Ferdinand

Disinterring this thread... I need a recommendation for GU10 LED bulbs to use with the Inseki range of ceiling lights from Screwfix: https://www.screwfix.com/p/inseki-4-light-spotlight-brass-220-240v/7601v These are giving me 3 or 4 directible but not dimmable spots for an average (say 4m x 3.5) metre room. I think I need LED spots (probably warm-white) with a highish output. Can anyone recommend a decent supplier and bulb? Cheers Ferdinand

Thanks for that. I am gradually coming to terms with how excellently and intricately our previous owner layed out the upstairs in a hipped/gabled roof to optimise the layout. There is hardly an upstairs wall or door in line with the downstairs version and the place is full of doglegs in walls to give greater space or perceived space to rooms both sides sorted for where you need thec xtra perceived space depending on where you circulate, pause avdoors etc. It must add 10-15% to the perceived space if you add up the size and seeming size of each room. I have been unimpressed at the edges for the last couple of years because of slightly cut workmanship corners but the space usage planning here is verging on brilliant. We do have a few options but it is going to take overlaying both sets of plans and some careful tracing of overs, unders and visual use of spaces to avoid compromising existing good things. I also have a strong personal view that disabled adaptation should be such that future owners will not take it out as clunky or compromising of utility (often the first thing they do), and that it should be integrated equally into the general usage of the house and not be tucked out on a limb somewhere like an add-on kludge or a mad aunt in the attic from Jane Austen. I will try to post the plans, but my particular project is on a slowish burn of a couple of months thinking time. Thanks for the reference and your detailed account. F

Consider future nails tenancy too. I would be attracted by something that let expose the whole caboodle by undoing 4 or 8 screws.

Is it a good sign when your test item breaks the equipment :-) ? Good result.

OT: Do you have a Google maps or streetview link? That sounds potentially untenable. Where I am they banned cycling in the entire town centre (Mansfield) after a couple of schoolkids startled a few people cycling round the outdoor market one afternoon. So now it is a 15 minute push-and-walk or go via the multilane ringroad for kids from the other side of the town centre visiting the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre.

Yay . Somebody else from Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire. Just noticed since @PeterW outed us all. I think the principle is that lighting cables carry so much less current than other things that use of foam etc has few implications, particularly where LEDs are in use. Personally, I have enough recessed downlights that I have come to hate significantly dislike the things, and any changes to all of them are a major undertaking. I love the idea of seal holes (Onk! Onk!) being filled with expanding foam - some expanding foam that would be. An @Onoff project. Ferdinand

We have been planning for a few years for my parent to move downstairs, but it appears that the huge bedroom, rooflights, view etc are still attractive. So now we are talking about lifts and stairlifts (which the Yanks call, delightfully, "Chairlifts", as if you reach 89 then go skiing down your stairs.) I have been suggesting planning for these for some time, and now I find I may need one myself. In addition to stairlifts we are considering platform lifts (ie on a deck with half height or full height surround) and cabinet lifts (cabinet like a telephone box). Does anyone have any real world experience with these? The issues seem to be: 1 - That it meets the need, safely and practically without ever leaving the user stranded. 2 - How far the spec goes - eg lift large enough to carry wheelchairs or not. 3 - What happens after the need is ended (eg impact on sale of house) vs minimal value if it is sold. 4 - Then more minor questons such as whether a walk-thru or drive-thru (2 door) lift is a more useable option, or eg a smaller lift and 2 wheelchairs for upstairs and downstairs, and if it looks like a hospital-import. We are nowhere near the wheelchair stage yet, but it needs to be considered. As far as I can see the realistic options and costs are: 1 - Stairlift, which is removed when the need is no longer there. Cost new say 2k -> 5k. 2 - Minimal lift, which is clearly a temporary add on. May be essentially self-supporting. Remove when need no longer there. Costs say £10k+ for the lift plus install. 3 - Lift integrated into house design/structure, with the extra aim of enhancing the house. Costs say 25k+ including the lift as may require structural work. 4 - Something refurbished by the manufacture. I can imagine these being 30-50% of the new price, which - if it is a piece of kit costing thousands *may* be worth a look subject especially to safety / reliability / guarantees. Any comments one any of this would be welcome, as there are a lot of angles to tease out. The hsoue here is a converted bungalow with angled roofs all over the place upstairs, and a lot of walls not quite aligning with downstairs, so we will just invite some reps and give them the run of it and ask for options in the first instance. Ferdinand

I guess that would be a good first question .

Most of us calculate Design EPC numbers using the free FSAP software from Stroma. This is a thread for help and questions, since I may be about to ask a few. Ferdinand

We have had one nearly like this for a couple of years, with a frosted glass alu framed door, and the experience has been great with a couple of small caveats. There are (or were) various depths front-to-back. It is very white and it does need a quick wipeover every day. But we all do that in showers every time we use them (don't we? ) and that is fine. The obtangular bowl with square corners is a very useful shape for eg soaking things. Also, if you choose one with integrated places and shelves for the soap, to put bottles of unguents etc, then those are a pain to keep clean. We have taken to putting a white tupperware type container that arrived with Chinese takeaway egg-fried-rice on each shelf, and replacing periodically. It works. On the other hand the Ikea stainless clip-on-the-edge soap dishes and containers are excellent. So excellent quality and value but get a streamlined one, protect your cubbyholes, and use the clip on thingumajigs. Ferdinand

I provided a Switch as illustrated for my rewiring of the Little Brown Bungalow, but the electrician has used a different solution involving some sort of thing that looks like a small CU. Will have to take a piccie today. @Barney12 Er ....

Absolutely agree on that. You could take the position that there are things you have to do between contract and start, with a 3rd party requiring you to do them etc. (I have edited my previous post to be a little more subtle. I am having a brusque afternoon, so I'll pipe down for a bit.)

Is that actually just the last 2 years? Is it not more likely to have been a mistake? The was a case on the series "Meet the Planners" (in 2013/4?) where someone got a Housing Estate on their outlying smallholding through by meeting the sustainability criteria by building an 800m footpath down the side of a country lane. That suggests that the means of safe journey rather than just distance was being considered even then. They were doing detailed Sustainability Rankings on ranking our local potential development sites back in about 2012-3 for our Local Plan using service accessibility criteria. It may even have been in the SHLAA in one form. It was a bad mistake on that evaluation that dropped our site out of the Housing Allocation and forced us to submit a Planning App. before the Local Plan was approved. Ferdinand

With the husk off. I would say that without a good reason (perhaps he has one - ask him?) it is possible that you are being played and *may* (or may not) be being set up for his ultimatum of some kind. Either way, you are going to need to demonstrate who is boss or you have lost the authority. But demonstrating that authority could be investigating what the causes are first and brokering an acceptable solution for both of you. If you think you are being played, I see three options: 1 - Come over the heavy uncle now. 2 - Do not, and be ready and prepared to walk away on the day if he plays silly buggers. 3 - Communicate via the architect if he is still involved. 4 - Try some diplomacy. I do not think 3 would resolve it - feels a bit sheep-like and running to daddy, and not sufficiently in your control at the micro level. Could you offer to meet him on site first to discuss any concerns preventing him signing in advance as one way ahead? You perhaps also need to consider the ease of creating a plan B for the profile of your escalation. What will it cost in money, time, risk if you lose him? But that is all just my opinion, of course, and I am commenting without responsibility or consequences! Ferdinand

It means they have been cocking it up for the previous X years. (I know one in the Peak Park where the LPA lost on Appeal when they had expected to win following a dismissive refusal at LPA level, and the developer ended up with a PP for new dwellings and no Planning Obligations at all.)

Having checked the numbers, Oxford seems to raise a surprisingly small amount It would probably go on things that you would not notice immediately. In my very local area, mine are currently hitting developments for 'improvements to the A38 corridor', in addition to the usual capital improvements for schools / parks / community facilities, which is the main industrial development zone along each side of the main road. Having checked Oxford, their Section 106 contributions run at about 0.5 - 1.5 million per year for an area with 160k people. At 1.4 million it would be around £20 saved on the Council Tax, plus perhaps 2-3 times as much value again in providing newbuild subsidised housing, and whatever they raise via CiL. I can see that being £100 a year off the Council Tax per household. In my area the Council do about 4-8kk per developer house on Section 106 on most developments (=1-2 million), and perhaps 60 affordables in toto some of which will be on top, in a district of 50k households. That again may be £100 or more per year off Council Tax for each household. If someone is increasing the value of their chunk of land from say 100k for 10 acres to 3000k for 10 acres purely by the Council, I think that perhaps 25-30% of the uplift going to capital investment for facilities for the houses they are allowing to be built is quite fair and reasonable. I agree that new people should cover revenue costs. That seems a fair division to me, given that the policy us to attempt to capture part of the planning gain. If the Council were taking say 50-75% that would be pushing it. Ferdinand

Around here in my experience Planning Gain taxes equate to perhaps 5-10% of the GDV of a development and 30%-150% of the sale price of the land under development. Policy for the last several decades has been that expenditure needed to provide community facilities and improvements for the inhabitants of a new development should largely be covered by the developers of that development (which is ultimately paid for by the seller of the land and the purchasers of the houses). To me that seems more or less reasonable. What happens in Scotland with (say) a 500 home development? Who pays for the new roads, the £750k (say) needed to upgrade the local primary school intake by 3 classes, the Doctors' Surgeries and so on, and how is it extracted? Ferdinand

You get what you negotiate. There was a chap on here a few weeks ago with a slightly far fetched sounding self-build project on the Green Belt outside Bristol where he required 8 people to give him the money to do the ground works and site prep before the start. That had a 250k S106 due on the commencement of works. That would be another 30k each for the members of the putative self- build group before they even start building. It is normal for phased payments to be agreed on larger developments matched to the revenue profile. F

Incidentally, here is a huge blog post about a Durisol build near Edinburgh. The blgo is called Edinkist, and is structured as as a single post with abotu 30 updates. https://edinkist.wordpress.com/diary-of-the-build/ Also technicals: https://edinkist.wordpress.com/technical-details/

I like those playful columns - a bit like Coventry Cathedral. Are the ones on your SiL's house necessary at all, or are they structural, or marginal? I think I would enjoy leaving them unclad or ideally missing, and make the drain-chain into a faux column / water feature using a thin or thick rod of metal such as stainless steel or aluminium-bronze. If restrained but not anchored at the bottom, the "column" would move when people leaned on it. Credit.

Is there a chance that the former EPC assessor might send me a copy of their file? I know they anyone else is not allowed to use it, so it is not as if it will take away work or anything . My chalet-bungalow is currently an EPC 74, with 17% of light assessed as low energy fittings (previous owner iriots!) and no solar. It says that low energy bulbs take me up to 77 (*), and 2.5kWp solar would take that up to 83. So if I have 100% of low-energy light fittings, and 10kWp solar - which I have now - what could my number be? We also have a brand new high efficiency boiler. If the solar benefits are linear to EPC, then that makes it another 18, which gets me to 101. Likely? [Update: Playing a bit with Stroma for the Little Brown Bungalow the PV impact is *huge*. Very tempted to get one done on my house to lock in the number before they nobble the algorithm again to promote the next big thing.] Ferdinand (*) We have *oodles* (=about 75-80) of GU10 recessed and mounted spotlights, curse their little cotton socks.

Has any micro wind turbine ever been proven not to be a red herring except on a boat or offgrid setting? While solar is proven, it may still be worth registering as FiT etc. I would go solar on that. Ferdinand

I have considered these for my leanto, but am going for a long overhang instead. I think that gutters to match your windows or copper or aluminium (and I would start with metal gutter only across the front and something subtle down the sides to guide the water such as a simple bead on the roof as a verge) plus appropriate chains would be excellent. I would be tempted by a chain with something tube-ish shaped as a decoration around the chain to keep splash off the oak. It would look superb if it met the need. Ferdinand

I would make the whole thing Incredibly simple. My posh one died and I use one of these or similar. It may be the sort of thing from The Range or Pound Shop. I normally keep a couple in stock for tenants, and if it is good enough for my Ts then it is OK for me. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chrome-Plated-Plug-Handle-Waste/dp/B009YTQ88G If you want a flippy one flip-top is the phrase: There are such plugs around including a few for baths: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flip+top+%2Bbath+waste&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiryq2jnMbWAhUkOsAKHQk3DYgQ_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=672 F

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