Ferdinand

I think that needs a surprisingly small amount of area to feed it. I'd still like to know the mass (or volume) of timber in that. But let's do some approx. numbers. If I take it as 150 days (ie 5 months of stove-evenings per annum) that is 150 small trugs per annum. I'll take a small trug as 10kg of timber. At @SteamyTea's 4.5kWh heat output per kg of wood, that is 1500kg or 1.5 tonnes of wood per annum. That feels about right in terms of amount of wood. At a convenient (say) midrange softwood density of 500kg per cubic metre that is 3 metres of wood per annum required. So what does it take to generate 3 metres of softwood per annum? Looking at the Forestry Commission Yield Tables, you can see that you get 3 metres just from thinnings on a plantation of approx 0.3 Hectares (ie just under an acre) as long if your (say) Sitka Spruce trees are 35 years old. And the main crop will still contain 300 cubic m of standing timber per Hectare, so you can get a maincrop as well. Or you could have a smaller patch and fell a bit every year. I would say that half an acre of softwood should give you what you need for your evening fire on a continuing basis, containing 200-500 trees several decades old at 2m spacings. Ish. Very ish. A quarter of an acre of your garden will make a big hole in your need. But you will be cutting at least one tree down every month ? . Below the Forestry Commission Licence level (assuming Scotlandshire is the same as Englandshire), but they are not especially small trees. Ferdinand Forestry-commission-yield-tables.pdf

Just checking that you have found this thread:

Admit I may not be up to date. How far have you tiled? Every competent tiler I have ever watched put the edging on before the last row of tiles.

"I have improved my skills at putting plasters on my nose by continually walking into lampposts." Yes. That's logical.

I'd say "well planned by someone who chose not to punch themselves in the face for the sake of spiting their nose". One of my cheats in renos is that the plug sockets backing kitchen worktops are always above the level of the tiles. And I don't put silly things like niches in my tiling.

Is that known to be safe? The log-burner in my previous house had been known to make wood put in the fireplace to dry finally start to smoke/smoulder when it was going flat out. F

If you have PP in place and you are paying one or more others to build it: 12-24 months. If you are starting from scratch with your plot and a need to apply for planning: 18-36 months if it is being built for you, 24-48 months if you are self-managing. 24-xxx months if you are self-doing the bulk of build. And then you will be doing minor-diddling for however long you live there. I believe the longest time on "Grand Designs" was a decade. IMO. Ferdinand

I'm with the rest - get it done asap. There should imo be fewer potential issues at Outline than at Detailed. At Detailed events arrive like "when did work start", which I don't think can arise at Outline. If you had started work it would be a Retrospective application not a Detailed application aiui. Ferdinand

Canals are controlled water environments managed to a level, so the level should be constant within a couple of feet. I haven't looked but I think one of the reasons they were built/invented was to provide an alternative to rivers that flooded and drained. That leaves surface water runoff and leaks, which are the same mechanisms as everywhere else - but that the canal will provide an exit. I've seen moored boats be stove in or sink sometimes, but it has always been tying it down too tightly or holing by ice. So I'd say it could be the other way - they may be lower risk.

Sorry to hear this. Would it work to change them by dropping a note to the MD explaining exactly why they lost this 30k of business and identifying the miscreant?

I believe there is a website - @PeterW has one in his head he recommends, I think - I will have to look in the internet undergrowth to find it ?. If no one posts one, then give me a poke in a day or two.

I have 9.98 kWp on a single phase, which needed a different extra procedure. Not sure whether it is a procedural or technical thing. IIRC the process is called G83. The installer did everything. F

If the problem is that that particular space is cold and you need to warm it up to a few degrees when it gets too cold, I would try a traditional loft heater as a first inexpensive fix, with a thermostat control. Will probably cost around £30 and use minimal power - 50-100W. eg https://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/heaters/cat831056?calcheaterproducttype=tubular

How have you dealt with potential moisture permeability in your new floor? Was the strategy been with close off the airbricks to keep moisture out, or perhaps deem it to be marginal given the use of PIR?

Always a good idea to jump up and down on each suspended floor. If you can get away with it. Ideally take Giant Haystacks along with you to do it ?. Very good piece, Mike.

One line of argument which has been known to work is - "I can do this the day after completion under permitted development. Why make life unnecessarily difficult by not letting me do it when we build it?"

I have written a number of articles about adapting a house to be more suitable for use by people who are frail, older or disabled. This is a list so that anyone interested (or not interested) can find them slightly more easily. Converting a Downstairs Bathroom into an Accessible Shower Room Cost for this was just over £2k, including about £1k for the Fitter Labour and £250 for a shower seat and grab rails etc. A full replacement would have cost about £2500, with perhaps £1250-£1500 of materials. For a DIY version it would have cost £1200-£1500. A detailed set of 6 articles about my downstairs bathroom being made into a shower room: Accessible Ablutions - Strip OUt Accessible Ablutions 2 - Ducts for the Future Accessible Ablutions 3 - Half Way Photos Accessible Ablutions 4 - Finished Photos Accessible Ablutions 5 - 3d Printing Accessible Ablutions 6 - Costs and Components Project Discussion thread: Recommendations for Bathrooms for Elderly / Disabled A forum post where I reflect a little after some time of using the new shower room. Adding a Bath to the a large upstairs shower room Before and after articles with 3-d model, finished video, and debate leading to design changes: Bathroom Refurbishment Project (1) - Comments Please Bathroom Refurbishment Project (2) - Proposed Design Bathroom Refurbishment Project Finished More will be added as and when. The next projects are a further bathroom refurbishment upstairs and an accessibility ramp on the front path.

For where to go, ask your local double glazing manufacturer / fitter - they are everywhere - or find a local little man glass-cutter and ask him. Or if you are rolling your own, then look to conservatory materials' suppliers. If you are being really cheapskate, then look at secondhand or spare shower screens ... again edgings etc are available, Andy they tend t9 be easy-clean. May have potential. F

Some time ago dad made some replica roof tiles out of translucent tinted fibreglass, and put the, in to give Incidental light in a dark attic. These were in a slate roof. After a time they were really quite discreet. The things that matter are probably tint and surface texture. F

Or obey.

The two that I have found most enjoyable in the last year or six have been garden creation ones, not self-build. But then I have seen the size of your garden ? . A Garden and Three Houses, which is about an architect and partner (who did most of the roof) who built their very modest house in about 1965, and still live there, and their developing pattern of life over the time. A couple of years ago I asked him how he dealt with the current planning system. Came the reply: "I got out of that side in the 1980s". https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Three-Houses-Architect-Aldingtons/dp/0956495303 And Gardens of a Golden Afternoon, which is about the collaboration between Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardens-Golden-Afternoon-Partnership-Gertrude/dp/014008021X Both very very good on the art of combining indoor and outdoor living, and the littoral zone in between. Not sure if all my arch. books are in one shelf, or would fit in one. F

1 - Does it include install? 2 - Working back the numbers, a basic standalone 6x4 carport like that would be £1400-1500 maybe, of which the roof (basic 2 ply pvu roof would be ~£250 which comes off. 3 - Solar panels - I had a quote of under £5k back in 2015 for 4kwP array installed on a bungalow. Current good price is what - £4k installed? Take out the install cost and that becomes £2500-3k. I think that leaves a potential kit input cost price of 4-4.5k give or take. F

85+ as a required threshhold for EPC by Ecology is interestingly low. That is only a mid-range B, and I would be interested to know how different that is than a Building Regs House. Are they acknowledging that the EPC is a very clunky measure? As a comparison, the Scottish Gov are planning to require all existing owner occupied properties to reach C ie 69-80 by 2040. That standard is essentially already in place or expected for rentals (expected by 2030 in England) and the UK Govt is thing about bringing the timescale forward significantly even from that. F

You also very much need to be sure that it doesn't have an underground main sewer or electric transmission underneath.

In most places it is likely that you will make nearly as much or more from selling the plot with Planning Permission rather than spending 1-2 years running the build of a new house. To a degree that depends where you live. In some places unencumbered plots for new houses are like hen's teeth. Check the numbers. Ferdinand