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there was certainly a massive range of levels of completeness and support when we were dealing over ours. I'm really glad we went with our second option. @Kevan Marshall drop me a PM if you want an overview...

Post a sketch of what you propose.. that is worth a thousand words. Draw it on a bit oif A4.. take a photo and post. We won't test you on your drawing skills! I think you are getting yourself in a bind, the solution is probably simple. This is confusing. Let's see a sketch first.

The question I ask is are you paying cash in hand? Now we are all adults and know if you do this then there is a risk attached and you know you are winging it and you have to take the extra associated risk. It's not just the tax man, it's the fact that if they cock it up you will have to pay to demolish, buy new materails, the delay, the hurt you'l have to go through when you reralise you have been ripped off. That is the big boys / girls world. You can mitigate by standing over folk all day long and if you do that then you lose time / income so why not pay a little extra? I've said this many times before but quote Ruskin. “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.” Now in mitigation there is are still a FEW folk that just do work on a labout only basis, they do a good job. But unless you are an experience self builder then it's NOT for you! Maybe the easiest way to explain this is to put yourself in the position of a Dad / Mum that runs a building business and wants to hand that down to your kids. I have on my tender list a builder who's daughter is on the tools at the moment and he is wanting to pass the business onto her. She works her arse off, the reality is that she is not as physically as strong as the men.. but she has a great brain. We often have discussion around how much profit you need to add onto the basic labour cost to make a small buiulding business wash it's face.. it's around 40 - 50% just to keep the show on the road. Now this Contractor is not special.. I do get on well with him. I like him personally as he is honest, will fix his mistakes. but business is business and I'm not here for him.. I'm here to represent my Clinets. It's time for you to have an open and honest convesation with the folk you are dealing with. The labour only market is very much tough love. There are suggestion from other members about expectations.. have none.. you need to grow a big pair of balls! You have two choices.. get down and dirty with the dogs, maybe catch fleas or pay a bit more. To be blunt I suspect you are playing with the dogs and they are going to pull your trousers down. Now on the upside.. there are Contractors that may say to you.. we will pitch up.. get you out the hole for now.. we will charge you bit more . but be fair with you. They know they will get the rest of the build. I work with Contractors like this.. they know it's in their long term interests. The funny thing is. I have a list of Contractors on my tender list. The great thing for them is that as a desinger I get to meet the Client first.. I do some design.. I get to stress test my Clients.. if I smell shite then no way will I put the builders that I trust and who trust me to be fair and impartial at risk from a dodgy Client..

Hi Mike, wet skimming the block walls and not dot and dabbing boards on would give a good air tight seal, but the reveals have been closed off with plastic cavity closers. They're pretty flimsy 2mm plastic which overlaps the inner and outer masonry and a 25mm thick piece of eps is attached to it which can be cut to suit the cavity width. Ive chose to modify the closers to be thicker by bonding pir and foil taping it, then setting my windows back 25mm to minimise cold bridging. The closers on their own offer very little insulation to the reveals being thin eps. I could have still improved these further, but you often learn things after its too late. If wet skimming walls you'd sill need something over the smooth plastic closers to skim onto. Some of the tapes claim to be skimmable. You need tape between the window to wall to maintain air tightness. Ceiling barrier to walls taped too.

Maybe you could suggest to highways (and your local councillor) that this is an opportunity to solve an accessibility issue for these existing properties too? Is there's room for a convenient collection point for multiple bins ?

I used a groundworker recently and he didn't bring any tools. He and his labourer were constantly asking if they could use this and that. So many of tools ended up covered in mud. In the end I did say "do you not have your own tools". It's a conversation that I shouldn't need to have.

If you are selling off part of your garden with planning permission its important that the sale qualifies for Private Residence Relief (PRR). My understanding is you shouldn't clear the land and fence it off. It should still look like part of your garden. ChatGPT says..

Hi, lost track of time since the last reply, had to do 11 long days straight on the build. Not using aero barrier but did get a quote for just under 3k. Although good, if applied afterthe house is all boarded, i feel like its only going to seal against the available surfaces and not behind them so if anything settles in it may not be as affective in the future. I've bought a wagner pro sprayer and so i plan to spray all of the walls with liquid avcl. But since your advice to skim the reveals prior to applying the brush on avcl which has fibres in too, im going to apply some more self builder nutterism and parge the blocks with bonding agent and then spray the walls. Tapes will still be used at reveals and ive used air tight foam too.

It's a kitchen sink, so I guess that will be deemed food waste. Looks like I'll have to have another IC on the drainage run.

+1 We have two of these and the work well.

Once you get into the highways, don't expect much cheaper. They have to do EVERYTHING by the book, and it gets inspected so it can be adopted. In Leicester we had to dig down at the pavement 2m and drop in pre-cast 900mm concrete rings with all the man-safe and public safe guidelines to follow. Closure plates of x dimension so a man couldn't fall down there, foot-pegs, immaculate benching, and all sorts. It's a major headache, so if someone quotes for this then sit down with them and break some bread. It is NOT going to be cheap.

OK. What's provoked the question? Have you been asked / told to provide anything, or is this a 'pre-worry' only? Most trades salivate over a splendid tool collection, with most having all available gadgets that save them time / money and max profitability. If they ask you for plant, like heavy SDS max breakers or petrol disc cutters (and blades) then this is perfectly normal. Festoon lighting, a 100v transformer and leads etc, plus first aid and eyewash stations is down to you. You'll be expected to offer some oil for the cogs, but not to feed and burp them. Read the small print in quotes; if there isn't any then ask why.

Welcome to my world!

Thanks Nick, I am going to just apply for a license for digging up the road as three companies never got back to me an the other quoted £6k and I had to supply the digger..

He is going to give me a price for 3G but he says there should not be a big difference in price, my two patio doors at the rear were aluminium lift and slide and I have changed them to PvC composite so he said the quote may be cheaper than original, the fully glazed gable needs to be aluminium lift and slide as it is nearly 6mtrs wide..

All modern traps are "top" or "self" cleaning, which means you don't need access to anything other than the basket and trap that you get to from above.

Post back here when you go to do this and we can advise on methodology; you don't want to open a can of worms by disturbing the boards either side etc

as in the way i did the other one with no access to trap and pipe work once its installed? thanks.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. It's the only issue / potential issue against the development so hopefully some mitigation would get us over the line. It's not like there are other issues and it would be the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. I appreciate your help, we'll explore the possibility of looking to design something and incorporate as and when the time comes for our application. Thanks for the input.

It's supposed to be rodable outside, or inside, if solids are present (food waste), but if this is a basin, then you can likely get a deviation from the BCO (if there's one to pacify?).

I agree and unfortunately this happens at the edge of every window and door Im hoping I can piece in a full height plank later

Sounding better with each sentence. Great to hear you've done the proper due diligence of "prove it". 3G is a good option if noise from roads or neighbours is a consideration, but other than that I think 2G is suffice for most.

Get it chased in, and low access threshold as possible. The riser kits are horrible, and an absolute last resort.

Price is for double glazed with u values 1.2, I can pay a little extra for triple glazed with u values down to 0.8, I think with being let down by the first crowd I spent about two hours going through things and asking hundreds of questions, he also taken me to a house to show me the standard of workmanship and I was impressed with the quality of the build

TBH after looking at the others they seemed less suitable. They seem to require custom trays for the bins and they are focussed on bigger commercial size bins. But seems to be plenty of options so I'm sure you can find something if it's acceptable as a solution.