Ferdinand

Cam you test one duct before you commit to the second?

Undoubtedly true, but it may also be the easiest alternative that can be tried in an "easily reversible if it doesn't work" manner. F

I can point you to my local independent, who do deliver nationally and do do things custom. Ron Currie's. Prices are usually OK, but I think that you will struggle for treated PSE, and delivery from NG17 to Manchester may slug it. The way might be to treat it yourself in a dipping bath made from planks and a hunk of DPC polythene. https://roncurrie.co.uk/ F

Welcome. Looks like an excellent project.

Suspect that on this one you will not do well with the common land, and that the remedy is likely to be widening your access by a - Stuffing your neighbour's mouth with gold. That will be slightly expensive. b - A generous land swap if they need more garden. c - Flipping the property, which will cost you are least 3% for Stamp Duty if you can't get a low price - or you could potentially turn it into a rental. Ferdinand

I'm not sure whether I am being way off beam here, but will there be a glut of the filter type products needed for this in a couple of years time - assuming a Covid-19 vaccine?

I see that heating oil prices are below 20p per litre. https://www.boilerjuice.com/heating-oil-prices-england/?utm_term=heating oil prices&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&src=252&gclid=CjwKCAjwwMn1BRAUEiwAZ_jnEkqWEBRhEglSHB2VrX4fLp74-Mw1rJuklg3aUAtrk7JinZ-7b_B-ARoCci0QAvD_BwE

Would there be benefit in simply putting the intake on the reverse slope?

I admit to scratching several corners of several cars on that. The wall itself is probably 1850 or thereabouts and it's actually got a preservation order of sorts on it, as in a planning condition not to demolish when the big garden of an old house was redeveloped :-). My bit hasn't, though. The hawthorn hedge behind the telegraph pole is actually a fragment of original field hedge, which is probably also Victorian or earlier. When I was young the area behind there used to be fields with skylarks,

Buildhub member @NSS is doing a cycle marathon in his bedroom (OK, that's an exaggeration; it's in his shed ... maybe) to raise some money for a favoured cause during lockdown. I have my own slightly mad cycling project, amongst several others. I tried to get a local forum going a few years ago, which went exactly nowhere. So I’m trying again with an FB group whilst there are about 5x as many cyclists around ... many going up and down my lane. In adjacent areas great things have been achieved over the last few years, but not here. Yet. But some bugger has bent one of my driveway safety mirrors - very strange, as it is to prevent accidents and me squashing people walking past with my car.

This may well be affected by the unadopted road and what rights the Council has to apply full planning policy on unadopted / private roads, which may be different to other roads. I recall a debate about this wrt PP for I think dormer windows in bungalows on private roads. Suspect that to look into that might take you down a rabbit hole that would be painfully longwinded to investigate, and it may depend on what access rights are retained by members of the public in their vehicles, and volume of traffic, and the effect on highway safety or whatever is the basis underlying the Council policy.

The version of Manual for Streets that came out in the 1990s included research that suggested that reversing out onto relatively major roads was less of a problem than had been believed previously. Practically, I would take a careful view based on the road you will be living in. Can you reverse out with an acceptable level of safety? If you are happy with that, you will probably need to comply with the policy - at least theoretically, whatever that is. The policy may have an exception clause in it, though you may need to find that yourself. I would perhaps try and talk or email to the Planner directly on that point, phrased to let them explain exactly what it means. Alternatively, could you extend upwards (or downwards) as a Plan B? Ferdinand

Welcome.

Not particularly...

Is "nudge" a word they use ? . Though I'd just made it up.

Agree with you there. I think you are falling foul of them potentially failing to use their discretion appropriately.

I have a couple which are difficult, and we fitted an extra stop valve at ground level - so that could be closed and the upper tap left open to try and prevent freezing by permitting expansion. Not ideal, though.

Interesting thread. My further notes. 1 - I agree on basements; I cannot see why a basement of itself in a spacious site should be a relevant planning matter, and I can't find a definitive ruling on whether it should be part of a GIA calculation. Though I can see that if it increases the 'load' of the house eg by having 2 extra bedrooms or an annexe (sort of like an upside-down Jane Eyre), that may impact on other policies. There is a useful document by Camden here which discusses potential impacts (I am not claiming this to be current): https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/0/Basement+Development+Guidance+Note.pdf/5727d198-d789-e06e-05ea-77f55b3a0d6f Judging by that doc, it is (probably correctly) a matter for the LPA (Local Planning Authority). 2 - One tactic that may help is to define the basement in a way which is non-habitable space (eg workshop, storage) but is suitable for later change. 3 - It's worth a note for future readers that a Planning Officer sits in on the Planning Committee to make sure they don't make 'ignorant layman' mistakes. If the committee choose to ignore this advice, then that is legally an abuse of procedure - and potentially a ground for Appeal.

That would only be any use if you had an auto closer on it as well, perhaps? The ones I used are these, which are stainless steel with a spring loaded "soft catch", and so would work, but you could close the door with a shoulder nudge if it opened the right way. They are cheap. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CLWN3CS/ Consider though, that many wetrooms will have doors opening outward.

Couldn't that be done with an external weatherproof light time switch, and a valve in the water pipe? There are also showers with built-in timers, are there not? I think we discussed those on here wrt my gym showers. Edit: or a timer shower. eg https://www.showermanager.com/ I love their not-at-all-gratuitous promo photo of a person who's shower just went cold and looks miserable:

That shouldn't interfere.

Back in 1970 or so, my dad designed these into showers for the local swimming pool when he was a council architect. There was a heel pad you had to stand on to make the shower work, which prevented anyone doing the "can you trigger the shower without getting wet thing". Made you vulnerable to the first cold patch, though.

One lesson there is a master tap inside. But that is standard anyway.

I think that perhaps changing a lot of things specifically for this may be overdone unless there are supplementary reasons or specialist requirements. Many of the things that you might do probably come under 'good practice anyway' - such things as having a whb in the separate loo, "nudge" taps with levers (which I use anyway so I don't have to put things down or because they are more convenient for tenants and in case I happen to have a disabled or tenant with poorer motor control *). You have probably considered many of these already. Probably my best unexpected "reduce contact" item has been door retainers, which hold your door open. I suppose the other item is voice control. I am getting used to Alexa, and am thinking about trying to link up my smart TVs. I am considering renaming Alexa to be the same as my cousin, as it would be the only time I have ever been able to tell her to do anything, and having it actually work. There are also pros and cons for each item - remember my thread from a few weeks ago about hand dryers, which talked about generating aerosols by things blown off your hands. F * I once heard a speech by a wonderful poet / writer / associate vicar in Nottingham called Alyn Haskey who had cerebral palsy. His quip was how to explain your hand suddenly shooting out on the train into the handbag of the person sitting next to you.

Various people here have installed hot taps iirc, especially for showers or dog wash points.