Canski

@ToughButterCupI've just been reading through your experiences. You have had a tough time. I think I may stop thinking that I'm almost there and resign myself to another year of Wer shreibt der bleibt. The system is designed to cause maximum delays and costs to the developer / self builder. It boils my wee wee. Since covid I feel that everybody has took their foot off the gas and all organisations have become so inefficient at the cost of the tax payer and service user. I should have retired when I had the chance. In my next life I will be an ecologist.

But it’s the council holding things up now not Batman and Robbing.

I'm at £4500 inc Vat now. PEA and bat roost survey £780 4 surveys through the year @ £870 each = £3480 Putting a sheet in my loft and forgetting to close the hatch leading to the death of several starlings £240. Oh and I couldn't get planning until these are complete or the councils environmental officer would have had it thrown out. Now I await my section 106 agreement. 4 weeks and counting. When I get that I can apply for a bat mitigation licence a cost of around £2100. I'm sure they want to push me into another season of bat surveys. I'm not sure how I react to that if it happens.

Sounds iffy to me unless you have a structural warranty company that is not on Halifax’s list.

I’ve watched many of oakwoods videos and he works pretty sleek and efficiently. I’d go with his threaded rod sysrem. I see no flaws in that. In a recent video he said it had worked out 70% cheaper than ground screws. Having said that I just poured strip foundations today for a 5.5 x 3.5 m garden room. I had the luxury of a digger on site though. I know I shouldn’t have poured concrete today but it just turned up. 😀

and providing a cavity tray to this area is recommended

I'm just getting through with 100 mm thermalite, 125 mm beads blown in and 102 mm facework this is on the new regs.

did you rip up a laminate floor ? If you did what are you going to replace it with ?

5 inch for a 3.5 m span ? I’d go 175. Oops edit. I thought it was going to be a flat roof then saw ridge timber. What roof are you putting on it ?

No Whychavon.

I agree with Russell, It could be a long process getting rid of leaves and snow if it comes down. You could always cut the DPM to length ready to throw in and fold it up somewhere warm.

Were you dressed as a cat ? 🙂

A good days work that. Get up to wall plate then put the roof on. The rafters will give you a guide as to where you need to cut the blocks to.

I had a very depressing conversation with a demolition contractor yesterday, who informed me that it took 3 to 4 months for him to get his section 106 agreement passed through. It was with the same council as the one I am waiting for. I hope I'm luckier than him.

No point in worrying about the one cat. All cats are attracted to newly laid concrete / screed. One of them will get it. A couple of years ago I had just finished raising a wall to convert french doors into a window. Mixer washed out and loaded into the van and tools cleaned and loaded when the customer returned and their Dalmatian charged up the stairs and tried to jump through the new opening. The clumsy bugger knocked the wall down and everything had to come back out.

If my section 106 doesn't get sorted before May I'll be well over that before I'm finished.

Actually they wanted to send my bat poop off for DNA analysis to determine the species of bat but chose the £200 option of putting a sheet in the loft for me. Then failed to close the loft hatch which led to starlings entering the house form the roof and becoming trapped and dying. I am saving this fact and the date stamped photos as my 'big bill for bat licence submission' mitigation.

I’d do the top one

I paid 750 plus vat for 4 surveys. Plus 700 for an initial ecology survey. I was there for the duration of the first three. Three of which they found nothing but they did invent a swift entering the property which didn’t happen. I know cos I was there. They wanted a late season survey at the end of august and after removing his sheet from the loft that was clear of droppings he resigned himself to thinking that there were no bats and it had all been a waste of time. Feeling somewhat relieved I headed for the pub it was while I was gone that they spotted all the bats. It’s bullshit. Now I need a bat licence at a cost of 3 - 4 k my advice is don’t leave them there on their own.

On site we nearly always offload them with the telehandler and arrange for a crane to come afterwards. No point in having a crane standing waiting for a missing delivery.

£600 down this morning to the Principal planning solicitor. Madness but necessary.

I'm just going through this process with a section 106 agreement forcing me to pay money for affordable housing. I see no way out of it so have agreed to pay. The problem is the delays they are causing by failing to issue the document for my solicitor to check. I have been warned by my planning consultant that I will have to pay in the region of £750 to the council solicitors to process this. Daylight robbery but no 106 no planning.

I’d very much doubt that Bellway mix mortar on site unless it is in a silo so most likely not a difference in mortar mix. I would think that the ‘white’ bit was caught in a heavy shower. Why not ask bellway if the next time they have brick cleaners on site if they could give your gable end another once over.

What are the details ? I charge extra for any detailed work and that tends to make up the money and to be fair this is where good bricklayers who are good with detailed work earn good money. the last thing you really want is bricklayers on daywork through the winter. I quite expect to lose many days work through bad weather and I don’t expect to get paid for a minute that I’m not there and nor do the lads that work for me.