 Might be of use to some.

Consider a different manufacturer or build it yourself. Once you have your foundation beams laid and your floor, I would want the wall cladding extending down over the floor including the frame and extending a little lower than the floor framing so water that runs down drips off under the building without wetting the floor structure in any way.