kandgmitchell

No apologies needed. As self builders sometimes the pressure of managing everything just gets too much and when things go wrong it's usually our closest that bear the brunt. I recall a renovation where we had sunk everything we had into it and needed it finished desperately in order to sell it before we ran out of money just for day to day living. Our 10 year old had got used to coming to site with us most weekends as we scrabbled to get done. I gave her the job of painting a short length of cast iron downpipe with some black gloss. She did ok with that but didn't put the lid back on the tin. I picked up the dust sheet without noticing and poured black gloss all over the indian sandstone patio that had been freshly laid only a couple of weeks before. I do admit to ranting excessively, not directly at her but just how unfair life, god, the world and everything was. It was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. Later that day, having dropped her back home and returned to site, her elder brother rang to say he couldn't find her in the house. A frantic search all over the village ensued to no avail. As we widened the search with the help of neighbours and decided to alert the police, a call came in from a nice lady in Cambridge who had found her wandering the streets. It seems she had packed a bag (including an OS map for reference!), boarded a train (unmanned village station) and traveled a few stops into Cambridge with the intention of going to her aunt's house. She had got upset and thought all the problems were her fault. Boy did that bring home the important things in life and certainly gave me a new perspective. We never let ourselves get into that situation again and despite many a frustration over the years you just have to press on through it - worse things happen at sea!

I think any of us that have needed to employ "tradesmen" feel your pain. From the plumber that apparently had to deal with an "emergency" on his way to our site virtually everyday so he only turned up just before lunchtime, to the heating engineer who's "early next week" actually meant Thursday afternoon with no time to finish before their next "important job" on Monday (and ours obviously wasn't). It happens project after project, tilers, electricians, plasterers..... Sometimes though you get a diamond among the rough, the guy who turns up on the day as promised, is a pleasure to work with and stays until an excellent job is done. When that happens it makes you realise that there are decent tradesmen out there so don't give up!

Oh and to add - for every non-compliant detail that was missed by a BCO there was an incompetent builder or designer that actually did the work!

I'm not sure there was widespread dishonesty rather than widespread variation in expertise. The registration process is meant to try and drive up standards and in reaction to Grenfell (and be honest some of this may be political with a small p) something needed to be seen to be done.

Couldn't you do this with the "temporary" supply i.e get it into a kiosk where the meter and isolator would live and then take your own cable in a duct to the CU. The digging would be down to you then. Our supply to the static caravan went into a kiosk with the meter etc then the new build had it's supply taken to it. The kiosk now sits among the raised vegetable beds behind the greenhouse out of sight. Paid UKPN the once (and that was enough).

It's out of date as building inspectors have to be registered and it's an offence to call yourself one and not be registered. Given the potential for criminal action being taken against inspector as per: Criminal offences Criminal offences include: giving advice or acting outside the scope of your registration deliberately doing anything that implies work is within scope of your registration, when it is not acting as or implying that you are an RBI, without being registered obstructing, deceiving or impersonating an authorised BSR officer giving false or misleading information to BSR failing to provide information as requested by an authorised BSR officer If your registration is suspended it is a criminal offence to: carry out restricted activities give advice relating to restricted activities deliberately do anything to imply your registration is not suspended If there is evidence you have committed a criminal offence, you may be prosecuted. I'd say the chances of getting lots of advice from a BI are getting slimmer. Not sure many other construction professionals are under such constraints.

A decent BCO whether public or private ought to be able to point out any objections they have to a detail which should then allow the designer to adjust that detail to bring into compliance. I'd find it surprising that they would simply say "no". The main issue of many LA's is simply lack of staff, when we built 2 years ago I used the LA for the sewer connection back into the site. The guy was helpful but pointed out there was just him full time and two part time contract staff to cover a huge mainly rural area. I used private BC for the house....

I'm not up to speed with Scottish law but here you are unlikely to get recourse from any BC provider LA or private. Murphy vs Brentwood 1991 effectively blocked actions against LA building control and the later Zagora vs Zurich Building Control Services Ltd 2019 along with Herons Court vs NHBC Building Control Services Ltd in 2018 made any successful action against private inspectors almost impossible. You have to remember the inspectors job is to check the building complies with the law. It's not to advise you how to build. Of course you get helpful inspectors and others that are not, in the same way police officers differ in their approaches to the public. I'm not sure calling what is now a pretty highly regulated profession that involves criminal sanctions against those not properly registered, as well as having a publicly available list of persons entitled to be "building inspectors", a "gimmic". Please correct me if I'm wrong but the only other construction professionals that have to be registered by law are architects.

Thanks for that advice. I was just wanting to run cables through the floor void (my time is free for the fiddly bits) and leave either end for an electrician to deal with. From what you and Nick suggest, since I have the cable I'll run a pair of twin 6mm from the CU location to the kitchen along with a 10mm earth for the water pipe. Since the CU is being changed each can have their own location on it. I can then terminate those main cables in positions above the worktop for isolators to be installed for onward connection to an accessible outlet in the cabinets below. This leaves the existing ( and checked) ring main in the kitchen as is.

Yes I'd allowed for a CU upgrade in the budget and of course part of being prepared is asking the questions before doing the job......

Well that's a result and goes to show how inconsistent regulation can be. We supplied a statement by the plumber that he had tested the drains upon completing the works to building control and that was accepted. Could you try the same with your warranty provider. Plugging the top end of an installed svp when all the scaffolding has gone is a real pain.

Our daughter is moving into a Edwardian terraced "do'er upper" shortly. It has a kitchen but it's a poorly assembled bunch of cheap units with previously a gas cooker. We want to tidy it up and install an electric hob and oven I acquired 2nd hand locally, hardly used. The electrical inspection revealed that the mains lead water pipe isn't earthed and I can see there are only a few ring main sockets, no oven outlet or the like. The mains incomer is adjacent the front door so I've got to run cables from there right through the house to the back kitchen to feed the new oven and hob plus an earth cable for the lead pipe (it'll be mdpe eventually but I'm older now and these things take time). Now I can run these myself which allows us to get some carpets down on the first floor leaving a sparks to do the work either end. I have enough 4mm earth cable and a cable with twin 6mm + 2.5 conductors, left over from my own house build for this. However are these sufficient? The oven draws a max 2.3kW and the hob 4.8kW - 5.8kW according to the instructions. Thanks

Not having an EV mine's switched off at the board just to make sure a "visitor" doesn't charge whilst we are on holiday!

Ah, they have that covered too. If your planning permission switches on additional requirements in Part M - access for the disabled M4(3) requires space for a lift to be installed and/or dedicated sockets for a potential stair lift. Originally the building regulations set a basic standard for health and safety of persons within and around the building. Most people could see the sense in requiring properly built buildings that were structurally safe, weathertight with decent drainage. Then conserving energy was added, then electrical safety, and then it all went to pot when internet connectivity, electric car charging etc were added. By then the original purpose of the regulations had been subsumed into using them to carry out policy decisions of the government of the day.

Have a look at Requirement G3 - they've even got you needing to provide hot water despite always washing in cold! G3. (1) There must be a suitable installation for the provision of heated wholesome water or heated softened wholesome water to: (a) any washbasin or bidet provided in or adjacent to a room containing a sanitary convenience; (b) any washbasin, bidet, fixed bath and shower in a bathroom; and (c) any sink provided in any area where food is prepared. Whatever next!