Ferdinand

I have an end gable where the render is coming loose in patches. It has been much repaired over the years and is not especially prominent. The details are: - Solid wall - half brick. - Cement render. - Dri lines inside. - House well ventilated. My idea is probably to chip off what is there and rerender the whole thing, probably with concrete render. The existing is probably 100 years old. I would take the Tv aerial down at the same time. Any comments would be most welcome.

Perhaps a section can be rolled back at the top.

@Moggaman Reminder: don't get bogged down on ultra-details of roof windows *until* you know it is an issue - check first. We usually debate precise understandings which may be slightly off topic for the OP. The sort of thing that will make it an issue is if your escape route from upstairs is not compartmentalised from the habitable rooms downstairs, or those where a fire could start. F

A scaffold tent is a shelter completely encompassing a build, or part of a build, to allow 'indoor' working whatever the weather. Recently a ran across a 16C barn inside one when I was taking the scenic route from Canterbury to Lewes to buy scaffolding. The project was a builder restoring his barn, after a Planning Process that had taken more than a decade.

Hi @mrbees Sorry to hear that, and on the day that one of our members has won on Appeal after a two year process. So at least there is hope. There are also strategies, some of which are stories from members here. Can you first explain what your objective is, and desired outcome, (i e what do you want to build and what will it be used for) and perhaps post a site plan / site location plan and more detail of the reasons for refusal. Then we can ask more question to help focus our ideas. That you lost by a single vote at PC may be cause for a grain for optimism; perhaps you just need a mafioso ?. Ferdinand

Well done @oldkettle - good to see a result. Now to build it... If only one could build a papier mache model then use a pantograph.

I th8nk that cash loss is now under 1%, even with an ISA, and may be well under 1%.

I think 2 other space-feeling improvements would be 1 - Put the entrance to the bathroom where the shower cubicle is, at 45 degrees, with a Larger shower. 2 - Does the plant room really need to be that large? I would prefer a wider, shallower, staircase. Even 150mm and 37 not 42 degrees would be significant. F

You will get a lot of varying opinions on this. According to an imaginary estate agent, who I think use the govt guidelines, height over 1.5m counts unless they attach some extra weasel words, I make that room 3.65 * 2.75-ish metres. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measuring-practice-for-voa-property-valuations/code-of-measuring-practice-definitions-for-rating-purposes That surprised me as those dimensions make 10sqm+ which is quite generous for a single bedroom. So it may be fine, The Building Regs potential issue is correct ... needs checking in detail, though I doubt that a roof window counts as escape unless it is within x of the edge of the roof and y of the ground or similar. You may not need one as they are not inner rooms, unless you have a compromised main escape route. IMO the way to fix that would be slightly to widen your slit windows and make them opening. I think there may be potential to eke out a bit if extra .. say from 4m to 4.3m or on the other dimension; that would be worth it if no major compromises are required. that would then allow a whole wall of storage or other clever design. What happens if you change your roof angle to 27.5 or 30 degrees not 33? I think that will give you a lot of extra height at the low end. I make it that at 30 degrees you gain something like very roughly 200mm in height at the end, which makes the area of 1.5m height about 12-15% larger. I would also see what it looks like with a different illustrative layout. Why not involve your children ... eg mark out the new size on their current Bedrooms and move all the existing furniture inside the line to find out? Ferdinand

There are a lot of considerations in this, and it can change in direction rather easily. My thoughts: 1 - Maintain your options until you can’t maintain them any more through demands or if it will be too expensive. 2 - Whatever you build is likely to cost more than you think ==> have an extra nest egg that other parties do not know about if you can that can be drawn on. Ferdinand

Looks like a fantastic book, and a good price for an architectural biography. Fiona MacCarthy is really, really good. Two things on Gropius. Judging by the cover photo he is definitely an Eeyore not a Tigger. And did you know he made it into one of the funniest Tom Lehrer songs? Now off to order my copy...

Try these. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=636 My comments are do no make it totally flat or it will scream ‘barrier’; put some texture in the height and depth and focal points somewhere else. Also the whole could die in a single catastrophe if you make it the same throughout. . Bamboo is good, so are fruit trees, or something deciduous in front of an evergreen. If you are having a potting or storage shed, that will be tall enough to hide a chunk of If, and can then be planted around. Of course, they might move their containers along, or get another two or three ?. You could put a bank along there or mounds and grow things on different types of soil or to make them taller, or if you have lots of soil to lose rather than be muckawayed. Also: https://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-ideas/g3367/privacy-landscaping/ Ferdinand

I think that is a well-considered, and considerate for your neighbours, scheme. Thank you for the comprehensive info. But (as Michel Roux says when reviewing Coq au Squid Ink...) - It looks like a complex build with a stonking budget. An extra 1200 sqft ish plus a huge garage and some well-chosen luxurie; all in 240k-270k give or take at a guestimate? I would get some ballpark estimates before doing planning, as once you start you are spending money and have a timescale, and you need to know where you expect to be before mounting the helter-skelter. If there is insufficient cash to lubricate the ride all the way you feel the splinters. - I have not looked at the internal layout in detail, but yes to all doubles. - I think you may get concerns about “massing”. That may mitigate towards a lowish profile roof on the garage. Perhaps box section corrugated would do it and also save 6-7k or so over th3 proposed. - I think that your high hedge is crucial in making the appearance more acceptable to the street, and would perhaps supply street views more prominently than elevations for the planners and when showing to neighbours; they will only see the side above 3m. Offer a Planning Condition to retain it if necessary. Or argue for a 2m fence or wall based on the current high privacy barrier. - I am not a fan of such complex roofs, with multi tiers, as it emphasises the piled-up style of London surburban housing - But London planners seem to like them. Personally I would prefer the side roof to be full height, but that would need a more articulated wall design on the side. - I think I would have the garage towards the front not the back, as that would move the driveway more from the corner, and make the ‘parking spaces’ part of a perceived enlarged back garden. But there may be an 8mpact on your rear “glass wall” window. Ferdinand

(*) RTFM - Read the (previously) floccinaucinihilipilification-ed manual.

I have been hearing good reports of Vincent Timber for nearly 20 years. I am sure that Kevin McCloud built either a briese soleil or a pergola out of something interesting - was it the fan blades from a jet engine?

Suitable for a bulk purchase? (Just saying ... I don't need one, but a small number of people will need a lot of slats, which can be ordered standardised and trimmed to length).

I think you need to approach these two through your wider design goals rather than as more standalone questions ... how much heat storage capacity do you need in the structure, and what is your planned route and method for letting any moisture out of your walls. That in turn depends on the type of structure you select, and interplays with it. You need to be looking at thermal spec, decrement delay, and so on. eg for EWI it will impact o; permeability and wall thickness whether you choose PIR or EPS. Ferdinand

Did you get any of these into contracts, or was it case of meticulous supervision by you, @JSHarris? This is presumably to something like +-5mm, perhaps 10mm. A downside of achieving that would be to make change difficult wrt the plans linked to the contract, whilst not doing that means the risk falls on the self builder. I think that I would look into dealing with this by putting the big ones into the slab eg soil pipe, whilst using some arrangement in the floor buildup for electricity distribution, combined with as little service void as possible. I do not have a mature scheme of this type for a new build, however. Ferdinand

You are getting off fairly Scot free so far - hope that you do not have problems with any big ones.. There is a reason I take great care to check trees when buying a rental. This little tree at my grans former cottage cost 3k to remove. In one day. Shredder at about 4 minutes. Tree is about 25-28m, and already a big tree in the when dad lived there as a boy in the 1930s. My extendible loppers came from Aldi, and also include a pruner type blade. Probably not as industrial strength, but probably half the price. F

I put a building on a concrete slab - sort of conservatory - next to a Victorian brick building on clay, but cannot remember how I handled that. I rather suspect that I improvised a movement joint to allow a modicum of slip, but the new building was timber, and the slab was not rigidly attached to the other building. Any stresses would appear where the roof plate or side joints occurred - all of which were timbers. F

The only points I would make are 1 - Have a master off switch inserted on the supply side of your CU, such that it can be worked on more safely and you can switch everything off should you need. 2 - Think carefully about future expansion possibilities. The extra cost will not be that much. Though you are perhaps doing both anyway. F

Similar to mine from Screwfix, McAllister, reviews well, same price https://www.screwfix.com/p/mac-allister-yt623105x-2800w-100kg-hr-shredder-220-240v/727FG Similar looking to mine from Makita. From about £200. https://www.alanwadkinstoolstore.co.uk/machinery-c111/shredders-c249/ud2500-garden-shredder-2500w-electric-240v-p38443/s41905 In the absence of a better deal, I would go for the Screwfix, but you may prefer the more expensive Bosch which does seem to chop better with double the throughput. Bosch: This one is more like mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XGRVgvHMNc Ferdinand

(Just before anyone asks - Jeremy and his village got bonfires banned). I had a thread on this 2 years ago, where I ended up with a Qualcast Electric one from Argos. The Qualcast was a rebrand of what seemed to be a standard mechanism in a lot of them. It has proved satisfactory for what I do across a couple of renovation projects and my own garden. The reason I went for that was that it was £90 whilst the others with the same mechanism were up to £150-200. It does not do substantial branches (yes, I know - a definition on wheels), but they can go for somebody's log burner outside your valley, especially where you are. It does not cope brilliantly with very green branches, but is acceptable to me OK. What it does do is compress the stuff about fourfold to fit in the garden dustbin. I think you have 2 options - go for something that is petrol driven and a heavy duty shredder; or go for something more like mine that is more a compressor and crusher. Bosch, for example, have some electric ones at more like £300-400. I would suggest going for a decent electric on the best deal, which is cheapo enough to give away or throw if you hate it, and consider something bigger if you turn out to need it. I would say borrow mine for a day, but it is rather a long way and I am not due down there in the next month. Bosch: https://www.garden4less.co.uk/bosch-quiet-garden-shredder-2500W-axt-25-tc.asp What seens to be the current version of mine at Argos: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7501935 F ---------------------------------------------- So .. bought one of the 2.8kw electric ones this morning for just around £90 (Qualcast / Argos), and it was happy to shred probably 80% of all the stuff. Shredded some of the stuff already in the skip, which made enough space that the shredded remainder (except obvious fire wood) would fit in the space created thereby. @recoveringacademic will be keeping a couple of bulk bags full back so that I have some available if I need any. The shredder is adequate for branches up to about 40mm, and just needs not to be driven too hard. I can see me having this, and a secondhand lower end petrol powered one able to do things up to about 3-4" - and not one of the middle sized ones. Thanks for all the help. Ferdinand

I mainly concur with @Alex C here, but I am not sure it is fixable completely as we get both just-started and nearly-finished types of request. I agree that this design is quite unresolved in detail, but I think it embodies and begins to articulate what is required by the OP. I am more frustrated by “I am going to apply for Detailed PP on the 13th of next month; any last minute ideas?”, which can involve gold plating a nearly finished lump of coal, as I am by “here is something I ran up on Windows Draw this morning in half an hour; please advise”, which can involve debating a box in a vacuum. I think we get plenty of both types, but personally I prefer the latter as it is part of an individual’s long learning process, whilst the former cannot necessarily be improved except minimally and maybe cosmetically. Though like an architect we are perhaps more creative with lots of constraints. I think that time invested up front us worth its weight in octopuses, so I am usually happy to spend what time I have. Personally I try to aim for more fundamental concepts in a design, as if an OP had read something like A Pattern Language first. I think that with varying emphases we can cover a lot of ground; others are better on different aspects. My own bugbear is If we suggest something which is already on a different version of a design which has not been uploaded. But is there a little para somewhere on the joining process, which advises how to ask good questions, and what information helps us supply good answers? [I am guessing that this is probably in place already, because I think our admins have probably thought of that]. I like to see 1 - Some sort of requirements statement. 2 - Plans 3 - Context - plan of surroundings or Google earth 4 - Questions to address Ferdinand

So, clay and rock based things that do not float..