Big Jimbo

Travis perkins are the biggest robbers out there in my opinion.

I made bespoke furniture for years. i would never use solid wood in a bathroom. It would either be mrMDF sprayed in any colour, or veneered MDF heavily lacquered, if they wanted a wood finish. Don't use solid wood.

Sensus. Sometimes you do just because you can. When we give away every bit of power we have left, we become sheep. I would never use the council's building control, always a private company. These days you would be hard pressed to find a council that has not farmed it out to a private company.

i have had several conversation with the enforcement teams on various projects over the years. If you do let him onto your land. (I never have, and have never had the old bill turn up with them) then they have no right whatsoever, to force entry, into your locked caravan/ mobile home to see if you are actually living in it. I would also ask them to sign a disclaimer that they accept responsibility for any accidents that may occur while they are on my land including my very hard to control large dog taking chunks out of them. The old bill won't enter my land either unless they suspect that a crime is, or has been committed. I'm standing at the gate, having a nice friendly chat. No breach of the peace here fella. You want to come in. Go and see the magistrate, and get yourself a warrant. Bye Bye. Remember, you get bullied, because you allow yourself to be bullied.

P.S. Do i hate councils. Yes. Do i think that most people who work for them are tossers . Yes. The above won't cost you a penny.

Don't all shout at me. There is another way, Live in your caravan/ mobile home on site. If/when you get a neighbour reporting you to the council, you might eventually get a guy wearing a woolly tie come to visit you (planning enforcement) Tell him very little, and don't let him on site. Tell him that you neither confirm, or deny that you are living on site. Then tell him to bugger off. If the neighbours continue to moan about you living on site the woolly tie geezer, might pop back after a month or so. Tell him to bugger off again. You might then get an enforcement notice. It will normally give you a couple of months to clear off site and take your caravan with you. Wait untill the two months is almost up, and then put in for an appeal against the enforcement notice. That will take about another 10 months or so, and when you lose the appeal the council will write to you several times over a period of a few months, and eventually they will write to tell you that they will take direct action to remove and bill you for the cost. During the passage of time, you will be finished your house to the point where you will have got sick of living in your caravan, and will be living in your house. Either get rid of the mobile, or write and advised the woolly tie fella that you are not living in your caravan, and that it will be staying parked on your land till your next holiday...... Bye bye council.

The above by Bouch is so true. If you gave my daughter a tractor manual and an evening, she would read it, and the next day without a manual, she would be able to strip the tractor, and rebuild it without any help. (I kid you not) I on the other hand would just rip it to bits, and then go and look for the manual.

Roz. If you were going to do it with soffit board you could prob get it in the same colour that you were going to paint your exposed rafter feet. Ie; if you were going to paint them black, then get black plastic 9mm soffit board to save you having to paint it to match.

The selt adhesive ali tape will do a good job for you.

Just a handsaw will cut that for you no prob.

Patrick, i'm going to watch that later. But i see that in the first 30 seconds, he said the words, Science, and Physics. I am going to have to stock up on chrisps, choc, and fizzy pop for later berore i tackle it.

That's the thing Joe90. Conversation makes you think. I would prefer to hear from anybody on here about real world "these screws, are great, always use em) When you go around any of the home build etc shows. Most of the people on the stands talk total Boll208s. Just telling you that they have the best product ever. A friend on another forum, some time ago had a big prob on his build. His engineer proposed a £30k get around. He put his problem to the forum, and one of the guys gave him an alternative. He put it to his engineer, who said yeah, you can do it like that. The fix cost £8k and the forum saved him £22k

basically, what Sensus had said above, is exactly what the BRE told me. They fried my brain, but i sat there noding etc, and looking like i understood. I think i got away with it.

My new build super (posh shed) is even going to have a warm roof Joe90

A few years ago, i was site manager on a couple of new builds of about 4000sq ft each for a client. It was something i had never done before, but asked to do it for a client. Basically, i made sure that everybody followed the drawings as best they could, and when there was an issue, gave them a quick response to enable work to continue. We had a local council building control officer, a giy from NHBC, and the clients own engineer, who was way worse than the other Two put together x 10. Both houses were built to be as airtight as they could be, and because i knew i would have to have a test at the end, i was super careful to follow the engineers drawings and detailed drawing as best i could. I can remember, that the houses were as airtight as possible, but they basically had a ventilated, cold, pitched roof on the top. The guy who did my airtests, said i was lucky, because i had made the houses almost too airtight, and that if his result had been any lower, it would have been a problem, and we would have had to introduce some ventilation to the houses. Sorry, i do ramble. 12 months later complaints had been recieved by each of the property owners that staining, and water was coming through the upstairs ceilings. I went to the houses with a couple of others, NHBC, developers engineer, roofing contractor, and me. When we went into the loft none of us could believe the amount of actual water, not just condensation, that was in the loft, sitting on the ceilings below. There were no water services or any mechanical stuff in the loft, and the roof was checked out by the roofer from outside, and inside (We got both properties scaffolded) The roof was 100% sound, and the roof ventilation was all as specked and in place, and not blocked. The NHBC guy, who i kept in touch with, told me that they were seeing the problem more, and more, on new build houses ! I think it eventually got solved bt adding in a considerable additional amount of ventilation in the room, and some sort of positive pressure fan attempted to continually push the damp air out of the loft. It seemed like a right bodge to me, but defo made me think about ventilation. Not that did me any good, as i dont have the brains of some on here.

Those pics show an area that is so tidy. I love it. You could always empty the contents of the hoover over the area to make a few of us feel better. Go on, i dare you.

Which is exactly why Screw piles should be used more often. Ie; good ground but lots of trees. My point is that down south,( where we always seem to have to pay through the nose) A screw pile at £1k each ! I was told that they cost less than £300 each to buy from the supplier. A contractor told me he could do all 20 of mine in one day. £14k gross profit !!!!!! for a day

I have always used lead sealant, i think that it will have a degree of flexibility that mortar will never have. I've never had a problem.

That's why this site is great. Thanks folks. I get it now. I think screw piles are great, no muck, etc. Its just a shame that they are no cheaper. I think given time, when they become more common the price will drop. In my case, i have good ground, but large, and lots of trees. I am being quoted £1k to bring the kit to site, and £1k a pile going down 7mt. The Piles are not that expensive, and screwing them into the ground can be done with a 3 ton digger and an attachment. Anybody fancy starting a screw pile company with me ?

I have only just picked up on this thread, so apols if i am being a plank. The OP said he was having screw piles. How does a passive slab like Harris and Stark have work with screw piles, or any sort of piles in that instance. I thought that the whole idea of piles was that the load being put on top, had to be spread. Ie: The piles are joined by being linked using a number of methods, for instance, concrete ring beam, steels etc ......How does a passive slab, eps, bit of metal and 4" on concrete link to the piles ??? I thought that with piles, you had to have some form of suspended floor, such as timber, block and beam, metal I beams etc. The whole idea is that the structure, walls, roof, floor, all have to bear on the piles. Please enlighten me, I'm not being a pain, i just dont get it.......

Metal roofing sheets seems like a good idea.

I am about to knock up a shed in timber. It's going to be about 3.5 x 4.5 . The Two short walls, and One long wall will be seen. However, One of the long walls will never be seen as it will be 1mt from the boundary, and between it and the boundary is Laurel hedging. I am going to build that side on the floor, and then stand it up. It is unlikely that i will be able to get much access to it after. My question is how to finish this unseen wall. It will be sterling board + whatever i put on it. I am thinking EPDM, or decent quality roofing felt..... Any other thoughts. Thanks in advance.

I think that the smaller ones look better, but it is only my personal opinion. I don't like to see quite as much motor between them so would put them a bit tighter.

Good idea. Try the pub.

How old is the place ? You may have no cavity tray above your window. Your cracked render is letting in water, pooling on the top of whatever lintle is above your window, working it's way through the inner blockwork and entering your bingalow. Pictures from inside and outside would really help.