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We had an overweight (big-framed too) guy onsite and he was one of the fastest people we used. Really cracked on. I mean, he did a shit job, of course, but he did finish things quickly.

Back to blinds....I have had another quote supply and fit for the same windows and it is £13k inc vat, £11500 ex vat. They would zero rate on supply and fit as they are not removable. This quote is from http://www.tidmarsh.co.uk/ - attached is the spec that they have quoted on for anyone interested. Tidmarsh_440_External_Wire_Guided_Tension_System.pdf

I thought that was your chat up line?

This is the one that drives me mental. Tried this several times. Still got shit quality. I used to think the problem was that they didn't care. Then I thought that maybe it's a matter of them lacking skills. In the end, I concluded that a lot of tradespeople literally have no concept of what a quality result in their trade looks like, nor any interest in knowing what that result looks like. Without that, you'll never develop the skills needed to deliver it.

If they have used that mastic it never sets so peel back the membrane - plastic scraper may help and some warmth - and chisel off the high points and then stick it back on. Stick some DPM onto the mastic as a temporary measure to stop it getting filled with crud.

Nowadays I'd be affixing a temporary batten cut at the appropriate angle and running the grinder along with a stone disc or diamond blade in for that perfect slot!

Mine weren't fat - not because of hard work though - unless leaning on the scaffolding and using their phones continually burns a lot of claories Another problem is that many of the people they are doing work for don't know what a good job looks like either.

I have very mixed views about CL. To much of his series just seems to be product placement. He got his window placement wrong for his skin construction. I added a polite constructive comment, pointing out the issue that he missed and suggesting an alternative placement and asked his views. I went back to the page a couple of weeks later to see his answer and the post had been removed. And as to his tongue design, yes this is a good solution, but IMO a simple reinforced concrete tongue is just a lot simpler; you just need to surround it on the external cill side with something like foam glass to create the thermal break. This is what we did and it definitely works fine. PS. He hid the post, and checking his latest video on stonework, he has reposition his windows as I suggested that he would have to do. ?

Just stop it. I have to go to work now and I'm already late. This isn't helping. At all.

Game, set and match .

I'm shocked that you should assume it's a fallacy. So disappointed. As I emphasised to OH the other day, I was merely taking an interest in current affairs and discussing them with my girlfriends in a lively manner. This was quite valid given that a still from the new series of Poldark was on the front page of at least 1 highly reputed daily newspaper. ?

The fallacy here is the assumption that the ladies have clean minds. I still giggle at the idea that more presence of the fairer sex would raise the tone of BH. F

Lol, sometimes it helps not to have any preconceptions about what to search for. As in no bloody clue This was easy though. @ProDave‘s plastic expansion tank was a bit more challenging lol.

Cheers Looks like Tacwise 140 Series is the size. T'station tomorrow then. I think you should be appointed the forum's "Chief Person Who Finds Obscure Sh!t"

Most treatment plants need power. Mine is one based on the air blower principle and a measurement when it was first installed confirmed it uses 2KWh per day, though it has a lousy power factor as the current measurement suggested it would be more, but thankfully the meter measures KWh rather than KVAh You can also get them that have moving mechanical parts but I would not recommend one of those. There are some treatment systems that claim the same level of treatment, without using power, these tend to be 2 stage plants, basically a septic tank followed by some filtration or secondary treatment system. These tend to cost more and take up a lot more space. Then there is the question of where will the liquid effluent discharge to.

If you look at the reviews for this item 2 of them mention this stapler so hopefully this helps with the size needed: https://www.amazon.co.uk/C-K-496004-10-5-Wide-Staples/dp/B005XB6XIO

Done a quick 'first draught' of different materials (got to look up more material properties). But if my house was made of brick, it would have had a mean response time of 35 hours over the 11°C mean temperature differences that I have good data for. 35 hours is greater than one day, so not much use. If it was just OSB the mean response time would be 3.8 hours over the same mean 11°C, so a bit more useful. Just got to find some more material data until I can find something that would give 12 hours, which would be best on average, but as this time of year the days are long, gentle overall warming would happen. I shall see if I can get some more data. But as an aside, I have been pretty happy with the temperature inside my house the last 4 weeks or so.

Whoo hoo Time to get the tile cutter out?

Thought they were ripping you off

yes I know I didnt put the .8 in LOL

It's crap on leaking hydraulics!

Mission received and understood! ?

Not at all, of course fit the flashing ! CT1 will sort any suspect areas out after the final install is complete. A bit of reinforcement in the obvious ares where / if necessary.

This is the tariff you want to end up with https://ebico.org.uk/energy-plans/ebico-zero/ We had to initially sign up with SSE to get a meter installed, on their no contract standard variable rate, then as soon as the meter was physically installed, we switched to ebico for the no standing charge tariff. When we finally moved into the static caravan we switched again to a cheaper supplier.

I think you're going to need lead (or other flexible) flashing to be able to cope with the bendy bits...that solid stuff won't do for that wall.

Couldn’t agree more . I could of ( indeed would of ) done a better job . Anyway ; flashing ordered - let’s see if I can turn a crap job into a reasonable one ?

Back on topic I remember the first time I attempted apply flashing to a polycarbonate roof where it abutted a pebble dashed wall. All the gear and no idea! I seem to recall I cut a wobbly slot with a Kango 100/115mm grinder...which killed it. I then attempted to fit that self adhesive flashing and feed the edge into the slot which I then siliconed in. Not pretty!

Yeah probably! Funnily by pure chance a builder was nearby on a different job; got him to take a look. He just said "Bodge" , "That'll leak mate; you need flashing"

Same bloke did your roof?

God it’s painful to see how things are done by supposed professionals.... the last thing you want is water ingress after your all paved up...... get it flashed and sealed up 100% around those edges or your going to hate yourself in a few years when it starts to let water in.

That’s not unique to the public sector however as there are many individuals here who took redundancy and are now back here either contracting or via one of our 3rd party contracts. The difference is that this is a private company so it’s not the public purse paying them off.

One of my brothers worked in planning for a local authority (roads not residential). Took early retirement at 50 with a big payout and was back a couple of weeks later, as a consultant doing the same job for more money and no (or at least much less) responsibility

The worst ones (from a tradesmans point of view) are kitchens with soft vinyl flooring that rips as soon as you try and pull a unit out. That coupled with the socket it plugs into hidden behind the machine so you have to pull it out (thinking PAT testing for rental properties here) Why can't people put the socket somewhere you can reach it with the machine still in.

And ain’t that the truth! Certainly in my case!

I have done quite a bit of flashing onto rough rock walls and it’s definatly harder than a nice brick wall. You will need to work out your maximum depth needed to go into the wall due to the unevenness of the stonework, it will only be as good as the weakest link. Also I have found that cutting a single slot with an angle grinder and then pushing in the flashings leaves little room to properly seel it up. On walls like this I often take outa good 25mm -30mm slot by 50mm deep i then build up the bace on an angle and put the flashing in and then re- mortar the hole, that way if there is any difference in expansion and contraction resulting in micro cracking then the water will not track back into the wall because of the fall. Its al lot easier if the wall is prepped first so that you have your levels all worked out. But hay ho.... done correctly the flashing will hide a lot of sins and give you a good crisp finish. Prep a whole section before starting and mock up the flashings as these uneven walls can really chuck a spanner in the works if you assume anything..... I am not a pro and the use of fancy sealants may well be advised, this is just what worked for me.

i was rebuffed by usual skip company, who said check with the carncil. Inevitably, the phones were not being answered. Fortunately the other one just accepted the order. This Road has the first part adopted, but not the last 200m, where the house is located. Cheers. F

Good job he didn’t have a desk job then.!

The fat ones are not working fast/hard enough ?

Just bring it across the face of everything so all the pipework is behind it, otherwise your pipework will be cutting through it a few times. 04th June today, so 6 months + 2 week contingent to be done by ~ December. Let's get cracking!

Just to add my tuppense worth, we haven’t had a bad trade on site, granted we haven’t had many but, Brickies, sparkie and plumber all faultless, all have their own business and a reputation in a smallish community to maintain, perhaps the issue arises when there is no accountability for work? Working for a developer that pays price-work tends to encourage a “wham bam thank you ma’am” approach, and on to the next job, different site. Some of the trades on the developments is utterly shocking. Working for yourself you are relying on your number being passed on because of satisfied, returning custom, perhaps it’s a sign of the times, people don’t know their community any more and are selecting tradesman from glossy adverts. Unless newly set up, good tradespersons don’t need to advertise, heck they don’t have time for the backlog of work from word of mouth to even consider a glossy ad! Also if you need good trades, I do think you need to wait, I think a lot of issues with selfbuild arises when deadlines over-run and people accept whoever is available just to get on. Id be suspicious of any trade that could start immediately.

When they closed an office down at work many of the guys were made redundant. One of them applied for a job at the Foreign Office and I was asked to be a referee that resulted in extensive questioning for the security vetting (they came to my house to do it!). During this long and protracted process I said that I was surprised that the individual wanted to work in the public sector as they were hard working, highly skilled, and worked many additional (unpaid) hours. The guy said that the civil service was no longer like that and everyone worked very hard. The individual got the job and a few months later I asked them how it was. Turns out it was exactly as I had imagined and everyone barely did their hours. The individual said that they now worked their contracted hours and no more and was considered to be ultra hard working and productive despite doing a lot less than when they had worked with me as their output was much higher than many there.

Heat Capacity is the term you want (Specific Heat Capacity x Mass), which has units of Joules per Kelvin (i.e. the amount of energy absorbed by the material for every degree increase in temperature). It isn't a terribly useful term however - the rate at which that heat is released again (a function of surface area, thermal conductivity, emissivity of the surface, etc.) is critically important. Combined that gives you the time constant of the system, which should be matched to the time constant of the building as a whole (too short and you'll get overheating followed by no heat at all, too long and it won't do any good).

NEVER!

It has been pointed out to me that kingspan and the like are great at insulating but have a very poor decrement delay, I have doubled and tripled up on plaster board in many areas to help with both noise reduction and to try and help even out temperature fluctuations...... out of interest I recently Ripped out a previously bricked up open fire, 1.2m x 1.2m it had been fully filled with brick and mortar with the flue from the wood burner going in at the top..... i insulated the cleaned up fire recess with kingspan and then built a block box recess somewhat smaller than the original due to all the extra insulation and re instated the wood burner. It now performs much better as previously the heat from the fire was just being lost to an unisulated stone wall. The point though and trying to get back on topic is that even after the fire has been out all night the block work is still radiating heat out in the morning and the kitchen is noticeably warmer than before. Doing this experiment has highlighted the need to add in extra materials into my renovations to help store heat and to help minimise the heat fluctuations that would be found with just kingspan and a single layer of plaster board.... Using an insulation with good decrement delay would have solved this problem but hay ho you live and learn...... well I try.

I feel an abuse of power coming on. .

Have to be honest once what I saw at a friends amazed me . They were having a new kitchen fitted and the so called electrician had wired ‘shortest’ route . He literally have wires crossing the wall ; not vertical from sockets . I wet myself laughing when I saw it . Sparky got angry and asked what was so funny . I said how the (expletive deleted) are you meant to fix any units ? . Guess where the wire is ??? He then got a bit pissy . So I told him on my friends behalf ( who seemed unaware of the issue ) to (expletive deleted) off . I believe he was paid ‘ up to date ‘ . Then the wiring was ripped out and done correctly. I thought it was just common sense !

Screw a length of 4x2 to the wall. 9” grinder with a stone disc in it and run the guard along the timber ... not exactly rocket science ....

@pdf27 the only issue I have with those figures is when people lay the blocks flat,as was suggested further up the thread. If you stand a block upright,as it is laid in a 100mm wall,& smash it with with a club hammer on the top,it takes a hell of a lot before you break it. Indeed,lumps will start to come off at the point of impact rather than the whole block failing. Try the same with a block laid flat-2 hits tops & it’s cracked. For this reason,when I’m doing 9” blockwork I always double up the coursing I.e. 2 courses are laid to the same bond & then the next two half bond & so on. Or,a method called ‘block & flat’-2 flat laid to the same bond as just mentioned & then 1 course laid half bond & upright. Need a brickie to be able to lay from both sides for this method though. Ive been on jobs where it was forbidden to lay flat,where the wall was carrying a precast floor for example.

Why use garden hose 20mm mdpe is pennies is a lot tougher and can stay either in the floor when finished or cap it off and leave it dead.

Well i wasnt planning to is that what happens these days ? No piles of sand and ripped bags of cement and empty bottles of fairly liquid? where have the 70's and 80's gone ???