Leaderboard

We were getting our utility room delivered. For whatever reason ours was at the back so they had to unload two others to get to mine. They sat some heavy unit up against the aluminium window cill then sat something else on the window cill. I went apeshit at them. They genuinely couldn’t understand the issue. I pointed to the large dry gravel parking area saying wtf is wrong with using that rather than using my window cill as a shelf. My other half told me off as she said I was a bit rude but as I explained they don’t know the grief I had with these window cills so part of my angst was all that so to have someone show such little respect for someone else’s property just pees me off.

I’m starting think my expectations are too high. Yet again I find myself at odds with another trade on the quality of their workmanship. In this particular case it’s the flat roof and numerous things like long scratches on the rain trim caused by poor materials handling and banging and sliding the ladders about as just one example. There’s a long list. I’ve asked the materials distributor who recommended them for their opinion on it. But it got me thinking that either it’s them and a great many trades just don’t care enough because it’s a house for some reason or it’s me and my expectations are too high. Some of the work on my house has been exceptional but some of it has been piss poor either requiring it needing re-done or I’ve given up and done it myself. In some cases, like the garage, I just accepted it and they gave me a large discount. I can understand why folk end up doing all of it themselves. One of the trades told me that dings and scratches are to be expected you’ll soon not notice them. So i took my screw driver and pretended to accidentally scratch his new van and he nearly had a fit. I asked him what the difference was because eventually you won’t notice the scratch. What’s everyone else’s experience?

Its why, for almost everything, i just do it myself now. Its easier and less stessfull Cant even be worrying about building control anymore. That hopeless too. I can do it right and have no cert, or i can have it done wrong, but get a cert. Lots to do at the new place. Will continue on a DIY basis on almost everything. The lack of pride in your work is the real issue. No one cares anymore. A sad state of affairs.

I'm glad it's not just me that experiences this. Even some of my own guys have been really disappointing despite being pre warned that this is MY house and I want it doing properly. I have told them that i have had enough and there are going to be some big changes. I ended up having a full blown Victor Meldrew / John Cleese hissy fit the other evening. Walls weren't covered, brick stacks weren't covered and the sheet of plastic that I had to cut myself to put beneath the mortar tubs on the pavement had been carefully placed beneath the mortar tubs on the muddy site. Sometimes they just can't do the 'what happens next' thought process. My carpenters have lost the job of doing the flat roof to me now. I don't want to hear 'thats how we always do it ' ever again. I want it right and I'm going to get it done right one way or another. It is an uphill battle. Roofers start on Monday but they have been excellent in the past. This doesn't mean that they will be excellent this time and I'm not lowering my guard.

It's not you, it's them. I've come to the conclusion that the 'average' workmanship is what is now considered great, fantastic or exceptional, and they get rave reviews. It also appears to be an affliction that only affects the British workers who have worked on our build. Make of that what you will but that's my experience.

Yep. Building a house is a compromise. I was on-site before the sun was up this morning. I sat on my folding chair by the big wall of glass sipping my tea watching the mist roll up the valley. I’m happy with my comprise.

Yes it works very well, I hate corners in kitchens with cupboards you can’t get into. It’s just timber framing and plasterboard, took a lot of working out to end up with the cooker fit with the worktop cut at 45’. That cooker hood is re a circulation one but easy to make direct outside. It also gave a great place to route water pipes etc up to the next floor 👍

This is minefield! Generally the folk that supply the glass and track test it on a rig that is very stiff. When you look at the fine print of their test data they tell you this... but they don't take any responsibility for the fixings of the glass or glass mounting track to the supporting structure. Your general SE designs the principle structure but when you look at their fine print it often says "glass / track and fixings to be designed by specialists. So no one checks the actual fixing between the track and the main structure. The main reason for this is that the supporting structure can be wood/ concrete / steel etc.. everyone passes the buck... and for good reason as it takes time to do the calcs as every job is different. In Scotland everyone knows that the fixings must be checked and then you should produce a drawing which takes time too.. but in England (apart from Yorkshire folk who are in my experience very shrewed and clever) you are still often in the dark ages I have to say! It's ok I'm not a scot nat.. just yanking your chain... but if you followed the process below (and paid for that part of the design) you would not get into trouble. Below is a part of one of my designs for a glass balustrade that checks a side mounted track and fixings into a structural steel assembly. What I'm doing here is the bit that the general SE doesn't want to do or the glass and track supplier as both take time, effort and an understanding of the behaviour of what it is they are fixing the glass and track to. The funny looking equation is just a mixed up version of O level maths (quadratic equation) that you would have been taught at 15 years old.. if maybe been born before 2000.. it's nothing geeky. Most of the calculation above determines the tension and vertical load on the fixing between the track and what is supporting the glass. The tension in the bolt varies from track type to type and depending on what type of material the track bears against and what material the fixing go into. But make no mistake.. the material you are fixing into can have a dramatic impact on the bolt forces and the possibility that the whole thing comes lose. The above is for a fixing into a steel backing plate (the hatch suggests concrete but it is actually steel) but if fixing to timber the red bearing area would extend upwards and the forces in the bolts would increase a lot. The main thing is that a few mm in terms of bolt postition or a change in material can have a dramatic effect. That is why no one wants to step up to the plate! In summary the fixings are the key bit and what they are going into. Failure to check all the different parts will lead to disappointment not least. For all on BH .. if you are doing this type of balustrade then it is essential to follow the instructions.. don't make it up as you go along! @Mikey hope this helps a bit.

I must admit it is always a concern when price isn't up front. It usuallly means it'll be significantly more than what you want/expect it to be!

Looks like a new toy !

Saw this and thought it might be of interest!

9mm osb is terrible stuff, go thicker it will provide better racking stiffness. Why the insulation in the cavity? ive stick built with a block skin, all the insulation on the inside in my opinion. Having stick built before i would use an airtight osb on the inside also, tape this and use it as your vcl

Methinks time for a visit to some of these reference sites and talk to the owners...

Oak will always move but less so with well seasoned stuff. I would mount the oak on/In front of the plaster so it can move, even paint the plaster first if possible.

You have absolutely zero chance the oak won’t move and the plaster won’t crack. Can you build it in, in a way that the plaster does not but up to it, either a stop bead or mount the oak forward and the plaster sits behind somehow. Oak frame houses and plaster were always a problem, so they changed how they are boarded and the plasternow goes behind the oak so they are free to both move independently. I would look at this for maybe a solution.

We all get a bit startled by the initial price of furniture, don't we? This year, I treated myself to a 6-seater round dining set from gardencentreshopping.co.uk. The discounted price is £1,139. It may seem steep, I agree, but this is the kind of furniture that lasts for years. So, I divide the cost by the number of years, and it turns out to be quite reasonable. Let's say this furniture lasts for 5 years (though I'm confident it will last longer), then the annual cost would be £230. This way it doesn't seem as expensive after all, when you consider all the happy moments that you'll have when being outside with the family.

The local gas network owner will come out and check it for you, for free.

Roofs completed, gables built on one house and half way up the other. The roofers start on Monday after a delay in deliveries due to me changing the roof tiles. I had both the LABC and the warranty inspector out on Tuesday and they have passed the houses off with flying colours. 😀 The LABC inspector was there for about 7 minutes and the warranty inspector for about 2 hours. I now know all about the LABC guys divorce 😂 Onwards and downwards now. I can't wait to see the back of the scaffolding and regain access to the rear of the site for the landscaping before I say goodbye to the forklift. My next battle recommences with the DNO. It is now 19 months since i first applied for electric connection quotes and I feel that I am no nearer getting connected now than I was 19 months ago. Oh and I just had another council tax bill for a building that was demolished in July.

We only had two trades who I considered to be very good, the plasterer/tiler and the carpenter who did the cladding and plasterboarding. The first carpenter, who was recommended, was useless, so he went on the first day. Others I let go and did it myself. I ended up doing the studwork, electrics, plumbing, kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, doors etc. The reason it took eight years.

Nothing wrong with 10mm, but I prefer not to as it’s awkward to work with and costs more! As you have it though and it’s what your sparks wants it’s a no brainer! Electric showers on the other hand I always always fit 10mm

Yeah, there are plenty of other cock-ups for me to look at instead! 😁

I know it’s been said here before but a previous member designed and installed his own smart weather compensation heat controls but took them out and replaced with a single thermostat and found it just as good, main reason was if he passed away his wife and any future owner would not know how to repair or replace it and tech goes out of date quickly. I too found my a single room stat in the hallway a simple solution, far better than the over complicated controller I bought (and failed to fully understand).

You will never forget. I see things on buildings from 30 years ago. nobody else sees it, because they don't know it is there. So you have to relax and look elsewhere.

Why don't you use the cheap rate directly for DHW heating using a timer on the DHW immersion supply and let the ASHP run for the full 6 hours on the cheap rate. This is the way we do it. We're on Go, so the cheap rate is 9p. The night after sunny days, the DHW doesn't take much to get back to temperature. We find the 4 hours of Go a night is enough to heat the house for the rest of the day unless it's below zero outside. We actually have our ASHP set to heating only, so rely on the PV and 9p Go rate for all hot water. Another thing we've done recently is to put a timer on the immersions in the UFH tank. That way on really cold nights when the ASHP is defrosting several times in the 4 hour Go period, the UFH is boosted by the immersion in the UFH tank. Simon

Well as I have said before I was really lucky my main contractor (two chaps) were great, understood what I wanted, didn’t argue ( but has some nice discussions) and did a really good job. Only subbed out a sparky (good friend of the builder) and a painter (cuz I hate painting) and I did everything else. I have recommended my builder to a few people and offered to show them what they did for me. however. working as a small time builder previously I was so careful subbing out, only using people that had done good work before me before as some are dire!!!!

Sometimes it's the just don't care attitude that annoys. We had a self employed brickie rebuild a partially collapsed boundary wall. He came well recommended and did a very good job. After he left, we discovered the old butler sink we had had for years full of house leeks and other such plants, had simply been stood in as he worked along the length of the wall. A simple "can we move this mate" would have been nice. Just ignorant I suppose.

Arrived today so thought may as well get it in place on my afternoon off. Did one fixed pane on one window and one opener on another, fiddly as expected but not overly so, pushed the rod in to roughly where the centre pane of glass sits in the 3G unit beading’s off absolutely hate the duck tape they use when it’s perished, tidied it up best I could, you can see the gap clearly and I could feel the breeze coming through at this point. just used a filling knife to gently push it in all around the perimeter. I will report back with some results and before I buy any more rod

Our electrician did a great job. Plumbing was okay - not brilliant. The polished concrete floors are good and the painters were pretty good (at painting, at least - they were bulls in a China shop and repeatedly broke stuff by standing on it rather than asking us to move it). Everyone else was passable at best, and absolute dog5hit at worst. I initially thought that maybe we weren't paying enough, or weren't being clear enough about what we wanted, but eventually I concluded that the people we were engaging weren't actually capable of doing excellent work. Even people who'd been described by friends of ours (who'd used them) as "perfectionists" turned out to be pretty poor. The problem is compounded by an order of magnitude if you ask them to do anything different to what they usually do for clients who don't know or care. This is the major reason it took us so long to complete. We had so many bad experiences with trades that I eventually refused to hire anyone else and just did it myself. I certainly didn't always do a great job myself, but I'm certain it was better than a lot of the people I'd have hired to do it.

I had a problem with one of mine for a while. In the end, I stuck it in the airing cupboard for 24 hours to dry it out (in case of water ingress) and it started working perfectly again afterwards. Alternatively, maybe try adjusting the movement detections sensitivity in the settings.

The lead won't spark but the bit might hot something. My recollection of old gas pipes is of plumbers flattening them. That would leave it intact but just about closed... or it splits and vents. But what if it is live, as the result of a previous bodge. ive seen some very dangerous copper gas pipe, expertly soldered but dangerously exposed...therefore.. it really needs a proper gas plumber to answer this.

Thanks for that! We are just starting to really look into this in anger. How did you go about ordering and finding a supplier for them? Any advice or recommendations? Thanks

BUT WHAT IF IT IS A LIVE GAS LINE!!!!!

I’m having 8 ovens

Reckon if I moved into a house with either design, I could live with them quite happily!

2 x ovens for cooking meals in. also one child has an allergy so for some foods we need to cook separately. 1 x microwave. then 3 ovens wouldn't look right so to even it out we got a steam oven as well. makes everything look aligned and appeals to our compulsive natures.

Pretty much the same layout barring island vs peninsula. Biggest difference is the larger unit with an island is 1000 whereas it's only 800 with a peninsula...

Probably our "final" design to include an island. So far I think this is preferred, mainly because; 1) Anyone at the hob can be involved in conversations 2) Everything's easily accessible when cooking (i.e. fridge/microwave/larder just behind the hob) I'll take a stab at trying to get those requirements into a peninsula design too.

Now that's why I advocate looking at what others have done! I love what you've done with the cooker position. You see I have windows on two walls too and pretty much discounted positioning the cooker anywhere but on a flat wall. You placed in a corner and I think that works quite well! Thanks @joe90 for posting that! I'm going to send this to the boss and send her brain into a tailspin!

Pine has a thermal conductivity of around 0.15 W/m.K So 0.1 m will conduct 1.5 W/K (R-Value = length / conductivity). The U-Value is 0.67 W/m2.K (1/ resistivity). Without knowing the exact dimensions, I shall assume that the thickness is 0.04 m. 0.67 [W/m2.K] x 0.04 [m] = 0.027 W/m2.K for each linear metre. You say it is a warm roof, so the steel will be in the region of 20°C. It is a very rare spell of weather where the outside air temperature is below -5°. So. 0.027 [W/m2.K] x (25) [dT°C) = 0.68 W/m If I assume that the beam is 10 m long, that is 6.8W at -5°C Now my kitchen has two pendant lights of 3W each and my laptop at about 10W that is 16W. (It is early and I may have made a mistake).

Off topic... Cracking view

Probably my OCD, was trying to find somewhere for some drawers for cutlery etc without a mismatch of highline and drawer line units on the same wall. Latest revision; Stools look a bit snug.

Still a bit rough around the edges, but something like this

With my build, despite having the room you have I went with a peninsular and think it works better 🤷‍♂️

if you dogleg it like this you can get it closer to the front of the board.

OK, if you’re giving us a complete report, then you’re being misled on a number of points: + your solicitor would likely have been negligent if they hadn’t have investigated the right to light issue fully and demanded the report from the sellers etc. Talk to the solicitor and then the managing partner to get the ball rolling re their potential negligence. You’re doing the groundwork at this point and collecting evidence, no need to be aggressive. In fact, try to stay as calm and reasonable as possible. But be firm. + the sellers would have misrepresented themselves if they said the issue was closed when it clearly wasn’t. Hiding the report from you with some BS legal privilege argument would be part of that misrepresentation. No solicitor, worth their salt, would put up with that. You might want to discuss this point with your solicitor. + LPAs do often use right to light as one of their planning criteria. You’ll find examples here I think on BH. + the ‘legal privilege’ argument is BS. Your solicitor could ask for any and all info they want and decide (with you) not to proceed if the information was not provided. No solicitor would accept that argument. + you might want to get some evidence on file. Write ‘contemporaneous notes’ of all verbal communications and copy them to the other party asking them to verify the notes are accurate. Add a line saying ‘if you don’t confirm by xxx then you will assume the notes are accurate’. I would still ask the neighbours, in as pleasant a way as possible, what design changes they would accept. If they say ‘only for you never to build a house’ then that’s good to know too (and document). If they say ‘move this element a metre further back’ then see if that can be accommodated. You might also project that you’re not going to accept any more BS or sold anymore lines. Ask them to provide you with a history of their conflict/discussions with the seller and document it. Lastly, is there something important you’re not telling us here? Otherwise this situation would be one for the case law books and solicitor training manuals.

I'm afraid that I can't remember. I bought it from the same place that I bought the Amtico, but either I bought it by post and/or my email account doesn't go back far enough. I do remember that it was highly potent stuff and I had a raging headache after doing just 5 sq m Regards Tet

You can use corrugated cardboard to thicken up a laminate, or get some Cormatt XF if you want to do it properly. I would lay down two layers of 450 g/m2 mat, a bit resin rich, pre-wet the cardboard on the rough side, lay into place, then one layer of 450 g/m2 mat over the top in the usual manor. Same with Cormatt.

If you ever want to cool in the summer, you should definitely have your pipework insulated.

Has nobody mentioned making a jig? You want to drill 2 holes in the shelf, and 2 holes in the wall, exactly the same distance apart and level. So take one bit of scrap wood, at least as long as the distance between the to holes plus a bit. Mark the holes on that bit of wood and drill a hole the size you want. Making sure the marking is accurate, and before starting to drill the hole make a centrepunch mark, ideally with a centrepunch failing that a nail, hold the point exactly on your pencil park then hit it gently with a hammer to make a dent to stop the drill wandering. Then use the jig to drill the holes in the shelf and the holes in the wall, getting an assistant to hold the jog dead level on the wall before drilling.

After 35 years experience buying a multitude of garden furniture......it's not about the price you pay it's ... about the time and effort you invest and spend in preserving them.