Big Jimbo

Yeah, you are bloody late Joe90. Where were you last night when we were having fun. I don't want to put you on the tart list with Pocster...

I'm with you. Lifting them, extending the forks, and waiting for the tip would not be my idea of fun,

And if you catch any thieving scum, dont do what my mate did, which was, detain them (several hours) Torture them ( to the point where they emptied their bowel.) Unfortunately, that got him 6 years inside, and he had to pay compensation to said scum. Although, as the cops said. They thought that said scum would probably look for a change of career.

Bloody hell fella. That is the nearest place to my Daughter. It's where she goes for her takaway Chinese. She is in Wistow.

12mm entrance door is not going to cut it. Thieving scum will get in through anything if they want to. get either a cheap external door, or a second hand one, and put 12mm ply on either side. Make up a frame from 4 x 2 etc and fit the damn thing properly. Hinge bolts, Two 5 lever locks. One a third from the top, and One a third from the bottom. Think about a cheapish solar alarm, which will come with a couple of pir's and a couple of door contacts. The pir's can be fitted on a couple of planks and rested against the wall, and moved around. Put some alarm stickers around the place, and make sure One is on the front door. None of this will stop somebody who wants to get in, but it will help. One last thing. Make sure that you regularly set the alarm off during the day when the workers are there. Make sure anybody who comes to site knows that the place is alarmed. Early morning delivery. "Won't be a min fella, just got to get the alarm switched off. I am a firm believer that a lot of site nicking is done by somebody who knows somebody. Go to all the nearish neighbours, and tell them the place is alarmed. Give them your phone number, so if it goes off in the night, they can contact you. That way, with a bit of luck, any teenage kids will get to know that the place is alarmed from the parents. Tell the local Old Bill, and ask them to keep an eye on the place when driving by etc. It all helps.

PS Do you think ETC will ever be my pal ?? Night Night.

Fair play Adsibob. There are always worse things going on in the world. I'm glad that between us we managed to get a smile out of you. Now, i'm off to bed. I need to be up in the morning to catch the news, and Etc's appointment by Boris being announced. Try and sit down with your builder. Go for the disarm. tell him that spending all your money is making you worry, and that your sure he will understand. He does this stuff everyday, but you don't , and you just want to try and get it to be as good as possible. Also, be the bigger man and apologise for your engineer taking so bloody long to sort out a simple drawing....... You might just be able to sort it out. About 25 years ago, i had to blow up at a contractor on site. He tried to throw the race card at me saying i was picking on him because he was Black. I told him that i had no problem or interest in what colour he was, just a problem with his shite work. 25 years later, and i can actually call him one of my pals.

It beats comic relief, although i can't stand her, i did think Divina looks quite hot tonight.

You can take what you want off the rack. I will still take you to task for saying that trial holes are never done, and rarer than hens teeth.

Faz. I don't know why, but i thought you were London based ? I can see Green in the background. Where are you, and are you moonlighting ?

adisbob. that took some typing..... so to get the height you wanted, But to stay under your planning restriction height, you are going to sink your new extension down, and perhaps have a step or some steps down from your existing floor level. When done well that can look great. Especially, when they are nice and wide imo. Good luck with the rest of your build......

EXACTLY.........

Adisbob. Only you can decide if you want to keep your existing builder or not. You will, i have no doubt be aware that you may have to delay, will have to pay more (builders hate taking on other peoples unfinished work) It is very busy out there, and you may even stuggle to get a decent builder to quote you. I'm sure you will be aware, that if they can start "in the morning" they will prob be shite. Your call. Your engineer however needs a massive kick in the arse.

And can we just ask if you consider that this guy has got a good engineer ? £100 and a mornings work for a trial hole..... Are you really trying to say that you think a good engineer, or even a pretty shit one ain't going to say "Im putting a shite load of extra stresses and load on the existing foundations. I'd better find out what the fudge they are" So according to your expert opinion Adisbob had no way of knowing if his existing footings could take the new loadings, and no way of finding out. So poor old adisbob, had a fab new extension designed and priced up by a builder. It's £200k, all the money he has got, but it will give him the house he has always wanted. The building work gets underway, the patio is ripped up, the rear roof removed, lots of pockets cut into the existing rear wall to take some fancy new steels etc. The building inspector pops along and sees that there is a lot of load being applied to the existing rear wall, and subsequently say to the builder, " Has the SE calculated the loadings on the existing foundations" Oh shite, everybody says. A short while later.....Shite some underpining needed to take the extra load. Adisbob, says to the builder " How much for my underpining fella" £15 k says the builder. But i aint got £15k !!!!! Well you should have had a £100 trial hole dug. Did the engineer not suggest that..........

News flash...Etc has been appointed to run a major new infastructure project for the Gov. It's not quite finished yet. It's 22 years over the expected timeframe, and we are on the 782nd set of contractors, but it won't be long. Oh, and the budget. Yeah, we won't mention that.

Yeah, but it took him that long because he is a top engineer, so obviously he is very, very busy....... Busy doing calculations for adding tons of extra loadings to some existing foundations without having a clue if they can take the additional loadings....You could'nt make it up.

Etc. Your not a contracts manager by any chance are you ? People who have worked in the real world, on site, with tool, have all met plenty of them over the years.?

So, it's the builders fault that nobody bothered to check that the existing footings could take the new loadings ? That's the best laugh i've had all night.

No, your not going mad Adsibob. You are just trying to get your building work done so that you can move on with your life, and you are finding the process stressful. That is understandable. Sometime however, you do need to take a step back. Your builder might be great or poor. A great guy, or a pain in the butt. But the people who i would be super pissed off with is the architect, and the engineer. Jeez, if you are going to do alterations to a building that is going to put more stress on the existing foundations, You check out if the existing foundations will be man enough to take the new stress and loadings. That really is basic stuff i'm afraid. If neither of them flagged that, then i would be putting both of their business cards in the filing cabinet in the "Shite, don't use again" You should be sending a couple of right arsey emails to those two chancers.

OP. your architect designed an extension to your property. He is a professional. Is he any good ? I mean he designed a structure that was going to put an extra load on your foundations. Did he flag that up with you ? Your architect then passed the drawings onto his engineer mate. He is a professional. Is he any good ?. I mean he could clearly see that the new stucture was going to put additional loadings onto your existing footings. Did he flag that up with you ? Your builder messed up a ceiling height. His fault. He put it right. Have i got that bit correct ? You seem to be looking to blame the wrong person here. What do you think ?

Well said Tony T. .....Take the easy route and blame the builder. Always the same.

Adsibob. You want some extra work done. Underpining. So give some thought to the fact that your builder is now going to advise his next client that he will be late starting (That could have been You) Because you, and your engineer did'nt investigate the existing foundations you have now found out that you need additional work. That's hardly your builders fault is it ? However, that f up may now affect his work schedule for the rest of the year. So we could lay the blame with you or your engineer could'nt we ? However, if between you, you are able to work more as a team, you are going to get a better result. I'm sorry, but the only people that need to get on site is your engineer and your builder. No need for a tea party. Get it sorted and move on. If you want to get on with your builder, deal with the problem quickly. Involving only the people that need to be there. Go out and buy him a case of beer, and apologise for the extra work, and tell him that you understand that this might cause him problems with his work schedule going forward with his other clients.

If your engineer is localish, might also be worth asking him if he knows any local contactors

I have worked as a site manager, on several expensive new builds of £2 million +...... It's difficult. One the One hand you need to keep things moving along, and i'm telling you now, you can have all the drawings in the world (I've had over 400 for a 4000sq ft house). At some point, on a practical level the drawings just won't work with the actual building taking place. The skill is the speed at getting it sorted quickly. Hold-ups cost money. I did Two houses in 2014. If i had had to refer back to the Client, Architect, Engineer everytime somebody waved a bit of paper at me, and said this don't work, I'd still bloody be there. I looked at a job for the Saudi Royal Family, and just at the quote stage i realised that every single time there was the slightest issue,it would have to be held untill the weekly site meeting, so that everybody could sit around and debate it. I knew that this would end up costing the client money, and me money. I'm not saying you are wrong, but wanting to discuss everything with the whole team, builder, architect, engineeer, interior designer, etc, etc, will be costing your builder money, because it's all a delay to his schedule. If he tells his guys not to come in for a few days, he still has to pay them. If he is organising any sub contractors, he will have to advise them that the site won't be ready for when he has them booked. There is then the risk that when he wants them they won't be available. From the sound of your post, you are having to get some underpining done. Get your engineer to get his butt to site pronto and talk it through with the builder. What is the architect going to bring to the party ? Another nice bill for you, that's all. builders build and engineers make sure it won't fall down. When your builder says to you, that detail, in that corner, don't work, but i can do it like this is that ok ? Be ready to make an instant decision, so that he can get on, and you can get your project finished. Listen, i'm not saying your builder is perfect. I'm just saying that it doubt it is all his fault

Cheers gang members. I did think so due to the size, but was not 100% sure.