Ferdinand

Once you have got the water warm round the system, then you need to come to a happy balance between how fast the water is pumped, and the flow (in) and return (out) temperatures. Compared to rads you want the system to be running for relatively long periods with lowish flow and return temps. I think my pump is on "2" out of 3 settings, and my temperatures are roughly 40 and a bit in and 30 out, with the heating on the timer for about half of the day when on. If I need more heat I tend to tweak the temperature on the boiler for a bit, or use the manual 'on' on the main control for a couple of hours, rather than messing about with the 7 day controller, or just use an electric rad for an hour. If too hot I just whack it off for part of the day. But here, there is someone in most of the time. Add: my house is nothing like at well insulated as Jeremy’s. Ferdinand

Thanks. This was the one that I objected to then had the thread hidden a few months ago, and now has conditional PP for a smaller development. They came back and have resolved most of the issues after they lost the PP then the Appeal following my representations and the Council's view, including reducing from 2.5 to 1.5 storeys (33->26 ft) at the apex of the roof, 4 beds to 3 beds which reduced parking and amenity space requirements and made the PP implementable, and sorting out the parking mess they proposed. Not ideal or what they promised when they sold me my property, but acceptable in the circumstances. It is still proposed to build over half of where my 2.5m wide currently unoccupied Easement runs, but the is non planning and the carrot is to negotiate that away in return for them pre-installing ducts for me, whilst the stick is a threat to install them myself across the full 2.5m width and potentially injuncting which will prevent the building of half of the 2 semis. Time to have a conversation toe-to-toe and try to come to a win-win agreement. Ferdinand

A quick one. A new Planning Permission has been passed which includes a soakaway for onsite surface water disposal. Which body is responsible for enforcing the location of the soakaway being a sufficient distance from the boundary, and also the new building, in accordance with Council Policy? Is this Planning or Building Control? Cheers Ferdinand

Do not worry .. took me a couple of weeks to do it all. Go down the offie half way through. Unfortunately this excellently named place is in Sunderland. It is like a boozed up version of Open All Hours. I love Fatso's Cafe next door. If they put one of those in London the Mayor would try to ban it for the implicit suggestion that fat people eat more sausages.

Ye Gods. Our Local Plan has just been withdrawn again before adoption, and they are starting at the beginning. I rushed my Planning Application through in summer 2013 because they were about to adopt the new Local Plan that suddenly excluded my bit of field. Gotta love the planning system. Ferdinand

The back garden faces South-East. @Me111 @caliwag is thinking of this kind of thing (I think), but in a more modest form:

Presumably he escaped somehow when they tried to throttle him ? @pocster Is the cause your T not behaving in a tenant-like manner? In which case you could probably recover some of it or charge it to the deposit. Perhaps the investigation and repair costs, but not improving the pipe. Lord Denning, Warren v keen, 1954. Held: The defects particularised were due to fair wear and tear for which a weekly tenant was not liable. His only obligation is to use the premises in a tenant-like manner and therefore, the landlord was not entitled to recover. Lord Denning said: ‘The tenant must take proper care of the place. He must, if he is going away for the winter, turn off the water and empty the boiler. He must clean the chimneys, where necessary, and also the windows. He must mend the electric light when it fuses. He must unstop the sink when it is blocked by his waste. In short, he must do the little jobs about the place which a reasonable tenant would do. In addition, he must, of course, not damage the house, wilfully or negligently; and he must see his family and guests do not damage it: and if they do, he must repair it.’ and ‘if the house falls into disrepair through fair wear and tear or lapse of time, or for any reason not caused by him, the tenant is not liable to repair it.’ https://swarb.co.uk/warren-v-keen-ca-1954/ I wouldn't normally bother about this unless it was blatant, as my Ts tend to be so long term that it is far better for me to find out what caused it and ask them not to do it again. The last time was a blockage caused by "flushable medical wipes" in a slack drain. Ferdinand

Interesting. I thought that moral objectivity and norms were in the dustbin decades ago ... and that people who still believed in the concept were generally persona non grata. Historically I would link that to the rise of soft-sciences pretending to be hard-sciences, and perhaps going a little further back the decline of belief in revealed religion. Although as a non-believer one can argue that even revelation is relative. Perhaps a moral consensus is also relative to the culture . Perhaps what we need is to find ways to form a consensus, rather than define policy by a kind of Victim Narrative Olympics. I see Cochrane as an attempt to define policy based on a consensus arrived at through what is currently regarded as scientific best practise. Though I am highly cynical about whatever are the latest pronouncements - that may be media wanting story-fodder, though. A rather pernicious example this morning is that Council's are trying to build an analytical model to predict the probablility of abuse in a family. The problem there to me is that making it numerical will give it a spurious objectivity, and I do not trust Councils to be able to make such a judgement, given their record. F (*) I know I am off topic, but I think it is already off topic.

Won't most of those (except the Rowan?) take oodles and yonks and decades to reach any sensible blocking height? What about a whitebeam, in the knowledge that it may have to be removed in 2045 as oversized, but will have provided interest until then without too much shade? Or a hazel? Or perhaps a coppiced Eucalyptus, a flowering current, or a bhuddlea as part of the mix? Ferdinand

In theory Planning should not take a restrictive covenant as a Relevant matter. That is a civil issue of which they should wash their hands. Ferdinand

Yep.

I have these, which are probably the devil's spawn, but I just have them all set high enough to be out of the loop. We run it as essentially a single zone, and if I want a room excluded I just turn it right down. Ferdinand

Forgot to say, imo South facing conservatories are verging on madness not all they used to be cracked up to be - you get something that is too hot in summer, too cool in winter unless you invest £££ in heating, and very little extra on the value of your house. It is naturally usable for a time in spring and autumn. Witness all the companies offering to fix conservatories with various versions of real roofs for sums of £5k to £10k Put the conservatory budget into a real room extension with real insulation, and you will get something usable in 4 seasons, and which adds value. Or go with a shaded terrace at 10-20% of the cost. Ferdinand

@w_pienaar https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/searching-the-land-registry

@Me111 A couple of quick ideas. By all means cherry-pick, as I have ignored at least one of your constraints. The main ideas are: Plan A 1 - Switch the extension so your extra space goes mainly to living, where all of you get to benefit. 2 - Through lounge. 3 - Morning sun terrace for existing master. 4 - Move walls to make middle bedroom a little less corridor like, and give space for an ensuite and wardrobe in the master, and potentially a desk and/or wardrobe where the lounge wall has moved on the way in, and a 3m x 3m sleeping/relaxing space at the end (I would do a desk and storage over, perhaps with a single wardrobe at the side). Plan B 5 - Where walls are moved, a the master in the back corner gets space for an ensuite. b the back bedroom gets part of the new extension and space where the wall has moved to have either a desk or wardrobe, as above. c the front bedroom gets space for storage plus a desk, similarly. I think that is a far better balance. Plan C I have not explored this properly, but if the WHB and door in the bathroom were swapped so the bathroom door was just inside the front door on the left, all of that confused maze of doors and hall cupboard could be in the front bedroom, with the corner master being entered via what is now the front part of the middle bedroom, and that would transform bedroom 3. And the kitchen wall could be addressed. Phasing This could all be phased over x years if finances require. At the start the whole extension could be done and demolish your current external wall last (I think) to give the new middle bedroom and lounge, so you do not end up living in a building site. Then do the bedroom changes as you are able. What you have now: What you have proposed: @Ferdinand Plan A: @Ferdinand Plan B: F

Welcome to the forum.

You could find an ip45 or ip65 spot fitting on a mount rather than flush. Or tile the back in a dark colour?

@Me111 PS Your terrace would actually be a south-east facing weekend breakfast space. You say that most of them are like that. So your home work is to find out who has faced the same issue and how they did it. People love to explain how clever they have been, so just spend a Saturday knocking on some doors. A supplementary source will be the floorplans comtained in eg Zoopla in their advertised properties archive.Find via road names or postcodes in Google of the sold prices search. Ferdinand

@Me111 To be honest I think that given your constraints it is bloody difficult to create an effective and atttractive layout at a reasonable cost, to the point of being almost impossible as far as I can see without accepting some sort of major compromise for *someone*. Creativity required. So.. What is in the Hall cupboard, and how big an ensuite do you want? I assume that the child in the front bedroom does not need that enlarging. The best option I can currently see is this: 1 Move the extension to the other side, across bedrooom 3 and the lounge. 2 Get te space for your ensuites from the hall cupboard - but that wall might be structural - and by nickIng the bit from bed 3 on te left inside the door. 3 Enlarge bed 3 into the new extension, and sideways by a couple of feet or a metre Into the 14ft 7 wide lounge. A 12 ft wide lounge can be zoned lengthways into eg eating, sitting more easily than a 7 ft wide bedroom. 4 Lengthen the lounge into the rest of the new extension as a sunny sitting space. 5 Patio doors in te master to a secluded south facing terrace. 6 Eventually get rid of the wall between kitchen and lounge that will give you a correctly orientated modern through room. One advantage is that your extension would be away from both boundaries so no Party Wall Agreement pfaffing, at the cost of more messing about with stud walls. Another advantage is that you get three practical double bedrooms, rather than 2doubles and a corridor. Suspect this suggestion needs to be drawn to be appreciated. Ferdinand

OK. Short MALE person. /pendant

Observed comment by a short person on a weekend away last month: I am 5ft 6in, so I will round it up to six feet. Sounds to me like you have finished the first half. Round it up in your head! ?

Welcome. Have you submitted yet - if not there are some things it could be useful to know first. Ferdinand

TBH it is a judgement call, and based on the relationship. You could have a conversation with your PC, who will be able to explain in 15 minutes or so where the "policy" lines are drawn in eg facing windows of habitable rooms. That may give you a better grasp and give you a mental routemap as to what are 'reasonably' expectations. Beyond that it is what your relationship is like. I would say do not compromise on any of your core requirements, and warn in advance as appropriate but do not (usually) be deliberately manipulative (eg applying for PP 3 days before they are away on hols for a month). My first PP was a big one (outline for a housing estate), and I knew I would get some aggro (and we did). We sold at outline so then it was out of our hands, though I still have a property next door, but I did a few things that would help (eg not making a fuss when a neighbour wanted a hedge to become 3m high). Ferdinand

In celebration of @zoothorn being nearly finished, I have found some more Zoot Music. ?

How did you deal with the "plated weight" thing, and decide what the carrying capacity was and being documented in case you were pulled for a check? Or is not being checked n advantage of being more remote? Cheers Ferdinand