Ferdinand

Morning, @richo106. Floor AIUI there are two things here. 1 - Insulation value, where the differences between Jabfloor EPS70 and EPS100 are marginal - 0.038 vs 0.036 u-values respectively. On the U-value, you will need something like 350mm of EPS to give you the same insulation value as your 200mm of PIR. EPS100 would save you ~25mm on the thickness required afaics. Significant? 2 - Compression strength, where it needs to take whatever weight you are putting on it without collapse. According to the datasheet either seems applicable under a domestic floor. https://www.jablite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Jabfloor-70-100-150-200-250-below-slab-Technical-Data-Sheet.pdf Wall I think you may be constrained by building regs here depending on what type of blocks you are using for teh inner leaf and what extra you have inside the inner leaf. EPS may only barely meet the required standard depending on That may force you down the PIR route. TBH I would plump for the one that insulates better, given what has happened to heating costs. Then worry about any of the house which is less insulated. Ferdinand

Yay. Someone doing my homework !

But you get sloe gin and puncture wounds ! @Adam2, go for varieties of pyracantha (firethorn) with several colours of berries, and plant them spread out along nearish the bottom, then let them develop into a thicket if you have space, and birds will love it.

Holly? Especially Ilex Ferox. Though a huge 10ft high pile of pyracantha sounds good. Perhaps Blackthorn.

Listen to yourself not the BCO on the insulation, needless to say 🙂 .

There's a lot in that, and that may be the easy way out - keep it on site. The are umpteen threads on BH about composting loos. Here's a fairly comprehensive one a couple of years old: I love that letter, @Temp - 25 pages including 13 Appendices.

Welcome.

I can't call it; I'd love to see a piece by a senior planning professional. Boiling it down to the core after my brief excursion into language, and trying to provide a useful summary: Is this a leftover from all the EU law being read across into UK law in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (I think it is that one; there are about 3 or 4 similar acts.) Is it English Nature being too precautionary? Are LPAs listening to English Nature too much? The LPA response has been to ignore it if deemed n/a, stop apps if they think a big issue, or require a "prove Nitrate Neutrality" report. Possible responses are: Keep it all onsite (eg etc), as many of us do. Develop high nitrate ground, which makes a net loss easier to demonstrate. Appeal, perhaps for non-determination of they try to freeze it. Argue that the nitrate issue should trigger draining to the main sewer "last resort". Argue that a single-self build is de minimis. I am sure there are other options. F

I do not think I am up to a scrambled hegg from a hostrich ...

It's very straightforward - Hs are at risk of going extinct, and need to be saved. Around here, most people drop them - 'ouse, 'Arry, 'effelump, 'artlepool. Except, ironically, from the name of the letter: HAITCH. Incidentally, that should be Hinspector Morse. So we need to rescue them and attach to suitable habitats, such as the word 'egg'. Which now becomes HEGG. Simple, and you will earn the undying appreciation of Natural England, Scrabble Users - an H worth 8 points because of rarity is unconscionable, and the Ghost of my late mother. As it happens, my tea tonight is a hostrich steak.

I scatter crushed heggshells on the top of hosta-pots to keep slugs away. If you need a big batch, then buy a lot of heggs (perhaps 2 or 3 trays), and lightly mix them together in say 3s (to make an omelette or scrambled heggs) for the freezer. Then your heggs store in a much smaller place - perhaps 1.5-2 dozen in a margarine pot - and you get pre-portioned heggs and less clutter. Works for me.

Catching up. If you put a Feng Shoooey chap in that lot, he would come back like one of these lost Japanese Officers from WW2 in the jungle in 3 decades' time.

Banned as of 1 April 2022, I'm afraid. https://www.countryliving.com/uk/homes-interiors/gardens/a39606324/slug-pellets-banned-uk/

Yes.

Point of Order. Eggs has an H at the start. HEGGS.

There's a decent piece on this over at Planning Resource from late 2019: https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1665502/algae-blocking-10000-planned-homes I don't understand why in 2019/2022 English Nature are taking such heavy notice of a 2018 ECJ ruling centering on a legal action about a development in the Netherlands from even further back. Does the ECJ have competence over our planning law? Is this classic bureaucrat gold-plating? Having said that, there look to be enough alternate routes within planning law for most self-builders to find a way, especially as so many of us process our .. er .. soot on site. Unless LAs are actually saying "refuse to accept PA", in which case it is an interesting little conundrum. Nor am I sure about whether SPAs actually apply here - I have mainly met them wrt to birds such as Dartford Warblers. A Chinese Puzzle. I think the Housing Minister needs to put English Nature back in their toybox, and come up with some balanced ideas. Ferdinand

Can't you FOI it, as surely it is a matter of public record?

The size of what you have outline for is another important factor.

On the other hand there is a tradeoff of money vs risk. If you sell it AMM and your buyer thinks that x, y or z may take extra money to sort, then they will assume the max and take that off their potential offer. Ones that could scare people are around access, what is underground (eg insecure soil, mineshafts etc), possibly trees which may get a TPO and are key to the development, contamination, cost of power or sewerage. You need to consider each, and what it will cost you to remove that risk, then perhaps select the ones that you consider will benefit your sale price by significantly more than the cost of removing / reducing the risk. Also if you have more informal information such as proof of usage for 50 years (so unlikely to be contaminated), then that can be of benefit. As an example, when my family sold a bruiser of a listed dwelling where "listed" would scare people, we had a full structural survey done for £500 as part of our sales package. The last plot I did I had at outline AMM except for the Entrance.

It's worth reflecting how far permissible use of agricultural land will let you do what you want without PP. eg 28 day exemption, things permitted as agricultural etc.

4 for 3 Discounts on Flooring from B&Q First one I have seen for some time, and available on a selection of vinyl sheet, luxury tile and other styles. Also applies to a selection of a laminate floor. https://www.diy.com/landingpage/flooring#icamp=HP_Hero_Flooring *Including a couple of Quickstep products.* Here, for example, is Quickstep Aquanto Oak for (I make it) £15 per sq. metre. I did half a house with one of these. https://www.diy.com/departments/quick-step-aquanto-varnished-natural-oak-effect-laminate-flooring-1-84m-pack-of-7/1294428_BQ.prd Some of them review well.

@SimonD Thanks for your reply. I'll reply soon.

The Apple device I would use - since I can't stand iPhones - would be a low end iPad.

This is one of the most innumerate analyses I have ever seem. I don't know if I have the patience to list the holes therein. It needs to be called out because it is nuts. But I'll try and be polite and impersonal. Richard Murphy's biggest conclusion is that: the electricity and gas suppliers to the distribution companies are going to see their profits (ed: on a typical bill) increase almost exactly forty times, from £43 a year to an extraordinary £1,717 a year. He gets to that by making the fictional assumption that a typical bill is the fixed price tariff that *he* has been offered by *his* energy company for the house he lives in with his GP wife in Downham Market, and applying it to the whole country. That is £3000 under an unregulated fixed tariff: * let’s assume that all the data that I can find that says that the average house paid £1,200 a year for fuel in 2021 is also right. It was pretty much for me, for example. Now let’s base what energy costs might be on the fixed prices now being made available by the same energy suppliers who were happy to supply our electricity and gas for £1,200 last year. It seems around £3,000 is that new normal. Again, it happens to be for me. So, the price is increasing by £1,800. It is also a fictional claim for an average bill. since the typical bill under the cap is £1971, which I think almost everyone will stick with, following analysis for example by Martin Lewis. The cap quoted is by definition the amount an average consumption household would pay. So that immediately reduces Murphy's claim for 'profiteering' by £1000+, because his top line is very exaggerated. AFAICS most of his other assumptions are also fictions, which I may take half an hour to analyse later. In the meantime, I recommend BHers have a little look, and find the holes in this particular colander. Ferdinand * There does seem to be a dishonest marketing issue. I have been prominently offered 2 alternative fixed tariffs which will cost £2700 or so, whilst the capped variable rate at probably well under £2k is not mentioned.

Does the bath foul the door opening if you put irt on the other side? Does it help to have a bowl in the corner, catty-cornered? I'd try and lose the shower doors, and have a single fixed screen just siliconed at the bottom. Also, I think there may be potential having the bath across the far end. F