SteamyTea

Ask him to add up all the money he has spent in the last decade on his 'investments'. Then work out what he could have done with the cash instead.

The Cayennes will be on finance or worse, PCP

Yes, I had a two supervisors that were hopeless. One even claimed to have left messages on both my landline and my mobile. Neither of which had an answer service.

You could try downloading some messenger apps i.e Whattsapp, Viber, Telegram, then you can send a picture of yourself standing by their van, without or without their favourite child/pet/CD/beer as hostage. I agree that text is best, there is no misunderstanding when it is written correctly about what is wanted. I once had a customer bounce a cheque on me. I called him up and asked politely of there was a problem. He said 'no' and told me to represent the cheque. Then, within an hour he called again to say that he had overpaid me (he had not), I was very suspicious by then as he said he would write me a new cheque. I represented the old cheque anyway. I week later he left a message to say that I would not be getting any further work from him, I purposely ignored that call, because: The original check had cleared. He was a Barrister. Should have got a proper contract written.

How old was the original lead valley?

So they are just going to coat it, not do a full repair.

Nice design that, and a reasonable price. But this intrigued me: " FILON’s V-Flow DF valley troughs and accessories are fully recyclable at end of life. " Would like to know how they are doing it. It has been a problem with normal GRP because of the low costs and flammability. I did experiments in the early 90's, but was not worth the effort. Things change though.

If it is a simple shape, it may be worth having a mould made up. Then is can be made in a workshop and just fitted. Much more reliable that way.

Glass fibre (Fibreglass is a trade name) if done correctly. If done incorrectly it will be a disaster, but you will know that very early on. It is fairly easy to work out what it costs. Find the area costs i.e 3 layers of 450gm/m2, 2.7 kg of lay-up resin, 0.7 kg of flowcoat/top coat will costs about £11/m2. Multiply it by 4, round it up, so £50/m2. Then add on the VAT , so £60/m2, and any extra costs like scaffolding. Make sure they do it when everything is bone dry, not a drop of moisture. Should be a warm day as well, but preferably not sunny. I did some on my parents house nearly 30 years ago, it is still there.

Are they the ones where the gubbins is hidden in the wall and the pan seems to float (ish). Are you putting any wall strengthening in at the start, with a fake panel to hang the cheap crapper from?

Yes, true, and a valid point. But if it means not getting the build done, or worse, it is a price worth paying.

I often read on here about people getting unexpected costs added to their build. So this got me thinking. If you are planning that family kitchen so that you can enjoy real food cooked at home. You could live for a while with a free standing kitchen. You can even make one yourself. Similar in a bathroom. No need to have the perfect suit, with matching cabinets and electrically heated floors and mirrors. You can live with a really cheap one for a while, most of the main plumbing will be the same. Stick in an oversized towel rail for a bit of heating. Windows are another one. Get the very cheapest that will pass the building regs, then when life is better, put those posh, triple glazed, self tinting ones in. Doors the same, both internal and external. Cheap carpet on the floor, then when you have got the other messy bit upgraded, put the floor of your choice down. Now some of this will take a bit of forward planning but really not that difficult I would have thought. What else could be used until finances recover?

I am no expert here, in fact know very little. But I often read about 'contestable' work. As I understand it, these are bits you can do yourself, or at least organise a suitably qualified person to do it for you. I am sure other know more about all this. On a similar note, how about water and sewage/drainage?

The company I used to work for (the bunch of crooks), decided to do heat pumps. As we were going for MCS accreditation (already had the PV side of it), I had to do all the paperwork/calculations. Was all pretty easy. An experienced plumber, who had no experience of heat pumps, did the pipe fitting, an electrician did the wiring. They never got it to work (I had left the company in disgust by then). As far as I could see, there was nothing too complicated about the set up. A largish thermal store, and expansion thingy or two, the ASHP, pipes to over sized (actually correctly sized) radiators and a simple thermostat controller. Still fail to see why they screwed it up so much. The room by room calculations and the 99% rule where easy to work out, the rest of the MCS side was just a paper trail really i.e approved kit, qualified people, willing to be inspected. I think, and am willing to be corrected, that what scares people about plumbing and wiring, is really lack of product knowledge. We often know what we want, but don't know if it exists or not, and what it is called.

Or you are an accountant/serial bankrupt are are planning the 'exit' strategy.

You may find, after speaking to your SE that you only need 5 bolts, rather than 5 (or what ever). Depending on where the one without any concrete in the block is, it may not matter. So first call is to the SE I would think. Now remind me, why did you choose this construction method?

If they are an MCS company, I think they can be reported for that sort of thing. Not that it would do any good. Have you spoken to your mate about Bitcoins

Tell him that putting silver foil on the DC side improves efficiency and that clingfilm on the lower half of the modules can do the same.

I used to work out the most efficient way to fit modules. Really comes down to the roof shape and the number of modules that you want fitted. If space is no object, then portrait as it, as you say, reduce the amount of rail an makes the wiring easy.

Didn't Tesla up the range of the cheapo 60 when that hurricane hit Florida last year, cause they had the large battery pack in anyway. https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/10/16283330/tesla-hurricane-irma-update-florida-extend-range-model-s-x-60-60d

Did a Masters at Penryn, not been back since.

Surely their solicitor sorted it out when they bought the place, it is what they are paid to do. Mind you, there was a bit on the radio last week about some bloke that bought a leasehold flat, then got presented with a £17,000 bill for work that was done a few years before he bought the place.

I think part of the problem is that there were so many 'roof for rent' schemes that proof of ownership is a bit hard to establish sometimes.

I had shiny new, fixed focus, acrylic lenses embedded into my eyeballs a decade ago. Fantastic colours, can spot a natural blonde at 500 yards, absolutely hopeless up close. Makes the latest G/F look like a 22 year old.

I will, when I get them and have time to play. I have some particulate monitors on order too, so a few project I want to get up and running.