Ecological, topographical, structural and borehole surveys

There has been a flurry of activity this week with a host of surveys taking place; structural, ecological and topographical. The first two have been updates to previous surveys with this being the third time for both ecological and structural. The good news with the ecological survey is that bats haven't moved in since the last survey. However, swallows have returned to their established nesting site in the barns, in fact on the day of the survey! We were advised that we could board up the doors and windows to prevent them rearing young but since our builders won't start until September, we've decided to leave them as by that time they will have left for sunnier climes. 

Another area we have been investigating and I forgot to mention last week, is that we have had a site survey from a local borehole drilling company for ground source heating. Their initial survey was to see if they could get their gear up the narrow and winding line. Fortunately they are confident that they will be able to manage but with a bit of a struggle. The dratted lane has kyboshed a number of schemes so far including a residential caravan and a big storage container! The next step was to visit the mining records office in Mansfield to find out if there has been any mining activity in the area we have designated for our drill holes. Much as I would have liked to have gone to the records office I was at work and so couldn't go. We are slap bang in the middle of a mining area so the chances of there being no mines under us was going to be slim and despite the map records being numerous, very old and in some cases full of holes, it looks like there are former coal seams running very close to where we would want to drill. Apparently this might not be a problem at all as it depends how deep the seams run underneath, but that would take a surveyor to decipher the records to be absolutely sure, so the information gleaned so far been passed to the drilling company.

Topographical survey and bat man

Finally, some progress. A pre-planning meeting with the local Amber Valley District Council planning department has been held. This was to sound out some changes we would like to the current planning permission already granted.  This was a mixed bag of some being agreed to and some not. The main changes we needed were to plot 1 where the  L-shaped bit is very narrow and is a separate mono pitch roof. This can be changed to be a wider section of building and a dual pitch roof to be fully integrated into the rest of the building. The second change that was absolutely essential was to have permission for a front door for plot 2. Currently, the only access is all the way around the buildings and accessed via the courtyard, and again, this has been agreed to. The change that we wanted for our house which is plot 3 has not been agreed to. We would have liked a garden room extension as there are few openings into the walled garden; which is going to be our garden, but sadly this has not been agreed to. It's not the end of the world though, and I'm sure there will be other options for gaining access and views to the garden. The next step for us is to send our wish list to the architect indicating which are 'must haves' and which are 'would likes' and he will endeavour to fit it all in.  

A topological (or is it topographical?) survey has been booked for this week and with the results of this the architect can start our plans. You might wonder at a topological survey being commissioned as we already have plans. The reason for this is that the existing plans were drawn up by a different architect and do not contain all the measurements for the elevations. It will also ensure that the ground levels are measured around the barn so that all pipe work can be laid at the right level to make sure that the flows are in the right direction. It would be tragic if sewage didn't drain properly. 

An update to the existing ecological survey has also been booked. This is to check that bats haven't moved in since the last planning application was made.

For actual physical progress, this week we have been making inroads into the slightly jungly walled garden. Some trees have been taken down and are ready to be burned and the worst of the brambles have been attacked although they did their best to attack back. Some more of the canopy has blown down, but the rest is still standing (more or less). We have looked into having this taken down before the builders get on site, but it hasn't been so easy to find someone with the correct certification to remove the asbestos panels. Also, one of the barns is tiled with asbestos tiles and so it's not wise to remove them just yet as the building will then be completely open to the elements. They really need to be removed in one go as it is so expensive to get the asbestos removed and disposed of.

A few photo's of the garden and buildings....