Establishing The Boundaries Of Your Plot #Ask The Architect

Here's an interesting one. How do you establish the boundaries of a plot?

A quick tip is that the red line or thick line on your Title Deed often relates to markers on an Ordinance Survey plan. These are typically visible on site. You need to be aware that in our experience Ordinance Survey Plans can be inaccurate ie I have at times seen them being out by 700mm. It's quite excessive isn't it?

Solicitors always panic about getting the correct title plan shown however the reality is the 1:1250 scale on a Title Plan really is not sufficient to accurately locate a boundary on site particularly if the site is in the middle of a field.

What prompted this post was simply that I have returned from a site where a field was being carved into 3 plots all of equal width. Or so we thought. The 1st plot is built and the boundary line is established and correct to the title, however when we measure our Client's title it would appear that the plot owner immediately adjacent has positioned his timber post 800mm into our site. I have measured this several times in both directions across the site and checked the overall outline dimensions of all 3 plots and there is no doubt about it, the adjacent plot is incorrectly defined. So what to do now?

Well as an Architect I often need to remember that I am dealing with my Client's future neighbours therefor a polite call asking for a brief meeting on site and mentioning (without being inflamatory) where I thought the problem lay is sufficient to get all parties out to site to discuss.

Remember if you are scaling from a 1:1250 Title Plan it is very easy to be 100mm out. Always seek professional advice.

Bertie Auld In The News!

On behalf of everyone here at block architects we would like to wish our Client Mr Bertie Auld , Celtic Legend, every success with both his health and his planning application.

Read more here

#Ask The Architect - Heating Scottish Homes

Here we are again with the second #AskTheArchitect (follow this on twitter or follow me @blockarchitects) post.

The Question posted is: 'Why can't we contain the summer heat and re-use it in the winter months?' and this particular question related to housing in Scotland.

It's an interesting question because it taps into the current push by the Scottish Government and EU regarding reducing carbon output.

The fact is that there are many new products on the market place all of which are working towards reducing the carbon footprint of new and used houses. I today saw a VPhase product which regulates the power supply to a house saving £75-£100 a year on electricity costs and it can be fitted to existing houses. This can be fitted by KCC Electrical, Glenrothes

I am not aware that it is possible to store heat for several months in advance but if anyone knows differently then I would love to chat with them. We do however have Air Source Heat Exchangers which are powered by photovoltaics or solar panel on the roof. The energy from the sun powers a motor which extracts heat contained within the house and the recirculates this into an underfloor heating system. Certainly the heat is being recirculated and in theory reduces the running costs however, if we could invent a way for buildings to store heat in the summer and displace this in the winter...well, the inventor will I am sure be a very rich man.

I do not wish anyone to think that block architects are specialists in environmental design as it's an industry which is revolving and moving fast, however I can assure everyone that we are meeting many leading industry professionals with a view to getting this knowledge rooted within our design process.

Comments welcome at the bottom of the blog.