Ferdinand

On your original query, I think I might be inclined to accept it as what happens with different weather exposure near the coast. Do you know it won't just happen again with the next lot of blocks? I think I would possibly just leave it, and install a large entrance mat * or textured covering over the entire recessed area. It's a place to make sure no mud etc gets in, a place for outdooor pot plants etc, and can just be hosed down if necessary. I'd go for a domestic-looking commercial grade one and cut it to size. Were I redoing blocks, rather than go for pristine in a situation which might be naturally impossible to keep pristine, I might go for a contrast for the recess and eg make the whole thing dark blue (which imo should have been part of the design as they should understand how it will wear). So the block design and colour layout becomes more immune to the effect you have now seen. But then I'm the bloke who does not buy white cars because I don't want to have to wash the damn thing every month. * This sort of thing - an example not a recommendation. /

@wakewaterblue, On your "sand blown through under the patio window last point": My suggestion for the outside gap would be waterproof mortar - that is a specialised product, or use an additive. There may be merit in clearing out what is there already to get a thicker new section rather than just patching - the gap looks narrow. At a trivial level, that could be mix in a good amount of PVA (I have used this eg in small added slabs filling in old chimneys breasts), or something more specialised. Make sure that the surface slope leads moisture away from the house, but you know that I'm sure. To tidy it up you could colour the mortar if you clear it all out, or use a plastic L section over the top, which can be obtained coloured. That should give you imo a 10-25 year repair, done carefully.

Thanks. That helps.

I've seen the other thread on shatafs and Japanese electric superloos, and I'm wondering if anyone has experience with one or the other installed in a house where there is a wheelchair user particularly - but also any other disability? These are in most of Asia, so this happens. But does anyone have experience - I was reminded of a friend with cerebral palsy, who has less eg reduced control over hand movement? Ferdinand

Are there Planning Questions. I can see this issue being a Condition in some way, and being used as quiet leverage by a Council in some circumstances.

There are big flywheels, like this. It's a good thread. I am not sure on the overall picture, though. The Telegraph now being a lobotomised honorary tabloid * which mixes opinion in with invective, and largely ignores the concept known as "news", it's no wonder they jumped on the bandwagon. * I'll never forgive them their front page last year about killer cyclists doing 50mph in thousands of places all over London, using falsified data. The record short course time trial in the Tour de France is 35mph.

Bump.

I am looking at replacing a farm gate with two locking, fold down bollards to provide easy access for mobility aids. Can anyone recommend decent quality items? What will they cost me? The application is that I am trying to make a local public footpath accessible to mobility aids - I can use the Highways Act 1980 to make the Local Highways Authority remove an obstruction, but it will take time and they may fight to keep their illegal barrier. But one other option is to persuade the local allotments society to replace a gate I think they own with locking bollards, which would be better for them and keep them onside. I would happily pay for a couple of these locking bollards, as it may cost me to persuade the council. Photo below. The motor vehicle modal filter is also an anti-wheelchair barrier, and is made out of concrete lorry-blocks from a roundabout. It has been there since 1978 or so. The channel through is about 75cm wide. The policy requirement is for a route through to be 1.5m wide and flat. The allotment people (big site of 200 allotments on the same side as the litter bin) go through the channel with planks across wheelbarrows etc, so are not keen on bollards across the main Right of Way. Thanks Ferdinand

A clip that came my way with Judith Hann. predicting in 1989 what the house of 2020 would be like. They are correct on passive (Passive Haus was being coined at the time - first one built in 1990), energy reduction to reduce fossil fuels (we have not far off halved emissions in the UK), LCD windows, intelligent house and other things. They have a piece of aerogel. They overdo embedded technology always simplifying things, and are wrong on decor, and that Electicity Sockets would go away. But there is no visible cat in the 2020 house, so no passive cat flaps. https://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cnk55nnnyxpo And the presenter is one Christine McNulty, who was I think visiting a conference at the Windows on the World Restaurant in the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001. https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/christine-mcnulty

(There are several lined up for 1 Jan 2027 as well, also unfinished, that you can put in your calendars.) (If you don't behave I'll bring them forward to 31/1/2026 to give you a surprise.)

This is another one :-). Having been on an extended quiet period, my blog has gone beserk. This is one of those "push it into the indeterminate future whilst I think about finishing it" posts from about 3 years ago :-). Ooops.

Uh-oh. Having been on an extended quiet period, my blog has gone beserk. This is one of those "push it into the indeterminate future whilst I think about finishing it" posts from about 3 years ago :-). Ooops.

Are you still here, @tenovus? I did something similar back in 2018, which we discussed here - but I did it all from above raising each 3/4 floorboard, and used rockwool and a staple gun, plus 25-40mm PIR above the floor, not completely sealing the bottoms of the joists from the (dry) ventilated space below. Gave me a u-value of 0.23 and the PIR taped gave me a vapour control membrane. The big +ves were 1 - Easy to install, and 2 - I moved all my services into channels in the PIR dunning alonmg the inside walls, which meant no holes in the insulation layer. This was the layering. The thread is here, with discussion:

I have been developing a Ferdinand's Theory of Buildhub, which applies to everyone here, regardless of age or sex. That has to be read out with the same tones and empasis as "Herge's Adventures of Tintin". (*) There was an Episode of Star Trek Voyager called "Tuvix" where a transporter accident (always a useful plot device) combined the officer Tuvak, and the cook Nelix into a character called Tuvix, who had a very complicated makeup job on set. My theory is that all the self-builders on Buildhub has gone through a similar experience with the three main characters of Last of the Summer Wine - Foggy, Compo, and Clegg - and are now made up of proportions of each. For myself, I think I am mainly Clegg - garrulous and hapless, but hopefully also, like the Planet Earth, mostly harmless. Your degree of Compo is measured by how many sheds you have, and how much junk (as identified by other people) is deposited therein. *

This is my attempt to think As a person with diabetes, I have a higher chance of catching, and then being seriously damaged by, this thing. How to manage contamination of the home - Make the home a sterile - ie anything coming in is washed or wiped in such a way as to remove COVID. - Give the virus time to become inactive. Have 2 lots of things, and use on alternate days - eg 2 coats, 2 sets of gloves etc. - Things that require managing Door handles - keep doors open (see door retainers) Cupboard handles Light switches Sockets Plugs of devices Chair backs Towels - dry hands using tear-off paper, or kitchen roll, or use an air blower - How to Avoid infection when out Wear gloves, and wipe down on return

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.