Modernista

Will do, thanks very much. Will post a picture next time I'm at the site

Thanks, that's really helpful. I'll need to investigate further in terms of the possibility of french drains and any existing soakaway. In some areas the water discharges onto what looks like a 400mm wide strip covered with large pebbles - but they appear to be set in mortar of some sort rather than loose / granular but perhaps the mortar is permeable (or at some point has been a french drain now covered over) but that's got me thinking - and as you say I'm sure the level of pragmatism varies greatly in terms of building inspectors and this type of thing. Thanks again.

This is probably a silly additional question but it seems to fit in the context of the discussion. The existing house we are about to refurbish has no gutters. So rainwater runs straight off onto the ground as a 'design feature'. The eaves projection is around 600mm (see pic) so the waterfall that ensues is discharged away from the walls and there is an additional projecting shelter above the external doorways to avoid getting soaked as you come and go in the rain. I've been wondering seeing various posts here if we can anticipate the LA (Scotland) not being happy with that and if as soon as we submit plans we'll have to manage rainwater according to current regs. That would be costly and challenging, but not impossible and I'd rather avoid it if I can. In heavy rain the water discharged doesn't seem to pond anywhere - it runs away into the surrounding garden, which is heavily wooded. So I guess my question is if you don't collect rainwater from roofs at all, might we be required to and then deal with it via a new soakaway etc?

Thanks Dave - yes that would make sense given that this house doesn't lend itself to such things as an attached vent pipe - the eaves projection is is about 500mm for a start. It just seemed so disconnected - but perhaps just concerns re smell etc

The renovation property I'm buying is a 60s bungalow and it has a slightly strange separate vent pipe near to the boundary (c.20m from house). It doesn't seem to be anywhere close to any other drain runs. It may be like this because the unusual house design means there are no downpipes or gutters generally and perhaps it was sited here to avoid smells etc - but why so far away from the main drain runs? Or could it belong to something else perhaps like a neighbour's drain (although nothing logical in terms of proximity for that either). Anyone seen anything like this? The site is wooded so it will be blocked with leaves etc. I''m going to get a cctv drain survey of the main runs accessed via the manholes I've shown but short of feeding the drain cam down the vent pipe I guess t'll remain a bit of a mystery. There are no rodding eyes apparent anywhere.

Interesting to hear about the Better Kitchens experience of Vee6 dan - and this thread is a really helpful discussion generally as I've just been casting around (including the Wren £20k buy-now-to-lock-in-the-discount experience). I costed up like for like true handleless base/wall/tall units and inserts/trim (but exc worktops) between BK and Wren and BK came out at £3800 vs Wren £8000. Still not sure about BK though as it looks like around an 80% satisfied customer rate - and bits of their website are somewhat poorly maintained - but maybe that's because there isn't a massive marketing mark-up.....

Thanks all for the friendly welcome - more info when I have it. Yes, I need to get the right terminology for the box profile - these profiles seem to have numbers related to the profile sizes like 32 x 1000 but I haven't measured ours yet. We certainly will have to upgrade the insulation - there is some token insulation from what I've seen but nothing close to present standards. From a quick look in the attic during viewing there may be some metal purlins for the box profile sheets but the main structural roof frame is a kind-of old-style bolted and tooth connection attic truss, which is helpful in terms of open space.

.....but don't even own the place yet! And so our planning application is yet to come. I've come across this forum a few times when I've been googling for diy answers but now, after an impulse buy, (how many times do you hear that?) we're soon to own a rather neglected, sixties-era, individual architect designed house in Scotland (kind-of modernist style) that needs a heap of work. I'll post pictures once we own it in a couple of months but don't want to jinx things meantime. It's an unusual building and the roof is formed from square section corrugated steel - in fact it was me looking at the postings about such things in this forum that led me to sign up. Look forward to exchanging info with fellow contributors. One of our first jobs (subject to pp) will be to create a permeable driveway via a fairly steep slope. There's no decent vehicle access presently. It will probably need curves / dogleg plan to get a suitable gradient. It's only around 30m in straight line distance to the kerb but the gradient and curves will probably make that more like 40 or 50m of drive. We've no real idea of costs for that so I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's had to deal with anything similar or signposting to good information sources. Thanks.