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Opening and stirring paint, moving hoses, cleaning up, moving sprayer, demasking. They were 3 x 3 storey houses. The spraying was less than 2 days. A lot of paint. They also had a roller that was fed paint by a hose that they used for rendered walls, so no faffing with a scuttle.

Ah, as Dunc says there are some calcs - by and large they ignore the roof materials and sometimes the location/rainfall characteristics. Don't know how I missed those...thanks guys. e.g.

Probably be better to write in that T's need the LL's permission, that would probably cover both angles.

We will definitely have the tape and joint by others, and lighting will be set well off wall faces to avoid shadowing. What were the other 3 doing?

Indeed. It's best to be passing-by friendly with all of them. But if the manager/boss you have a contract with isn't there then you need to know who is in charge. Unfortunately that may not be the brightest or most knowledgeable one.

Good idea. Gonna try it.

TBH it is not the clients role or responsibility to be 'a supportive presence', whatever that might be deemed to be. The client is paying for the work, and is the only person that ends up holding the (sometimes deformed) baby afterwards. To me it seems to be as common for being supportive to be seen as 'weakness', as it is for it to be in any way appreciated or reciprocated. People vary, everyone is different - personality, objectives, world view, work ethic, competence, lived experience and attitudes. That needs to be respected on all sides. Leave the pig headedness and the ego at the site gate. Builders often seem to work with strict heirarchy. I am boss, the site leader is next, all employees and trades are subservient and to 'follow orders' - the 'lower' the skill group the more so - from labourers, ground workers, brickies, plasterers, carpenters, plumbers, up to electricians. More akin to the armed forces than so called 'knowledge worker' type companies of inter co-operating thinkers with equal specialisations. It can be difficult to know who to talk to, and whether it will make any difference. I have had individuals listen and adjust something, I have been ignored and fobbed off with lies, I have seen individuals over ruled by site leader or builder for showing any degree of independent thought or for listening to a client. I have seen people fail to stop work even when it is obvious they have a problem. The relationship between builder and worker can be multifarious - employee, partner, sub-contractor, 20 year drinking mate, day rate, piece rate, job and knock, personally liable to fix any issue arising with their work for free - or not. Generally everyone is rowing their own boat and will often advise you based on what suits them - can't be done, nothing wrong, next trade will sort it, too late now. Lettered professional opinion is normally listened to - structural engineer, architect, QS, BCO. Client not necessarily even when they are saying exactly the same thing as the lettered professional. You need to find the good people which you only know if you have experienced their work and approach. I have been told people were the best person in the top building firm before they joined the builder, everyone is said to be excellent, worked for King Charles, a brickie AND a carpenter etc. Often a warning sign. Some clients may actually know little about whether their builder or tradesperson is actually good or bad - many clients likely don't own a spirit level or know a steel screw from a stainless one etc. There is a reason good businesses let you see your car being worked on, have a window into the kitchen, show you the shop floor etc. You can't ask for trust, you can only earn it.

For isolated things this is a super fast way. Tweaking the graphics for example or an effect . I can literally “ let’s try this “ ; 5 seconds later viewing it . I love this part .

BC usually want to witness a pressure test with air. I doubt they would accept "it's all full of water gov" I just bought a cheap kit from Screwfix 26 years ago and it has done 2 self builds.

Spraying is quick but the prep can take ages. Also, any touching in looks bad and tape and fill jointing really shows up under some lighting. I had some houses sprayed and they had a team of 4 with 1 guy on the nozzle.

The magical powers of skin, fat and mould.

The decorating quote is far beyond budget. The plasterboard area is enormous and so is the rate. We don't have the diy time to take it all on ourselves. But maybe with the investment in a quality spray machine which would be a lot of cost on a smaller project but worthwhile here? Recommendation on the machine? How much faster would that be? What don't we know? Perhaps even just the mist coat to get the ' easy' bit done. Perhaps at least we do the very high areas (off a cherry picker) where no-one will see.

It’s a hand pump and manometer usually. MB’s not Bars as it’s not supposed to see that kind of pressure. Weeps would self-seal anyways.

Yeah, used that for some 110mm drainage, but strikes me it won't really detect v. slow weeps? Does leak detection dye have any use? Also kit, for say pressure testing UFH or Hep20 pipe?

Block the outlet(s) and fill it all with water.

I see that even the janky £200 Rotherburger pump doesn't get great reviews. And the Bailey bungs and manometer I wouldn't give to a 5-year old. What do peeps really use and recommend? My pressing need is for testing some solvent welded 50mm MuPVC. It won't have any real pressure in it, of course, so just for leaks.

That is shit. I have this sense that I'm always being tested, a bit like a A/B test. I was doing some stuff and started a new chat session and it was giving me the commands to run in terminal and paste back the outputs - now in a way because it's all on a local dev server and we were doing a load of reconfiguration, I can understand this. It then started giving me the code snippets to copy & paste into the code. On one liners or something that's fine, it's quicker and easier than producing a prompt to then go into Claude Code etc. But it's all a bit random - every day the flavour of the sessions changes and it can all be a bit random.

Hmm, IMHO I'd be a bit cautious about that blade. I know Rutlands have built some kind of reputation, but I bought something from them that was total and utter over-priced rubbish. I was reluctant to touch them again until I ordered some tools from Bang Good having watched the YouTube channel 'China tools' - and yes there are some quality bits of kit that can be had - but what was very interesting is that one measuring tool I received came with Rutland written all over the tool and packaging even though it was from a totally different vendor and about a 1/3 of the price. After this I'd never buy anything from Rutland. I'd be going to buy a well know and trusted brand of blade first. And then seriously look at and question how I'm using the tool and whether I'm doing it correctly and appropriately! 😉

Have to be the correct grade of stainless steel fixings. A4, 316 grade is recommended. Then comes the Screws or Bolts debate. It's bolts that need to be used.

Yup, if you want the install certified. A lot of people look the other way here tbh. MCS is largely about safety, fixing types, and (in a nutshell) not having solar PV arrays all around the UK flying off in a storm and killing anyone. Stainless fixings only, into timber for the S hooks etc. If this was left ungoverned you’d have people zip tying them to slate hooks…..

Does a mounting system need to be MCS certified? The only thing listed on our MCS cert from a 2015 FIT system is the panels themselves, not even the inverter is listed let alone any mounting.

You're lucky you haven't seriously injured yourself. Table saws are one of the most dangerous tools in the shop, even when used for what they're designed for. You can use a table saw for cross cuts, but you need a cross cut sled or similar. Easy enough to knock one up, but even then it really isn't designed for cross cutting long pieces of wood. 100% chop saw territory.

More like observed and pacified.

Being in the workers faces can annoy them. Asking why repeatedly likewise. Otoh as the client, there should be an expectation of close interest. I find having 'other things to do' lets me observe discretely. tidying is an easy one and is constructive too. And saves money on skips you fill carefully because you care about the cost. After a while you may well be respected and included. But it is ok to ask what the day's plan is and any challenges and for explanations of anything bothering you... just not every 10 minutes.

There will be hardly any free moisture in the screed unless you allow the room to be damp. To prove this, lay polythene down and see if any moisture appears on the underside after a few hours or on a warm day.