Ferdinand

You tell them what it is. Or conceivably they have a pass key. How do they do it with all those centre in the London blurbs designed to stop rat runs? F

Would they perhaps have a database of key codes?

Shouldn't that be "volume", even down the TM rabbit hole?

Thanks all. So the extra 3 leaves (say 6 ply not 3 ply) is very much for taking the potential benefit from 80% to 90% of the max. Ferdinand

As an intermediate, why not close them but use a bead of silicone around the edge of the shutter first, then wipe off the excess. Then if you find it works OK with the MCHR and decide to foam it up in 1 or 2 years, you can reopen it with a modelling or Stanley knife and do the thing more thoroughly. F

thanks. That is a classic BRE document ?. 230 pages including 21 Appendices. Including ‘Appendix O (not used)’ on a whole page. An army artillery man, there. Should have had a picture of a hat and “This is not an Appendix”.

Thanks for tecpomments, all. It looks like provision for the future and watch this space, for now, then. Ferdinand

In a 1960s Comic, this would be under "Droopy's Drippy Questions", but are they? I was just reflecting on big bifolds, and whether they would actually be necessary, bearing in mind that lift'n'slide windows only half open, anyway? I might be more inclined to have a 3-ply bifold, and a big window. That must be worth £1200-1500 off the cost (or could be spent on slide and turn). But is anything lost by so doing?

I have seen comment on BH that an EPC of 100 is nominally a Zero Energy house. Can anyone give me a source I can reference for this? (Needed for blog post). Cheers Ferdinand

If you leave the 1.5mm² 'protected' by the larger fuse, then it can lead for example to your smaller wire burning out before the fuse itself - which (in addition to allowing a bigger current through, fire hazard etc) is a far more complex thing to mend afterwards. Apols if adding eggs to your aniseed balls to suck. F

Height above stairs will be bound by Building Regulations' requirements, anyway. If he is an architect he will have complied with those. It was more about asking for more detail of the plans so we can see how it all fits together - a 3d angled view from above (technically called an "axonometric" by architects) would be good too ?. The more info we have, the better feedback you get. The one thing that I think immediately is to go for side-by-side parking not tandem (unless they won't allow that, in which case I would make the drop kerb very generous in width and do it in a couple of years anyway). Where are you with the plot purchase - have you bought it yet, or have you got a lock-in agreement with next door, such that he can't back out? F

Note: Previous conversation about this project here:

It would be useful to see how the 2 floors (and especially the walls) register, and perhaps the elevations. Looks good that you are not being constrained by the box you were given when you started. That staircase looks a bit head-bumpy afaics, and there may be (perhaps) complications with flat-roof to wall joints if that is what it is. Are those your spaces or next doors spaces at the front? If next-doors, what did you get in return? Ferdinand

I have up to about 25mm - maybe 26mm, and up to 1m long. Usually come in cheap kits from Aldi etc once in a blue moon, and a typical use would be to thread pipes or cables through a thick wall or ceiling, also not needing to be very often. I have one which is a long 16mm one which generates a small standing wave in the drill bit as it wobbles. Ferdinand.

According to my diary, 21st June is the first day of summer. Crossed wires in custom and practice, methinks.

??? Warm spring in Escocia?

That looks partly like a summer/winter imbalance, and that they are trying to claw back on the basis of 6 months of difference. it looks like a bit of a jump. You may have done all of this next but. I would cross check your actual usage against what they are charging, and decide how long you want to take for it to come back into line. In my experience these payments are negotiable with evidence. You could try for 125 or 130. My payment with a different supplier has just hoicked from 87 to 117, but I owe them £250 after a heavy winter so I cannot really complain, and I only changed last year. I am in the MSE Energy Club to monitor for cheaper tariffs, but I tend to go for large suppliers and fixed 2-3 year tariffs. Others will know more about Bulb. Ferdinand

Welcome Sam. I put a Ten things To Do on my blog in the blog area recently, that may be useful but addresses energy rather than aesthetics, heavy renovation, and redesign. If you were able at some stage to blog here about some of the principles of lighting design, I think that would be really helpful. Ferdinand

I think that demolish and replace is a good option. I think that like cable systems being unreliable at the connections, there are loads of complications at the joint between the old and new in all the different spheres .. electric, leakage etc. And new build has huge tax and simplicity advantages. Ferdinand

there is a lot of value in having a very secure store early on, as it lets you get a lot of things in advance that people might just be giving away. You also have somewhere to store your gibbons (*) and maybe digger, and eg scaffold etc. It could save you from moving some stuff twice. Pros and cons based on whether you save more by having the store or economy of scale. There are often opportunities to get things free. Ferdinand * £&5)=*#*)7 iPad. = gubbins.

As your proposed basement is on the end of a terrace in London, I think you do want some planning advice on the local attitudes and policies. that probably wants to come from a local Planning Consultant or Architect who has been involved in similar. Or perhaps from pre-planning advice from the Council (££). It will not bind them. But may tell you their attitude. I would take probably split it into paid for advice up front on a time basis as orientation, consider whether I needed a pro for the design and planning stages - I would treat those together with a bonus payment for getting planning, and then consider the build. In London I would not want to be left without access to an immediate expert, depending slightly on whether I was paying for expensive infrastructure like scaffold on pavement licenses etc. Ferdinand

Fit whatever was going to be your Plan B for when the boiler breaks (even electric panels or fan heaters(?) ), and get completed with that, then do it afterwards. F

Welcome. We all have opinions. Your job (echoing Mr Bosch above) is to learn enough in your situation that you can me a decision in which you have confidence. On that one, read the contract to see what your rights are. When I talked about removing some of those, essentially I would have had to buy out the next 15 years' cashflow to put them in the same position as if the contract had continued. Hopefully there may be an "out" if you are demolishing. That is one to sort out in advance if you can, as any changes you want to implement may well take months to agree then months to implement (Land Registty and Deeds will be involved). I would lay odds that you will end up either buying it out, or keeping it on. My call would be to build a materials store / workshop as large as you can under Permitted Development in a position where you will be able to keep it as a long term feature of your house, and move them to that roof. Ferdinand

I would say either can work. In a range cooker you may get more bang for the buck if it does what you want. F

Final notes: If you want to play around with this footprint more it will need to be things like moving your central corridor off-centre .. even right against a wall, thinking about a single flight staircase against one outside wall, perhaps move the door to the end etc. Personally, I would strongly recommend getting some input from an architect .. perhaps only one or two days, to give you a different angle. This footprint seems to me to be ‘fragile’, in the sense that the division between “excellent” and “difficult to live in” is quite narrow. As it is a 250k build, 500-1000 on getting it to be as good as you can will be a good investment. Best of luck. F