Ferdinand

I think mine has the outer leaf rebuilt, but it was a bungalow having an extra storey added and was done by the previous owners who lived in a caravan for several years. They also did a side extension and a fat-at-the-back extension. We bought it finished except for a conservatory and the electric gates. The caravan is still on the Council database 15 years later. The weakness I see with redoing the outer leaf is that it will never be high performance with only a 75mm cavity and 50mm EWI. That feels like more cost than benefit. I only have 80mm PIR (it needed double) in the cavity and is better than OK, but only an EPC of low-80s iirc without the large solar array. Your costs need a careful check. I have had various EWI quotes for different houses over the years, typically for 125-200mm to be worth the pfaff, and they have never come out at less than £100 per sqm even going back a decade and with agreements for me to get various prep work done. I'd say consider option 6 if you can, and a design-and-build from a timber frame company (or design-and-shell and you do fit-out-and-decorate), and bank the several extra years of spare time you get for you or your family to enjoy. Ferdinand

You arguably need both - foil edging tape does not insulate, so if you get convection currents within the gap that can bleed hear away. If your foam bulges like Lord Bufton-Tufton's eyebrows, you can just trim it back.

There has been a big announcement in Parliament by the Housing Minister of State about big revisions to the planning framework. These were my expectations posted elsewhere, which seem mainly to have been delivered, though not necessarily quite in this form: IMO they need to hit the vested interests which are blocks (eg speculative private land banking), in a way that aligns Local Political interests with development following the legal principles. In a way which is enforcible. My checklist of what is required: 1 Local Councillors to be focussed on long term direction / strategy / local plans, not micro-management of individual applications. 2 Individual applications to be determined by Planning Professionals following law, not Planning Committees following parish pump politics. This should also remove some conflicts of interest / opportunity for corruption, though not all. 3 Housing targets to be mandatory, and obsessed objectively. 4 Possibilities for robust intervention if local Councillors sit on their hands. 5 Planning Gain to be capped in some effective way. 6 Encouragement / facilitation for local councils to be more proactive in Compulsory Purchase, potentially involving the opportunity to intervene on sustainable (in planning terms) development sites. 7 Possibility is streamlining enforcement. 8 All of the above will require capacity building. My tentative assessments (just from the speech) on what may impact self-builders are: - Much increased pressure on councils to pass local plans, and have them in place quickly. Transitional arrangements for a few months. - The pre-Election NIMBY-pandering done by the last Government is being summarily reversed. Good. - Planning Committees powers to micro-manage individual application will be reducing. PP will be tipping towards determination by Planning Officers. - Building on grey or brown belt to become more straight forward, ie on scrubby bits of the Green Belt. Likely to be a slow-burn - 6 months not next week. - If a development follows planning principles and does not walk the edges of what is acceptable, chances of getting it through straightforwardly are better than before. - Heavy circumscribing of use of "viability assessments" by developers, which is a tool used to control the planning process. Not really relevant to self-builders, but interesting. But these are major changes, so take time to do the homework. There are a few webinars being announced. NPPF announcement and document:: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2#full-publication-update-history https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675abd214cbda57cacd3476e/NPPF-December-2024.pdf

I actually have spare RCBOs in stock ... but I might prefer my normal chap to do it as a Saturday morning job rather than personally. I have a small job at a tenant that needs a look.

That's a thought. I might have an insulation tester somewhere ! (It's been that long since I did anything.) Thanks all.

Can someone advise on how to approach a tripping RCBO. Normally my electrics are great, the house was rewired about 15 years ago, and I had a new consumer unit in about 2017. Recently I had an RCBO tripping on my part-of-downstairs lighting circuit. It had been repeatedly tripping. I removed what I thought was a questionable lightbulb (porch) and it improved. Now it has tripped again, and is at immediate-retrip when switched to "on" stage. So do I need to look first at 1 - Remove all the lightbulbs to see if it helps. 2 - Swap out the RCBO as possibly faulty (which will need my friendly lecky, as I normally would not venture inside the fuse box -- though I could do so). 3 -Something else. Comments and advice are most welcome. Ferdinand

Absolutely. Upstairs in the office at our ancient estate agent is the MRICS chap who has been doing all the local property auctions for 2 or 3 decades. I haven't needed him very often, but when I need things RIGHT, and maybe a little slow and a little expensive, he delivers ... eventually. Equally when I needed a housing estate application going through having inherited some land, and there was going to be a NIMBY plague suddenly interested in fox-watching, I got the consultant from the front page of the local paper from the report where a previous slomewhat similar application had been recommended, then had a political know from committee, then won on Appeal. Let's hear it for hoary old gits and gitesses !

If you want advice in those circs, then you need someone who knows the Council better than the Council knows the Council. My suggestion is to go to your best established locally-based estate agent, who have been there for a decade or three, and talk to their in-house MRICS or planning bod. You ideally want the hoary old git or git-ess with the grey stubble, Columbo the Detective coat, and 4 unwashed coffee cups on the desk. Go in with your questions in your head for a general chat about your project and make them curious, and you may get an opinion on the spot. Or spend a relatively small amount of money on a 90 minute meeting and an opinion - making clear that you are looking for an informed opinion not advice over which you can sue if he is wrong. (The latter will cost much more.) Could also be done by email once you have made the contact. A tell tale that you have the right person is that they know several key planning officers, and their foibles, by name. It may be that you could get decent advice for a company that specialise in such projects, as they will know what usually works. HTH.

Yes a new permitted development right was added. But take care on the various things that limit it. eg: "1940s bungalow" The rights do not apply to: buildings converted to residential under permitted development rights conservation areas, areas of outstanding natural beauty, the Broads, national parks, world heritage sites and SSSIs buildings constructed before 1 July 1948 or after 28 October 2018 where the existing dwelling house has been enlarged already by the addition of one or storeys whether under permitted development or otherwise https://www.charlesrussellspeechlys.com/en/insights/expert-insights/real-estate/2020/permitted-development-a-right-to-add-new-storeys-to-your-home/

Now. Now.

The light in my front porch (stoop in Usonian) just went pop. It has a bayonet fitting, and has been a compact fluorescent om a smash-proof enclosure which has lasted about 5 or 6 years. Do I use a normal domestic compact flash or LED bulb, or is there a special version more resilient to either low/high temperatures, or moisture? Thanks Ferdinand

You may be able to have a conversation and a visit from the BCO just by ringing up and asking; they tend to be more approachable informally than Planning (in my experience), Just know exactly what your questions & ideas are ready for when you talk to them, and have any plans, Streetview Links etc ready to send by email whilst you are on the phone so you can have a good chance of resolving it in one hit.

Or you could get yourself a special fire brigade 😉:

IIRC the minimum reduced with is 2.75m so you are on the edge, and really need to make sure that your hedge is some way back form that. If if is' your hedge, one way is to replace it it with something better than conifers, and set it back further (which may mean make it thinner). If it is someone else's would they let you replace it. On the surface, I don't see why grass car park reinforcement would be a worse idea - it will be absorbed into the grass, and with little traffic would vanish into the earth / grass. Needs a careful reading of your PP wording, a conversation with the Fire Brigade or check of regs, and perhaps an application for a variation of the condition. Present it as something they did not consider? You could point out (or do if they say no) that you could consolidate the surface by legally driving up and down it 19645 times in a borrowed Fire Engine, so it would be better for all if they allowed it to be reinforced in an eco-friendly manner leaving it looking no different and less vulnerable to being turned into a mud-bath in the winter. A further option could be a sprinkler system, which mitigates risk of fires.

Further thoughts - make sure there is somewhere to put and keep sticks upright if there is a pausing place. That may be a rail to hook them over (notch or nipples to retain them in place) and use a trad walking stick like Winston Churchill with a hooked top, or a thing like one of those hold-back-the-curtains hooks we get beside a window. There should be a wrought iron something that is the right shape, or a blacksmith could make one, or a wrought iron gate fabricator will have a curly bit about the right shape. For the rails I put in by my wheelchair ramp and rear shallow steps I put in for mum, I used post and half round fences just knocked in with 2 rails, which cost almost nothing, look rustic, and can be adjusted by a handyman or neighbour in an hour or two, and would need replacement every 4/5 years with a soundness-check at half way. But possibly splinters risk, which on slow-healing hands or skin may be problematic (wear gloves like a Bond villain, or fingerless cycling mitts with padded palms). Also grab handles can be useful if well placed - again external spec. Vertical ones are good for balance (make them 18" not 6-12" so work for both sexes), not pulling up, as they need strong fingers - which is not you 🙃. Horizontal ones are better for that as they can be elbow leaned on. Or loops of rope with can be wrapped round an arm - which may be attached to a portable hook you carry in your manbag. There are infinite varieties of helpful devices, and many are external-grade specced, and some are even attractive. I'm currently interested in accessible surfaces, as I've been looking at our local rail trails. If you need one you call fall on with a soft landing there are non-bound things (hoggin, gravel) and types of things used in children's playgrounds or gyms that they bounce off - such as rubber crumb things, or soft finish tarmac type things. If you plan to be wheelchair-friendly whilst planning to fall over on it with a lower risk of broken bones these are more difficult to roll over, especially manually - of those you probably want the resilient tarmac for that. For hard surfaces Plan B is to wear pads like a skateboarder ! It's all about taking enough, but not excessive, time to think it through, and which risks you want to mitigate and potential costs and benefits eg that more expensive soft surface vs being off your feet with a broken leg if the worst happens, and the consequent long term impact. When I did the bathroom for mum, the main research was thinking a bit, then chatting in situ for an hour with her sitting on the toilet lid. But her career was as a physio in a special school, so she was quite aware herself. I'll stop there or I could go on forever. F