ProDave

Another difference between England & Scotland? They are very hot on drain tests here, they like to see the drain before it is covered and see the pressure test at the same time. They even wanted to pressure test the drain run to the static caravan that arguably was not permanent. Though when I came to connect the final 3M section when the treatment plant went in, they were not available, and not the slightest bit interested in any of the pipework coming out of the treatment plant.

Best of luck with that. I have seen that on Grand Designs, and on one house up here. Both failed building control. Both inserted tacky looking bits of clear plastic to pass building control. I assume both lots of plastic are now removed and they ended up with what they wanted.

I used them because it would be near impossible to bolt mine down directly. I think it was designed by a previous car designer with the mounting bolt holes as inaccessible as possible. Using the feet you could tip the ASHP over, fit the feet, then stand it back up, drill and bolt down the feet. SWMBO insisted I bolt it down otherwise the wind would blow it over. I know it gets windy here but......

I have just mounted my ASHP (different make) and I used 4 of these anti vibration feet http://cpc.farnell.com/sip/02357a/anti-vibration-mounts-sold-as/dp/TL19203?st=anti vibration mount No problem bolting them down to the base. And cheaper from CPC than I could find on ebay

With my test kit, the bulb you squeeze to pump it up leaks air, solved by bending it's pipe double to "crimp" it while testing. When BC came to witness my drain test, they got bored and said "that will do" after watching a stationary manometer for a minute.

If you want cheap but quality, Click Mode are my choice http://www.discount-electrical.co.uk/product.php/389086884/click-cma036-mode-white-moulded-2-gang-double-pole-switchsocket-13a

Our last house we went for 200mm, that was nothing special in terms of insulation or air tightness. So I am going for 200 again on out new much better insulated and much ore air tight house, expecting to run the UFH at a very low temperature. 200mm is the obvious spacing with 400mm joist centres, anything else would be complicated.

I saw a simple arrangement that I am planning to replicate on my balcony. Substantial (5" square?) timber posts with a groove routed in opposite sides into which a plain square sheet of toughened glass is inserted.

If it's "agricultural" re name it a "tractor shed"

How long had it been used as "garden"? sounds like it might be a candidate for a certificate of lawful development if they can prove they have used it like that for long enough.

The moveable bit certainly exempts you from building control, so that's one less worry. That might also be the case with my static caravan, it might be that a fixed garden outbuilding of that size, while permitted development, might need building control, but not because it's moveable.

Isn't it about "use" rather than position? We persuaded the planners to remove the "caravan must be removed..." clause by pointing out that on the day of completion I could remove the caravan, and immediately replace it with an identical caravan in an identical position and it would be a a permitted development garden outbuilding. As long as we are not living in it after completion, it would not ned planning permission. I suspect this shepherds hut would be the same. If you do start sleeping in it, you are into the 28 day rule, so you could spend 28 nights in it per year without needing planning permission.

Your drainage details are usually a building control matter. Up here you cannot start until a building warrant has been issued, and sorting out a suitable acceptable drainage plan delayed us several weeks before building control were finally happy and issued the warrant.

We negotiated the planning permission to keep the static caravan permanently. You might ask why? Well not for accommodation. For more work / storage space. The one we bought (partly because of how well it lends itself to other uses) basically has 3 rooms. the larger one will get used as an artist studio and a music room. One bedroom will get put to use as my ham radio "shack" and the third at the moment is just going to be a store room. As such it represents tremendous value per square metre, and to add that much extra space to the house itself would have stretched our bedget too far, not to mention extra council tax etc (which does not apply to a "garden outbuilding")

You could get away with the "caravan" (portable building) exemption and thus be building regs exempt if you did not use the "upstairs" The caravan exemption has a maximum ceiling height and must be single storey, but it doesn't say you can't have a loft space. Just don't use it for sleeping in!!! Whether you can use it all year or 11 months depends on planning, if it has planning as holiday accommodation, then the 11 months may apply. If it has planning as residential then it should be all year. i.e you could probably put one of these on a holiday park that has planning for "holiday caravans" (as long as you don't use the upstairs) but would probably be subject to seasonal use only.

Tread carefully and wear a snorkel.

In case it didn't prove good enough there, I have installed a phone and cat5 cable from the stair cupboard to where the coat and shoe cupboard will be in the entrance hall. That will give an alternative location for the router on a shelf high up by the ground floor ceiling. On the subject of hiding stuff, a filing cabinet will be going in this cupboard. By raising one of the dwangs a bit higher, the filing cabinet will recess into the thickness of the wall so it doesn't stick out too far which would otherwise make the coat and shoe cupboard too deep.

So why not use a chrome compression elbow, that should grip the chrome pipe okay and look better than a brass nut being seen.

I get the impression gardening is not one of your pastimes?

Yep, under my stairs. All tv and satellite cables enter via a hockey sick built into the foundations which comes up in the under stair cupboard. Still a work in progress but nearly there. The hifi unit is in pieces as I am still awaiting the bluetooth receiver to incorporate into it so the girls can play their music from their phones. Everyting is remote controlled, just out of shot high up on the left is the receiver part of a powermid IR extender set, this re generates IR remote controls and sends them to all the stuff shut in the cupboard. CD storage built into the thickness of the stud wall. The broadband wifi router is up in the ceiling structure of the half landing pretty much right above my head where I was taking the photo from, as near to the centre of the house as possible and seems to give a good wifi signal everywhere. I am only using the built in LAN ports on the router at the moment, but LAN cables is installed to each room and if I need to use more I will install a switch, again mounted high up out of the way. Just out of shot to the right is the tv aerial distribution amplifier. 3 satellite receivers, the Sky HD box is the main one that will link directly to the 2 main tv's via long hdmi cables already built into the walls. The sky mini box above that is essentially there just for satellite radio channels and it's audio links to the hifi. Above that is my "other satellite" receiver for Astra 1 and hotbird for such things as watching F1 live via the German channel RTL on the days when channel 4 are not showing it live here. Network printer sits here out of the way can be accessed by wired or wireless lan from any computer. This is all part of the strategy of keeping "clutter" out of the main rooms, without compromising quality, i.e. I still insist on a half decent hifi and decent speakers in each room, even though the unit itself is hidden away. It has all taken up a lot less space than I thought, so there is still a good amount of useful storage space in the under stair cupboard.

Other rebranding of a well know and respected brand to something new was CORGI to Gas Safe. and the humble Marathon bar to Snickers. Being very cynical I can only assume some marketing consultancy got paid a fortune for that re branding. I saw a lot of that happen in the dying days of my former industry where a fortune was spend trying to rebrand and refocus, all in vain. An excercise at the time we all likened to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Best start a new thread otherwise it might get lost in here........

Most treatment plants need power. Mine is one based on the air blower principle and a measurement when it was first installed confirmed it uses 2KWh per day, though it has a lousy power factor as the current measurement suggested it would be more, but thankfully the meter measures KWh rather than KVAh You can also get them that have moving mechanical parts but I would not recommend one of those. There are some treatment systems that claim the same level of treatment, without using power, these tend to be 2 stage plants, basically a septic tank followed by some filtration or secondary treatment system. These tend to cost more and take up a lot more space. Then there is the question of where will the liquid effluent discharge to.

If it really is a cess pit and you have never had it emptied then where is it going? Surely it is a septic tank? that should really be emptied about every 2 years, though some people seem to think they never need emptying. Emptying it is not A DIY job. Installing a new treatment plant might be, but finish the bathroom first.

This is the tariff you want to end up with https://ebico.org.uk/energy-plans/ebico-zero/ We had to initially sign up with SSE to get a meter installed, on their no contract standard variable rate, then as soon as the meter was physically installed, we switched to ebico for the no standing charge tariff. When we finally moved into the static caravan we switched again to a cheaper supplier.