ProDave

Because we live in a free country where you can buy and sell a house in any condition. Would you rather more rules on what we can and can not do? Make your appropriate choice on 4th July.

Great shame you never came on this forum earlier. My advice would be DO NOT remove the slate DPC, it is about the best you can get. We had similar issues in a previous 1930's house, there the issue was nothing to do with the DPC but failed rendering low down that was bridging the DPC. Removing the lower render and re doing the bottom with it finishing just above the DPC cured all the problems. The render should have a proper bell cast drip bead at the bottom which should be sturdy, it should not just be resting on plastic DPC.

It seems a shame after all the work and money spent so far to abandon the extension just because you have fallen out with the builder. I would look for another builder first and carry on.

Surely only an issue of you eat some of it? We are allowed to sell houses containing asbestos.

I thought the issue with Mundic was questions over structural integrity. In what way are they poisonous? We will see more of this with houses containing RAAC being the next un mortgagable sold cheap to cash buyers sub standard housing.

Re the carbon capture. What form does the 36,000 tons of removed carbon take? Solid blocks of graphite? Or a CO2 gas that has to be pumped somewhere like a disused gas well to store it? How much energy does such a capture system use and how much new CO2 is released in providing that energy?

There are a couple of flywheel generators going begging at Culham that they are looking into repurposing to add mass to the grid https://www.newpower.info/2023/09/jet-fusion-site-systems-could-be-repurposed-to-offer-grid-inertia-services/ https://www.facebook.com/UKAEAofficial/photos/a.10150149200649320/10158383444144320/?type=3

I did several new builds with a German gang (in the UK) and to be a Joiner there you need a proper apprenticeship and they are proud of their uniform and they all wore it on the builds we did. Actually I think they were Austrian not German that I worked with. At least one of them is still working here, on his own now and I met him again on a job last year, still wearing his uniform. And he is one of only 2 joiners I would use for a job that needs a bit of thought and a good finish.

I always thought as long as there was a pending application to regularise a situation, they would not take enforcement action until that application has concluded. So worst case, stop until you have your LDC application lodged.

I would stick to the same name. I did wonder in your other post where the tin shed fitted in. Put a signature at the bottom of your posts (in your profile settings) saying "now working on my daughters shed conversion"

A standard meter box screwed to a post is probably the easiest thing. Buy an electricity meter from ebay. Probably the cheapest way to get a standard electricity meter. Often described as a generation meter.

Largely an advertisement for a company that wants to licence a manufacturing process. Nothing new apart from that. Timber framed buildings built in a factory and assembled on site is nothing new. Yet a large amount of mass market UK builders still build in brick and block and seldom even use anything like posi joists to make the build easier because they cost a bit more.

The report focuses on price as though it is a bad thing. The real question is how much fossil fuel generation shut down during the mid day solar peak? and a technical question, how did the grid cope with a lot less "spinning mass" in the generation? If it happened regularly, people would get the idea of load shifting to mid day where possible which would reduce the need for fossil fuel generation at other times.

This won't help you but may help others avoid a similar situation. When I started ours, I informed the planners that I had "started" and received a confirmation by return acknowledging they were aware the development had started. Planning and building control rarely talk to each other.

And the steel will make it almost impossible to pass cables and pipes through the joists. (not an issue with posi joists)

Our 5M span is done with 300mm deep Posi Joists.

My top tip. Do NOT fit an accessible fan isolator in a rental. I have known tenants turn them off because they are noisy then complain about the condensation. I do not believe they are legally necessary (I have asked several times for someone to point me to the reg that says you must fit one and nobody has) but if you really feel you need to fit one, put it up in the loft close to that loft hatch. Check how air will get into the room to replace what is extracted, you may need to plane a bit off the bottom of the door for instance.

Need a close up picture. That window cill should have a drip bead built in, I wonder if the drip bead is too close to the render.

It would be normal practice here to get a surveyor to survey the property before buying. to my untrained eye that looks like a very shallow slab that has had soil washed out from underneath it.

A lot will depend on your expectations and tolerance to lack of comfort, cold etc. We have done plenty of camping, including long distance backpacking, caravanning etc and are used to cramped, cold, etc. So the static 'van was okay. I did fit a WBS in ours after the first month and realised the appetite of the gas fire that was built into it. If your better half is only used to nice spacious warm hotel rooms, they might regard a static as slumming it. A self build will test you in all sorts of ways, and I would say the discomfort of a static is one of the more minor tests that will come your way.

What is the other side of the fence? Is the land the other side of the fence lower. i.e. is the row of concrete blocks by the fence acting as a supporting wall that has failed and it is all slipping down to the lower ground?

I would say to your planning officer, show me where it says 5M in your guidance or I will let you refuse it and I will appeal.

Let it be refused and appeal.

In tight situations like that, they tow the 'van on it's own wheels through your gate with something like a Landrover, and winch it up onto the lorry on the road or somewhere else with enough room. When we had ours delivered the delivery person was not very helpful, and just unloaded it onto the road, I had to use my own Landrover to position it on site.

Yes there is indeed a non return valve inside the blue inlet fitting. It was a bit fiddly withdrawing it for a look, and having removed it I could see nothing wrong. It was functioning as a non return valve and had no obvious mechanism that would make it a flow restricting valve. So I have put it all back together awaiting further inspiration, turned the water back on and tried it, and everything is back to normal with the correct nice and gentle flow rate of boiling water. So it is "fixed" without having the faintest idea what was wrong. That does annoy me intensely.