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Scaffolding and things that go bump in the night


Triassic

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Since my last blog post things have been fairly quiet. Our frame manufacturer, Lakeland Timber Frame, have confirm that our frame is in production and we have a date for erection  of mid January. The crane company have visited site to check the narrow access and hairpin bent for themselves, they’ve confirmed that their smallest crane will be able to get onto site, with difficulty!

 

Ss with a start date agree it was time to get the scaffold up. Originally I’d considered buying my own and selling it on after the build, however that option would have cost me £12,000. The alternative was to hire scaffolding and get it erected at a cost of £5,000. After a lot of careful consideration I’ve gone with a local scaffold company. Looking at the size of the scaffold and the shear amount of scaffolding required, ii think I’ve made the right choice. So far they’ve used six wagon loads of scaffolding kit and it’s taken 9 man days to errect. I recon there’s another 2 days to finish it off.

 

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The other thing I’ve had on my list of things to do,  is get all the very tall Ash trees inspected. This is the sort of thing that tends to be low on my agenda as it’s not really Build related. However it’s just moved up the priority list after a loud thump at 3am yesterday morning.

 

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The tree just missed a plastic oil tank and party constructed outbuilding and the site loo, that’s it under the branches on the right. I couldn’t get far enough back to get the whole tree into shot, I recon it about 120 feet tall (long!). If it had fallen the other way it would have flatten on our residential cabin and us! I’ve got about six more of these and they are all going!

 

The tree also took out the overhead power lines and at one stage 65 homes were without power for 6 hours whilst the cables were replaced.

 

 

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19 Comments


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24 minutes ago, CC45 said:

Fire wood sorted for a while then!

That’s a problem n it’s self! Because we live in a small 50m2 highly insulated cabin we only light the wood burner occasionally, consequently we only burn one builders bag of wood per year.

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You're damn lucky the oil tank didn't split! That would have been crazy expensive to clean up afterwards. 

"narrow escape there" !

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7 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

You're damn lucky the oil tank didn't split! That would have been crazy expensive to clean up afterwards. 

"narrow escape there" !

 

Just out of interest, how would this be cleaned up?

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4 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

Fairly liquid and a big hose

 I was in the kitchen and picked up bottle of vegetable oil and it fell right through my fingers, it was nightmare to clean up, had to call the professionals. Can't imagine cleaning up after a oil tank leak.

Edited by Thedreamer
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10 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

 

Just out of interest, how would this be cleaned up?

It's a massive expense to clean up an oil spill.  Not something you would wish in your worst enemy.  

You  can dig it all out down to whatever depth the oil has settled to.  Very expensive as it's contaminated spoil so ain't cheap to dispose.  The oil will track along underground services so goes much further than you would believe. 

You can also put standpipes in and  flush the ground water and clean that.  Ain't cheap either. 

Have seen houses that had the floors dug out down as far as they could go and then sealed up,  back filled and concreted again.  But if the oil has got into the blocks and soaked in then you still can smell it.  

Is heart breaking when you go to a house like this and see the  devastation that a spill can cause.  The main reason oil was not an option for my heating in the new house. 

 

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15 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

It's a massive expense to clean up an oil spill.  Not something you would wish in your worst enemy.  

You  can dig it all out down to whatever depth the oil has settled to.  Very expensive as it's contaminated spoil so ain't cheap to dispose.  The oil will track along underground services so goes much further than you would believe. 

You can also put standpipes in and  flush the ground water and clean that.  Ain't cheap either. 

Have seen houses that had the floors dug out down as far as they could go and then sealed up,  back filled and concreted again.  But if the oil has got into the blocks and soaked in then you still can smell it.  

Is heart breaking when you go to a house like this and see the  devastation that a spill can cause.  The main reason oil was not an option for my heating in the new house. 

 

 

Yikes!

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The oil tank is redundant and it’s on the ‘to do’ list to empty and remove it. I just need to find a way of getting rid of the 200 litres of oil left in the tank!

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1 hour ago, Triassic said:

The oil tank is redundant and it’s on the ‘to do’ list to empty and remove it. I just need to find a way of getting rid of the 200 litres of oil left in the tank!

Pump it out into drums and give it away to family or friends. 

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1 hour ago, Triassic said:

The oil tank is redundant and it’s on the ‘to do’ list to empty and remove it. I just need to find a way of getting rid of the 200 litres of oil left in the tank!

I'm sure if you put it on freecycle someone would come and pump it out.  My local oil delivery depot has big cannisters you can buy off them for just such a purpose.

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I heard of someone who had a large number of oil heated greenhouses. Thieves came in and just cut away any copper pipe in all the buildings, leaving the oil to spill through the open ends. The cleanup costs were greater than the value of the farm and thousands of times greater than the value of the copper.

 

Can you not use the oil for a diesel car or site plant? You may need to mix it 50:50 with proper diesel as it is often kerosene which is less lubricating.

 

Also I note you are using a crane. Would a telehandler be more flexible and less expensive?

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8 minutes ago, Square Feet said:

I'm sure if you put it on freecycle someone would come and pump it out.  My local oil delivery depot has big cannisters you can buy off them for just such a purpose.

Done, just put it on our village Facebook group.

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"The crane company have visited site to check the narrow access and hairpin bent for themselves, they’ve confirmed that their smallest crane will be able to get onto site, with difficulty!"

Can I ask the dimensions of your hairpin?  I am looking at a site with narrow access just now so this is interesting information.... Cheers.

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On 10/12/2018 at 10:03, Triassic said:

The oil tank is redundant and it’s on the ‘to do’ list to empty and remove it. I just need to find a way of getting rid of the 200 litres of oil left in the tank!

We put our old oil tank on Freegle and it went within a week. It only had about 50 litres of oil in it but three blokes, a trolley and a trailer and it was gone.

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On 09/12/2018 at 20:34, Thedreamer said:

 

Just out of interest, how would this be cleaned up?

after a visit from sepa and sub soil ground testing --they would then tell you how many hundreds of tons of soil you would have to remove ,send to hazardous waste dump

then replace with new soil --

but not before SEPA come back and agree you have removed enough . If not off you go again

friend of mine had a petrol station --the tanker driver over filled one of his tanks by 4000litre  many years ago --it ran off the forecourt and into gardens of houses behind .

he sold the site to a major oil company .--at that time they did not insist on a ground survey --as in drilling holes down to 10m --if possible --and getting the cores checked for contamintaion.

some years later this oil company wanted to sell the site -- buyer came along --wanted soil test ,which was done and the history of the spillage was known by local petrolium officer .

site had a resale value of 3m--end result the site was then offered  for free,providing who ever took it on accepted responsibility for clean up    --as the cost to clean up the poisoned ground was estimated at 2m .

so far the major oil company are still running it--but dare not open ground up to do any up grades ,cos that would trigger SEPA insisting on clean up .

the big killer is that any pollution found in a ground test is down to who ever made the pollution if they are still in exsistance.

the polluter pays !!!.

so  very important that when you sell anywhere that your legal guy includes that the new owner takes on any liability for pollution .

A local couple found some land next to river --no owner could be traced  after lots of searchs.so they bought it from goverment ,took out insurance in case a relative turned to claim it.

thought they had done every thing right.

problem was that neither council or solicitor checked to see what had been on that ground before

so 3 years on and new house built --family getting sick.

turns out there was a tannery+ horse knacker yard on that ground in the 1700.s, right next to the river

they were growing own veg etc!!. scyanide +other nasties from tanning process found in ground

so ok no one died ,all better now --but it just shows how careful and how you need to check the old OS maps  you can find if looking at new ground.

 

so house is still there --but a dull chance of selling it.

 

so council started getting worried then and did core samples along the river bank --and found pollution around another 6 old cottages next to this ground .

councils solution --dig out the gardens and concrete them over!!

that took about a year to do.

this is why you see so many old petrol stations not re-delevoped .possible cost of cleaning up the ground before you start--bore hole testing etc  usually cost about 5-10k

depending on ground 

 

SO  BUYER BEWARE  ON BROWNFIELD  SITES --even in the country 

 

 

 

Edited by scottishjohn
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On 09/12/2018 at 09:28, Triassic said:

That’s a problem n it’s self! Because we live in a small 50m2 highly insulated cabin we only light the wood burner occasionally, consequently we only burn one builders bag of wood per year.

 

Years ago at the mini-manor we had a big hollow tree blow over and tickle the neighbours' roof a hundred feet away.

 

Bloke came along, and agreed to cut it up and take it away for £x. His estimating skills were some way off, as it took many times more than the couple of days he estimated. It was one of the traditional broadleaves that goes like marble when it has been standing dead for a bit.

 

 

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On 10/12/2018 at 10:03, Triassic said:

The oil tank is redundant and it’s on the ‘to do’ list to empty and remove it. I just need to find a way of getting rid of the 200 litres of oil left in the tank!

 

If someone is taking it away that is probably one time to insist on the correct Waste Trnsfer / Handling license.

 

If it is fly tipped down a local drain, you would I think be responsible.

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