Moonshine

South West

well i have phone a coupe of places and the cheapest i have found is £400 + VAT for a 16T, not sure where the sub £200 came from!

I disagree, as groundworks and foundations are the biggest question mark about our potential build, as its a sloping site and i want to be as forearmed as possible. I have a 3D model of the site terrain, and now i know the final design and levels i can cut chunks out of the 3D terrain which has been a quick and easy way to work out the cut and fill m3. I'm adding on 20% contingency to my calculated volume which should give a robust figure.

I was chatting to someone about muck away and he did ask if I was friendly with a farmer as under a certain m3 you can get a permit from the EA, asking as it's inert.

I am looking at the cut and fill of my site, in terms of m3 soil. I am looking at scaling up the in ground m3 by a factor of 2 to account for the increase in volume, and a soil weight of 1,800kg/m3. Can anyone shed any light on how muck away is calculated, by a loads m3 or weight per lorry? Also does the cost per load i have been seeing, e.g £190 per 16 ton lorry include soil deposal costs assuming it's inert? Any other costs that need to be factored in for muck away. E.g excavator for loading?

some information here

As gas seems to be on the way out for environmental reasons, i am half wondering even though there is a potential gas supply to one of my plot, whether to not bother getting the connection, and just have electric with an electric boiler and decent electric hob cooker (i love cooking on gas hobs as electric ones seem to be pants). Therefore i am interested in what the latest is with electric boilers are, do they heat water for the central heating system as well, or would having gas free house mean having electric radiators in each room? Also there would be no flue required, which could make it much more flexible where it could be placed. So, to add to the OP, Electric boilers, cons?

i would agree with you on that one, and its my understanding its 26 weeks from the valid application. If you hadn't supplied key documents why did they validate it?

So..... I am still waiting on my decision, and it won't be coming this week (as confirmed by the case officer, even though an extension was agreed totwo weeks ago to today. Now this is where is gets interesting, I am still within the 26 week determination period, with less than 2 weeks left to the 26 weeks. My understanding is, as long as I don't agree to an extension to after the 26 weeks, before the 26 weeks, and the 26 weeks passes without a decision I could have a valid application for a refund of the fees. Also once the 26 weeks passes I can agree to an extension past the 26 weeks with invalidating the potential refund. Make sense?

Yes, if those trees and root protection areas are going to get in you way of your plans (and they don't have TPO's or your in a conservation area) get them down before you submit outline.

Always ask for more, and you can scale back, also if the council feel they are reducing your development a bit they can feel like they are doing their bit to limit over development. A project I have worked on recently had sacrificial element that the applicant had put in but wasn't too bothered as a bit of a bargaining chip. Also note that if you get knocked back, you do get a free go on planning fees, if you re-apply within a year

looking at it some more, I think that it is an issue of wind driven rain, as it is on the wall with the greatest exposure to the elements. The rain has got into a crack in the render (just visible in the attached images) and an area where the patio door frame isn't sealed properly to the render.

Not directly above, thought one slightly off to the side. It's odd as I can't imagine it getting through the cavity tray above as I would have thought it would be tied into the leaves. From the looks of it, it could have been going on for a while, but only evident after periods (e.g. days) of prolonged rain.

Yeah it's the most exposed wall of the house, especially with the weather at the moment. What do you think of the plan to close it up?

There is a concave cavity tray above the lintel but no weep holes seen externally. The house has had blown insulation in the cavity and I presume in/above that cavity tray is soaking wet insulation, could that be transmitting the water to the exterior brick and then run down? The leak issue only happens on very od occasions of very wet weather.

Umm, it may not be that small hole. There is clear water marks running down the exterior wall leaf lintel, and the bricks above the exterior lintel are wet, internal are dry. There is a rigid cavity tray above the lintel that looks o.k. It seems like there is something more going on than just that small hole in the timber. The exterior render above the patio door looks o.k with nothing blown or holes, Though there are areas of moss.

I have an existing issue with a lintel, that if it's really windy and rainy we get a leak above a patio door of a cavity brick wall. It's an old construction as it's two steels rather a joint lintel. It looks like the outside steel, has a timber below, which is externally rendered. During construction it looks like a hole was cut in it (attached image) to make a cross member to allow a board to be fixed to it. It's through here that it looks like cold air and water are getting. The question is how to treat it to make as water tight and resistant to cold as possible? My initial thoughs are to seal the hole in the timber with a load of silicone sealant, fill the cavity between the steels and above with 100mm porous insulation, then put a section of pir board across the cavity at the timber level below the steel, and put a piece of ply under the pir.

@Bitpipe That borehole database is a good resource and there is one 200m from my site, and gives an indication of what I could be expecting, though a proper onsite GI will be done. Very good point about the WACS and something to get sorted. @Mr Punter good point on contamination, i spoke with the EHO and they mentioned the potential contamination of a sub station next door, so may well be needed. The site is restricted a bit on one side of the basement as the existing house is 1.5m away from where the retaining wall is, ?

The house we are likely to get planning for is for is a split level house, with the basement half the footprint area of the floors above. I want to get a idea of ground work and foundation costs, for which i need structural engineer design of the retaining walls. What information do i need to give the structural engineer to carry out his design work. Ground investigation? what sort of depth do pits / bored holes need to go?

Nice handy work @nod (i know its now yours). An actual question, even if they were flipped it would still not be a suitable install as it won't be flat on the hanger. Also are they actually needed at all as the timbers seem to be supported on that cross member absolutely fine, someone going a bit belt and braces?

Any of those trees got a too on them, if not you may want to think about clearing it before you put into planning.

I hadn't thought of it like that, and think that is a much better way.

I am going through a similar process at the moment. I had a chat with a client the other day who is a QS, he gave me a few things to think about and hopefully going to follow up in writing. His indication of m2 costs in our area (SW) are; Basic spec: £1,200m2 Mid spec: £1,500m2 High spec: £1,800m2+ These figures are just for the build no foundations, retaining walls, landscaping, services, professional fees, and anything abnormal about the build (e.g. basement tanking) Personally i would work out the costs in total, and add your contingency on top of that total rather than the m2 values.

Would a QS be able to work off planning drawings or would they need to be BR / construction drawings, obs with planning drawings the margin for error would be bigger. Any view on getting a local QS vs a online QS?

I am sure that this has been asked loads of times but here goes. Planning is very likely to be granted for a house on our plot. We are looking at the next steps in terms of whether to build ourselves or sell the plot. I want to get a fairly accurate idea of cost of excavation, retaining walls, foundations, and the build itself so get an idea of how much finance we need to raise to build. What are the best ways to do this, costing from builders, QS, online QS?