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Is that a mirror you're looking at?

Oil is a widely traded commodity. Theory states that the price in open markets with huge turnover encompasses all information, both about the present but also future trends too. There are, of course, professional traders of oil. In the wider market, the prices of oil futures contracts represent real monetary bets on the future oil price (for hedging purposes and speculation). They are the best indication of what that group thinks about the trend in future oil prices but they are quite short term. In reality, with such a widely-traded commodity, anything longer is really just guesswork. (In anyone on this board thinks otherwise, they would do well to keep quiet and financially trade on their knowledge instead ?). The gas price is closely correlated to that of oil, as are a range of other oil-related products such as industrial plastics. Don't fall into the simplistic trap of thinking that oil is inevitably a dwindling resource and so its price must inevitably rise in time. Things are more complex than that. For example, a rising price leads to more oil exploration. A case in point is the rise of fracking in the US. Even people within the industry didn't predict it. This is shown neatly by the newly constructed and hugely expensive gas-liquefaction plants at US ports that were completed just before the fracking boom. They were were designed to import Qatari liquified gas by ship. With the advent of US fracking they were expensively all flipped around ready to export gas rather than import it. Nobody guessed it. For your purposes, I imagine that your best bet is to use the current oil price in your estimates, with scenarios for swings not only up but down too.

Thats it the last pour this afternoon. As usual, there's a twist..... We (Debbie and I) had about a tonne of concrete to mix, haul up to the parapet and pour by hand to finish the house. As usual it took longer to prepare for it than to do it. But hey, used to that. All tested, all checked. Thoroughly. It rained last night didn't it? Tidy drop of rain in fact. The rope on the pulley was wet. Hemp rope. Got a suspicion yet? Me, up on the gantry, her indoors hauling the pulley (I'm not stupid) First 50 kilo bucket hauled up by one of the fittest wimmin in Lancashire. Helluva lass. On an Italian pulley system that automatically locks when you let the rope go. Well bugger me, 50 kilos of concrete went straight back down from whence it came. Cue old-fashioned look. Cue lively discussion. Several hours later, it came to me why the brake system wasn't working. The rope was wet. I'm really quick like that. The big big BIG mistake I made was, just as we were finishing the job, to tell her why the pulley brake wasn't working. Anyway, doesn't matter, no more concrete to be lifted. Might have a drop of giggle water tonight.

Getting back to @Nickfromwales question. Taking a slightly different tack...... im always quite interested in this “what’s the next 20 years” type question. Are there any stats that show how long the average self builder stays in the house they’ve built? If the answer is (say) 10 years then the original question becomes a little achedemic? Or at least half as important!!

I could just see the housewife/house husbands face when I start that bad boy up in the middle of their 50k kitchen to core out a small waste hole?? that is some piece of kit!

I used a petrol core drill for years, drilled uncountable 25mm and 60mm holes and hundreds of 110mm holes into bedrock it looked a bit like this but was red.... eventually it chewed up the main drive cog / Shaft and I am yet to find a replacement. It was brutal as it had no clutch, but you just hugged it a tight as fek and got on with it.......

I wouldn’t bother with the Dewalt Most hire shops use the makita Compact But bullet proof The framed type are usually Hillti or Milwaukee

Might be worth looking at underlying facts: Alcohol related deaths have increased over the past 20 years, but still only account for 0.0117% of total UK annual mortality (source: the ONS). Obesity related mortality data for the UK isn't easy to interpret from the available reliable data sources, but that for Europe as a whole may be indicative, and that suggests that around 14% of the European population are at risk from increased mortality as a consequence of obesity. That needs to be put into context, so it's worth noting that 18% of the population of the USA will die as a consequence of obesity. Vulgarity is in the view of the beholder and very dependent on location. I'd say there are countries within Europe where vulgarity is far more prevalent than the UK. Off the top of my head, how about the French habit of urinating in public and defecating by the side of roads? The national debt needs to be put into perspective with other countries in Europe. Greece, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus, and the Euro area all have a greater national debt level than the UK (Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/269684/national-debt-in-eu-countries-in-relation-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp/ )

Check who owns the triangle yourself or get your solicitor to do a map search at the land registry. Do not rely on what the vendor says. What exactly do they mean by "owned by the government? Which bit of government? Beware that the government or council haves duty to obtain best value for the tax payer when they sell assets. So watch out if it amounts to a ransom strip. The rules on adverse possession say you have to occupy the land in the belief that you own it. So you have to maintain that pretence in all dealings with the land registry. Making an offer to purchase or doing a land registry search and reading the results might be sufficient to rule out any claim for adverse possession. The land also has to be fenced off "to the exclusion of all others" for around 10 years so that would preclude using it for the turning area.

Can't give you a exact answer on dewalt but its probably be fine. We have a Makita 8406 and done hundreds of boiler flue holes over the years. The makita looks very similar spec but 3 times the price. Could always buy it from a shop with a good return policy? I have seen a lot of ex hire core drills on bidspotter recently going for peanuts. Just checked bidspotter and seems to be none left. Only time we use a jig set up is for granite and it's more for the wet cut. Check what size of cores you need before buying a kit, we have a box with 6 or 7 sizes and tend to use the same 2. I have bought v cheap and mid priced "branded" dry core bits and to be honest they are all the same.

The future economic vitality of the UK and hence the oil price denominated in Sterling will be determined by 60 million Brits not 100 lean clean living enterprising BuildHub members. My assessment of the UK population is highly accurate: Any health economist will confirm the UK is going through one of its periods of national alcoholism and the consequences are being seen by NHS docs. There have been other similar periods in British history. Latest stats provide a glimmer of hope and indicate young people are looking at the all the middle aged alcoholics in this society and rejecting the alcohol based culture of their parents and grand parents. The UK is one of the most obese nations in the world, it is a national health scandal which will inevitably hurt national economic performance. Foreigners are shocked by the degrees of everyday vulgarity in the UK today. We have lived through a media-driven period of competitive vulgarity embraced by celebs. We are certainly an indebted nation, Sovereign debt has reached 1945 levels then layer on student debt and other debt lurking as loans held by Government agencies such as the NHS. The elephant in the room is unfunded liabilities. This year Government bean counters revised unfunded liabilities up by 30% of annual Government spending in a single accounting correction. Anyone in the UK trying to assess the price of oil over the next 20 years should consider both global price trends plus the likely purchasing power of the £ in that period.

What you are speaking about is do able but you may/probably have a lot of work with getting the plumbing sorted out for motorised valves in the rite places to only take control of that radiator. I have also seen trv's been replaced with hard wired actuators with the cables running down behind the pipes and wired up like a UFH set up.

Yes it seems the main phrase for our build currently, is "nearly done" - As much as September seemed to be a frustratingly slow month progress wise, I am optimistic that we shall see things all come together during October allowing us to move in for November !! Having said that when I look back on the photos that I had taken, quite a bit of progress had indeed been achieved. It is easy to lose sight of such things when you are in the thick of it on a daily basis. The upstairs is now complete – in as much as we are still awaiting the sanitary ware to be fitted – but the rooms have been decorated, the bathroom and en suite, paneled and tiled. The paneling is moisture resistant MDF, which came in long panels, making it a lot easier to fit and also better than individual T&G panels. The floor tiles, laid in an OPUS design, went down on anti fracture matting. The oak staircase arrived and has also been installed. We have gone for a predominantly oak staircase. The main stair treads are redwood as they will be carpeted. We decided to go against a full oak staircase as we were concerned about the noise, safety element when coming down them and also due to the financial costs. The cupboard under the stairs is yet to be completed. Once done this will prove to be a very useful storage area. Downstairs, the cylinder and associated items are being installed together with the ASHP. The cylinder itself is a 170 litre tank which will have a recharge time of 37 minutes to 40 degrees. This will allow the UFH to be fired up and thereby ensuring the screed floor would have dried out completely, prior to any tiles being laid downstairs. The sitting room is now being plastered and will be painted in due course. The delay in getting this room finished was due to the fact that the chimney hadn’t been completed. Thankfully, it has now been done, which in turn, has allowed the WBS fitters to come and install the oak beam and register plate. The WBS won’t be fired up and formally commissioned until early Dec, due to the delays cause by the chimney not being done in time. Outside, the stone work is almost complete. The chimney end will be finished this coming week and then work can turn to the awkward gable end above the single storey roof. We are now in discussions with a landscaper, so things must be heading in the right direction. Over the coming weeks, the drainage system and treatment plant will be installed, allowing the roofer to return and fix the downpipes. So by contrast, October should be the month when it all comes together - we can look forward to the kitchen being fitted, electrics and sanitary ware being installed and the floor tiles being laid. Fingers crossed for a good month! Thanks for reading.

I used the "brackets" I linked to a few posts ago. Here is the "pocket" already in the wall and the pins screwed in place. As I guessed, the bit that goes into the wall is an M6 thread, that screws nice and snug into a 5.5mm hole drilled into the wood. The shelf slides onto those pins. I drilled 9.5mm holes to make it a less snug fit. It is important to drill these carefully, I used the pillar drill. Not much room for error drilling a 9.5mm hole into a 19mm thick shelf. And this it what is it for. The surround sound unit and the front speakers. The tv will be mounted on the wall immediately above, and as near to touching (but not quite) the front centre speaker as I can get it.

The No 1 thing has to be insulate as much as possible to reduce heating load. I chose an ASHP for my heating. I did not want oil again and be subject to hugely varying and unpredictable prices. You can see from the graph above, filling my oil tank in 2005, or even 2006/7 at twice the cost of when the system was installed in 2003 was painful. Electricity by comparison has slowly increased, but not with the huge volatility that oil has. And if you install solar PV so at least some of your consumption can be self generated, that has to be a sound proposition.

And if we fall out with the Saudi,s ?.

I gave away a working Sten a few years ago. It had been given to me as a "deactivated" trophy, "liberated" by an acquaintance in the early 1950s, and stored, together with a load of ammo, in his loft for decades. When I stripped it, I found it wasn't deactivated at all; all that had been done was to remove the extractor. As this is just a simple bit of 1/8" hardened steel plate, and as I had access to a drawing, it didn't take long to get the gun working. Terrifying thing to fire, it jumps up violently with every round fired. When I spoke to the chap that had given it to me he said they'd been told to aim at the target's feet, and with luck the second or third round would hit their centre of mass... I may well have a set of Sten drawings around somewhere, I'll try and dig them out.

I can see similarities between your design and our first rented house. Was your design based on a traditional highland croft house? This house had walls like a castle just two layers of solid stone with in fill. We had to pay an eye watering £90-£100 a month in oil and it never felt warm.

I went from this: To this via a non material varation. Luckly enough they started charging for NMVs a few weeks later, so cost me nil in planning fees.

Hi It seems like you have explained it pretty accurately already. If the foundations were deepened due to the trees I would have expected to see something like "Claymaster" :- https://www.jablite.co.uk/application/claymaster/ on the inside of the foundation trench. Otherwise the heave of the clay within the house extension footprint will potentially split the foundation as the clay rehydrates due to the tree roots now been cut off. The claymaster would collapse and prevent damage. It is possible that if claymaster was used , but the heave was much greater than predicted, heave damage could still occur. I have seen this where there was a large row of Poplars on a golf course boundary adjacent to a house gable. The clay expanded so much, it crushed the claymaster and lifted the house off its footing, breaking the house in two.

Looks like it was designed by Escher!

Mine does ?. On the initial run from the house at least as the ground was made up lower down. To be honest we were fully expecting building control to insist on something to prevent going off the edge but they didn’t so we left it.

Passion, drive, talent and enthusiasm.....I USED to have them.....before the bastards ground me down.....

Perhaps they need a turning area for bin lorries and emergency vehicles.

I don't think I've had more than ten minutes conversation with any building “professional” who hasn't said something which some understanding of basic physics and a little reading round the subject hasn't told me is complete nonsense. Not that I haven't learned a lot from those conversations, too, but it all needs to be carefully filtered. The fundamental problem, I think, is that for traditional reasons building is an illiterate business. Not that builders (necessarily) can't read or write but that it's not the normal way of working unlike almost all other branches of engineering. Instead information is passed on by word of mouth when people are often in a hurry so the what and how gets communicated but not the why with the consequence that people don't have the background to extrapolate beyond the specific methods they've been shown. They're aware of this at some level which puts them on the defensive.

Have you noticed that some people's reaction to someone doing something new or creative or different is "wotchawannadothatfor?" Completely off topic but here's a little anecdote... I went up to the counter of a sports supplier a couple of years ago and asked the assistant for a particular piece of equipment. "What's it for?" was the reply. I secretly wanted to say "None of your effing business, mate" but I was polite and told him. Then another character who was leaning against the counter put his oar in and gave me the benefit of his knowledge, telling me that what I was trying to do would never work. I said thank you but I still would like those particular goods...please. However, they insisted on trying to tell me that I didn't know what I was talking about, it would never work, etc. Eventually I had had enough and had secret delight in informing them that if they would like to look inside a magazine that happened to be on the counter, they would find an article by me describing how my team had just set a world record in that particular sport and thanks for the advice but could I please have what I came in for. Needless to say, that shut them up good and proper. Innovators of the world - rise up, and tell these naysayers to get lost!

I hope this is a positive thread. I have lost 6lbs following making an offer on a plot and since then I have been mentally and physically buzzing around on a high. Last week my fitbit clocked up my highest weekly step count of 102,600 and this is before the build has actually started. Currently I am practicing laying bricks, measuring the plot, visiting suppliers and generally waylaying any bored navvy, tiler or brickie for a chat.

You need to look at the pressure drop curves for your pump at your flow rates and have a sensible margin. Too low and the pump starts to sound noisy. I might have had a memory mindfart: ours might be at 1½ bar, I will have look the next time I am sitting on the can in the downstairs loo.

I won't need tiles at this rate, my walls will be covered with @Nickfromwales gems of wisdom on A4!