Ferdinand

Do the pipes running to the external unit need insulating if they are running a few meters outside? Logic says yes, but do they come insulated as an option? I think I am heading for doing the same as Jeremy here. Should I start a mini-project thread, or continue here? Ferdinand

unfortunately the only Unico that fits my wallspace is the tower version, which looks even more expensive than the normal normal £1200-1500 in the range. I will not get that past the authorities for cooling a single room. So it is perhaps looking like Jeremy’s option, and running the ducting for a few m down by the conservatory. F

That is me out of ideas then except borrow a trailer or did something else that needs the tower to mitigate the cost, or accept it sticking out of the back of the car a little. Best of luck. F

The room has no external windows - just a double french door into the conservatory, which then has a further double to to outside and some opening windows, and a double door into the (large - 4.5m x 5.5m) kitchen. Conservatory and kitchen are on the N side. It is the classic somewhat-inner room you get with a fat-at-the-back extension. I just built the (PP obtained by previous owner) conservatory to be 18" in from the boundary rather than on the boundary as in the PP. So may need to reconsider. Swamp Cooler?

Hmmm I do have a 400mm wide "alley" down the side of my conservatory which adjoins this room at the end. Is 400mm enough to mount one of these split units on the Garden Wall (block) sideways. It sounds horribly tight. To get out of the alley would require about 3.5m of pipe run. Do any of the internal units have remote controls - the extra comfort is for a room for a older family member. Ferdinand

I would do some reading on this. Protection etc.

I need a device to keep one room rather cooler than the temperature the house is currently running at. Can anyone comment on technologies, or recommend best options? Since I have plenty of solar, I can be a little less cautious about power consumption etc, though obviously the less the better. In reality, I am probably after something portable - though I can consider options. I certainly do not have the outside unit a la Jeremy. The particular room only has an outside strip of wall perhaps 18" wide, as the rest is boundary with next door. Thanks Ferdinand

Wrt to your architect making decisions and representations freelancing, you may need to bang the table or act on a decision pdq. Key question: "Who is the client?". I think you need to explore the distinction between "basement" and "lower ground floor" in the Westminster Council policies, and what in reality applies to yours. As you know there has been huge flapping about Basement extensions for years; if yours is not one, it may help. Also, is there a policy requiring this - worth asking the Planning person? If there is not, you may just be able to say no. It does seem to be a bit of an idiosyncratic demand. I would verify that you are going to get away with extinguishing a parking space, and just check whether that is the best option. If I was the Council I would be giving you a Paddington Stare and asking about the proposed locations for bins and bikes. I would take a moment to consider whether you want to extinguish your rear access routes as it appears you do. I would have a dig for some precedents where the appearance rather than physical position of the new part has been approved as meeting a "distinctive" or "subservient" criteria (eg fenestration, material, texture or colour). Proposals such as yours are one source; looking at how the facades of mews houses have been treated, eg the former stables bit, may be another. I would wonder about arguing that caring about the facade facing an 'orrible windblown carpark where tired and emotional MPs may sleep rough every night is not that important (if it is genuinely unattractive). If you end up with a 200mm set back, I would probably make them oriel bay windows on the set-back side, reaching to the boundary. According to the property sites, that extra 0.2m x 2m x 2 is worth the best part of 15k ! If only we had that up here ... Ferdinand

That looks expensive, even for integrated. I think. But I do not have reasonable prices for those in my head. Anyone? I think that the money should go on insulation first, but that you may well be able to save the difference if you buy well, or on something else, and get both. Detail to be sweated ? . Ferdinand

With non of the ASHP gubbins I managed to get out inside temp in the kitchen down to 23.5C this morning - not comfortable for me. It was at 25C last night. Suspect that the step I really need to take is a veranda on the S side across my office and the front lounge (soon to be bedroom), and move some solar panels. That will be a 2020 project, maybe. F

Depends on what you mean by a "normal" car :-). Mine, which @MrPunter sold me, is a Zarges Reachmaster scaffold tower 3.7m platform height 5.7m, goes very comfortably in the Skoda Estate with the passenger seat down.. It might even take another stage. Biggest pieces are 2120 x 750 and 1800 x 950. One to watch is the deck, which may be wide enough not to fit on the front seat width, so may need to be behind your back-line. Any car such as a Mondeo, big Audi, BMW or Merc, or Volvo should be OK. If not, it will only stick out by about 12-18". You just need a system to keep the boot shut without wrecking your paintwork. Take lots of padding. I wouldn't say it will go in something like a Focus Estate, but maybe. Unfortunately Manchester is a bit far for a loan, and mine is currently in use. HTH F

is there space to land a ladder on the top lintel of the window? Looks like a row of bricks above it. Though personally I would hate doing it. Cleaning a gutter at that height is bad enough. It would be a scaff tower for me. F

@Pete Put the untidy bit in the middle of the run from front door to back to decouple the two ends. I would have them tidy at both ends of the front-door to glazing-with-pillars run where your spaces are, then use a band of these or contrasting tiles reduced to whatever space is left to mark the transition from hall to kitchen-diner, as a "feature not a bug" thing. This assumes parallel walls front and back, and precision tiling if starting from both ends - any wonky angles will need planning for. On the corridor I would line up with the wall straight through to the door at the LH end to fit in. I would use 100mm cuts where the 1.3m wide bit is, and 400 cuts on the top side of the corridor where it expands to 2m. I would deal with the bottom side wider section near the door by having some sort of 400 deep bookshelf, display or storage unit - possibly tiled underneath but it would make it look more intended. 400 possibly feels the right depth for shoes and various outdoor gubbins and sports and pets doodahs, and is in roughly the right place in the layout. Would give variable cuts on one side of the corridor only, which I think would help. I think that all those 400 cuts, including the potentially untidy middle ones as perhaps the bottom of your shoe cupboard, may save you quite a lot of wastage. F

Sounds like you need to apply a little cost-control to your planner, or at least some discipline. Unless there is a hefty copyright fee or something else in that £270. £270 should be the best part of a day for a normal Plannign Consultant, and that plan did not take a day (imo). Whatever you negotiate and he accepts. It would be reasonable to include eg survey costs, valuer costs, legal costs as things to count against the uplift imo. If you ask your legal advisers they may have a schedule of normal practice. Just do not put yourself in the position where there are things on the list you cannot prove. Again, the agreement is what you negotiate, though without PP there would be no uplift so a conditional agreement is likely. If you get him to accept a fixed price offer, then you make a judgement call based on your estimate of what you can achieve vs what he wants. You also need to check just in case you already have prescriptive access for what you need to do down that route. eg if you have the right to drive down it then potentially services could go the other way and you may just need to say "I'm building this house and wanted to let you know I will be building a drive", rather than "I accept I may need to cross your palm with silver." The sort of games you can play are to get agreement for access to a rear entrance to the existing for say a garage, or something that only applies to one PP and do it in 2 jumps with a small uplift first, or carefully worded such that it covers the both. But that would be sharp-elbowed, and not a good thing to do to neighbours. For all of that you want a local recommended property type experienced solicitor who should have all the agreement boilerplate in their computer, and will be a great help. Look at local firms with one to perhaps five branches who have several partners and someone specialising in property. If you get up to a regional firm with a corporate car park in the local city your wallet will definitely know about it. I always say that for a recommendation ask a qualified professional surveyor ideally a RICS at your established local estate agent. You want to talk to the hoariest old git in the back office - the one who looks either heavily stressed like Captain Pugwash with a pepper-and-salt beard and 6 unwashed cups of tea on the desk, or the one who looks relaxed and extremely well-lunched. But in any case the one who has been there for 15 years or more. F

Another option is adjustable support pads, which are .. adjustable in height. Need a reasonably firm base, however. Google using that phrase. You can shims for slopes, self levelling, and all kind of things. Help potentially if It moves later. You would probably want Wallbarn Megapads or similar. Check carefully for your exact application.

This looks like a good project, with a number of potholes on the way. My brief comments 1 - Get a formal valuation at the point of gift. It is a matter of judgement whether to maximise or minimise this within justifiable guidelines, depending on your parents’ estate size and if they are in their last 7 years. Logic probably says minimise and get the uplift in your name. Will really help with all kinds of future conversations with authorities. 2 - You may be shocked by the access bill. Case law says it can reasonably be a third of the uplift it generates in the value of the plot.So begin recording irrefutably everything you spend, so in theory expenses can be deducted. But he may just alight on a price, and in a sellers market of one you are probably a little powerless. Grin and bear it. 3 - Get used to holding a poker face and reflecting before reacting, even if someone says they are going to insert a porcupine in your posterior, backwards. The pause to think, and keeping stum, are really critical skills. 4 - Talking about land as a deposit is confusing. I would suggest ‘equity’ is a better word. Their are BSs out there that will treat it just the same. Try Penrith for one. Ferdinand

This is the Appeal Decision and the Officer Report. The Council are a bit hamstring in that they cannot apply the National Space Standards without an up to date local plan (which is silly by the Govt), and that they are relying on very recent caselaw. The site has quite the spectacular Planning History. 18_01306_OPD-OFFICER_REPORT-716608.pdf 3220904 appeal decision.pdf

That is going nowhere. It will fail Building Regs, and there is yonks of rental regulation that will stop it on Complaint to EH .... starting with category one hazards under the HHSRS, such as ventilation and fire escapes. That is unless he does it to an acceptable standard. Suspect it is part of a Planning Strategy to redevelop, and by doing change of use early under PD he gets to make it residential with no objections. Perhaps they will deem it to be 15 Band A units in as short a time as possible. The article is rather unfortunately incomplete in its assessment imo. Speculating, embarrassment of the Commercial to Residential PR law may be the target, which is unfortunate as it enabled a lot of good conversions as well as some bad ones. F

(personally I ask for the one I want to drink, as I am sure all on BH do. ?) More on topic, I sometimes use the ESE capsules which are wrapped in paper. And can I plug our local roaster, who are just coming up to 100 years old and are ironically called the Northern Tea Traders. They roast about a tonne of beans every week, and the prices are from about £3.60 for 200g. Depending on which of the 20 types of bean you order. Minus about another 10% for orders over, I think, £30 or £40. If you are Within the region and commercial (or a big drinker) they will provide you a free and maintained Bravilior filter machine - think of those ones with 2 jugs, and deliver your coffee. The region is roughly Leeds to Brum across England, and the amount you will need to make is about 50 jugs per month. https://www.northern-tea.com/shop/coffee/ And these are the most moreish chocolate product in the entire world: https://www.northern-tea.com/buy/milk-chocolate-coated-cocoa-dusted-almonds/ Ferdinand

Or, more concisely YES !!! Aaaaaah.

My chosen weapon for physically removing moss is a gutter brush on a 2x extension pole. No idea where it came from ... parents saw one in a shop once and swooped. It only extends to about 12ft, but that makes 18-20 with me. Should be easy to find online. I did a high bungalow roof with this before selling it. The problem I have now is that I have one storey of wall, then about 7m of roof above that .. which is too much for the brush. So it will be the idea below when I next do it. For the ‘spray with copper sulphate and leave to die for a couple of months’ option I would look for a traditional fruit tree sprayer, which will do anything between 2m and perhaps 5m plus you. Or for more fun get hold of a water soaker of the bicycle pump type, which you can make yourself for tuppence https://www.instructables.com/id/5-Water-Guns/ Or buy one for about £3. They will have a 10m range, get a bucket of CuSO4 solution, and Robert is your relation. Maybe. Just practice frost with water so you do not go over the whole house and kill next door’s cabbages. I got one from the pound shop a couple of years ago which had enough range to discourage the cats and squirrels on my front wall from the front porch and protecting the nesting birds a little. Ferdinand

1 Make sure they are happy with a washer-dryer. I find the drying by those to be less than stellar. However, @JSHarris can probably attest to the performance of that model. But he has mvhr in an ecohouse, and your parents may not. 2 Check the readability of the controls. At worktop level, away from a window, in a utility it may be different to a brightly lit shop. Especially for oldsters. I have trouble with our new one, let alone mum. 3 Check on the exact programs used constantly by your parents, and that those ones in particular are easy to use eg if the dial position is at the top or top half, not at the bottom. And ideally that their favourites do not require further settings after the dial. God is in the detail of the defaults. 4 I can recommend a current Bosch, which have a dial and then a control panel that lets you adjust nearly everything easily. It also has a short cycle. Ferdinand

Interesting the differences from orientation, position and trees. My rather larger array has general 16MWh since Feb 2016. I think Jeremy’s was put in in spring 2014.

Looks very interesting, I would say special care would be needed for something so spread out for Energy usage in particular. But it will be fab to live in. I would raise a flag and say to balance any inspirational architectural aspirations with your feet on the ground. Example .. the Gasworks by Chris Dyson in Upper Slaughter is up for umpteen awards, but it only just scraped a D in the EPC stakes. In a few years that will probably prevent it being rented out, perhaps even for holidays. And it took them 2 years to sell it. https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/the-gasworks/upper-slaughter/cheltenham/gl54-2jt/41509827 It has a fair amount of sustainability wibble attached to the architectural-bollocks, but in practical terms sustainable it is not, as the Energy efficiency is well below the national average. https://www.architecture.com/find-an-architect/chris-dyson-architects/london/gasworks “The introduction of a very carefully-considered architectural concept into the Gloucestershire countryside; one which is of national significance and distinction in its approach to quality and sustainabilty, notably the integration of internal and external factors.” Ferdinand

On a short break from my break. Stop making me post.