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If you want (need) to micro-manage at this level then the blame lands in your lap, sorry. You 1000% should NOT have had ANY other trade on site whilst the floor was being laid. You want things done in an extremely particular way, beyond the comprehension of most ‘typical’ trades, which means you need to engage in hand-holding; each plank laid down as you wish, then it gets drawn around with a sharpie, then each plank has a piece of masking tape applied so it is numbered, when lifted the number is written on the floor (inside the sharpie rectangle), and both are complimented with an arrow so the installer knows which way around to then fit each plank. Zero ambiguity, zero personal preference, zero chance of it going any other way. History keeps repeating itself here, so either change what you’re doing or don’t expect a different outcome. Sorry to be brutal, but without this info you won’t succeed. I am principal consultant on site currently and I take this approach with the trades that require direction from me. I explain that it may sound like I am teaching my father how to (expletive deleted), but that is how it is, take it positively or walk away. The good ones actually appreciate this as they can push back, stating that the additional quality etc will add time & money, which my client agrees to and accepts. Sometimes trades just need to know (be told) if it’s a sprint or a marathon.

@Alan Ambrose I used this company. https://www.air2heat.co.uk/mcs-umbrella-scheme. As you can see, they're based in Oswestry but they were happy to travel down to North Somerset for me. They did a first visit to chat about the design, then a second one to "commision" the system. I had a few queries on the way (should have taken notes!) which we handled by 'phone and email. As I did all the work myself I'd already got everything running by the final visit, so there wasn't much for him to do. I was a bit concerned about not having the fan coil connected when testing, but just having a volumiser was acceptable. I would have considered choosing a Panasonic rather than the Samsung, but they have an indoor "hydro" unit which I wanted to avoid if possible. And the Samsung's widely available at very good price!

British standards are the first step in understanding what good should look like… then you have NSSS for steel and NSCS for concrete (which both basically reflect relevant BS in a slightly easier to read format) or the Highways Specification Series for earthworks, surfacing etc. But, good luck if your run of the mill builder has ever read or understands the whys and wherefores of them. And that’s what you have to manage… Expectations and realities.

My bricklayer never saw them, my architect never saw them, I never saw them. Until I came here, then I SAW them. And I sold them the my bricklayer and my architect and I got what I wanted. It’s seriously tough when you don’t have the experience, but by being objective and listening to their needs you can usually find a way of communicating your needs. if you haven’t got detailed drawings, sketches or a written scope it’s hard for anyone to do anything on a price. Were marmox blocks clearly on the cards when they took the job?

Can't find the post quickly but @saveasteading suggested being on site as much as possible when people are there, even if you are just tidying, making tea etc, (but doing something) goes a very long way to building the relationship, as well as seeing what's happening. Difficult if you are not able to do that, even for a short while each day, as once it's happened and your seeing it after the event, it gives the resulting discussion more potential for getting fraught.

Apparently it is all easy, and everything turns out perfect... https://youtu.be/wfitA6sDVcY?si=u3vMa5nAb6mKIq78 From my limited experience I don't remotely understand how any of this is even remotely achievable ? Anyone know ?

Stupidity is as stupidity does. Nothing can go well, not even for one day it seems. Yesterday I spent a long day dry laying almost all the remaining 15sqm of my LVT in the main open plan area. It was a difficult process given that the Amitco unique image area is only 1.2sqm. Random laying does not work. You have to really try to avoid lots of identical knots, or identical 100mm planks, or all dark/light planks going down next to each other. And equally to avoid an overall look that seems to have an artificial or regimented arrangement. Imagine 150 planks, even 2 minutes each is 5 hours. Probably took me 11 hours including finding pieces to cut into each row end and labelling them all up by row and with cut position for the fitter. Everything ready, a simple jigsaw puzzle for the contractor to stick down today. He arrives, I briefly describe what I have done as prep, he nods and agrees, gathers up the planks by row and in sequence so he can start some polishing and a little feathering. Sparky arrives and I am busy with him finding bits, sorting smart modules, defining switch positions, next tasks etc. As flooring guy starts I glance over a few times, has laid 2 or 3 rows and it looks ok. Later in the day he has got to the last rows and I get a window to have a further look. Start noticing things - two identical knots right next to each other - and again - two identical planks alongside each other, a small area with 7 knots in it, 2 planks that were adjacent now separated. Turns out he decided for himself without any communication or attempt at communication that he was going to shift the position of every row 'to randomise cut positions'. Cut positions I had already randomised, and marked on the planks with tape. Somehow he had also rotated some planks 180 deg, used a plank from one row to fill in on another row. So planks shifted up to 900mm one way or the other, a row backwards or forwards, rotated 180, end pieces where a knot was being cut off shifted to include the knot/feature. Hence destroying the dry layout he was supposed to be sticking down. All my effort wasted. Nearly 6 months since I engaged these muppets to do my floor. Now it means them ripping many selected planks up again, removing the glue, me trying to find new/different pieces to fill the gaps and 'look right' (actually a harder task than free dry laying), dwindling stocks of remaining planks from the batch. And yet more delay. I am so so so angry. Give an idiot an incredibly simple task, and within 4 hours, they will screw it up and leave you far worse off than when you started. Rinse and repeat. Apparently it is called 'building'. Apparently you are actually supposed to reach an end point, however it is not logically possible. Never ever do it.

Good work if you can pull it off.

I have full drawings and our new structural engineer is just finalising the drawings for expansion joints and reinforcement, lintels and the associated installation details. For me though, it's more about when to let something slide and when to flag it as an issue. We live on site and as a result I will be out scrutinising the work each evening. For instance. How square should a door opening be? +-5mm, +-15mm .. Same goes for levels. I think I was unlucky with the last idiot. Massive ego due to being a bricklayer Instagram poster, who during the final tirade. told my wife and I that he was the best fxxxing bricklayer in Britain and I won't find better 😮‍💨.

Our 5 KW panasonic was done between plumber and spark with no zones or buffer tank. Heat pump cost less than 3k. Plumber and spark think I need to have it commissioned but I fail to see why. Panasonic monoblocs are so breathtakingly cheap and simple to install and operate that I wonder how snake oil saleseman still get away with 12k installs. Get a larger UVC, maybe 300 litre. The panasonic UVC is cheaper than most and A rated. Just don't let your plumber screw into it 🤦‍♀️

Spending too much of my life in hotels with work I've completely abandoned the USB sockets in the wall in favour of my own charger. They are always very very slow and sometime give up the ghost altogether.

@markc - Thanks, do you have any thoughts / recommendations re good fillers? Are there any goodonea that work in stopping driven rain / critters but allow OK ventilation?

@LaChab would you mind expanding a bit as that’s all v interesting. What is an umbrella guy? Who did you use for instance? Was it hard to find an ‘MCS guy’ who was happy to do just commissioning? Did they do the final plumbing and electrical stuff or just switch it on, test & verify?

For a set task by any trade, I am increasingly asking myself ‘what can go wrong here’ and ‘what is most important to get right’. It’s amazing how you can often predict what the f. ups will be in advance. Then make sure you’re around for that part and be firm and unapologetic. A good trade will like that you’re double checking. Listen to all the ‘we normally do it this way’ lines, decide whether you agree and, if not, explain politely why you want it done.a different way. Check in with your trades a lot at first, then less as you trust them.

I was quoted over £10k for a landscape visual impact assessment (this was the most likely tactic for council to refuse my planning application. I enddd up writing my own (despite some comments that it needed to be by someone with Landscape architectural post-nominals or such). At some point I’ll revisit my costings and share as much as I can - we bought land without any PP and worked very hard to achieve it, against some very strong advice that it was ‘nigh on impossible’.

>>> I can't think of any way to measure this accurately myself Err, a cheap rotating laser maybe? >>> I'm guessing this sort of thing is non-negotiable? Maybe not, get the person from the water company on site - the guys on the ground are often more realistic that the ‘rules’ say.

Isn’t it great when you’re surprised on the upside with someone’s work? Out of maybe 5 external contractors I’ve used, excluding trades, 1 has been great, 1 has been OK, and 3 have been varying levels of bollocks.

And that brings us back to mains sockets with USB-C. The vast majority of them will be more basic chargers so basically the same as a USB-A fast charger but with a usb-c connector. So that means even if you have a socket with a USB-C you can't necessarily plug your higher power device into it and charge at a reasonable rate. All devices have to support the lowest power standard but a laptop would take hours upon hours to charge at that rate. When I say higher power device, obviously laptops but it also applies to tablets and even the big high end phones. Anything with a big battery wants a higher power charge.

For what it's worth, the majority of my bench height sockets have both A and C. The one on my island is a high power one so can charge the laptop up while sat at it. Use them most days and if it ever becomes obsolete id just change them to whatever comes out next. USB-D 🤷🏼‍♂️

For laptops, monitors, etc. The charger will be physically quite a bit bigger if it's putting out that much power. I'd guess the more commonly available ones will go up to 30-60W max. If you have a USB-C laptop charger that will be 60-150W probably.

240w, goodness.

Yes, USB-C generally charges much faster than USB-A, although it really depends on what you are charging, the cable you are using, and the capability of whatever sits beyond the actual port. Some USB-C ports with Power Delivery (PD) can pump out 240W compared to a USB-A port rated at 2.4A pushing out just 12W.

I think there are two big issues with the "stuff": 1- it disproportionately affects lower budget builds. 2- it mostly has to be paid out early, sometimes years before even starting the build, this can be challenging financially. A lot of this is ripe for disruption but I fear the self build market is too small to make the development costs worthwhile. @Gus Potterhas written persuasively in other threads about the savings from getting a good designer/engineer in early. It seems to me the issue is that obviously makes that professional more expensive, and how does a self builder separate someone who is offering a better service from someone who is just charging more? There is no way of knowing whether a professional has settled for the first option they found or considered 10. This is why I try to do as much as possible myself, I'd rather die by my own mistakes, at least I will have learnt something!

Does USB C charge faster than the old ones? I have a multiple outlet charger and maybe its my imagination but I think it does*. *No science applied here,I'm guesstimating.

That lead to yet another amusing and informative visit to urbandictionary.com