Ferdinand

Anyone is likely to have to pay a commuted sum to cover 25 years' maintenance if a local Council body adopt a road. It is expensive to do.

One option to look at is simply to upgrade heat emission is to replace your existing rads with double ones, which will fit the same space. Though when I upgrade an old house I tend to switch the rads from under window - as windows no longer leak and are warmer - onto inside walls, which are closer together and keep the heat in the house. F

We had a lot of hot air ducted heating systems installed in the 1960s/1970s that came out on skirting or floor vents. As children we loves sitting in front of the vents. Making a comeback?

So in that case surely his role as the engineer is to tell them that the house needs some investment first? Heaven knows there have been enough funding packages to increase the energy efficiency of socially rented homes over the last 20 years. A singe programme that ran from 2001 to iirc 2018 or so was worth around £20 billion.

(Mod action: Two separate heatpump grant threads merged)

At present I think quite a bit of it is about encouraging the skill base and the domestic industry to develop, whilst providing a measure of certainty. The UK market at the moment is about 65k this, compared to around 1.5 million across Europe and 250k-300k in France (*) Personally I think that 5k should be more than adequate; if all the cost is funded by the government then we will have money-grubbing fools falling over themselves to stick heat pumps in before creating decent quality fabric. If say half of the heat pump cost is funded then they will spend some money on insulation, ventilation, airtightness first. And reduce their heating consumption therefore need smaller heat pump. Hopefully we will also have a sharp requirement on the EPC Level required to get a heat pump grant - hopefully C or above and a new repot required first. Integrity of the EPC database is one important question. (*) This makes sense as they use very little gas, so no switchover required, and do not have our longer, colder, wetter windows on the whole.

Couldn't you have given him an at least one hour of happiness and a sense of accomplishment ? Going for the new industrial dippy-hippy look - breezeblock.

Are both parties committed to the sale? Does it have PP? What will your solicitor charge to draft it? If it is a reasonably small amount then get it drafted and make your formal offer conditional on it. Dependent on how hot the market is for this plot, reduce your formal offer by a suitable amount. If you have it drafted, it avoids any need for you to waste time quibbling about specifics you disagree with. I had my solicitor draft a clause of easement, they didn't question the wording, so I now have an easement with the widest definition of "services" I have ever seen. I could dig a tunnel to import elephants if I had a decent reason for needing them. The only risk as I see it is either them stealing your wording for the other plots or if your sale falls through. If a sale is agreed I think they would rather have your xxx k rather than kill the sale for the small amount. Assuming they *want* to sell it. Where is the downside of your solicitor doing it? The answer to "cui bono?" is most probably you. F

It sounds like the answer is an insulated kettle...

On the fence if the face of the wall is along the boundary, you physically can't put one in as it will be in their land ?. And you can't put it up tight as presumably there are foundations sticking out ? Tbh your trellis idea sounds really good. Where's Barbara Woodhouse when you need her? OK. Here's how to do it for a Friday PM.

High hedge complaints usually have a large fee attached for the complainer. Like £500. Check it for your council.

Can you do a Jeremy and put it by the door to stop smells escaping? (Though for him it was one on the outside of the door in the hall iirc.)

I haven't followed the saga. But on the render / brickwork thing, you could just point out that the planning permission means that you can't render it without a further application - which I think is true. And perhaps that they could have made the comment then when they had the opportunnity. Can you trade that off for something else? And the chainlink fence sounds a good idea. Ferdinand

Thanks. Have read up on the Building Regs and I see it is all "should" not "must".

It's just in Notts - the bit of Nottingham that would go to war rather than admit it is in Nottingham ? . Just south of Trent Bridge - including the Trent Bridge cricket ground.

Not utterly sure that this is worthy of the Corner, but I am trying to identify the minimum open space required to site a soakaway. As I have it the regs are (in England): Edge of soakaway 5m from any boundary. Edge of soakaway 2.5m from any building ie wall. So if I have a soakaway 1m x 1m as close to the corner of a plot as possible that means that I need a minimum of (5m + 1m + 2.5m) x (5m + 1m + 2.5m) space to fit it in = 72.25 sqm. Although perhaps (he said hopefully) certain things, such as a car port corner post, may not count as a "building". On a compact site, that means putting it in the car parking area / driveway, or the middle of the private amenity space. Unless there is a supervening reason such as ground conditions, impossible to fit it in (though PP might be refused), or a high water table etc. Is that a fair summary? Ferdinand

Legal rulng, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58911296 (Imo the chap was an idiot)

Wickes seem to be a lot less than that. Minus 10% for your trade account.

That undermines the "standard", though. It's the old unanswerable one about the impact of different types of occupation, and are they to be taken into account. If you don't take them into account, then the actual numbers for an under-occupied 4-bed house such as yours or mine (I am one person in 200sqm) don't match, but if we do take it into account then it is difficult to compare your or my house with another one with a family of 5 in it. The dilemma is unresolvable, so you have to make some decisions and accept the compromises.

A long 102mm holesaw can be a useful investment. Or ask a fitter (eg gas or drainage) who has got one to drill your hole when he has half an hour at the end of the day.

Thanks. I see that the cavity tray over only applies to Newbuild, but not retrofit - which helps clarify depending on the OP situation.

Chapter and verse would be good. (I note that the OP did not ask for a full comment - just how to do the penetration)

I'm sure he'll be delighted if you want to pay half !! ?

What's the roofrack on your Skoda? And does it store under the boot floor?

Spring loaded backdraft damper is one way. Or get a fan with a built-in backdraft shutter. There are plenty around. If you want something sexy looking there are the Airflow Icon range. Or better get a through the wall HR recovery fan. I have been using Lo Carbon Tempras from Vent-Axia for 7 or 8 years, as they have a trickle setting. I use them in conjunction with a PIV loft fan, which gives me a poor-man's MVHR to protect my houses from interior-wash-drying tenants. Not exactly sure how you would do this once the beads are installed, but see para below. Though I'd enjoy a video of all the beads from your entire house gradually filling your kitchen, if you can get one ?. My standard method of install is to insert a section of 102mm soil pipe in the wall using foam at a shallow angle down towards the exterior (for drainage of any moisture) sticking out a little on the outside to keep drips off the wall, and mount the fan in that - perhaps just tacked in with foam. That makes replacement easy and works well with a HR fan with the heat exchanger in the hole. I think the way to do after-beads would be to core drill through, then push it out from the other side with your piece of soil pipe. Ferdinand