ProDave

There is a lot of good information in that document. But read on to paragraphs 3.95 to 3.99, and there is a lot of encouragement for the buildings to be removable at end of life, and a lot of hints about making then conform with the legal definition of a "caravan" which would exempt them from building regulations and permit all sorts of unusual construction methods.

I just watched it this evening (never watch commercial tv live) and I wondered about planning. For a project like this, it's possible to make a home that is exempt from building regulations by making it conform the the portable building rules and it is then treated in planning law as a "caravan" (it does not need to e on wheels even). You would think they would know about this and build accordingly. This thing built into the hillside with bags rammed full of earth does not meet the description of being "portable" in any way, and I can't see how it meets building regulations.

I do like the lateral thinking of applying for a new connection to get the allowance, then abandoning the old connection. I wonder if the new house will need a different name or address to make that work? Worldwibewbs, every new connections is given an allowance of something over £3000 and you will only get charged if your connection costs more than that.

So you now have two "faulty" doors going begging?

Well it does appear that the 2 storey Wendy house is higher than the maximum height of a permitted development garden building. But the council also stated they were not going to take any action. They have probably agreed that it would be silly to do so and in say 10 years when the child has outgrown it, it will probably be removed and sold on anyway. I suspect my own playhouse I built for my daughter, up on stilts exceeds the maximum height of a permitted development building. I can only assume a neighbour complained about it to the council?

When I had a proper job, we regularly went on fire training courses. I am sure they said the biggest cause of house fires was Arson. So be careful who you upset.

The test only demand 100mm because that's all the depth of the average water trap on a toilet or sink etc, so in real like it never can presurise above 100mm. Building control tried to fail my last house because a whole house test (with the stack plugged) and it would only pump up to about 75mm. I pointed out one of the showers had a low profile trap and any attempt to go above 75mm just blew bubbles through the trap, but it would hold all day at 75mm. They accepted in the end.

Why pressurise to 1.2 metres? the building regs test only requires a test at 100mm head.

I found there was slight leakage from the bubble you pump it up with. Solution: Kink the pipe to the bubble to seal it and it holds pressure well.

I have this one from screweys http://www.screwfix.com/p/bailey-drain-air-testing-kit/19536?_requestid=433848 It does the job and has satisfied BC so far.

Windows, you meed to be SURE you have the sizes right. Three of our windows, we changed the size as the frame was bing built (before ordering the windows that all fitted like a glove) Buy a container to store everything dry (or an old static caravan ) It's the Brexit effect and devaluing of the £ that is likely to make the biggest change. Are you already to late to avoid that?

The "proper" air tightness tape I am talking about is very much like duct tape in it's dimensions and is single sided, but obviously has a much stronger adhesive that is expected to last a long time.

Use proper air tightness tape, sold for the job. It is not cheap, but you can reasonably expect it to stay stuck.

I contest that a day rate gives you best value for money, IF they work all day and don't charge you to sit around drinking tea. As an electrician, it's how I prefer to work. If I have to provide a fixed price, then it will be a higher price, because I have to price in every thing that could make the job difficult. If those difficulties don't arrise then with a fixed price there is no mechanism (or incentive) to charge the job cheaper than the fixed price. It all comes down to trust, do you trust the builder and his team to charge you for hours worked? and keep you informed of how the job is progressing and what difficulties they are encountering?

Wait for the price to drop if they are not shifting?

All that would happen in that case is little energy would get transferred. your heating bill would go down but so would the temperature of the house. The only way I can see a "saving" would be if you had un insulated pipes under the floor (wasted heat loss) and by making the energy transfer more efficient, you could lower the temperature, and therefore reduce the wasted heat loss.

That appears to be what they claim. But the water is just a medium to transfer heat to the fabric of the dwelling, so simple conservation of energy theory says how can that save money on your heating bills? The house will still leak the same amount of heat and still need the same heat input to maintain the temperature.

I thought the pool heaters were A2W heat pumps? the only difference being the pool temperature is lower so they may not heat water very hot? but probably hot enough for wet under floor heating. Welcome to the forum by the way.

Call me a skeptic, but it removes air from the system. HOW will that save money on your heating bills?

There is a simple answer to that, sell your big house and buy a smaller one. Oh hang on, ours has been on the market coming up to 2 years without a buyer, suddenly it's not as "simple"

And leading on from that is why party politics has any part to play in the local council? The council is there to provide the services that central government say they must. So why should there be any difference in how a "labour controlled" and a "conservative controlled" council deliver those same services or how much it costs to deliver them?

I am VERY cynical about property taxes. I had just bought my previous 2 bedroomed 1930's ex council semi detached and it had an ANNUAL rates payable of £260. I paid that one year before the POLL tax was introduced. Now as a single person at the time, you might think if everybody (not every property) pays, then it would be cheaper. WRONG when the poll tax came in I paid more. Then when eventually the poll tax was scrapped and the council tax introduced, guess what , the council tax on the same house was MORE than my poll tax had been. Now the SNP have "reformed" the council tax an hey ho I will pay MORE. Forgive me for being just a little cynical about it all. Change = MORE

The only person that can give a definitive answer is your building control that will be signing it off. A related one perhaps was I did the wiring for two terraced cottages that were being knocked through to make one larger cottage. There was a great deal of discussion about whether they would have to meed the current insulation requirements for the whole building (which would have been very hard to achieve) and in the end the answer from building control was only areas where alterations were done needed to meet the current insulation regs. Readiong between the lines that would mean the new upstairs would need to meed current regs, but not the existing downstairs?

This "scaling off drawings" issue. How much of it is not being given the correct information? There was one point in our build where the builders were making the frame in their workshop and the called me for help as they were having "trouble with dimensions" So I went to have a look and they were trying to scale measurements from an elevation drawing. I looked through all the drawings they had and none showed enough information to be precise. But somewhere in the back of my mind I was sure I had seen the information they needed. A quick check of the full set of detailed drawings (which I had as a PDF set) showed all the information they needed, but showed the designers, when printing a set for the builders, had missed one vital drawing. A quick phone call and I had them print out a full size copy of that drawing for me to give to the builders and all was well. I wonder how many times that missing drawing was just "solved" by scaling from the wrong drawing?

The SNP promised us they would replace council tax with a local income tax which would have reflected your ability to pay. They cowered away from that and stuck with the council tax, but in the process increased the council tax rate for higher banded properties to "tax the rich". Excuse me for feeling a little betrayed. I am certainly NOT by any measure "rich" Regarding the word "fair" you can usually change the phrase "it's not fair" to "it's not to my advantage" and in 90% of cases it wil have exactly the same meaning.