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Because it’s backup in the long term and temporary in the short term. Then I would ask your builder why? And get him to rectify it.!

But as @pocster said above, a span exists between these poles, so it’s been done before so very little will change. I hope they accidentally dig up their gas/lecky/water ?. When I was working for BT, we had to renew a Span and a house owner refused to let us in to do it so we pulled two new spans in with the existing one, job done ?.

Quick Heads Up! The degree of interference (as some would have it) that ecology inserts in the planning cycle is sometimes substantial. Thats is why we need to keep an eye on the Environment Act 2021. And who better to boil it down than Martin Goodhall. On our build, lack of awareness of the detail of ecology legislation and processes resulted in excess expenditure - of about £5000 or so. Can't take a joke? Don't self build.

You can use a latching or timer relay if you don’t want to use HA - this would do it. You can set the on time for as long as you want (10 mins etc) the do all the switches in parallel.

Then don't I’m not sure you are helping your cause Coops

I'd be sticking a fake orange planning notice on the pole in the dead of night. New halfway house, traveller pitch etc.

Same as me. Photographer for 30 years and now let's go building, though my dear Father (78) helped me build the frame. It has been a challenge but worth it.

I’m a bit confused. If it’s not costing you any more why do you care which way the cable goes and I’d have thought an underground route is a better outcome for you. Given a choice I’d want it buried than strung across two poles.

Love the blog, photos and video. You have skillz

My poor explanation probably, I used some cut batten spacers, 355mm in. my case for 400mm centres. Once I start with the first horizontal at the bottom I place the spaces on top vertically and put the next horizontal on top of the batten and then fix. I built most of the house myself so needed a way to support longer lengths of batten. I still measured and levelled to keep it all horizontal. Hope that makes sense.

I think so but by accident rather than design. The Mr FixMyRoof of YouTube recommends adjusting the batten gauge to result in full sized slates right up to the ridge but with preholed slates and just 10 rows of full slates from eave to ridge it was not possible jiggle this outcome. So I ended up with 10 full slates rows plus an extra batten just 60mm further up close to the ridge. The 11th top row will need 2/3rd length slates so yes not far off an eave type row. To help you guys help me I will take a photo tomorrow and also upload a diagram. Thanks so far. I have run the felt from both sides right over the ridge and about 400mm down the other side so there is no concern about water ingress into the attic space. My concern about a reduction of head lap in the last top two rows that would make it too easy for water to get under the slates and then dribble down over the felt to the eave. I could widen the lead flashing ridge cap to achieve a full lap but that would look daft on a small roof.

Hi there, I would cut the horizontals short to meet the closest vertical ( cover half the vertical and half again with the next piece). You have enough timber in the example above. I would also start at the bottom with some batten (400mm / 600mm) spaces to hold the horizontals in place for fixing.

No because there is such much very bad stuff out there, just foam it and it will be better ?.

What use is a breakdown of the costs other than to make sure the price isn’t loaded towards the early stage payments. You or someone is going to have to do some leg work and sit down and write a specification for everything above minimum standard and that that isn’t on the drawing. For example are you happy with bare plastered walls and softwood trims or are you thinking painted through out and oak framing and stairs and doors etc. Is there servicing the site, driveways, paths, landscaping, fencing etc to be included in price. please take my advise and pay an architect, building survey or quantity surveyor with experience in tendering domestic scale projects, to sit down with you and firm all this up in writing for a builder to prices to be comparable and to meet your expectations.

It is any resi build mate - the 88 flat scheme I did in London had them out in droves. They got Councillors and MP's involved - all sorts of nonsense - it became like I had Touretts - I was telling people to F*CK RIGHT OFF dawn to dusk. Funnily enough I have never had issues with the commercial stuff I have done - only residential.

Contentious self builds in established residential areas smoke out the crazys that's for sure.

I wouldn't fit insulation unless the building was weathertight.

if their line was suddenly faulty and needed replaced????

Trench it and make sure they do a half arsed job on the compaction right in from of their drive - get a deckchair and the popcorn ready for when the massive rut appears in 2 years time. I have been lucky with neighbors - just 1 crazy old bat living opposite who we had occasion to invite her to get f*cked before we had even started on site....

It will be a more tidy long term solution for all concerned. Better start calling her the nice neighbour who helped push you towards a proper solution. In my case the disputed cable is still overhead but was routed down a public road from another pole. That span is 61m.

Having now invested in an Apple Homepod mini and the nanoleaf bulb and got the whole lot working together with homekit I have to say that my initial impression is extremely favourable. It just works, instantly and consistently. This Thread technology looks extremely promising and seems to me to offer real potential for a low-cost DIY home automation system that can rival a more "professional" system

You must submit the format you want the quote to come back on then in a clear and concise blank template. Have them fill the blanks basically. Quite often at the end of specifications and tender package documents on bigger projects there will be pages which show the quote layout, by doing this you are asking the builder to follow your format and submit in a way that suits you. However, this will likely make some smaller builders take one look at it and ignore it. The other option is you just sit down and extrapolate from them all the detail yourself into your own tables and charts to allow comparison. It is a bit like asking that 5 builders merchants all submit a quote in the same format and line by line standard. Not happening.

pole to pole is covered by wayleave or have I got the wrong end of the stick ?

You can if access to the property is required to install the new line. Two years ago when faced with a similar situation, though in that case I was playing the role of @pocster's neighbour, the forum was sympathetic to my plight and told me to dig my heels in and object to the oversailing intrusion. The fickle madness of crowds as they say. There are always two sides to such stories. In my case the pole was on the west boundary of my plot and the other property was 15m beyond the east boundary. The neighbour and BT OpenReach wanted to sling the cable 45m across the entire and longest dimension of my 45m x 30m plot. The total span was greater than BT's own 55m guidance. We had bought the plot specifically for the central courtyard feature and its southerly aspect. The proposed oversailing cable would have bisected that southerly view. Such oversailing cables can droop to 10ft before BT Openreach is obliged to take action.

Is it the people in no 44, on the corner, I can see one cable going in your direction but google earth can’t show where it’s going to ?

That is the issue. I am sure most of us love wildlife. I love the burn and the wildlife it brings. We put out bird feeders in the winter and love seeing the range of small and not so small birds in the garden. I love seeing the bats flying about at dusk (no bat survey required and no action taken to protect them, but by some miracle. without any "help" they are here in abundance). And I am sure most of us would not knowingly do anything to harm wildlife (well except if I knew a way to persuade the moles to stay in the field and not come under our garden) But I am also sure that this plot, which had been untouched for nearly 30 years and was turning to scrub, would have been better for wildlife if we had not come and built a house on it, and laid most of it to something we occasionally refer to (optimistically) as a "lawn" And THAT is the problem. Just how do you prove you have increased the biodiversity of the land by building a house on it. Now if I had dosed the whole lot with multiple applications of Glyphosate so it was a barren wasteland before I submitted planning, then I could demonstrate an increase in biodiversity. Sadly that is what is going to happen. A well intentioned but impossible law intended to help wildlife will have the opposite effect. Which brings us to the debate, do we build ANY houses on bare land? If you take this law to it's conclusion, the only place building would be allowed is on brown field contaminated, previously used land with all the decontamination costs it has, but at least you would improve the biodiversity. Sites like ours would just be left for nature. So now nature is more important than homes for humans. Can of worms well and truly opened.

Which insulation are you planning on using as most of the standard ones are not UV stable for external use. The only guaranteed ones are foil wrapped semi rigid fibre, and Armaflex HT Solar, or Armaflex Tuffcoat (or similar) Nothing else has UV stability. You can buy coatings but they are usually £60-70 a tub and used on process pipework.

Self almagamating tape, wrap the whole run of insulation, or the wasps and mice will eat it.

If it’s for wrapping around split insulation in bands then I always use ordinary electrical insulating tape, also makes really good plasters for holding bits of fingers and thumbs together

We use the Orange Jaffa Tape for taping sheet up for render It’s the only one that seems to stay on

If you've any left over external airtight tape that's incredibly sticky and durable. Not exactly sure what you're trying to do. If it's fixing lagging to pipes can you use cable ties? They'll be still there long after we've all passed.

Have checked the effect of cedars. Moderate water demand, and growing to 20m. therefore the house is too close to be unaffected. However you are on chalk. The SE will more likely save you money in the long run.

Just occured to me to itemise the lessons learned on our build. As as result of my experience and reading , were I to build again at a location where ecology is a factor to be considered, I would; a full year before talking to anyone about planning permission, kill any local wildlife that interfers with the build process appoint an ecology adviser who did as I instructed read all the other ecology reports for planning applications within 2 miles of the intended build copy every single one of them and from those reports, make plans to compensate for the outcomes negative to my intended build make grandiose offers of 'compensation' renage on those offers at the end of the build Thats what happens - has happened (references available on request) - locally for the last 5 years at least. In terms of ecology, we have paid several thousand pounds in effort and money for no outcome that can be measured. Naive no longer.

Daikin heat pump convectors - R32 - BLUEVOLUTION - VRV - SKYAIR - SPLIT - Daikin Spares - Altherma (thenaturalenergycompany.co.uk) They look to be fan-coils and accept refrigerated water down to 7°C so presumably must have a drip tray.

@scottishjohn , @TerryE's blog describes the water process : from memory its called 'Fun with Levels ' or something close.... Here you are.... nearly had a go myself, but chickened out. Bit of a boffin our Terry ?

I used my laser level for my plot, it was not powerful enough to see over the distance so waited till nearly dark, donned the protective glasses and looked into the laser (from about 50m away) to measure a height. Yes water in a pipe is a good idea (with some food colouring).

Use a laser level and just transfer your measured heights through each doorway, corridor etc. You can then set a benchmark in every part of the house to take all measurements from.

I few little tips: beware the water gauges they sell with cheap tubing as over long lengths, the tube will deform, especially when in the sun, and screw up your measurements - I know coz I've been there and freeked out when I found one corner of the house to be nearly 50mm higher than my datum. Then I change the tube to clear braided airline tubing and found the actual different was 3mm. The other is to fashion up a water tank that permanently sits at your datum point and feeds the water gauge. I threw away the one I bought and made my own - it was more robust, accurate and usable as I could make the measuring gauge as long/high as I wanted which was useful.

It is, although I'd choose expanded glass beads as they don't absorb moisture.

Yes just foam up with a gun Cut off the excess the following day Some of our jobs (Housing associations) Require us to leave a 5 mil gap around the edges and foam up

I just want to pay for my energy that I use, not argue that in the summer when the heating is off and I’m still paying for gas they ask to change the direct debit: great- no they want to put it up, then you spent ages arguing with them.

My father was a gas plumber and over 30 years ago now he did the LPG install at my first house, and that was all compression fittings, he said then something about solder not being allowed on LPG. I think that might have been the case previously, but later we had a new kitchen and a different gas plumber came to connect the new hob and did a lot of sucking through his teeth when he saw the compression fittings, but after drop testing it was okay to sign it off. New house has one soldered joint at the hob and one compression joint at the changeover regulator.

As long as your wall is thick enough to pretend it’s 400mm ?

Needles in the eyes for you!. I believe open reach have a cost limit ( before they start billing the customer for the install ) of £3,400!!! Luckily to dig a trench from the road to my plot is just under that cost. Madness really; as a line across ( following an existing line ) would be considerably cheaper for them. They did say it would benefit my twatty neighbours if they ever wanted fibre though... I'll make sure I cut the cable at their junction if that happens. Oh look - she's out in the street looking at the spray paint line the open reach guy has left. Wonder if she can lip read??. I'm saying all the stuff I can't type here.....

No pole not on their property. "I will sneak up the pole after dark if you want" - number of times I've heard that line.

Got new neighbours moving I today. Already had my first talk with them about parking. Can see this as an ongoing thing already the driver is a (expletive deleted).

don,t think sun will be a problem LOL

God, I wish I had never mentioned signing off others work. But I have had no abuse on this topic, must be loosing my antagonist mannerism. Can't be that hard to run a bit of unjointed pipe though a house wall. Larger buildings maybe a problem. Or just fit a heat pump. If fitting solar thermal, you use compression joints.