CC45

Been following this - never much doubt. Wonder if its the first time he / the business did this...

He's mail shotted me a few times - he must spend some time looking at planning applications. He's not far from my parents and I seem to remember his charges are OK.

good news for you - bet you're relieved.

a while ago I remember @Onoff discussing linseed oil being applied to engineering bricks - in order to reduce staining I think. I'd not heard of that before and little did I think I would now be laying blue engineering bricks (constructing a garden wall). I was going to apply brick acid to clean them up after completing the wall but am now wondering about linseed oil - anyone care to shed some light on this mystery? Thanks

bung in the outflow pipe of our last chamber, filled up the system to the top of the chamber. Waited 10 mins - no drop for us so onto the final test. Remove bung (nearly lost the bugger down the pipe due to the force of the water) and look at how quick the water flowed. I worried a lot about this but all went well.

Dear all, does anyone know of an equivalent to DIY Kitchens.com that produce bathroom cabinets? Don't really like what's on offer around us & the bespoke quotes we've had are a little higher than I feel comfortable paying. Cheers CC44

aren't paving slabs like this with regards to size? Looks good.

they will just be even more prepared to pay higher prices for the rubbish thats out there to buy

skimming cost is not OTT when compared to the rest of the house. Its been ~ 1.5% of our build cost. Currently worrying about the price of kitchens - some kitchen sellers will try to get this up to 10% of the build!

at least you sought therapy early on - the cure is far more likely to be effective & cost efficient now. I to have done the tiling everywhere else except the ground floor - too big an area that would take ages (I work full time) and I just want it done now. Good on you.

I put insulation in. Its its own vapour barrier isn't it?

I didn't use a collated driver - screws too expensive & my time is 'free'. Buy cheap buy twice

We are 4 years in - another 1 to go. Externals did the groundwork, timber frame erection, external brickwork & put windows in, everything else I have done. Its been hard work. 4 nights per week for 3hrs / night and prob 45 weekends annually + all my holidays (I work full time). We will get in under £1,000/m2 on a 250m2 house. I could not do it without my partner - she gets the food ready and keeps our current house together so while she does not graft on the site at all really, I could not have done it without her - you must have a good partner to do this. You also need good mates (I've just tiled & grouted a bathroom for one in return for 5 days graft) with different skills to you. It is satisfying. You need patience, persistence and some experience ideally (I'd renovated 3 houses and built an extension before I started). Give it a go but once you start you have got to keep at it.

I've got the 18v dewalt one - brilliant. Its resting now before the final bit of boarding. Its not for sale!

staple & then bit of tape.

just get a piece of wood and mark on it where each course should end up - maybe 4 or 5 courses. You then use this to make sure each course is the right depth. Quicker.

I've put diverters in on one valley - just to slow the H2O down a bit and throw it away from the corner and onto its journey towards the down pipe. I fitted deep flow gutters as standard and also reduced the number of down pipes. On our current house (not the new build) last winter I also removed the hedgehogs - the issues we had with water over flowing the gutters went away..... I do have to clean the moss out more frequently though.

when you register the property all those little dodges come to light - and if not then they will when you try to sell it eventually. Just not worth it IMO.

isn't 10mm standard mortar depth / width? Thats what I aim for.

BC will inspect them. fensa just means the installer does the inspection rather than bc.

got this to do so interested in the replies here - hope ours goes OK, I'm pretty sure you will get an answer here.

looks really good - we may follow your lead here, maybe next summer though.

We put hedgehogs in some gutters but kept on seeing water pour over the gutter in down pours - gutters were clean so decided to remove the HH just to see - problem went. Perhaps the fall on the gutters wasn't enough and the HH slowed the flow of water too much?

we've been looking at growing some hornbeam into the pleached equivalent

they are available with mesh on them already - thats we put on. Chicken mesh will work fine. If it looks like a bodge then you may need to get a sheet of rel fine mesh and craft a better looking screen.