newhome

Prepare to lose a friend I reckon. Depends how bothered you are. You should get money back if what she did was sub standard and didn’t meet building regs for sure.

@ProDave any chance of a photo of your ‘bottom’ please? ?

How about ‘wondered if you would reconsider the cost for what amounted to x hours, so £80 per hour, and some of the work I have had to have reworked’. £80 is plainly ridiculous. And didn’t she say that it was mates rates? Some mate!!

You can buy one retrospectively I understand. Costs more supposedly but if you aren’t thinking of moving anyway you may decide that the risk is low enough not to be too worried about that. I bought one. Probably wouldn’t if I did it again.

Needs @PeterW to advise.

Glad things are looking up. Is the original plumber still ‘a friend’??

Can you post a photo so that people can see what the issue is?

I do listen sometimes, even to drunken Welshmen!

No decking allowed here for that very reason! If it’s not swathed in concrete it’s not being installed here!

But why do bathrooms have floor probes and don’t use the air temp? Because of steam from the shower etc? Or is it because the stat is sited outside the bathroom?

Tiling going great then! ?

Shame you’re not up the hill from me. Mind you I’m sure you would have slit your wrists at my attempts ?

Yes that would be a decent saving.

Is that your refuge when you’ve displeased the mrs? ?

Has it been empty for 2 years?

@Onoff‘s pallet buster to make life easier these days lol.

I had a couple that came with floor probes. Think they were for the bathrooms on separate zones but not used. @PeterW will remember.

Scaffolding use is highly regulated though is it not? Surely no site insurance policy would allow someone to put up scaffolding without the relevant certification and let other people use it? If you use it yourself it’s at your own risk but surely not otherwise? Also the HSE came down on my scaffolder like a ton of bricks when someone fell off (allegedly). If that happened and the HSE were involved and it was the householder’s own scaffolding then surely the ton of bricks would come their way instead regardless of what any site insurance policy said?

How do you stand on insurance if someone has an accident on scaffolding you own personally? That said we got caught out even via a registered company (but he was a crook!).

We had to do that in the end as despite it being pretty decent and stable there was one occasion where we had hellish storms overnight and the damn thing blew over (house is on the coast and it gets über windy here). Luckily it just fell into the garden and as it was the middle of the night no one was about. Always took it down every night (leaving the first level up if it was still in use) after that.

Welcome! 500m2 is a very big house! There are quite a few IT folk on here who are managing their own builds. @ultramods had a similar decision to make re going with the architect oversight or doing it himself and he chose the latter. There is a thread here that discusses the pros and cons. There are people on here who have run into trouble using the architect or a professional PM because they haven’t done a great job, or who have run into trouble doing it themselves for various reasons. My personal view is that if you have a project management background you could do it yourself but you must have the time to do a decent job, and you must be prepared to learn at a rapid speed as building is quite different from IT. The other issue is finding trades. Seems to be a common issue wherever you are just now. This site is amazingly helpful if you run into trouble. There is always someone on hand to give great advice on almost anything or offer virtual tea and sympathy when things don’t go quite to plan. Have a good trawl through this site. There are countless posts here where you will learn a lot. Here’s one from just the other day.

Sounds like a good project. Where do ebuild lost souls lurk before they find this site? Need to go and round them up like a shepherd and his lost sheep ? ?.

Thanks. Wonder why they do it like that up here? ? Found this old photo after the walls had been rendered. It’s not very good but shows the transition between the main wall and below a bit better.

Thank you. What's the bell cast? The bit at the bottom of the white render? Should I scrape it all off then? And it's ok for it to be damp like that? I painted it black at the bottom with masonry paint so I suppose I could paint it again with that once it's off, assuming I can paint on damp brick. Do you think I need to dig down to get all of it off or just leave it? I think some of the ground was backfilled quite a way down so not sure it's feasible to get all of it off anyway. Any chance of a photo of yours so that I can see what it's supposed to look like please. Sorry, lots of questions

At the bottom of my house the render that was put on has for want of a word ‘blown’. Not all of it but large parts of it. I went out and scraped some of it off to take these photos and it’s damp with what looks like earth or sand or something behind. None of the render on the walls is affected, just the bit where the earth was backfilled and then gravel laid. Not quite sure what to do with it. Clearly it all needs to come off and be redone but I want it done properly and am worried about something more sinister going on. Any advice welcome please.