epsilonGreedy

I paid half that for a basic drawings only service, my house is 130 sqm. I am also building in a cheap provincial area. Given all the extra admin and liaison included in your quote that figure seems reasonable to me.

That is because the era of Western culture with its free speech and free thought is over, we now live in a modern tyranny regulated by tribal belief mechanisms and a fear that "hate speech" heretics lurk around every corner. We had a good 250 year sprint of achievement since the Edinburgh Enlightenment, China and India are now in charge of humanity's destiny. We pontificate for decades over a 3rd runway for Heathrow, whereas in 24 hours China can place a city the size of London in isolated medical quarantine.

Rising CO2 is a benefit for plant life because over a geological timescale vegetation today struggles with the relatively low CO2 levels of the present, this is because photo synthesis evolved in a period of much higher CO2. Rising CO2 allows plant life to consume less water and hence flourish in marginal desert conditions. Even NASA concedes the earth has been greening up for a few decades as CO2 increases, the problem however is that geologists have fairly convincing evidence that the earth will eventually warm up and drown coastal cities under 30m of sea water.

Yes if "temporary" is defined as 10 years ahead. When the random factor of public policy is stirred into the forecasting mix who knows what will happen. I believe my economic predictions are sound though I cannot account for punitive CO2 taxation mandated by the UN or frightened local politicians. Punitive taxes are the biggest potential upset for a self builder installing a gas boiler today.

Erm that sounds the wrong way around. A Wayleave is needed upfront to establish the rights of a supplier to route across anothers private land. Signing a wayleave now would reduce the rights of the OP to complain about the problem now encountered due to the uncharted incursion in his plot.

This can work both ways, something the eco protagonists overlook. Consider vehicle tax bands, when the car industry did such an effective job of introducing low CO2 sub £30 p/a engines, the Government had to rewrite the tax rules to reestablish overall revenue levels. If 1/2 of the nation's gas boilers converted to nightime powered ASHP, overnight supply & demand would shift out of balance and the night time tariff will increase. Then add in the forecast collapse in nuclear generation capacity over the next 10 years and rising demand from electric vehicle charging and we will likely see further erosion of the nightime price advantage. Conversely softening demand for gas should result in soften prices.

I recall your heating is 100% electric storage radiators? I wonder how your daily heat release profile compares to ASPH heating a concrete UFH floor as the slab lacks the thermostatic heat release controls of your radiators. It is unfortunate that people want peak sitting room temperature between 7pm and 10pm which is 13 hours after the nighttime tariff ceases.

Worth noting that even the leading eco self builders on this forum concede they do not achieve 100% heating off night time tariffs. Best assume 70/30 split (night/day) in your ££ calcs or worse if your build fall well short of passiv house standards.

Plasson to Philmac, a match made in hell.

As it happens the prompt for me to start this thread was a related incident. Last week I went out to the shed to lock it up for the night and noticed the washing machine had shuffled itself sideways on the raised plinth until one foot was off the edge. The source of the trouble was a single heavy woolen jumper that caused an off balance spin. The plinth in the shed has a minimal footprint. Given your experience and what happened last week in my shed I intend to increase the depth the size of the plinth by 3" and add a 2 x 1 batten to contain the machine if it tries to shuffle itself forwards off the plinth. When the house utility area is fitted out the w/m will be constrained each side by other fitted units.

This idea was originally prompted out of necessity. The "site worker's laundry facility" is currently located in a garden shed next to the static caravan and because the shed was a hand-me-down that was demolished in Swmbo's father's garden I had to reinforce the shed floor to stop the w/m shaking the whole structure during the spin cycle. The w/m now stands on a 4" raised plinth with 3" x 2" bearers. After 8 months I have concluded this raised plinth is a good idea because it eases access to the drum and the dryer, now I want to incorporate the same in the new build. Has anyone done this? I appreciate this is not doable in a fitted utility area under a standard height worktop but we are fortunate enough to be able to place the two appliances in a free standing area. Some photo examples of the concept here https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/interior-projects/how-to/a23285/build-a-washer-dryer-platform/

I would not dare subject my expensive facing bricks to such an experience ? One benefit of tongs is they can be lifted on a simple rope pulley to the upper scaffolding story when the ground is too soft for a telehandler to lift a whole pack up.

I am suffering analysis paralysis trying to select something so simple. So far reading reviews leads me to conclude: 6 bricks is the ideal capacity. Best purchased as a pair for balanced carrying of 12 bricks each trip across site. Rubber handles tend to slip off. Any recommendations? £30 or the same for £19.37 from Amazon https://www.screwfix.com/p/marshalltown-brick-tongs/778JF?kpid=778JF&ds_kid=92700048793290430&ds_rl=1244066&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqsPH5peQ5wIVFuDtCh1KIQrkEAQYAyABEgLjWvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds £20 https://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-brick-tongs/46010 £15.55 Amazon favourite https://www.amazon.co.uk/Faithfull-5023969232256-Brick-Lifter/dp/B0001IWTTG/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=brick+tongs&qid=1579455266&s=diy&sr=1-3 £22 for a pair https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adjustable-Lifter-Lifting-Carrying-Carrier/dp/B015TP9BQ4/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=brick+tongs&qid=1579455266&s=diy&sr=1-5

Ok I will need to increase the dimensions of the delivery catchment area. Thanks. Some quick sums indicate that would add £300 to £400 to my build cost assuming zero loss from a 10 ton bulk heap. So far in my build I have usually found a secondary use of any mucky sand left over at the periphery of the pile. The main thing swaying me towards bulk delivery is that I can order direct from the quarry 9 miles away and so maintain colour consistency throughout the build particularly as I will be using white cement to create a sand/caramel colour mortar.

Professor William Happer used a foam tube about 4ft long in his co2 YouTube video and flapped the ends from the centre to mimic resonance and vibration, then he started spinning himself around to indicate co2 molecular spin.

Not sure about the details of the material, here is the product page. https://www.isover.co.uk/products/cws-32 Have to admit the specifics of "earth wool", "superglass" and "glass mineral wool" just go over my head at the moment.

Hmm the Drytherm 37 at Wicks is on for a special price at the moment. Drytherm 32 is an extra £8 per pack at Wicks, I also have nagging doubts how they squeeze the extra u-value performance out of the same basic material. I should think some more about this order because I need 260 m2 of the stuff.

A top tip. I have far more pvc to hand than thin sheet board, so I will create a much larger perimeter with blocks and then post delivery I can reshape the pile into a tighter perimeter.

Just wondering if £5.78 + VAT per m2 is a decent quote for glass mineral wool full-fill cavity batts? p.s. (Supply to site, not fitting).

I am due to take delivery of 10 tons of soft sand onto an area of old lawn. In order to keep the sand clean and the worms out I need to put down some thin wooden sheet plus PVC. Will the load spill much beyond a 2.4m radius?

I will go back to the BM and double check that point. To date I have got my Rugby regular cement in plastic bags and have been impressed how well they cope with wet weather even when my own supplementary tarpaulin gets dislodged by the wind. Just a few tennis ball sized lumps in a few bags where presumably a pin prick hole let some water in. I will build a plinth out of old blocks and get the BM delivery driver to drop the pallet on the block plinth to ensure the pallet is well clear of the ground, white cement is too costly to risk weather related losses!

I am current getting a best price £8.95 per bag ex. VAT on Castle White Portland Cement 25k which comes from Hansen. So far in my build I have used Rugby grey cement because that is the default cement brand at the nearest BM however I am seeing a 15% cheaper price on Castle White and given that white cements are expensive and I will need 2 to 3 pallets of the stuff that 15% is significant. Is Castle White a decent cement to work with? I will be aiming for a sandy mortar colour finish.

Thanks everyone and Moonshine, I now have an updated version of my plan following @Moonshine's offer to do the edit for me on his computer. One thing I overlooked was whether the original architectural technician would be ok with me editing his work which will ultimately be uploaded into the public domain by the planning office. He actually had no problem with the edit and in fact we went on to discuss an assortment on technical building details that are not clear in my head, in the end we decided on a face to face meeting where we will discuss construction options from my sketches for a very reasonable hourly rate.

200mm lap, yes think I read that somewhere when laying the dpm for the ground bearing garage concrete floor.

This was one of my concerns particularly in a small room and where there could be a delay during first fix work before the ground floor is screeded.