Big Neil

For the bricks i guess it's probably a supply and demand issue. People want them enough so they can whack a decent markup and drive a decent car. The other guys there i suspect they are either contractors in which case they might not be overpaid as such simply that they have decent pay because of that, or they are company cars and people are paying through the nose for them as a result. For those 4X4 drivers though i suspect it's more of an indication that the industries in which they work, which are essential to the trade, are grossly mismanaged in financial and moral terms

I'm sure it's a naive question, but why not just cut the board? I see examples of people cutting the board all the time. Is it simply a question of wastage?

righteeeo - time then. Ta..

@nod. What do you me by collated magazines? All I know of collated screw guns is seeing review videos where there is a collated attachment with a belt of screws fed from below. Is that what you you mean. When i hear mag i just think of guns.

+1 as i had no idea this was the way it was fone. Are the 'centres' in a stud wall regulated or can you essentially do what you like so long s structure isn't an issue for you? This being the case, why not just have 400 or 600 spacing 'between' studs instead of measuring to the centres?

I certainly wouldn't have any compunction about doing that if the plan I liked belonged to a volume housebuilder. I was thinking more about self builders like many of the people on here. I did see a design from someone one here although I forget whose it was, which subsequently served as the inspiration for a sketch of mine. Now in that case i seem to remember it was a massive chunk of a house so I couldn't have afforded to build it anyway. But I was interested to understand if it has been a situation anyone found themselves in. Did you do this yourself or get a technician to do it? what was the cost? This is certainly something I would want to avoid, but from a moral standpoint again, I would certainly want to pay for something if only in a notional sense, if someone else had gone to all the effort and expense.

I sent an Email to Abra-Ca-Debra pancaked back in December just to let them know that on a couple of packets of their pre-made pancakes, they were each missing one. I wasn't really bothered but the customer service lady said she'd send me a voucher. BONUS i thought - free pancakes. I forgot about this and then yesterday had an email saying they were sending out a package by courier, and this morning arrives 5 packets of them plus a couple of bags of the minis. Now I don't generally agree with large scale incentives - after all if you can afford to consider 80 grand on a Tesla you sure as shit don't need to take 4 grand (i know it's different now and it was once even higher) from battered women or abused kids - but if you're going to make people want to buy into a philosophy do what the pancake people did. Well, broadly speaking anyway. Realise the value of what you want then find a sustainable way to ensure it. In the case of making everything go electric/cutting out gas, bring back reasonable incentives for people installing their own solar/hydro/wind setups. Subsidise the cost of battery backups, etc etc But do it in a sustainable fashion, such as reasonmable assesment of where the resource should be spent.

I'll check out service voids later because I can't picture it other than fixing a load of maybe 30/100 timbers to the underside of a concrete floor one at a time. A polystyrene based system i suppose have mostly embedded supports for cross battening so is the same true with this method?

Some great instructional/technical videos on their site.

ahhhhhh - I'll take a look then, so it's integral to the system whereas with a system like that of Thermofloor of any concrete arrangement, you have to then put a substructure to be able to run those services and hang plasterboard?

It's not for long that I had been considering such a floor makeup myself. Why would it be that contractors don't like such an arrangement?

@Adam2, I myself like the idea of concrete because of the acoustic benefits, so i get why you would consider it. Not sure it it would fit your situation but have you considered the Thermofloor system from thermohouse. There are probably similar solutions. The thing that bothers me in terms of buildup which you wouldn't get with say posi joists, is the service void. Mind you, I guess it's swings and roundabouts. https://thermohouse.co.uk/thermofloor/

Along the lines of the original question, have any of us ever approached someone whose design (even if only floor-plan) they liked sufficiently, to negotiate copying it. Likewise has anyone ever had such an approach, and if so what cost did you agree on if anything and where there any special terms to the agreement? Obviously if you kept quiet and were somewhat morally flexible, you could do as you liked. It does seem however that there could be a cost benefit my not doing this and just being honest.

how long would i have to fart for with a mate holding a lighter near the exit, to boil a pan of brocolli?

There was one guy in Norfolk or Suffolk possibly who did the small timber framed place who came in around the 80k mark, but even then had some bits to do. Having spoken to the timber frame guys he used myself, It seems the frame was discounted by about two thirds as a bit of a deal to mention the company directly on the programme, so throw about another £25k on that and even he was over.

and absolutely ignore 99% of what goes on in 'The House that 100K Built'. They're never on budget, they never plan fully and they nearly always ignore the architects advice

I was fairly open minded but I never imagined there would be such an operational if not emotional bias towards Makita. I'm scanning their website at the moment and hadn't realised quite how huge a range of bits they had. I had them in my head as 'makita cordless power drill minus the battery pack'.

thanks @PeterW, I will read into them

Interesting. Maybe it's another American/British division. When looking at a lot of the instructional videos they seem to use them a lot over there. IN the same vane i've seem a lot more from this side of the pond where guys use those wind up platforms for holding boards in place on the ceiling while fixing, where I haven't seen so many over there.

How about collated screw guns - or screw guns with collated attachments. Seen a lot of reviews and where DeWalt is involved they seem to come out on top. I saw a Hilti review which described their offering as weighty but excellent.

Vielen Dank (bloody hope i got that one right and haven't just told you your mum's a goat!!)

Interesting to hear some good things about Makita. I will look at their product line more. I had wondered about DeWalt. I had wondered that as they are familied uyp with Stanley and Black and Decker, if that might be the way a distinction is made between low-middle-high end tools

I didn't google this time but have i remembered correctly this means something like either 'Function through design' or ' works through design'?

True this - just look at my posts. Most of them you'd probably think are stupid, but the reactions i've had to whatever i've asked, have usually pointed me in the right direction I'd echo this also. Plus you can add in an encyclopedic knowledge of the best curry houses and Kebab shops in the Colchester and Salford areas, should that ever be of use. I often come here just to scan various topics for inspiration and humour.

Do you find the Makita to be of decent Quality? I had one of their cordless drills for a while and it was certainly passable. I've not really used any recent DeWalt stuff, but what I have seems to be decent. I'd like to try some Milwaukee stuff as I 've heard good things about them.