epsilonGreedy

No is was in the disposal heap at a local DIY container storage business. I asked the owner if I could take it.

Slightly related and in the news last week, Barclays and others are in trouble for mis selling PV installation loans but this would have been covered by financial product legislation. Think I heard this on a Radio 4 consumer advice program.

I accept a degree of collective responsibility for the prevailing condition of Britons and British society, then I spend time worrying about the national trajectory. 20 years ago I spent 3 years living in France and managed to avoid all those vulgar french citizens urinating and defecating in public as reported by @JSHarris, however each time I got on a ferry to visit the UK I had a salutatory reminder of the state of Britain as the British came waddling down the deck. There was a stark contrast between life each end of the ferry trip. I had an interesting 2am Christmas political debate with with someone who has returned to the UK after 20 years raising a family in the USA. As a side note he is appalled by the level of vulgarity experienced in daily life here, his 20 years away give him a special perspective and he feels life has changed remarkably for the worse. I recall this person dressing like Citizen Smith in the 1970's and attending university protest marches supporting radical socialism of the period, today he is a 60 something big state liberal. During our 2am political debate about UK obesity he expressed a Hilary Clinton like position that the obese are deplorable because they have consciously ignored 30 years of NHS health advice. I found myself in a strange position of adopting a socialist argument expressing concern for the medically disadvantaged and then stating there must be a deeper social/medical-science explanation yet to be discovered. Regardless of explanations for the malaise I am convinced the national trajectory is heading for second world status, a plummeting pound and oil at £200 a barrel.

Such due diligence is commendable but are you subject to mis selling regulations like an independent financial adviser?

Risks can be quantified and calibrated, pro builders do this all the time. I am following the rules as a first time self builder in a conservation area because I know my build will be subject to an extra level of scrutiny. Reading previous posts in this forum leads me to understand that receipt of an enforcement order is not equivalent to a judge handing down a conviction, it is just a formal request to make a change. Not complying with an enforcement order is the point at which a law is broken.

The future economic vitality of the UK and hence the oil price denominated in Sterling will be determined by 60 million Brits not 100 lean clean living enterprising BuildHub members. My assessment of the UK population is highly accurate: Any health economist will confirm the UK is going through one of its periods of national alcoholism and the consequences are being seen by NHS docs. There have been other similar periods in British history. Latest stats provide a glimmer of hope and indicate young people are looking at the all the middle aged alcoholics in this society and rejecting the alcohol based culture of their parents and grand parents. The UK is one of the most obese nations in the world, it is a national health scandal which will inevitably hurt national economic performance. Foreigners are shocked by the degrees of everyday vulgarity in the UK today. We have lived through a media-driven period of competitive vulgarity embraced by celebs. We are certainly an indebted nation, Sovereign debt has reached 1945 levels then layer on student debt and other debt lurking as loans held by Government agencies such as the NHS. The elephant in the room is unfunded liabilities. This year Government bean counters revised unfunded liabilities up by 30% of annual Government spending in a single accounting correction. Anyone in the UK trying to assess the price of oil over the next 20 years should consider both global price trends plus the likely purchasing power of the £ in that period.

The fracking boom in the US was funded by cheap investment money and repayment will be a problem for many frackers so best not assume future cycles of fracking exploration. That said science plus economic incentive have delivered remarkable advances in fuel economy so I reckon from a global perspective the oil price will remain sane and stable when measured against a basket of global currencies. The more pertinent concern is what price a barrel in pound notes? On this point I am not optimistic. We are just a nation of vulgar obese indebted alcoholics not fit for purpose, eventually we will be rumbled and relegated to second world status at which point the pound will tank.

In the past I have treated myself to a generous office desk at home because I wiggle a mouse for a living. As we prepare to move into the static caravan onsite and Swmbo has agree to sacrifice the dining area so I can have an office which leads to my question about minimum desktop depth. I have a large flat screen but since buying a Microsoft surface slate there is no CPU box to accommodate. IT enthusiasts on YouTube favour resting a simple Ikea kitchen top on trestles and these come in 60cm to 80cm depths. My current favourite is 140cm x 74cm. Does anyone here work at a desk for hours and find a 70cm depth acceptable?

Will it fit a modern door frame kit?

I am making more substantial changes to my garage which the planning office say fall just inside a non material amendment rather than a full amendment. They want a proper scaled drawing showing the changes which means a trip back to the architectural technologist. I am in a conservation area and even the door colour is a specified planning condition. In your position I would just build the door in and deal with the consequences if any downstream. Will anyone be motivated to object to the extra door, would the planning office feel motivated to initiate an enforcement action, they could get mildly stroppy and demand a retrospective non material amendment and in the worst case just hang on to 120 facing bricks so you can brick it up as a last resort.

A mains electric meter installation is scheduled for next Monday and then later in the day my own electrician will fit a 2 x RCD CU in the meter box and run 22 meters of armoured cable to the caravan. He was not impressed with the residual 3 meters of mains cable dangling from the underbelly of the caravan which connects into a small 6 x RCD CU in a bedroom cupboard, he reckoned it could handle only 16 to 20 amps. The suggestion is to run 6.5mm2 cable good for 40amps all the way from the meter box into the caravan. The caravan looks very well insulated under the floor and has double glazing plus gas central heating. I reckon the electrical crunch point would arrive should the c/h boiler fail in the middle of a cold spell and we resort to a few 2kw heaters and then switch on the kettle. The price for the job is just £160 for time and materials which I am ok with but 40amps seems ott. I will be digging the trenches.

Is the insulation a provision for a future change of use or is the garage integral?

Build a stable for 700 donkeys. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_milk#History_2

This option went through my head last week as I was digging the 3m trench but I dismissed it out of concern over creating extra holes in my footings and/or rodent entry points. The advantage with your extra valves idea is that I would not have to schedule a point in time switch from caravan to house.

Its a thought, this front corner of the house is furthest away from the garage/utility area where I expect to fit the principal outside gardener's tap plus no concerns about regular splashing from a wall mounted outside tap making bricks damp. I was looking at a catalogue of water pipe parts and noticed that white plastic collars were shown next to the T connectors, so I assumed these were fitted internally at each joint and hence my concern about reduced flow. The water pressure is however phenomenal, so much so a garden multi pattern jet attachment is painful directed at my hand.

Water stagnation was one of my concerns, there is probably some regulatory stuff on this matter because of the danger of the stagnant water getting drawn back into the mains supply. They are concerned about this subject in marinas these days where a myriad of branches supply the floating pontoon standpipes. The other concerns are that having two T connectors inline to the final house supply might impede flow rate plus capping the redundant caravan supply at a full 750mm deep would involve more digging. The dead leg to the removed standpipe would be short, say 200mm.

A couple of weeks ago I discussed how I intended to supply mains power to the static caravan with a view to simplifying the eventual rerouting of power to the long term consumer unit in a weather tight house. Now I face a similar conundrum with supplying water to the caravan that will not result in a compromised long term mains water supply to the house. My concern relates to leaving two capped and pressurized redundant branches underground in the mains water supply pipe before it enters the house footings. I am considering two plans for the following supply route. 1.0m from road to water meter sunk into the verge on the plot boundary. 1.5m from meter to the builder's supply stand pipe inside my plot. 3.0m trench 750mm deep from standpipe to house footings blockwork and thru wall entry hole to house floor void. 16.0m around still open footings trench at 600mm deep plus 4.0m shallow'ish trench to underbelly of the static caravan. Option-1 (least pipe used) Fit T connector at standpipe base 600mm below ground and run main supply pipe 3m to the house footings in 750mm deep trench. At house footings add another T connector to branch off 20m of pipe to supply static caravan around external footings trench. Plus from the same T connection run the other branch through footings wall to future suspended floor void and leave large coil capped. One year from now when the builders supply pipe and caravan are retired, cap the caravan supply branch near caravan and leave buried at 300mm deep with some insulation and then dig down to base of standpipe and cap the pipe end. Option-2 (more pipe/simpler long term mains supply to house) Lay long term main house supply pipe in trench between house footings and stand pipe with a second spare coil left above ground near the standpipe but leave unconnected. Add T connector at standpipe base 600mm below and run 24m of pipe to the caravan and as a result have two pipes buried for 3m between standpipe and house footings. In one year extend trench from standpipe to water meter, connect the long term supply pipe coil to the water meter which results in a jointless and branch-less supply direct to the house. There will be no need to cap the redundant branches to the caravan and standpipe because the whole 27m run of pipe will be disconnected and left buried. Option-2 feels like a proper solution.

The early medical outcome hints they did the right thing. Mum and Dad had London centric businesses, I imagine their incomes would drop 70% doing the same in provincial rural UK.

Next you will be telling us that Demelza Poldark swims naked off that early each morning.

I thought it was the best of the new season. The couple were maxed out with their separate business, hospital visits, 3 young children and researching non toxic building materials. Were there any bricks in their build? Next week will bring me down to earth, Swmbo says she will be to scared to watch.

When discussing this option with a screeding/UFH pro the other day he said "thin down first, thickest layer on top".

Lorries in Lincolnshire must be smaller, my three loads of hardcore only went this far.

Not what I claimed. We see examples here on the forum where people wander into project trouble with less knowledge of the spending schedule than would be obtained from a single read through the SBB. I am thinking of such people and other early stage entrants to self build when I say if you are only going to read one book before starting it should be the SBB. Your multi year preparatory phase is pretty exceptional and not exactly a project method that can be adopted en-mass.

I am surprised how quickly I have run out of space on my 0.2 acre plot. House and garage footing = 120m2 Static caravan plus 1.5m buffer to neighbours hedge about 65m2 Cement mixing station. 2m boundary around footings for future scaffolding. 3m wide path between static and house for a telehandler. Multiple stacks of blocks. And now a maxibag of drainage 10mm gravel.