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Sorry but that's a sweeping statement: Schedule (TO SCALE): Supplied Dimensions: Supplied Sectionals: Supplied Issues with supplier: MANY

Drainage is the key. If there is no mans sewer then you need a treatment plant. That has to drain somewhere. So you very first test is get some test pits dug and get a percolation test done. The results of that (and the size of the house) will tell you what area of infiltration field (soakaway) you need to provide. Then you need to work out if you have room for that and still have room to build a house. Or are there alternative arangements like a soakaway under an adjoining field etc. No drainage solution = no house so this is crucial.

I'm in exactly the same situation. Both the wife and I have private plates. I've used this seller the last couple of times: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STANDARD-PAIR-Front-Rear-OF-UK-NUMBER-PLATES-100-ROAD-LEGAL-QUALITY-ACRYLIC-/352127078963?hash=item51fc68d233:g:AmwAAOSwkI5ZeyyP

Welcom @nr projects I think there is, but it is very diverse and fragmented. You will need to specialise in some way (eg in TF), and comms to the market is difficult until you get say 6-7 years under your belt. The services you sell and the services that deliver the lion's share of value to the customer may be different, because almost by definition you will be selling to inexperienced builders and will sell only one package to each customer. One answer to this will be networking and being on the preferred recommendation list for architects and others, and so your customer becomes the architect.Suspect that is how many find their PM, though mine was a Planning-Consultant PM who's recommendation was success in a controversial application on the front page of the local paper and a personal interview. Perhaps you need to investigate whether TF companies are asked to recommend PMs by people buying kits - does your employer have such a list? The only self-build PM that comes to mind was the Grand Designs chappie who made a career after rebuilding his burnt down thatched cottage; many of the others combine it with other roles. There are people who want a PM to do everything and just make it happen, and others who will be more hands-on. You could specialise or be flexible, I think benefits to the customer you can offer may include taking out the cost of other professionals, or offering services dealing with difficult bits. Another is to help the customer be more the equal of the experienced architect to get what the customer actually wants. eg benefits you can sell Get a TotalStation and include the survey in your package - immediate saving £500-1000. Ditto an ability to handle the EPC modelling. Worth £500 or so. Ability to draw and optimise plans, or do planning applications well. Ability to get project done more quickly. eg huge benefits you could not sell up front Come with established subscription to SPONS. eg Specialisms Offer a plotchecking due-diligence service. You are the bloke who tells them it was a tannery in 1926, or how to deal with problem x. If you come with a bundle of Trade Accounts and knowledge as to who is the best / most reliable / most flexible supplier of "x" (eg staircases), then you may well pay for yourself twice over - whcih the customer would see as "under budget" (hopefully). Best of luck. Ferdinand

Your last line is a MUST. The credit ratings of some of the largest distro's are "Maximum Risk" with bust companies behind them.

I took the whole thing out and replaced it - last chance pretty much. We will always be able to access most underfloor areas but it's not straightforward. Unfortunately I thnk the other one that is currently inaccessible is the same - no idea what's gone wrong - I did a couple of testers before doing them properly - this was about 18months ago before the slab was poured. Maybe I was a bit frugal with the solvent. Grr... The last one is going to be a ballache however if I have to go under the floor, I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and do the pipework to have the main bath and shower at floor level... I quite like having it raised but does make bath access a bit tricky. I'll see what the water level is like tmrw night and make a decision. The remade join is holding nicely as per pic.

Nah he bought the elastic tape measure ...

No but I'm ordering these ... OxyLED Motion Sensor Closet Lightshttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IGRCEIY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sS3GzbXVZMXP3 Easier than hard wiring and charge them whenever they need it.

You can get a free copy of FSAP from here: https://www.stromamembers.co.uk/downloads/fsap2012/publish.htm

Welcome. To discharge to the brook you need a licence from the Environment Agency. Easy to get, and in our case very quick, as long as you can provide evidence that the brook never dries up. If it does dry up a licence will be refused. Check the utility provisions very carefully, and DO NOT trust your solicitor or the vendors agent - they will not have a clue. In our case we found that the Wessex Water pipe running down the lane in front of our house was classified as a communication pipe, so we were not permitted to connect to it. The only mains water alternative was to dig up 140m of single track lane and lay a new pipe to the main, at a cost of around £24,000. In addition, the cost to connect to the main drain around 80m up the lane was an additional £14,000 for the road work, plus the cost of a pumping station on site, so around £18,000 all in. We ended up with a borehole for water (half the cost of a mains water connection - but loads of hassle) and a treatment plant that discharges to the brook alongside the site (cost around £4,000, installed, including the road crossing for the outlet).

I used the darker grey Tapco slates when I ran out of spare IkoSlates, and they are a very close match to the colour. The main difference is that every Tapco slate is identical, whereas the Ikoslates have a different "riven" pattern on each slate (well, they have a few different "riven" patterns, but it looks like every slate is unique). Whether this matters or not I'm not sure. It's noticeable when you lay out a pack of IkoSlates that they look slightly different from each other, but against that the IkoSlates have a slight sheen to the surface, whereas the Tapcos are very matt looking. One thing I have noticed is that the Tapcos attract more green algae. The IkoSlates are self-cleaning in heavy rain, but the Tapcos do start to look a bit green and patchy. That may be because I have the Tapcos and IkoSlates on the same small shed roof, that is very shaded, on the North side of the house, though.

The 'legal' aspect of plates is a complete joke. Any seller just needs to say they are 'show plates' (i.e. Not for road use) in their T@C's and the law doesn't apply!

Strap on...never gets old!

Hi everyone, My name is Nathan and I currently work as a Project Engineer/ Manager for a engineering company operating in the nuclear industry. I am currently considering going self-employed as a Project Manager working for self-builders, charities and small businesses who have construction projects. I started my working career as a Trainee Architectural Technician with an Architects firm, then after 4 years moved to a Timber Frame Manufacturer where I worked as a Timber Frame and Roof Truss Designer and Estimator. The skills I developed in estimating then led me to a job as a estimator at the engineering company where I've progressed to the role of Project Engineer / Project Manager. I also have formal qualifications: ONC in Civil Engineering, HNC in Construction and the Built Environment and an APM Intro Certificate in Project Management. Skills: Very proficient in using Microsoft Project (planning software) and AutoCAD as well as 3D design software. Experienced in using Total Stations (precision engineering projects and topographical surveys) Familiar with working to contracts (currently work on NEC3 contract on a daily basis) Understand costing and estimating processes My question is: Is there a market for self-build project managers? If so, does anybody have any advice for starting a career in this field? Thanks Nathan

It is normally called SAP calcs for new build. Very cheap to get done by others, so may not be worth your time training and registering.

No soil survey yet, that's the main one I'm considering. Seller says there is a water pipe running down the road but on opposite side of street. Haven't asked him about the water company, communication is very slow through the estate agent. I want to get a bit further before talking to the neighbors. Both of the immediate neighbors strongly objected to the PP.

As a guide to survey prices, we paid £450 + VAT for a boundary survey, plus confirmation of the height and position of a dozen marker posts over a big power cable. The surveyor was on site for around one and half hours in total, and was based around 30 minutes drive away. The price was reduced because I supplied an OS base map and survey in DXF format that I'd already bought a licence for. My guess is that the survey would have been around £500 +VAT had I not had the base data that he could use, as he'd have had to pass on the cost of the OS fees and would have had the extra hassle of downloading an cropping the OS grid square file (I'd already done that in AutoCad for him). These prices were from 2013, so are a bit out of date now.

I got my PHPP free with an introductory course at BRE and it was well worth it. Think it was around £500 for the one day course and the software was free.

Sorry, can't help. I've never understood the concept of "storing" wine. I prefer the "buy it and drink it" methodology. Repeat as required. @Onoff will be along in a minute with a blueprint for a home brew wine cellar made from concrete rings and 110mm drainage pipe offcuts to store the bottles.

One of the power supplies that I took the cover off to check had some input side suppression that could possibly have created enough earth leakage to cause an RCD to trip at switch on. Most have a combination of a delta wired three capacitor arrangement, together with a common mode inductor on the L and N. The two capacitors wired from L to E and N to E could possibly cause enough leakage to trip a sensitive RCD. If this is the cause, then it may well be down to these capacitors not discharging at the same rate when the power is turned off, so when it turns back on one still has a fair bit of charge. This could then be sensed by the RCD as a momentary mismatch between the L and N current, causing it to trip. This would explain why when you wait a few minutes before turning it on again it's OK. This would be enough time for all the capacitors to discharge.

I was told there was only one way to install a window, and that was to fix 50x50 all the way round the outside and then slide it into the frame so that these battens formed a cavity firestop. But that puts the windows in front of the insulation, and would lead to a thermally poor perimeter all around the edge. Just a case of "we've always done it this way" and not adapting to modern house designs where people actually care about thermal performance. As a minor aside, aesthetically I think windows look much better when set back a bit into the facade. Maybe it's just because that's the norm up here, but when they are flush with the outside surface of the wall it looks a bit cheap, to me. Anyway to get back onto the actual topic... I got my windows via @iSelfBuild directly from Poland, fortunately before the drop in value of Sterling. Very pleased with the quality although arranging delivery etc was not the easiest- but that might have been the case with any manufacturer, given my location. As others have said upthread, I was advised to go for inward opening windows as these were higher spec, but I had to trim back the budget a bit and ended up with outward opening, which I think I prefer for various practical reasons (no dripping windows inside the house, no worries with clearance when plastering or fitting blinds, and you can actually use the windowsills to put stuff on- important in a very small house like mine).

It's a generalisation I appreciate that, not all architects are and will be the same. However, the amount of drawings we receive and request from architects, are scaled drawings without a window schedule and without measurements for the windows being suplied. How and why? if you don't pay attention and something goes wrong, who's at fault? If you do pay attention and something does go wrong, that can happen but what I mean by paying attention is that it reduces "or should" reduce the chances of something going wrong. Of course it would be, I wouldn't blame the architect for that either but I bet that's a deviation from the approved plans with or without consent from BC. I appreciate that and sorry to hear that happened. We are not all perfect, by a long shot and mistakes do happen. Mistakes can be avoidable though. I bet the supplier, installers didn't look at the details supplied which resulted in the problems encountered?

Having done all mine one my own, I would agree!! Biggest was a 250kg sliding patio door, which I could only move with the aid of a bottlejack. I had some help getting them into the house but did the actual fitting myself. At this stage in the build I received regular visits from passing neighbours, many of whom are in the trade - every last one of them thought I was daft to install from inside the building. I thought it would be daft to try installing triple glazed windows from the outside, working much higher off the ground with no working platform... Mine spent a winter, uninsured, in a cow shed. I was pretty glad to finally get them on site.

I've said this before and will repeat - that type of statement is nonsense. Utter nonsense.

Thanks Jack, that's useful - when you look into it on the internet it seems that quality control has been an issue for the MGO board industry and is one of the factors preventing adoption becoming more widespread. On the face of it, its something of a wonder material even having strong sustainable credentials. There are a few suppliers who are quite meticulous about where they source the boards to avoid issues that have been experienced in the past. If we proceed down this route, we would certainly be asking for that information - and also the supplier would be erecting and assembling which should remove some of the risk, at least initially.

Hi and welcome. I think you could look at your business model and see if you can optimise it around the stuff people, even here, really struggle with because I suspect we would all either have paid for, or will pay for, support in those areas - the high stakes as @recoveringacademichas said above. So for instance we all struggle, and evidence is more than abundant on this forum, with getting the energy systems design and installed to meet our needs. Even the omni competent @JSHarris(that's a compliment Jeremy) had a couple of goes at several aspects of this - you can read his blogs, a great resource, all about it here. The choices around UFH / DHW / Vented & non vented / GSHP / ASHP / Phase change energy storage / battery storage / PV arrays etc take a great deal of understanding in the first place and is high stakes as most, unlike Jeremy, will not be treating the build as a research project. So being able to offer project support in this area, and others, would, I expect, have value for self builders for which they would be prepared to pay. This could then be rolled up into the budgeting programme stuff you have already mentioned. If you work your away around the various topics here you will see where the needs are and how the cost / value equation might pan out for customers and hence for you.

Should have added Jack - no Right to Light issues. Good thing too because that would be hugely costly and a definite scheme killer

Get yourself an old AM radio and tune it to the low end about 535kHz so you're just hearing static. Bring it near to your LED lamp and turn the lamp on. You should hear any EMI (electromagnetic interference). It'll vary with how far the radio is from the source and with any dimming action. Better suppressed lamps will cause less interference.

I would recommend "dice" to help with the decision process

An age old problem with earlier models. Nothing to worry about on these. . It was Temp who highlighted that problem as he had issues with his ones, but they were also the 'cistern only' models, not the framed one that you have, and the issue was the outlet of the cistern where the flush pipe connected at the bottom. That was a choice of friction only, over o-rings, or the old plastic nut and black rubber 'olive' washer. "Stand down red alert" .

Been there did all that LOL Look forward to hearing from you on progress.

Why does it have to be the most stressful part?? At the end of the day if the spec/contract is done correctly, the supplier does exactly whats agreed in black & white, the installer does his part what could possibly go wrong..... I cant even decide on who to go with, i really need to sit down and make the final decision. Then its plane sailing, I wish !

+1 to what @Nickfromwales said. I hire core drills as I nearly broke a wrist using an ordinary SDS drill with a core set and it snagged on rebar - proper core drills have decent clutches that stop the drill trying to rotate you through the wall when the core jams .....

Minimum cost: http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/80mm-SDS-TUNGSTEN-BRICK-CORE-DRILL-HOLE-CUTTER-PILOT-BIT-SDS-SHANK-ARBOR-/263083129777 They DO work but you have to drill to it's depth then break/bolster that bit off. And sometimes make an extension bar: I thought I'd never get through those footings when I brought the new water main in but I did!

I'd be happy to share in this. If it works out, perhaps we could set it up on some sort of BH hire scheme.

My Dad engineered the frame and I designed the building wth some help from an architect friend. We employed an SE for the ridge beams and first floor load. PM me if you want more info.

You mean you've done FOUR jobs today on the bathroom..??! Not feeling well...??

So-are you trying to establish what height your neighbours air brick is in relation to their own ffl? Most of the time on housing developments the air brick would be laid in the last course below dpc so,by rights,top if air brick should be near enough ffl. If you follow the height along the wall to a doorway that should help-doors are traditionally sat straight on dpc level (until very recently when the fashion for level thresholds & patio means dropping the frame down one course. )