Ferdinand

For draughts hunting you can get a thing called a smoke pencil to find small air movements; it does what it says on the tin.

I think the devil is in the detail here. I used this one in a renovation back in 2016 to avoid th8s issue, and have not had any problems or complaints from the Ts and I ask for any issues with the house every few months. I think it has a single flap rather than louvres, so would be less rattly. But mine was at the far end of longish run from a bathroom extractor fan and high on a gable, and I always fit fans with integral backdraught shutters anyway .. so very much belt and braces. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01G3YNLJ8/ref=pe_3187911_189395841_TE_dp_1 I am not sure if it is better if different to yours, but the Amazon page suggests alternatives, and you can also get spring loaded backdraught shutters that you can fit inline, and are therefore away from the wind and quieter as no rattle. eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/100mm-Extractor-Draught-Shutter-Spring/dp/B00A50NDEU/ I think you are going to need to order stuff and experiment. BTW if you edit te 1st post you should be able to bugger-down the title spelling by editing the title field. F

For a bit more background, there have been a couple of conversations tangential to the loft space convo here. This piece is about a bungalow of mine on a tight plot, with a roof quite like yours. THis has a loft storage space and everyone loves it. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/blogs/entry/94-space-efficient-house-means-cash-efficient-budget/ THere was also a conversation about this with @Calvinmiddle back in 2014 on EBuild. He built his bungalow, sold it, and is now apparently in Australia chasing kangaroos up Eucalyptus trees. https://web.archive.org/web/20150424213045/http://www.ebuild.co.uk/blog/20/entry-186-part-3-the-planning-saga-episode-2/ IMO THe key to a loft space storage area working is to have easy access, which means a loft ladder of a type that people can easily walk up carrying things. MIne has something like this: https://www.laddersukdirect.co.uk/wooden-loft-ladders/dolle-hobby-1200-x-700-wooden-loft-ladder-648.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_vTm9fva3wIVhrHtCh2IFgjwEAQYDSABEgJtbfD_BwE#/467-loft_ladder_sizes-1200_x_700mm You would need a solution practical for your context. Ferdinand

THe 3 bed bit is for the Estate Agents not the Planners :-). Just good House Doctor stuff. EVery room needs a purpose; bedrooms set the basic price band, and kitchen/bathroom attractiveness make the sale.

TO add, how will the fence on the West boundary be maintained?

Excellent plan for saleability. Well designed to the planning constraints imposed. 1 - I am not sure you need the wall between the living room and the kitchen at all, given that you have a snug. 2 - I would put a storage loft, designed so as also to be a possible sleeping platform, above the utility/bathroom area. Probably storage above the utility, perhaps more open storage/sleeping above the bathroom. 3 - Given the location and that it is a bungalow, I would add a large wheel-in shower in the bathroom and verify that there’s space for a hoist - check location of roof beam or have a stronger bit of wall?, even if it meant moving the utility room wall by 200mm or so. Ditto disabled friendly cooking facilities in kitchen. 4 - I concur on rooflights with the above. 5 - I might have a layout in my back pocket demonstrating how it had originally been a 3 bed proposal that I had had to modify in ways that could be reinstated in order to get approval ?. 6 - Are you sure you cannot have translucent roof lights instead of solar pipes on that side? Or is that personal insurance rather than planning condition? 7 - If I was living in it I would take a careful look at that horse chestnut for the longer term; they are notorious. Elysian Fields for dinkies or early retired academics. (*) F * Checking, I find that the Elysian Fields are a Classical Greek nirvana, whereas I was introduced to them by Olga da Polga and thought they were a construct of guinea pig mythology.

@Weebles I have only had one of these in recent event years, and as it was a CC purchase once I was in a position to state that yes they have vanished and yes I have tried to contact them, the Credit Card company were happy to reverse the transaction on my say so. For mine I took the trouble of finding out who the LL was and talking to their managing agent, who confirmed they had not been paying rent. It may be that the LL could have pushed them through. The Insolvency Service may have or know where to find more info, or check their latest annual report and phone up the auditor/accountant. Or you could get in touch with one of the Directors personally. You can contact the Insolvency Service Enquiry line with general insolvency questions on 0300 678 0015 Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (except bank holidays) or email:Insolvency.EnquiryLine@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk Ferdinand

The Council May adopt the road, but the conditions could be onerous ... eg iirc here you have to provide a commuted sum to maintain the lamp posts you are required to install for 25 years. F

Your solicitor .. if the right one ... should have one on file. But I would look up a couple of the group builds we have seen on here, and talk to the organiser and ask if you can have a copy of theirs for a crate of wine. There are a few around, but you may have to be creative in searching for them A solicitor will perhaps charge you 500-1000. And there may be potential for some saving there. At the worst, you will get the benefit of some good experience. @MikeR is some way down the road doing a group build in the Green Belt near Bristol, with himself as animator. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/3527-group-self-build-bristol/?tab=comments#comment-55439 There has also previously been a chap up in the Lakes somewhere, going back a few years, and one quite recent that I cannot immediately find. Ferdinand

Fit a hand shower to the loo and leave out the bidet, but add the bath I mentioned earlier. The killer need for te bidet might be if someone needs to do daily footwashes and examinations, for the convenience eg if you have a diabetic in the house. Fit a handshower anyway .. half the world use them. F

I think no foundations at all, or minimal, is more likely. Test hole required first. No foundations = do not dig out the foundations (ie the ground) next to the wall that is standing on it. In that case you do "wing" insulation rather than "skirt". Wing = horizontally along the ground, say under a path round the house. Or you return to Plan A and dig up the floor. F

Great attitude. It is far better to have more feedback and reject some than to not be told things and find out later that you really needed that extra insulation underneath your now-built house. F

You need one of these for your lounge to lower the floor level !

i can not find a clear reference on BH, but this thread on GBF includes some clear explanation. http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=10829 F

To add one more, I would think about a full size glass panel next to the door in the studio, to get light down to FF. As you are arty Types, what about stained glass or even etched glass (my favourite). F

An elevation or two would be very helpful, too. To me it looks like a very good, effective plan for London ... up rather than out; the opposite of a traditional city gent ... and fully exploits the plot. The orientation is good, as you will not have direct sun at midday on any side, and you obviously know about light in studios. On specifics: 1 I think you perhaps want something to allow use of space outside the kitchen in light rain, evenings or winter for eg meals, parties or gardening activities. Perhaps a pergola? 2 I think provision for a shower in the downstairs cloakroom is important. Muddy dogs, disabled guests, future old age etc. 3 I a not sure that those stairs will take a stairlift, so you will perhaps need to identify a possible location for a future lift .. which is a better idea than a stairlift anyway, and is a good thing to be in a 3 story house, especially in London, and especially if you have oodles of kit and stock to take up to the top floor for your craft activities. It is a massive advantage to plan for that from the start. 4 The garage and carport look pretty good in design, but do consider maintenance of the wall and windows above - provision for a walkway and ladder stand up there? 5 I concur with Agent Epsilon that you could benefit from facilitating future rearrangement to a more usual Master Suite plus Hoi Polloi plan; the current one feels a little too egalitarian for what the market may want in future. 6 I am not really convinced by the inner landing, especially as it is large. if you turned the two ensuites by 90 degrees you could have larger bedrooms and keep the same ensuites, or shuffle the staircase along and make 3 beds 3 and 4 larger. IT might be an idea to use the extra space to give a big joint walk in wardrobe that could be repurposed as a dressing room in future to make one of bed 1 or bed 2 into a master suite in future. You still get a slightly smaller inner landing. Another option might be to make bed 3 and 4 divided by a well insulated stud wall that could be removed later, which would give a master suite with his and hers ensuites. Very luxurious. 7 I think the house would significantly benefit from fixing a way to get more light into the central spaces on the Gand and 1st. lots of ways to do this, but this reply is long enough already. 8 Do you actually want a cloakroom in the studio now, so you do not have to go downstairs when you are in full creative flow? 9 I think the his’n’hers loos in the family bathroom are innovative and completely darling . I’ve been imagining the tortured faces that Geoffrey Palmer would have been pulling having a conversation with Wendy Craig trapped in such a bathroom in Butterflies, presented in a letterboxed talking heads format, but even Carla Lane did not think of that one; it would have been a slightly different sitcom. Finger trouble in the symbol box in Autocad? Rejig that, perhaps in conjunction with a minor re-layout of the 1st floor, and you could have a 4 piece suite with bath and a large shower in the family bathroom. I do like it all. Ferdinand

This needs careful thought as to access and use. E.g. IF she is going to be up there when callers arrive it will be a right pain, but given your site you may have a videophone half a mile away like the Men from UNCLE. Also if it is intended for storage etc or slightly heavy kit or use later in life then good access is required suitable for carrying steam powered sewing machines or rails on the stairs for grandma when your wife is 75. There might be mileage in finishing off after sign off or calling it a storage platform. Ferdinand

It would be useful to know more about your plot, but... if the plot is a subdivision of land which has had access unrestricted for 20 years, then you should be OK if you can prove it, as access rights would run with the land. Equally if it is a separate plot which has also had the same access, then you should be OK. But you need to be prepared in case a poleaxe emerges from somewhere, such as a permission letter from the owner acknowledged by the previous owner. ideally you want a couple of signed Statements of Truth from long term residents or previous owners in your filing cabinets eady to be revealed to whoever makes a fuss. If you are building in your in-laws former garden then a statement from someone who is outside the family would help. On the services, I am not sure what rights are inherited, or what you can run as sub services from your inlaws. I would love to know on that. Also, providers may have some rights to run services for a new dwelling, but may not wish to use them. F

if I did a post like that, it would be a telltale that there was something useful I was avoiding doing. Good posts. @zoothorn take a look at doing perimeter insulation a la Ed ... may be worth thinking about, but you would need to perhaps combine with some sort of thought through floor covering to give a warmer feel. Cork tiles might do it, or some sort of cushion floor, or a minimal thickness floating floor which would feel warm even though that on its own would not fix your insulation issue, 25mm pir and laminate click-fit would do that. Your issue with perimeter insulation may be that there could be no or minimal foundations, so it will risk destabilising something. If so, digging up internally would be better as perimeter insulation will need to be perhaps twice as deep. On the height ... just to check. Do you have exposed beams, or are they actually covered over with eg plasterboard. If still covered, removing the boarding and reverting g to a beamed ceiling would perhaps help the ‘feel’ of the room. My former cottage was 7’4” between beams AFTER the ceiling boarding had been removed, with the central beam being about 6’6”. It is now rented to a short tenant. F

HNY Zoot. Tell us about your floor. How do the levels and heights work? Can you go upwards instead of digging? F

I think it is a little disappointing in saying that modular homes are quite such a new thing, and there seems to me to be a fair bit of huffery-puffery going on. Not that penetrating an analysis for the In Business thread. I think what is happening now is a popularisation rather than a whole new thing. This for example is from the Egan Report (1998): and Space 4 in Castle, now owned by Persimmon, have been going for approx 20 years, with onsite construction from kits to weatherproof in a very few days years and years ago. One difference now is that the prefabs are more like the systems pioneered by eg Whitbread or Hotels, where things come in as "rooms" or "quarter houses". One downside is that they are turning high value jobs into low value jobs, by deskilling for factory manufacture. Good or bad? But as to whether it will increase quality. Hmmm. And I see no plans to tackle the Planning System, though Councils giving themselves permission can presumably wing it, and avoid Section 21 etc overheads. Ferdinand

THe 'Productivity is Falling' claim is interesting, I wonder how that was measured?

@LearningCurve One option which may help and has not been mentioned is to use what we call Skirt Insulation ... that is vertical insulation down the outside of the foundations. That is used for renovating and improving existing properties where the floor cannot be lifted as part of some External Wall Insulation projects. You run say one foot of EPS insulation along the outside of your house wall below ground level to the bottom of your foundations in a trench with a drain at the bottom ... a French Drain ... to keep it dry, to lengthen the perimeter heat loss path so your floor loses less heat. Over time the earth under your house warms up to higher than its normal temperature. The constraint here will be whether your ground conditions somehow inhibit that tactic. Ferdinand

Equally that means that if you do or the immediate people by agreement do something, then no one can enforce on you either. F

Your spec is ... as highlighted ... roughly Building Regs basic. That concerns me given your original aspiration to be Near PassiveHaus spec. Are you actually getting what you think you are getting? If you are not, then you need to stop now and reoriente / check your expectations, as every project stage will reduce your scope for correction, and related costs will increase by several time at each stage. Without running any numbers, I would estimate that this design will have you with energy bills of more like £1200-£1500 than £400-500 per annum. Not a problem if you are expecting it, but a surprise if not. Estimate or measure 10 times, build once. Do not feel got at ... all of us here have made various choices that could have been done differently to save 4 or 5 figure sums, and tried to learn from them. For self-Builders we usually only do it once, so need to learn and apply the lessons from others before we make any mistakes, as we do not get the chance to learn from our own mistakes or sub-optimal decisions. Wishing you a good New Year and the very best of luck. Ferdinand