Temp

Perhaps see here for a block paved highway... http://www.pavingexpert.com/blokroad.htm Residential block paving.. http://www.pavingexpert.com/blocks2.htm This is a pretty good site for all things related to paving, hardstanding and some drainage. Check out the index for specs for block paving in other areas. If you ever want the access road adopted by the council best check if they have a spec.

Did the NHBC know you are building two houses? I might be wrong but they used to have a policy for self builders building their own house (single), but if building multiple houses or houses for sale at a profit or they expected you to become an NHBC registered builder. I may have that wrong. Yes my understanding is you would pay £205 + £658 and that includes site visits. Best plan is to conclude each site visit by asking when he wants you to call him back for the next one. If he finds anything that needs fixing or if he suggests a work around send him a letter to confirm what was agreed verbally.

+1 to sorting it before the plasterboard goes on. I recommend a waterproof plasterboard like 12mm hardi backer board in showers.

Can anyone recommend a quick drying wood preserver? Standard wood preservers are taking days to dry properly in this damp weather. Ideally I'm looking for something that dries over night. Ordinary Rustins is taking 48 hours and Rustins Advanced says wait 48 hours before painting. Sadolins Quick Drying Wood Preserver might be faster but looks like it's only available mail order and in 2.5L tins at £30-£32 plus shipping.

We have two Heatmiser wiring centres connected to a thermal store. Each wiring centre controls one UFH manifold (upstairs/downstairs). On our system the two BE signals on the wiring centres are OR'ed together and used to control a pump between the TS and the manifolds. The stats on the store control the boiler. You may not need that pump between the TS and the manifolds - it depends on the manifolds. I questioned the need with Osma who provided our manifolds and they said it was required in our case.

No mains gas in our village but because we like gas hobs we installed a dual fuel electric oven and LPG hob with 6 rings. Works very well off LPG cylinders. We use 47kg cylinders but they last around 18 months to 2 years so smaller cylinders would be ok and easer to transport. We used plastic covered copper pipe sold for the purpose.

I have about 1.25 acres which I cut with a 21HP Toro DH220. Actually it's more than 1.25 if I cut part of the church yard next door. Things I have learnt... 1) Straight/Centre chute mowers are better than side chute. They seem to get blocked less frequently. 2) If the grass is a bit long (that's why you are cutting it!) then it's better to eject grass out the back than to mulch it using the cutting deck. When mulching long grass the mower can get bogged down a bit and it takes longer and doesn't look as neat as just ejecting it. The Torro has a switch that stops you ejecting the grass without the collection basket fitted so I had to bypass that (at your own risk). 3) Mowers don't have good suspension! It can be like driving down a bumpy road for two hours in a shopping trolley. Make sure the seat is comfortable! Get the ground really level before seeding/turfing. Don't let anyone drive over it in a car. The wheel ruts might not be visible but you can feel where someone drove over ours 7 years later. 4) Design your garden/lawn/patio so there are no corners. You can't get a ride on mover into a corner. 5) If you want an orchard plant the largest trees you can find - with luck the lower branches will be high enough that you can mow close. Plant them in rows not some random pattern. 6) Just mow over any tennis balls or toys your kids leave on the lawn. They will learn eventually. Top tip.... If your mower becomes hard to start and has the symptoms of a weak battery or failing starter (eg starter can't turn it over or only just) then check the valve clearances. I replaced the battery and was about to replace the starter on my Toro on when I discovered that Briggs & Stratton motors have a decompressor that is sensitive to the valve clearance. It's a small extra cam on a counter weight that opens the exhaust valve at low rpm. On my mower the valve clearance should be set to 4 thou and if I remember correctly they were about 6 thou. That was enough to stop the decompressor working and made it v. hard to turn over.

There are free apps on the play store that will check if your phone supports USB OTG (needed for the camera).

Perhaps check the earth is ok in the light fitting and elsewhere. If the earth wire doesn't have a good connection somewhere you can get a voltage induced onto it from the live/neutral. This is then conducted all around the house to exposed metal such as a metal light switch. I've seen 75V which is enough to give you a surprise.

Steel isn't vapour permeable. Once insulated the inside wall of the container will be cold so perhaps make sure there is a vapour barrier on the inside?

Many small distributors don't carry stock. They "drop ship" direct from the manufacturer. So if they are made across the channel you might be paying for delivery from the manufacturer rather than from the UK distributors office.

Some membranes are approved for use in contact with sarking/insulation but not all. Check with the maker. I believe Kingspan do one that can be used in contact. The membrane should drape into the gutter so any rain blown under the tiles runs into the gutter. For this reason it is usually UV rated. Sometimes a plastic tray is used to support the edge of the membrane. The plastic tray goes under the membrane so again water runs down from the membrane onto the plastic tray and then into the gutter.

Shell... Is Macphersons (Crown) Vinyl matt washable? One of my regrets was not getting our painter to use washable paint. I forget what we did use but trying to remove any kind of mark with a damp cloth takes the paint off. Kids finger prints, squashed bugs are a pain. I'm now gradually repainting using Dulux Endurance. Fortunately there is an exact colour match with what we used originally.

Our nearest pole was about 20 yards down the road. My builder ran a cable underground to the bottom of the pole and Openreach happily connected it up once they got organised. We left enough cable in a coil at the bottom to reach the top with some spare. The main problem was Openreach disorganisation. Someone from BT/Openreach rang me once a week to tell me that they were "working on our connection" and that went on for a long time. Then one week they stopped calling. I rang them and the lady I spoke to insisted that the work had been done, which it clearly hadn't as I could still see the coil of wire. She was so convinced that the computer was right that the only solution was to agree with her that it must be faulty. The poor old fault engineer that arrived insisted on testing my line at the master socket before he would listen to me. Once he understood what the real problem was he made a few calls and things got sorted very quick. PS: I don't think we made BT/Openreach aware in advance that we would be putting in an underground cable to the pole. I think we just ordered a new connection that they were probably expecting to be an overhead. The engineers were happy to have an easier job than they were expecting.

Usually you can appoint another agent but will either pay a higher fee or more than one fee. Have you tried advertising it yourself?

+1 When you get your initial quotes they should be adjusted so they are on a like for like basis and checked/adjusted for omissions. Otherwise it's impossible to compare them.

You might recall that the government wanted to exempt developments of less than 10 houses but were challenged in court and lost. According to the Law Report in today's The Times the government has won its appeal. So if you are about to pay or sign an S106 affordable housing contribution perhaps worth holding off for awhile. More on this when I get back to my PC. I can't type much on this pesky tablet.

Hi Folks, New forum looks good. In theory we finished our self build in 2007 but one day it really will be finished. Regards Colin Watters (aka Temp).