Ferdinand

Is there anything which can help mitigate the downsides of an overlay system by providing a measure of buffering and persistence in the heat? eg spreader plates on the top, say under the underlay which then has laminate on top? Possibilities might be metal sheet, or even slate or cheap tiles or similar. Creative sourcing would be required. There is no point in having something thicker than a screed, but something may be possible. Quirky, mind .. so probably strictly for self-builders. Ferdinand

Welcome @Sam Barn. looks like a good project. I grew up in a restored small Manor House with walls that thick, though rubble fill. Our renovation took more than 20 years ?. My initial comments: 1 - I would avoid the rockwool for 2 reasons. In a narrow property it is a little bulky, but if they get in it will be loved by vermin. What is your strategy for Roland and his friends ? That required gap under the old foundations in the detail is a slight alarm bell for me wrt to tunnelling under the slab, but it is not an area where I am very knowledgeable. I suspect they would access your inside/outside wall gap from the top, though. In ours we used to get rats scrambling about inside the walls. How will you protect that gap behind your inner wall? 2 - Is that insulation enough? It is close to Building Regs minimum, and I question that for such a long, and quite narrow, building. Perhaps some thermal modelling to determine the value in adding more insulation to your walls? PErhaps PIR both ways, with the inner side of the outer layer taped for more airtightness? 3 - How are you ventilating? Ferdinand

Good. Remember my opinion is just an opinion not advice. (/slopeyshoulders) I wouldn't turn it round ... I would actually treat it as double aspect with the rooms located for sun when you will be in them i.e. Kitchen mainly morning, living all day, bedrooms evening. One nice thing about the plot is that you have obstructions to the light away beyond the road on the sunny sides throughout the day and evening. F

Blimey. That sounds like an STD.

OK @simplepimple, in response to your last 3 posts. (I have actually sketch laid out this morning what I think is a better scheme, but I will leave that for a day or so as we have hit you with a lot of stuff). It is probably to your advantage to have a minimal scheme designed for the PP. If they suddenly came up with something better, they would perhaps want more for the plot. Given what you have posted, I would be reasonably happy that I could develop *something* that meets your needs on that plot, and I would be willing to go toe to toe to get something better through, as I can see no showstoppers. BUt that is my opinion and I have done planning battles. I think the parking is easily fixable .. I would replace it with a side by side parking and a double width driveway, with your privacy fence on the far side of where your tandem parking area is currently indicated. In terms of the sale, I think you need a binding including on successors guarantee that they allow you to put scaffolding on their land as will be necessary to construct a dwelling which has received PP on the plot. NOrmally it could cost a couple of thousand to have it there if you are being charged rent, and if they sell up that might happen or they could just say no. THere may be a time limit say three or five years. I also think you want that silly dog leg in your land where their back gate is in the middle straightened out, but that is perhaps minor. Are you sure they do not plan to sell? IT seems strange to keep it once it is that much smaller, but plan to sell the bigger version including the plot. THe smaller one will be more inadequate. have you considering offering for their whole house, so y get the uplift on the plot .. or is that out of the question? F

@newhome The normal rule is something like 2 spaces for 2/3 bed, and 3 spaces for 4-bed. @simplepimple Another material inaccuracy on the plan afaics ... next door are misrepresenting their amenity space. It says 120sqm, whilst putting a measure on it says something like 60sqm if that grid thing on the back is a conservatory, and about 75sqm if it is a patio. It may be that some of these misrepresented aspects have got through outline, but tmay be questioned at detailed planning stage .. so take your time to be sure. Visually, just compare the fifty sqm footprint of your bungalow to their back garden and it sticks out like a sore thumb. I would suggest taking great care on measurements etc. Do not let them peg out the plot for you, or you could get scalped. BE particularly suspicious of the width of their parking area, the position of that gate, that you are getting all the width of your plot, and where the edge of the pavement is taken as being. If you have not signed on the dotted line, I would get a check that your 110sqm is accurate. I think you are actually getting slightly under 80 sqm, which is a quarter less than you are being told if accurate. Potential negotiating point imo rather than a withdrawal point imo, it is still a very nice plot. Amenity space is private, and it does not I think I nclude sheds, storage, parking outside your privacy fence, or narrow areas which cannot be sued practically or access paths. F

(I welcome contradiction here, esp. from @ProDave or @newhome, as these are rapid insights and I am raising doubts. I could be wrong and I do not want to scare @simplepimple off.) How big are those car parking spaces? The plan as shown makes them - together - the same length as the width of the bungalow ie about 8.5m. It's a bit of a diddle, as that is not legal. If you ignore the space for the gate to open, and go right to the wall of the shed, you have the legal minimum *just* ie 10m. To go inside the spaces as drawn - and assuming a gap between the cars of 6 inches, and to be 6 inches back from the kerb, and 6 inches from the shed wall, you can *just* get 2 Minis on there. And you will then need the gate opening the other way, and to move the Minis to get to the shed. Ferdinand

(I hope @simplepimple does not mind us debating the plot like an exhibit in an experiment ?, but that is where new perspectives and insights emerge from at least for me !). Looking at the plot, it is really on a curved 90 degree corner - so there are probably TWO building lines, even though the Planning Permission shown only really reflects the one on the South side. Assuming that fence on the West is 2m, I agree with you wrt to a West facing garden. The insights needed here imo are from tight plots in built-up areas. If the bungalow is moved up to join the parking spaces, then a private sunny courtyard garden the same size as the existing shaded North side garden can be created within the current indicated S-side building line as well as the private garden on the West side, And it may be that that could extend further South too. Classic "house placement on tight plot" practice says put it as far to the non-sunny corner as possible, and leave the sunny or non-shaded sides as your garden that can be seen from the house - in this case the latter are the West and South sides, which face the road. Privacy on the South Side right up to the pavement can be achieved with a fence / wall (subject to PP) or with a hedge (perhaps with a hedge outside a fence). But a wall / fence can surely be built along the building line, which gives a private sunny garden as large as the current shaded Northern garden. That must be a better layout. The other obvious layout thing may be to put the parking on the South Side to do something useful with the non-prrivate area S of the Building Line, which lets the bungalow or house to be put where the parking is currently - and that gives space for a larger building footprint or even better private and sunny garden. Personally I think a roughly L-shaped or similar layout, or an enfilade layout, would work well right in the East Side or North East of the plot, which gives sun through the largest proportion of the day. Remember the discussion we hadback in 2016 (and before that in 2014 on E-Build) about my studio bungalow, which is on a plot with two sides against public roads or paths. The thread is here The design is below. Imagine this at the RHS of the plot in this thread, with minor adhustments. Ferdinand

Welcome.

i would look at something more like turning the parking space into a covered car port, with the house as far north on the plot as possible, directly entered from the north, and you walk through from that side to a private south facing generous courtyard garden. In its way it is quite a spacious plot .. if used efficiently. But I have not worked it through yet, and it may depend on things like where the council will allow two metre walls or fences. To me the existing design is what I expect.by renovating a small 1950s bungalow when I remove one wall and add in one set of patio doors; mine was exactly like that before it was renovated. A new build should imo have fewer compromises. F

THanks for that. I don't think the proposal is that suitable for the site, and you could potentially do quite a lot better, so I will come back with some ideas to give a different viewpoint .. hopefully by tomorrow. I would say that the existing proposed plan looks to be as inoffensive as possible in order to get through PP easily. An example of something imo not very good is that as it stands you essentially have no all day outdoor space which is both sunny and private. Another is that the route from your car into the house with your shopping is a very long way in the rain. (PS Is that bathroom to standards for accessibility ... doesn't it require a 1500 diameter circle as circulation space, in addition to all the bathroom gubbins?) Ferdinand

It is well concealed. I have visited twice, and I have not caught him in Lederhosen playing Wagner on an Oompah.

Is this the design that came with the plot, or the one that you have had architect designed? And which area of the country are you in ie which County? Ferdinand

I would say that if someone wanted to do that or similar, then use the "quadrant trunking" - though it probably meets a different need. https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/DL2D22QSW.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=315107931576 Also arguably a bodge, but at least no one will drill holes in it. Ferdinand

I've been giggling for the last 10 minutes at an item I missed from last year. A Twitter conversation: It's genuine: https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/nazi-uniforms-gloucester-allo-allo-1955653 Ferdinand (I don't think that counts as politics)

Can you back it into a container, and put heat on there? (Suspect they may all be full of essential equipment and stores.) (On a smaller scale I have just brought all my bird feeders into the Utility to unfreeze and restock.) F

I think it is this one. ?

If you want a practical solution, it is a trip to Wickes for some bags of sand. If you need your sand to be moist, potentially a hose from the hot tap.

Mortar and pestle?

Probably wait for warmer weather. Or accept that you will need another tonne in future, and have a different, warm, tonne delivered. Or go get some bags of sand from Wickes.

Agree with @Russell griffiths on this point. Surely that will be a large number of "bloody great holes" ! (Personally I think that recessed spotlights are the spawn of the devil; I have about 70 installed by the previous owner, and the lecky will charge you One Point for wiring each one.) In my view Occam says use either multispot fittings or the more modern LED panels. Plus perhaps spend the recessed spotlght money on a feature light fitting for the hall, an artwork, or whisky. Ferdinand

Pat pat, good blog ! Best of luck. >We have no experience of actual building work but let's face it, how hard can it be ? - famous last words. There exists a rabbit hole down which - at some point - you will discover that you have fallen ! A bit of extra info for Durisol virgins who just surf-on-in: 1 - I think Durisol (and the other one) give stronger concrete structures than you may have implied, as done properly the sloppy concrete infiltrates the matrix of the block. 2 - Durisol is cut with a normal power saw (no guarantee on blade life time ?) Credit: http://endeavourcentre.org/2012/06/a-finished-durisol-block-foundation/olympus-digital-camera-29/

One possibility could be if local or national policy changed in a way which affects your plot negatively.

I Tananarive cross the fee survey for 2017 in the Architects' Journal. It may be useful for some. YOu can register for free, or put the link into Google and surf in from there and it will give you the whole thing. https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/aj-fees-survey-2017-how-much-are-you-charging/10020125.article If you find a later one, please add it here. Ferdinand

It is a good thing to run off a n facing porch or conservatory which can be used as a dog or cat space for overnight or if your cats are not winter outdoor hardy. Can also save you £££££££ on a passive cat flap if outside the emvelope. F