Ferdinand

A couple of months ago, Screwfix were giving away free foam doormat-like things as seen below. Might they still be around? Ferdinand

I think a survey report probably has more weight for the purchaser than a warranty, especially if it is old enough (2-4 years?) for any serious problems to have emerged and the initial drying out etc to be complete. For peace of mind I might go for a warranty, depending on the cost. When we sold a biggish Grade 2 Listed property (5k sqft, 1500 to Victorian) we had our own full structural survey done as part of the sales material. Ferdinand

Yes. Reading the gumf I am inclined to agree with your interpretation - that straight runs through next door are adopted. Possibly that was not intended. Sorry . But Severn-Trent's gumf is unclear on the point :-( . In your circs (and having looked at the Planning App though not all the detail, I would have been inclined to try get their sewer to the front as option 1. Option 2 would be to move their sewer to a track down their garden and across the bottom of mine (ie yours) to the side-road, with an access / maintenance easement plus either 1 - my garden designed to avoid issues or 2 - a transfer of a small slice of land. Option 3 would be with it on my land down the side as well as across the bottom, depending on how difficult it would be to dig up their gardens. Given that they have just chopped their garden in 2 it might be able to be disturbed. Option 4 would be heavily modify the basement design. Any of those would swallow a hunk of contingency. I would want an option that fixed it once and for all, even if pricier. Ferdinand

Services were so much reliable in the stone age . Which is why I sometimes prefer them.

I saw that, but it does not clearly cover the case where a pipe runs from a dwelling across a second dwelling's certiledge to the public system where there is no connection between the two.

Perhaps this particular issue could be sidestepped by @Ed_MK buying a strip of land a foot or several feet wide from his parents, putting in the sewer, then giving them a Right of Way to walk etc over the top. That would have other complications, however. Might make buyers of the parent house uncomfortable. Ferdinand

Can you give me a link on that? Was going to ask in the other thread but it was hidden first. My understanding *was* that it only becomes an adopted soil pipe where there is input from 2 separate dwellings, not simply by going under somebody else's land? I am thinking that I may be wrong on this eg my neighbour's soil pipe which runs under my back garden without connecting into any part of my system may in fact be adopted? Is this true? It is a case not covered on the website of my own provider Severn-Trent. Guessing that @LadyBuilder has dug deeply into sewers, I would welcome clarification. Cheers Ferdinand

Interesting project. Is it me or is it leaning to the right?

Remember that if you pronounce that like a cockney ('fick') it could offend a certain Teutonic personage of our acquaintance. F

Principle? (It is also pendant central.)

@Ragg87 has a good approach. I, coming from an engineering word, would call that a "Requirements Specification", and would have in my head various principles as well. For my renovation I have things like: Sufficient outside lights. At least 4 double sockets per room. More in the kitchen. (Policy: enough sockets such that extension leads are never necessary, even in 20 years time). Fire alarms as required by law. PIV / HR fan, to ventilate and as belt-and-braces for condensation. Future proofing stuff eg termnanted wiring runs that just need 2nd fit.. And I had a ready-laid template as it was a renovation, but we completely rewired. Then there were user requirements, some for maintenance and from experience, and some to make the house liveable, such as: Ability to live as a 2 or 3 bed bungalow. Ability to use the front room or a bedroom at the back into the lounge /study - both would need a media corner ==> more sockets in that spot. Ability to run in Satellite, Cable etc, without the b*ggers drilling random holes in my nice bungalow. 3 or ideally 4 appliance slots, one or ideally two to be tall, with power, and at least under-worktop ones two with plumbing. (History teaches me that we are better off without combined appliances, which means ability to handle washer, dryer and dishwasher). And so on... On a tiny bungalow I could busk and adjust quite a lot of it. Adding it up, my sockets are just about 1 per sqm of floorspace - 62 in a 64 sqm bungalow. Aha - plus 2 outside = 64. F

Schrodinger's Hammer .. we do not whether it is offensive or not.

On average the performance of a wall is several times better than a window, and they need to balance out to give you whatever performance level you want. IF you are not very well insulated at say BR basic spec or a little better then you need to balance windows ... even 3G windows are well behind BR requirements walls .. against walls for overall performance. If you are basically well insulated say much better than BR Levels but not reaching what some people on here achieve, then you still need to balance, but in money terms you could potentially spend the money on wall insulation rather than upading from high end 2G to 3G. Then there are questions about low inclination sunlight overheating your house in the spring / autumn etc. And hence we all have sore heads from the calculations, but the tradeoffs need to be explored to the point where each self builder is satisfied. Ferdinand

Don't we need someone to test whether PIR goes up in steam?

Does SPONS have a per sqm number for M&E Design? @LadyBuilder Good to ask the question, but I think your number may be OK - depending on the scope.

Having burnt some PIR by mistake I do seem to recall it giving off what looked like steam. Steam would be a very effective transmission medium to heat things up, or perhaps as a catalyst (wrong word) for facilitating the speeding up of other reactions. One difficulty is that if she shifts from rules based regulation to something else then the regulators will have more complicated and nebulous decisions to make. Ferdinand

That is not *too* many vents (others may comment as MVHR etc is not my special area), and my teacosy has 2 holes in it. You could use Heat Recovery fans with a constant trickle. I use Lo Carbon Tempras from Vent-Axia in combination with a loft PIV to get air in - but those are just an example of what exists as you have not posted detail. If you know what you want you could get an MVHR in a deal or off ebay well in advance and save significantly. F

Edgings. Edgings are important. And something to keep the gravel in the car park not the road. We have some of the most expensive edgings because the bloke gave us a fixed price and said "choose any edging". Edgings could be anything that retains the gravel - my current project has used 150mm x 50mm sixties knobbly concrete edgings that wer already on site, but angled bricks can work well. For retaining gravel, a row of bricks on the edge can work - they just need to be slightly proud. Or even spaced bricks if the spacing makes gravel wedge between. On gravel, the normal stuff rather than decorative can look fine. There is a thread about pricing somewhere, but I was paying approx £33 per bag for 8 or so, delivered. Some came from Wickes, but the Civil Eng. side of Buildbase had good prices. Or cheaper by the lorry from the Lancs version of Joe the Quarryman down the road. F

I suppose you could use some of those 12 x 12 mosaic tiles, which must be 25mm x 25mm. I have some of those in the LBB, and I paid about 10p per mini-tile. Hmm. Last time at B&Q I had 10 cuts without charge. I must just have a nice looking fizzog. [Edit: It says 15 free here - new policy: http://www.trade-point.co.uk/services/timber-cutting/ I see they do MDF in quarter sheet size. So 4 of those into 15 x 40mm slices each can count. 4 separate videos on 4 separate occasions are acceptable.] [Edit 2 Well, @Onoff, Man or Mouse?]

B&Q. 6mm ply or MDF. Free sawing service. If you do it and provide a Youtube video of B&Q sawing up your 40mm x 25mm tiles, or even 48 x 25mm strips, I'll Paypal you beer to half the cost of the 8x4 sheet of ply. *Please don't let there be a minimum size on the B&Q sawing service* F

Welcome. @Joss. There is a useful idea to bear in mind called the "full teacosy", which is an idea that ideal insulation extends over the entire house smoothly and as far as possible with no breaks - which form cold bridges. Ferdinand

Our LPA do not look at any comments until the comment date has expired, which seems a sensible husbanding of resources. On a couple of Planning Apps they have been quite happy to maintain a conversation with me as applicant or objector throughout, and verbally to say what the outcome may be ... particularly if it saves them a longish phone call about minutiae . F

It may not have reached the website yet. Ask them when it will be 'determined'. That is the point at which it cannot be undone. Ferdinand

Phone the Officer up and ask him what he has recommended and why. If he has recommended no, then it is a good opportunity to decide whether you need to Withdraw very pronto or plan to Appeal.

QUite a sensible move by Severn Trent by the sound of it, then. From their point of view.