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Just a quick update on the props. After being told there were a large quantity on a site about 4 miles from me and then visiting the site, to be told by the site agent they’d been removed from site the previous week, I was somewhat frustrated. Luckily for me the site agent then told me they’d got 100 of their own props and I could borrow the 40 I needed for the week, foc! What a helpful guy.

I asked our building control inspector to come out a couple of weeks ago just to make sure he was happy with the way we were doing the DPM, floor insulation & the acoustic insulation. He said he wished he had bought his camera & taken lots of photos so he could show the ''professional'' builders how it should be done. The chap from the company that laid our floor screed last Friday said it was a faultless job & normally he has to do loads of remedial preparation before he will lay the screed. He said he finds that nearly all self-builders work to a far higher standard than usual. I suppose it is just the difference between building to live in & building for profit.

Joined BuildHub last September and thought it was about time that I introduced myself. Had a small farm in Hampshire (near Stockbridge) that I sold a 5+ years ago, but kept 2 acres to build a house on. Pre-planning showed that some affordable houses would have to be part of the planning permission deal. Since then I have discovered the Passive House concept and the plan now is to build a number of Smart, ECO and affordable houses. By affordable I mean less than 80% of market rate, so about £300K. I have some very innovate building and funding ideas that I will share as the development progresses, including having identical Passive Houses built using 3 different building methods - ICF, SIP & Timber Frame. At a visit to a Passive House in Andover last November I met member Dreadnaught and I'm helping him with his project. This is a very early design (animated gif), but it gives a flavour of what I'm trying to be achieved on the site.

Well the deal is done and kitchen ordered from Howdens. By removing the boiling water tap and the cooker hood as items that will wait, and a laminate worktop for now that will become the utility worktop later (when we eventually do get a stone worktop) and by some hard bargaining, the total price is down to about 60% of the original cost. That includes the two Lamona ovens and built in dishwasher. It's now a "figure 5 kitchen" rather than a "5 figure kitchen" Should all be here next Wednesday.

If you're looking at the larger powervault (i..e 6kWh).. then bear in mind that the Tesla PW2 @ 13kW is only a grand more for over double the storage.

Yep probably should have said in the ceiling as the flow would be one to the other unless it was directed properly. I’d (theoretically) put the inlet on the outside of the bathroom door and extract above the shower and then the flow is near perfect for taking warm moist air away.

Yes it needs sealing and I would always buy that stuff online as it’s a specialist product. Most roofers struggle with the air permeable membrane without adding other problems ..... quick tip for doing your tape - create your 150 overlap but don’t tack it down. Put a piece of board above the overlap and turn the fabric back onto it, apply the tape and push down and then remove the backing, folding the overlap back onto the fabric below... Quick and easy and means you can get some decent pressure on at least one side of the tape.

Hi Everyone, My name is Paul and I own a company called Lilyash Ltd who are the Distributors of the Nulok Roofing System throughout the UK and Ireland. The Nulok Roofing System allows any natural slate or ceramic tile to be easily fitted to the roof using unskilled labour. I have over 20 years experience within the roofing industry and have self built my own house 20 years ago. This is background information on what I do and I will not be selling on this forum, but I am here to offer any assistance or advise that you may need. Please click on either of the links below which will show how the Nulok system works. Nulok & Kingspan - The Ultimate Roofing Solution A Superior Way of Fixing Roofing Slate Looking forward to helping anyone in any way I can.

Actually, the owners aren't volunteers, they actively want to provide the data.

Ok you win!

Think I was about 3 secs quicker!!!

@lizzie, he played in our garden when he was a nipper. The garden that is now a building site. He's just gone out on his own.... as a roofer ?. Never once fell out with our kids.... Knows nowt about Nulok, so he wants the job. @Bitpipe, he loathes fitba, and is teetotall, been treated badly by wimmin in the recent past, so spends his time with his Staffie. Funny old game bildin' innit?

Reminds me when I was an apprentice. Someone asked if he could book a sick day. For tomorrow.

Rain on a roof is only contaminated by airborne particles and dirt. Ground borne contamination can include hydrocarbons such as oil and fuel, and other chemicals such as antifreeze or anything spilt on the floor. None of which you want in your rainwater tank !!

Why is the rain that hits the roof different to the rain that hits the pavings?

Lizzie that looks fabulous. I love your colours.

IMHO it takes as just as long to do a bad job as a good one. A good job actually saves time as you don't have to beggar about making things right before you can proceed with the next stage. If you are doing the follow on work yourself it has saved time & made life easier. If you are paying someone else to do the next stage it saves time and money as they can get on with the job they are meant to be doing straightaway.

You , me, and many others on BH. The way women are patronised or ignored or both by some male builders is an added level of insult. Even the MD of a large company managed to patronised Debbie when he visited the site. The local (male) rep squirmed with embarrassment. I wish this morning when I went to buy some sealing tape, I'd had the confidence and presence of mind to ask why roofers don't seal between the layers of felt .

So why are commercial housing sites of such questionable quality? On the numbers, my current potentially large - 3-4k repair job is looking at a day rate of about £135 per man through the books on a local roofing company. Not entirely convinced by your numbers @nod. 14k Tax a year is just into the higher band say 52k income for what you say is a 6 or perhaps 7 day week. If we take 130-135 at 275-300 days I am not sure it is that different once the swings and roundabouts have been swung and turned. F

I personally doubt the book has done either of those things to any significant extent, but I haven't read all of it, so you may well be right. Even if it is everything you say, some of the conclusions didn't ring true to me, and more importantly I wasn't particularly enjoying it at the time, so I stopped reading. Google straw man. Of course it is. Only the ignorant and/or mental think otherwise.

Well, standard down pipe is 68mm, I would have thought this would cope very well on the flat with such a small roof. Others will be along shortly to confirm/deny.

I called it an algorithm that helps scientists reach consensus. If you knew what the scientific method was you should have concluded that I do.

Was it ever thus - one can imagine the flint nappers of the stone age when confronted with the bronze wielding hoards blindly carrying on napping flint while the world moved on.

you did say the "big long lane" tho, that'll be me then. Just under 1100m of 32mm...

But EVs ARE a load of crap!! Why? Cos the Daily Rag told me! I came across this today and found it hilarious: http://www.fullychargedshow.co.uk/previous-episodes/#/dail-mail-rant/

I am not there yet, digging starts 9th of July and so actual pipe connection geometry will be figured out in the following month. Here is the NHBC standards doc that triggered the thought http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Builders/ProductsandServices/TechZone/NHBCStandards/TechnicalGuidanceDocuments/53/filedownload,65363,en.pdf I will try and route your question to my Architectural Technologist as he is currently sprinting to the point where he can issue an invoice and so seems keen to engage in such chats currently. Yesterday he said that in principal he is ok with foul drainage runs through the foundation plan.

Not the best pics but you can see from my hand they are embedded in the wall completely flat in the plaster

Because they are generally wealthy tossers that like showing off and self promotion.

I am just utterly gobsmacked (for want of a better phrase) for all you are doing for me. The reaction was purely to that message. @Ferdinand's "Master of all Trades" is starting tomorrow to get my existing house ready for marketing. @PeterW & crew and @Nickfromwales and crew are sorting out my internal works - to what extent I am not yet sure as there seems to be more and more. Never has a disaster (for me) been turned into a positive experience in my life before. DIY SOS has nothing on this. There is no free advertising, no tv fame, and (thank god) no Nick Knowles. These are just people who I have got to know on buildhub over a brief period of time who have surpassed any expectations of the help I hoped for when I joined this forum. I am forever in the debt of all you. And to those who have reached out on an emotional level. Initially, practical help was the last thing on my mind. I was utterly, devastated, sick to the stomach, scared and in full panic mode. Family and friends didn't really understand and were, in general, sympathetic in a condescending way, leading to me feeling even more stupid and pathetic. Only on here were there people who know what it is like to be in this situation - or similar. I'm not sure where I'd be if it wasn't for this forum but I wouldn't be where I am now. Aware that I won't have quite the house I was planning or anything like the pension pot I was counting on. BUT I will have a house that meets my needs and I won't be bankrupt. Thank you Buildhub - You are all amazing

I operate that way at work mostly with fixed price outcome based arrangements for most IT contracts I pull together but it didn't always work for me as a (worse than novice) self builder. The worst example being the one I quoted above where a joiner charged me £1000 to do some relatively minor work here. He was the only person I could get out to quote and IMO because he was being paid a fixed price he rushed it to the extreme. He was here for about 2 half days, definitely not more than 10 hours in total. He cut where he stood covering several rooms in dust, dropped something in the vestibule and chipped one the tiles and clearly noticed because he shoved some silicone in the chip to cover it up. Maybe if he had been paid by the day he would have taken longer and taken more care.