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Unexpected consequence of Corona Virus - you need your 8.5 month pregnant partner to help you pull the house down as all the hire places are closed and you need a long chain and a VW golf in lieu of a telehandler... VID-20200328-WA0006.mp4

As per the last post - we live in interesting times and its not getting any easier! The only real upside is that the weather has improved finally. We had the scaffolders in last week and they have built round three sides to roof level and it looks HUGE as it surrounds both houses in one continuous run. It doesn't look it but it is in fact the houses will have the same roof height as the old bungalow (fractionally lower in fact) - we did suggest to the planners that since we have 2 and 3 story houses on either side we could come up to their ridge height with a pitched roof but they were insistent on keeping our roofs at old bungalow level - hence the flat roofs and the deep dig. We cant wait until we have the timber frames up to finally see how they look on the plot. If you look at one of the photos you can see on Plot 1 that the platform steps down which matches the split level heights of the front and back sections. The plan is to get the Beam and Block floor in next week with a crane and then have the scaffolders back to do the front of Plot 1 and the section between the two houses in preparation (hopefully) for MBC Timber Frame the following week. It is still very tight and could easily go off track if one of the steps fails or goes off schedule, or if the guidelines change and non-essential construction is halted. But we have our fingers crossed and are ploughing ahead as fast as is possible and safe.. From the video you can see that the guys (no gals scaffolding on this one - sorry) seem to be maintaining social distancing and its a wide open site with few people and no enclosed spaces so it seems OK from that standpoint. We have managed to take delivery of a few key items for the preparation for MBC - our local builders merchant has been doing a great job but has decided to close as of Friday so little chance of getting anything else. This same picture seems true of the M&E (heating and ventilation) supply but Nick (from Wales) seems to have secured all we need for first fix. The thinking being that even if we get shut down then when we re-start we are all ready to move forward again as that re-start period will be total chaos as everyone tries to source materials at the same time. If you thought panic (or prudent) buying was restricted to toilet rolls .....We hear it from everyone - its a crazy world out there. On a lighter note we decided to pump out the foundation bays which had filled with rain water to about 6 inches (they dont drain as its waterproof concrete!). We dropped the pump in and were just starting to pump when we spotted a load of frog spawn. We stopped and jumped in to collect it in a bucket to take it to a more suitable location when we discovered two (common) frogs - presumably mummy frog and daddy frog. Amazingly they had survived in what was essentially a sterile concrete pond that was impossible for them to get out of. We managed to catch them in a clean bucket and repatriated them, with their spawn to a nearby field pond. Hopefully they are enjoying their new home as ours will be covered over with a beam and block floor and be dry and very inhospitable for frogs! As they say no newts is good newts! We have kind of lost the Week xx thread on the posts - so the latest is called Scaffold plus all the older ones can be found here :- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 Our internet is a bit slow at the moment so it may take a few hours (or even days!) to sync up to Dropbox so if you dont see the Scaffold time lapse video pop back in a day or so - its quite fun to see something starting to take shape above ground.

I've finished the house roof

Yes as they would be providing a service to a number of landlords as customers. In addition each month in providing these services would constitute a new transaction.

As stated above no definition of trading. But in this case probably decided by a tenancy agreement.

Simple example, ignoring tenancy agreements etc If you tried to argue that rental of property was trading, then the first question would be however many customers (stay in your property) to you trade with over a period of time? If you have one customer over a long period of time that would not be a trading, but a different tenant/customer each week because of the number of transactions and different customers, this now starts to feel more like trading. Further proper stuff from the HMRC below. From the HMRC There is no further statutory help. As a result the courts have established for themselves what amounts to a ‘trade’, or ‘trading’, and their decisions provide guidance when the point is in dispute. ‘Broadly, ‘trade’ can be taken to refer to operations of a commercial kind by which the trader provides to customers for reward some kind of goods or services. The extension of the definition to ‘ventures in the nature of trade’ allows for the inclusion of isolated or speculative transactions, although not all such transactions will be within the definition.’ The badges of trade is typically how a decision is made whether trading exists. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205

will be good to throw on an oil pill on concrete -then crush it --brush it later -oil all gone

Appreciate the replies. job done.

I have the KOEMMERLING 88PLUS profile. Not alu-clad though. Seems like a decent product, 6 chambers and at PH standard. Purchased direct from the continent at fraction of UK cost.

Can you do this. Look at option b.

Catslide

I go the neighbors garden ...

43. Boy =5 Shoes=10 Cones=4 Boy 5 + cones+ shoes = 19 19 X 4/2 cone =38 38+ 5 (one shoe) = 43

Lack of local experience. For the word ... ceramic... substitute any build material or method that's even slightly outside the range of experience of local tradespeople and, based on my personal experience, you will hear a continuous sucking of teeth akin to a bad dose of tinnitus. As you might expect I am very keen indeed to see your project succeed. I nearly chose your preferred build method too. Good luck. Ian

Besides trying to move on with some minor works like you mention, I’d be inclined to do full internal design specs and sketches of everything you can., unless it’s already done of corse. I do room data sheets for builds. It comprises an A4 size plan layout of every room together with all the wall elevations and EVERYTING you want to build and fit incl furniture is to be shown and detailed, on the plans and elevations. Even down to paint colours if you can or at least type of paint. I normally draw by hand using graph paper so it’s roughly to scale and doesn’t take too long. The data sheet Itself ( I do excel spreadsheet) lists walls, floors, ceilings, joinery, M&E and lastly furniture fixtures and equipment (ff&e) These are used as spec’s, needs and quantities per room. These become “the bible” for your build and will be time well spent during this C19 ‘shut down period’. I’m a couple of months behind you so I’m still value engineering the watertight box and then I’ll move on to my room data sheets.

Well - today I spent a couple of hours fighting the Ivy Monster that is trying to invade through the old wall from next door. That wall is lovely, and full of bees every spring. (I once had a pile of insulation there removed from a house attic so that we could get 250mm new put in by the Energy Company, and when the handyman came to collect it to use as Underfloor Insulation in another house he discovered that some bees had moved from the wall to the insulation.). Fortunately a flower lady came past in her van and asked for some of the cuttings - not enough though. Unfortunately her business is going into abeyance from next week. I have enough clippings left for about 2 months of Council Garden bins. What I need now is a systemic weedkiller to put on the new growth in a month's time. And the front border of contrasting shapes and colours planted by mum 6 years ago is developing nicely. Ferdinand

It’s a tricky one Many are self employed in name only So won’t have much backup Though if this drags on for months paying the employed may have to be revised

Not Findhorn though our architect is. We're near the Macallan distillery. We had a local joiner/builder build it. He did a fantastic job despite coming across MVHR for the first time.

Anything up to about 3 storey is often TF in Scotland for domestic buildings - they built some flats near our offices last year and when I drove past they brought back memories of Canada as everything out there is just big timber and OSB clad structures wrapped in Tyvek. That is what these looked like, then they rattled up a facing brick skin. If I was building my forever home it would probably be block cavity or something similar. Our extension is TF with external block skin and 19mm dash finish, so the external leaf is the weather protector really. Before the block work was up our extension was fully wind and water tight, windows and doors in etc. the outer skin is just a jacket and offers very little by way of support to the timber structure when it is built. I have no issue with timber frame, if it is done well, TF got bad press mainly from the big house builders who use that matchstick wood in prefab panels. I saw some roof trusses on the back of a wagon just before Christmas and I pointed them out to my wife, our roof spans were smaller yet our timber was 2x8 these things looked to be about a 40mm x 75mm so not quite 2x3 - but it just square sawn stuff - it just looks like matchsticks to me. I assume they buy this timber direct as no merchant or even shed ever stocks the sort of wood they are using or perhaps they self mill - don't know. What I do know is I was in a SIPS factory a year or two ago and they have proper 2x4/6/8/9/10 and the stuff looked bloody solid. They also ensured all timber was below 10% moisture content before they used it, idea being that they wanted all the shrinkage etc. to have taken place before they build. Our brick layer told me about a row of houses he worked on for one of the mid-sized house builders, they rattled the frames up, soaking wet, brick skin went on immediately after and the houses were fitted out and about 3 months later they got a call to say that some lintels had moved, they went in and the timber frame had shrunk so much that the doors and windows had all shifted and doors wouldn't open and close as they were being crushed! So it is practises like this that give a bad name to a construction method. I actually monitored the shrinkage in our TF and even had some allowances calculated into it to allow for shrinkage - all in all I think it worked out very well as after the roof membrane and battens went on, but before it was fully wrapped and windows etc. put in it had time for the whole lot to dry out in the warm summer we had. I understand that most programs would not allow for this but we had other site work to get on with, concrete pours and new walls and things so the TF got a chance to settle and I am hoping this will give it the best start in life.

You could always just plant such a pipe and pretend it's connected up.. ?

That will be a male body, then. The evidence of female bodies disagrees.

As Just for info.. Part H.. 1.32 Sizes of stack ventilation pipes – stack ventilation pipes (the dry part above the highest branch) may be reduced in size in one and two storey houses, but should be not less than 75mm.