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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/24/24 in all areas
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5 points
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Go self employed, no boss, get a reputation for good work and you will never be short of work. If your interpersonal skills are good with customers you are on a winner. HINT, make your quotes comprehensive, no room for ambiguity with a Caveat that if unforeseen problems are found you will discuss how to proceed with the customer.3 points
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3 points
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I personally would not share with neighbours --they could sell up and you get a real nasty one unless you have an legal agreement where everybody pays into a maintaince fund -- every month ,£20-30 a month so when it needs servicing there are no problems and you put it in a separte account if they don,t want that then let them sort their own problems this needs to include any successoors to the other properties or I promise you when it goes wrong they will cry poverty that should also take care of the yearly empting that is now required same as with access shared roads would avoid like monkey pox3 points
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I've got a screwfix one in the garden right now. Obviously, I'm not a pro, but it's... working. I've put 24x100L(ish) loads through it so far. Mixes fine, no real issues keeping it clean or getting the muck out of it. It has managed to topple over backwards a couple of times, but I reckon that was user error. Working on my own, I'd tip it forwards, then go round the front to fiddle with the muck inside the barrow. It would then un-tip itself and the momentum would take it over. So, uh, don't do that, I guess ^^. No idea if it happens with more expensive mixers too. As for petrol vs electric: I am currently raging at a two-stroke brushcutter that refuses to start. So done with combustion engines.2 points
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2 points
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Exactly the same for me. Yet often this forum advises against employing someone on an hourly rate and suggests a fixed price, often stating someone on an hourly rate will deliberately work slowly to make the job cost more. You won't get a good reputation and recommendations doing that. And if you have to quote fixed price, you have to allow for all the things that might make the job take longer and cost for that, making the job in most cases more expensive. I never ever had a complaint when the final bill was lower than the estimate.2 points
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Pointless post in my opinion your building a house for you and your family, not for anybody on here. our opinion doesn’t matter, do what you feel fits your needs. my house would be no good for 75% of the people on here. we walked around our two previous houses and took measurements and notes on the things we like, what we needed and what we didn’t. our last house the main bedroom and en-suite was 44m totally over the top, this time it’s down to 28m. build it to fit your life, not to get our approval.2 points
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Mine just failed 2 weeks ago at 7 years old. £36 for a replacement kit and half an hour to fit it.2 points
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1 point
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No Quite a few WD for one yep companies own HSE rules Help guard against acid spills and sunburn for renderers Then I get phone calls asking why’s there no one onsite on boiling hot days 27 managers in the office on one housing site that we are doing The job has lost 2 million so far site manager and under site manager have been promoted There running newbuild sites like dangerous inner city jobs where the rates are three times higher move to go round doing safety checks of all scaffolding and hop ups benches Daily Then ticket them all This is what pushes costs up1 point
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The heat load is based on the worst day of the average year not the worst monthly average. So bunging the average in won't get you the passive house outcome - you need the worst day, the maximum energy needed to maintain the temperature difference. See here: https://passipedia.org/basics/the_passive_house_-_definition1 point
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I would fit tall units in the space instead of the unit’s & worktop, should get 3 of them there. Eye level oven, fridge & freezer built in & loads of storage. Downdraught hob on the island. The other units will go up to the utility room wall & will look better without the fridge there.1 point
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That is right. Used to be called Pizza ovens. (there is a load of shit spoken about kitchen equipment, easy to keep clean should be the overriding criteria)1 point
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Agreed. But if you bought a screwfix one and used it hard but reasonably, and it failed in 6 months, you would take it back. Maybe it doesn't mix as well, so uses more time, and that would not suit a professional bricky. But for me mixing a barrowload or two it might be fine. Or it doesn't tilt well? or is horrible to clean?1 point
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Ok to disagree. My own feeling is that it's worth while paying the SE for a visit. This achieves a number of things. 1/ It lets the builder know that you the Client are not alone. 2/ I can say that I can't remember the time when I went to inspect a job and found nothing wrong. Builders often swap materials, hangers, connections, nail types and don't follow the nailing schedule on TF. Then you have fire stopping, vapour barriers etc... long list 3/ When I go to site I also look at fit up and if everything looks ok for the next stages say.. the insulation, how are the drains looking and so on. Now is the time to nip things in the bud. As a project goes on builders tend to come under more financial pressure as they like to get as much profit out the job early on. If they feel they have a weak Client it's human nature that they tend to let things slip as the project goes on. Ok @joe90 I agree with you that you should tell the builder to get it right.. but sometimes the presence of an SE, Architect or QS say can concentrate the mind..avoid later serious disputes.. especially if any visit is at short notice or unannounced.1 point
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SEPA definitely do not allow discharge to a watercourse as a matter of course. It was only after 2 different drainage proposals for land drainage had been rejected they said "why not discharge to the burn" But even that I had to measure flow rates in the middle of summer to calculate dilution before they said yes. Tense few weeks, no drainage = no building warrant.1 point
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Is this build you are doing now in England or Scotland? you don't get to choose which set of regs you build to. Our previous house was 5 bedroom so I believe it had to be sized for 8 people and with the Vp we had it worked out at 88 square metres. It was indeed a big hole to dig, but we employed what turned out to be a very fast digger driver then who did it all with his 3CX. He was so quick driving that thing around I swear he got a wheelie out of it. He did it all in a day. And building control were not in in the slightest interested. They only wanted to inspect and pressure test the drain pipe runs. I don't think some people realise how big they can be. You often need more garden space for the soakaway than you do to actually build the house. And when you add the border requirements it becomes even more surprising how much space you need. I was very glad not to have to do that this time (discharge to our burn)1 point
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Is that really the case, or a Daily Mail story? 2 minutes googling, it is a Daily Mail type story. https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/faq-ppe.htm1 point
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The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) is 50 years and 24 days old today. It has saved tens of thousands of serious injuries and countless lives.1 point
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Another data point - for our basically 200m2 liveable area MBC two-storey Passive house and UHF-piped & screeded slab - with a couple of extras like a 3m roof extension over a balcony, a full OSB cover for the planned standing seam roof (from others) and their external masonry footing - comes in at almost exactly £200k of which £50k is for the window/door set, all erected/fitted and airtight to less than 0.6ACH. Hopefully going up just before Xmas '24. So £1k per square meter. If anyone out there has a certified MBC house I'd be interested to compare notes........?1 point
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Only for drainage nerds. I came across this paper , aimed at churches. The point is that churches don't produce much waste, so why put in a complex system? It is also admirably charming in its style , I think, and hence accessible. More technical papers should be like this. (people don't like to poo in church toilets) Anyway, the 'Trench Arch' method is the point of interest and might be applied to any small use drain.....an outbuilding for example. Very cheap to build, and zero maintenance. https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/5f218af5bba08/content/pages/documents/1424700436.pdf1 point
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When we were doing our due diligence for our plot in 2005 we spoke to companies about the electric connection and a 4" water main diversion. Both routes were across the plot and grass verge, none involved a road crossing. Both suggested budgeting about £100 a meter. As I recall the electric ended up a bit cheaper but the water main diversion was a bit more. The water company were so inefficient though. Some days the team turned up, waited around for the digger and were told it was needed elsewhere. The work was done in 2007 and I doubt it's got a lot cheaper. If building again I'd definitly look at doing more ourselves to try and save but I've heard some people have had ridiculous quotes when they asked for them to be split into contestable and noncontestable.1 point
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+1 to @joe90. It worked for me. You have to be OK with the admin, but it can be kept v simple. I only ever used spreadsheets, not 'accounts packages'. Only difference to @joe90's sugg'n is that my prices were always stated to be estimates, not quotes. Not that the customer necessarily sees the difference, but if unforeseen complication leads to a higher end-price you can point back to 'estimate'. In reality, reasonably often my final bill was less than the estimate.1 point
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1 point
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Is taking 5 minutes each time to find which connection has popped out...or fused. And tripping over the cable.....they move when you aren't looking. No question though.We have power. I will get an electric. Cheaper, quieter, doesn't run dry.1 point
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1 point
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I prefer electric but personal preference. Elec quieter when you get power1 point
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1 point
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Trouble with all things electrical on a building site is cable damage, and mud.1 point
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When I fixed my pump last week, I did have to poke the contents with a stick to break the crust on the top, just to be able to confirm it was blowing bubbles and nothing was blocked. It was blowing fine. Below the crust it was liquid all the way to the bottom. Awaiting it's 3 yearly pump out just for good measure.1 point
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What I noticed was architects/SEs use Klargester as a catch all much in the same way we call vacuum cleaners Hoovers. I was recently speaking to someone who had a house built a while ago and they had a Klargester fitted but for no other reason than that was what the drainage designer had written in the description. He thought he had to fit a Klargester and didn’t realise he could have fitted anything else.1 point
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1 point
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Iwent vortec as the emmissions are actually better than a bio disc AND LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE1 point
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1 point
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Remember to factor in with your deliberations, no MCS cert, you are unlikely to get any export payments. I chose to forego them, and export very little. City Plumbing us also very cheap. 410W panels £47 plus vat.1 point
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put down an electric heater of some sort that passes sap. never fit it. crack on.1 point
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My hatred of anything involving BT or OR. The most lousy backwards looking, awkward to deal with inflexible pair I have encountered. If you have an alternative, I would go for it (I did when one became available)1 point
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1 point
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Aberlour is one of my favourites. The village is OK too.1 point
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Also you need to add in maintenance and repair costs Like anything Things break and wear out1 point
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Sorry for threadjack - it happens it's not meant to Sign up here https://heat-engineer.com/home Pay £12 and use their online tool - all you need to know is house dimensions and u values for the fabric of the building It will give you your heat loss at pre-determined external temp and annual energy demand1 point
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I found this relatively straightforward guide to the difference between heating demand and heating load. https://sustainableengineering.co.nz/qa-with-jason-explain-heating-load-vs-demand/ there is also a discussion here http://public.wookware.org/gbf/newforum/commentsbb9a.html?DiscussionID=13647 on GBF looking at the same issue. Essentially the two values don't have a direct relationship, and you need to know that the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) & passive house concept generally, has this concept of treated floor area (TFA) which differs from the more traditional floor area - but not significantly for most designs, in ours TFA is 139, and actual is around 150, this is used in PHPP for calculating both Heat Load and Heat Demand but that is where the similarity between the two ends. Heating load is: the number of Watts you need to pour into the house across each square meter of the building's TFA to keep it at set point temperature at the coldest point of the year (it has no time dimension so its an instantaneous thing). In our case this is 8.268W/m2 according the our version of PHPP. Given we have 139m2 of TFA we have therefore need a heating plant capable of delivering: 139 x 8.268 = 1149W or 1.149kW (Which on reflection is bonkers small but that is what PHPP says it is) and as you cannot get a ASHP below 4kW that is the size we we will need. Actuallly in our case, assuming we could get the flow temperature above 42oC space heating via a heat battery in the MVHR would be enough in our case but we have UFH in the slab anyway and will use that. Heating demand is: the total amount of energy required to keep the house at the set point temperature across the whole year, based upon: the average outside air temperature (OAT) each day / week / month (monthly and annual for PHPP) the amount of gains & losses from things like Solar gains (N/S/E/W + Horizontal / Ground) and internal heat gains (people / things / operations - EG Washing up & running the fridge and your mega sound system!) Here is what that looks like for our build in our version of PHPP : So we have will use 1465 kWh/a which comes out at 10.512 kWh(m2a) using the monthly method on our 139m2 TFA given a coefficient of performance (COP) of 3 we will need to pour 488kWh of electricity into our ASHP to keep the house at set point (without cooling - cos PHPP says it won't be a problem, even if I think it will) at 30p a kWh that comes out at £146 pa. Does that clear up the differences for you?1 point
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Happy to take one for the team so to speak 😉 OT - Which Viessmann did you go for??1 point
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That was my first unit and then moved to Greenwood and you cannot tell it's running. I would just do two dMEV units, as recommended in March. Yes - See above. My wife hated the first unit we installed before the noise.1 point
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I'm pretty committed to getting a panelised system from an experienced passive house supplier. There are no experienced passive house builders near me, and I don't have a relationship with a building company who are committed to getting into passive houses / getting it right, so I see a panelised system as a lower risk option. We self built our current house and despite using a 'good' local builder, I've been disappointed with the thermal result (air tightness / thermal bridges). This has definitely influenced my decision for our next project.1 point
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Buying a kit of parts with manpower to erect isn't a cheap option, I fell over at the prices. Then did something different. Or better if you want. Good insulation and airtightness does have to cost, it's all about the details. I have sold 10 houses over the years and every buyer has asked, what we pay for gas and electricity, they may not know or care about the details, but running costs is a factor. You are building for yourself - no one else, don't fool yourself (unless your a full time builder) otherwise you would just buy a bog standard house. I have lived in new, old and very old houses, and nothing comes close to what we built. Looks better, feels better (MVHR and UFH) no drafts, great views etc. Do it well, otherwise you won't see the benefits, and you will sell and move on. As way of an example just looked back at our old house, its August gas bill had more kWh of gas consumption (heating was never switched off), than this house would use in Dec. This August will be standing charge only. So in today's terms and prices August alone is £75 cheaper.1 point
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But you can build to the same standards and save on the margins and management and transport of the systems. With systems I would say the advantages are certainty and the package principle. If you can manage, including managing the design, then you have a choice. Don't stint on quality either way.1 point
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Timber frame costs are front of my mind as we are about to select our supplier. Here is my thought: Once the house is built no one can tell the specification of the build - what the U value of the walls is or how much insulation is in the floor. When you eventually sell the house the people buying it will probably know little and care less about U values, air tightness, cold bridging etc. Compared to other factors like location, view, parking; construction standards are down the list. If you broadly agree with the points above then my conclusion is that if you choose higher construction standards / cost then you are doing it for yourself and no one else. Saving money on construction costs buys an awful lot of energy when you can get 5% return on any cash saved / not spent. So for me I'm torn between 'buying the best' (e.g. MBC) and saving money and pocketing the difference.1 point