DaveS's Obsy Build. First thoughts.

[JamesF]

From the "Technical Guidance" on permitted development:

Quote

‘Height’ - references to height (for example, the heights of the eaves on a house extension) is the height measured from ground level.  Ground level is the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building in question. Where ground level is not uniform (e.g. if the ground is sloping), then the ground level is the highest part of the surface of the ground next to the building.

James

[JamesF]

I just discovered the above quote is from the 2013 guidance, but the latest (2017) guidance merely adds the condition that the height must be measured from genuine ground level, not from anything added on top.

For what it's worth, in Dave's position I probably genuinely would do something similar to what I have suggested.  Erecting a dome inside an outbuilding allowed by permitted development is perfectly acceptable, as is taking quite a long time to complete the entire project.  One of our neighbours (who has sat on the local council's planning committee for a very long time) has been building a garage in his garden for at least twenty years.  The order in which you choose to complete the project is no-one's business but your own.

For amusement Dave, perhaps you could ask young Emma if erecting a 4m high dual-pitch roof shed with 2.5m high walls and the dome entirely contained inside would be permitted development?

James

[DaveS]

Thinks....... double pitch roof with a slot mounted on a track....

[DaveS]

[More removed words]

When my C drive was getting clogged up, and I was down to a few megabytes of free space I deleted a slew of programs including sketchup make. Now I find it's online only with cloud storage. Argh! Why do they do this?

[Gina]

I'll see if I've still got it.  I don't use it any more but it could be on a laptop possibly...

[DaveS]

Thanks Gina

I've been having a look on my disks to see if I still have the installers, but I think I was so desperate for space I deleted them too. Yes, stupid I know but I thought I wouldn't be needing sketchup again. Dur.....

[Oddsocks]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

When my C drive was getting clogged up, and I was down to a few megabytes of free space I deleted a slew of programs including sketchup make. Now I find it's online only with cloud storage. Argh! Why do they do this?

https://help.sketchup.com/en/downloading-older-versions

Any help?

 

[DaveS]

Many thanks for that, not sure how I missed it. Downloaded and installed. .

Wish I could give you more than one "thank".

[DaveS]

Bother

I've had two crashes with that version (2017) of Sketchup Make (The free version), and it's asking me to install the 2018 version, the 2018 versions on that site are the paid-for Pro . I'll have to go looking for it.

Meanwhile, I've been going back to first principles and asking some pertinent questions:

Q: What am I trying to achieve?

A: To raise the telescope high enough to see over the hedges. roofs etc

Q: How high does this have to be?

A: About 2.5m. Any higher gets silly. 2.5m might be considered silly, but is about the minimum.

Q: How big is the telescope?

A: 615mm long x 350mm dia. so parking with the Dec axis and 'scope both horizontal I get a (Very rough) height of 2.5 + (0.350 / 2) = 2.650m. Parking with the Dec axis horizontal and the 'scope pointing up (The default position from Autoslew) is more problematic as it depends on the balance point.

 

Now off to have an in-depth look at permitted development regs, and have a search for Sketchup Make 2018.

[DaveS]

Oh, and I've just checked the distance from the house wall to the centre of the obsy location, 19.5 m, give-or-take, which means It's within the 20 m limit for a conservation area.

[AdeKing]

Is the weather today giving you food for thought regarding securing everything down Dave or are you fairly sheltered from the southwesterlies?

Waves were spectacular breaking over West Bay Harbour a few minutes ago and I thought of you and your obsy plans.

Ade

[DaveS]

Thanks Ade, yes it's a bit breezy. I thought of driving down to West Bexington to have a look at the surf, but had too much to be getting on with.

The Pulsar Domes have pretty strong security brackets, but if I have to go with a roll off roof then I'll need to arrange something myself.

[Oddsocks]

7 hours ago, DaveS said:

I've had two crashes with that version (2017) of Sketchup Make (The free version), and it's asking me to install the 2018 version, the 2018 versions on that site are the paid-for Pro

I'm 90% sure that the 2018 free version was when they first migrated to the online web-based model.

I did try 2018 on-line but it (or I) managed to lose some CNC router work that I had been designing over several weeks and gave up.

Have been using TurboCad for Mac and MeshCam for Mac since then as I still do a lot of engineering designs for CNC lathes and routers, plus some 3D printing that I'm just getting into but neither TurboCad or MeshCam are freeware.

I used TurboCad for my listed building re-roof planning application last year and since I saved several thousand that I had been quoted to have the plans drawn professionally I considered TurboCad money well spent.

Have a look at FreeCAD, that might be all you need for architectural observatory plans, it does mean learning a new program though, there are not that many similarities with Sketchup Make.

https://www.freecadweb.org

William.

[DaveS]

OK, I've downloaded and installed FreeCAD, and uninstalled Sketchup 2017 and Pro 2018.

I also registered for the online Sketchup, so I'll see how I get on. Fortunately I'm not so deep into sketchup that learning a different program would be a problem.

[Oddsocks]

For architectural drawings with FreeCAD a good starting place are the tutorials for ARCH and BIM.

https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Tutorials

You will find many Youtube videos also though it can be time consuming sorting the most informative.

[DaveS]

Thanks, it already looks like a steep learning curve, all the tools are greyed out when I open the program. Never mind, I'll have a run through the tutorials tomorrow when I'm more with it.

[JamesF]

I'm trying to work my way through the FreeCAD tutorials myself at the moment.  It looks very impressive, though not for the faint-hearted :)

James

[DaveS]

It does look very thorough. Gonna have to take a deep breath before tackling it.

[JonC]

Why not just go for planning permission? Try and get exactly what you want instead of trying to stay within permitted development regs. You might be able to get help pre-application to smoot the way, some places its free other areas you have to pay for it. 

[DaveS]

Time and money. It takes 8 weeks to get through the planning process, then another 2 weeks for validation (Whatever this entails), at a cost of £209. And no guarantee of approval. Planning advice is £30-£50. If it's rejected then back to square one.

I've been rethinking my original assumptions, and may be able to go with a RoR.

[JamesF]

Validation happens first.  Basically it's the process by which they determine that your application is complete and until validated the application won't even be considered.  For example, our application to convert a barn to a holiday let was initially held up in validation because they insisted that it should include a biodiversity survey.  Only then would they validate it so it could enter the consideration process.

And I'm afraid the eight weeks is a joke.  It's a target with no legal backing.  If the planning department fail to meet that target they can actually extend it to something like six months (I think) and even then the applicant's only recourse is to appeal to the secretary of state on the basis of non-judgement, which is lengthy and expensive.  From memory it took something like seven months for our application to go from validated to granted.  Not that I'm seriously cross about it or anything like that.  Happy to see the planning department nuked from orbit certainly, but not cross at all, oh no.

James

[Gina]

Of course not!!

[JamesF]

Oh, the biodiversity survey was another £1000 or so.

I'm ranting now.  Apologies

At the same time as the last planning officer was looking at the barn conversion, I pointed out another barn that needs a new roof.  Currently it has a wrinkly tin roof that is rotting away.  I can replace that like-for-like no bother, but it will look hideous and is right next to the house.  What I'd like to do is replace it with a slate roof which will fit in with the local area and sit so much more naturally in the rural landscape.  Nothing cheap and nasty.  Decent slate, not the cheap nasty stuff from China or anything like that.  But to do that I have to apply for planning permission which involves architects, surveys and all sorts.  By the time it was done I'd have spent more on getting planning permission than it will cost me to have the work done and I really can't afford it.  So instead of an attractive building that would fit in to the area nicely, I'll stick another damn ugly wrinkly tin roof on

Normal service may now be resumed

James

[Gina]

Planning can certainly be stupid!!!

[DaveS]

Which is why, in answer to Jon's post above, I want to avoid planning at all costs.