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Let me play devils' advocate - What does your gentleman's agreement say about antiquities? Let's say you have a main contractor on site, they start excavating, and holy moley they dig up a norman chest full of gold amulets. Who do they belong to? Contract Law would state that arisings and materials from carrying out the works belong to the Contractor! They get one sniff of that law and they will fight you all the way for a few million don't you think? Just saying. I agree with the fact that on the vast majority of well-run sites it's not required, but wow does it help when you need it. Think of playing football without a rule book - silly isn't it? How many times when you were young did you all know the rules of football but still get into an argument about who did what? I wouldn't use a contract to enforce silly rules, but certainly, if my client was at considerable risk then I would. Great debate guys! I guess the moral of the story is that there is a time and a place for it, and it would definitely depend on the way in which it was introduced, and who was administering it. You need to be fair to both parties.

Sorry to hear that, Dave. Don't know whether it is something you'd consider but could you earn more (than in Scotland) by doing "projects" here in the South East or in London? Come for 3-4-5 days, live in a B&B, do what you are good at. Just a thought.

update. Rang BC today - they are happy with the ug soil pipe above ground as long as its in darkness. Good news. So after a trip to a BM this is what I did tonight. View from below. Falls from left to right. Solids should scoot past the y branch....... Need to drill & install a 40mm boss for the shower & bath. Also tweaked the other soil run:- Solids should run along this with no issues - and I will pop a boss in for the shower & basin. Time to move on with other jobs now. CC

Not a nice situation to be in. From all the advice you've given me and others you're obviously a very clued up sparky so I hope you can find plenty of work and see this through to the end. Use the enforced delays to hunt for bargains- plenty good stuff out there on eBay and Gumtree.

Great idea, but where would you find all those people from who would want to do it for the right reasons? Neither government or councils can manage even the simplest of tasks, never mind something of this scale!

...and BEFORE I finish my gates or bathroom I need to do my mate John's Knightrider lights inset into his block paving so when his gates open or close it looks really cool! My boy was supposed to be figuring the PIC chip for it before he went to uni. Maybe I'll hold back his Oculus Rift as leverage at Christmas!

Yeah, but @lizzie, he hasn't finished it yet. @Onoff's unofficial role on this forum is to make the rest of us feel really good about not finishing stuff. Coupled with his infectious enthusiasm, and undoubted breadth of experience.... all I have to say to Debbie is 'Well @Onoff hasn't finished his gate or bathroom or... (make something up) yet, so I dunno what you're moaning about.'

If it’s being painted then it needs to be blasted first and as soon as they do that it starts to corrode. I would get them to paint it as they do it day in and day out. It’s Red Oxide normally too.

If you can taste salt in the air any time of the year you need to galvanise it. We tried to save money on a university building for exposed steel columns and got the best paint available which was factory applied and its showing signs of rust now which is 5 years later. Project is 3km from the sheltered bay, about 4km from the sea. Last year on another building on the same university campus we galvanised everything, even some steel immediately inside the front door as the door might be open a lot with all the student traffic.

Why can't the government fit a pair of pv panels on every uk home / building ? The DNO's can be made to reinforce the grid out of their 'marginal' profits and that gargantuan area of m2 of wasted space will be utilised to reduce / slow down the destroying of the planet on which we've selfishly decided to suck dry at any cost. Wouldn't that be a better way to spend the money being tossed into the nuclear pot?

I built my own (sliding) gates around a galvanised frame I designed faced in scaffold boards: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjYQgVgE (No, still not finished! ) If you want to semi DIY then I'd ask on the MIG welding forum. Might be someone local to you who would make the frame. Mine is hot dip galvanised for longevity which is awkward for some fabricators to get done. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/ BUT...a lot of safety considerations to do it properly so you might go for a package for the gate and install. I got my gate automation stuff from Easygates on recommendation and have passed the name on a good few times now: http://easygates.co.uk

Conversation is the key one, as both parties usually, incorrectly, assume each will try and have the other over. The biggest issue I see with other local builders is them assuming the customer won't pay extra to have some luxuries / initiatives applied to the core budget, like when I sub to them to fit a kitchen for eg the customer has a nice new smart tv but no data connection so I suggest a cat5 is pulled in to which the builder then throws a wobbler wailing "who's going to pay for that ?" when the customer has already said they're happy to pay extra for such an important ( but simply overlooked ) addition. I often see such stupid things being argued about at the end of the job, where a simple schedule of works would show the customer hadn't requested XYZ so the builder didn't do it. I don't do any job now without SOME sort of brief. For a full build I'd deffo have a VERY detailed SOW as there are just so many areas where this can go astray.