redtop

please send us a photo of the wall painted with a FFL line. Then if its higher than the builder expected because they added up wrong a simple extra block course and some thicker insulation will easily make up the difference

our house will be less than £1000m2. its 165m sq, so 165K budget. So far spent £25k on groundworks, £22k on steel, £7k on concrete pile caps, £7k on services and house to watertight is £80k. so around 19k left for 1st fix, 2nd fix, bathrooms, kitchen, doors, flooring, etc. I have informed the wife we don't actually need doors, electrics, flooring, a kitchen and can use a portaloo to make sure we come within budget. Not going well ? . Seriously, it will end up costing around £250k ish when complete which, given the extensive groundworks and piling foundations that were needed, will be fine. And yes this thread is going nowhere

well I guess I am in the minority; of one ? but when our groundworker sent me his quote, first thing I did was check price of materials. and they were spot on and he even provided the material receipts when the job was done. No markup at all. I did pay what I felt was a fair days wage (I didn't 'barter' it was his standard rate). surely that's good open honest trading. Our timber guy is doing exactly the same. And yes I pay for their time to get the materials ordered, etc, but that's fine. Jus seems like good business to me; adding on 20% to cost of materials and lying to the customer by saying that's the price paid don't seem right

I agree absolutely with the last 2 posts, the time and effort in getting material costs is significant, and fitting other peoples stuff is often a nightmare. Even if it fits it can be crap quality and make a good job bad. We do quotes all the time and have to show a handling fee on top of product costs. Or work out the overheads in negotiating supplies and add it into the day rate. Saying something cost X and it actually cost Y is a lie and doesn't do the industry any favours

yep very common practice, and also wrong and probably illegal (well it should be if it isn't). I would expect a builder to negotiate better prices than I can; that's fine but getting a product price of £1 and then telling me its costing £1.50 is fraud. tell me its a quid and then charge more for labour. and if that makes the labour look expensive that's another matter but this practice of lying about the cost of materials is shocking.

we need welfare facilities for the foundations, so toilet and somewhere to get out of the rain / make a brew which seems fair. Much easier to sort if you have services on site as you can just throw up a temp shed, plumb a toilet into the sewer and use electric for kettle / light. We even threw in a 4G wifi; keep the workers happy and they are more likely to stay around on the days when the weather is c**p I would be getting services in as early as possible TBH

150X47 means they fit on the steels perfectly and C24 because its stronger than C16 :-) i didnt need to go to C24 but all the way through we have over specified a bit. I view it the same way as insulation, we could go with the min to meet BC but as its our own we want better; same with the main structure.

Not an expert at all... so here goes:- we have a piled foundation, steel posts on top and then steel substructure and steel on 1st floor and roof for a stick build timber frame. The SE designed all this (from pile loads upwards) although i stated the timber size (C24 150X47 for the main frame) and insulation (build method) i wanted; he then ensured it would work, specced the ijoists, etc, and provided the documents to BC. I have to say that, other than pile loads, i havnt seen any calculations although i guess they could have been sent and i just havnt seen a copy. We are using Stroma for BC; only feedback was to do with fire regs and wanting to see a copy of the actual pile tests (i guess torsion something or other) once inserted into the ground).

that would be an expensive option as would have to get a trade in, ime not cutting that thick a wall :-)

taking comments above, how about:- nice timber post on the end, fit a sacrificial bit of wood at the back, bridging gap between post and existing wall (wouldn't be seen when finished) and then gradually fill gap with render

oh and no i didnt do the cutting :-)

just need to tidy up the end of the wall in the pic below, easiest way please :-)

its an old BS probably there from a cut and paste from previous jobs. I have loads of them and would just ignore it

just reading through the replies it looks to me like you have two choices; 1. decide to try and keep him happy and restrict work hours accordingly. 2. decide he's wrong and work on as you want but be ready to restrict hours if you get a letter. SO if you take the latter approach prob best to do the work as quick as possible, by the time you get the letter you will be done :-) Interestingly we had a restriction on construction traffic to Oct to Mar only, due to being in a holiday area. But i wanted to get groundworks done so i could get straight onto foundations beg of Oct. I took a risk, spoke to all neighbors, got everyone on board and managed to get groundworks done quickly without a complaint. Had to buy landlady a drink as wagons were parked outside her pub. If i had received a council visit i would have said it wasnt construction as it was groundworks; i would have probably lost the argument but just was hoping work would be done before anyone complained lol. Anyhow, got away with it and actually locals would rather the 'dirty' work was done when the weather was dry to avoid mud running down the road (tarmac on entrance drive going in this weekend). Also we have done the entrance way first so the rest of the work will be further back in the site away from public view. Still it can spoil an otherwise good day when someone complains, i try to not let it bother me but it does

just sorting the bits for our temp supply, did it all in MDPE but havnt ordered a stop cock as i figured it was only feeding a tap so why would i need a stop cock. or am i missing something :-) oh our feed is 32mm so i have gone for mdpe 32mm double check valve, mdpe 32mm to 25mm reducer, mdpe 25mm to 3/4" wall plate / tap (with check valve built in)

well solicitors are my 'pain' at the moment. Just at the vinegar stroke of getting the mortgage to start the build (we have bought the plot, have planning & BC and groundworks done) and it got stopped this morning as we dont have vehicle access to the plot. Charged me a load of money for an extensive highways search that is a screenshot of the cornwall online highways map... And the lack of vehicle access is because the last 20 metres of road is in fact a footpath. Well it looks like a road, and 7 properties use it to access their houses, and we have to connect a drive and car port to the 'path' for planning. And the council re-surfaced it 2 years ago and has gas, electric and water under it.... Oh and we have it in the deeds that we can drive over any designated paths, roads, etc to access the site. Which of course means nothing if its a path, but its definitely a road. Oh and just past our access is access to the next property's drive which has been there well over 50 years and then after that there is a bollard so the path actually becomes a path. madness

UFH is very very common for timber frame houses; however you do it architect is talking nonsense

just gone through this, as above re SAP only major dif was the requirement for prices wasnt as bad as some; we had quotes for foundations, steels and main structure but didnt need any QS or anything signing by architect; just a detailed excel costing doc i produced

extended period for us is probably 6 to 9 months max, possibly towards the lower end of that. food for thought

cheers, will look into it :-)

rent or buy? We will need it for an extended period as house build will take several months. Also access is a bugger, so i can easily take it onto site in bits, erect, get some more, etc. I appreciate insurance might be an issue but we are using local tradesman and i dont think they will give a monkeys TBH. If we do buy any recommendations on what system to go for?

yep, access road is a tad over 6ft wide and very steep. all materials on a wagon park at bottom and groundworks team use 3T dumper to shift the 800M up and down the hill onto the site. Have to say they have been brilliant though, based in Liskeard cornwall if anyone wants their details. They will be on site for another couple of weeks, will then have water, sewage, turnign head, access road tarmaced and terracing complete. They also dug out the turning head, before and after photos .... They have done more on turning head since these photos

some pics from the terraces (yes you need level ground to put in pile foundations used for sloping sites....), access track and trench for water. Whole wood is our land, metal fencing is just to protect trees from damage. In looe, 800M to beach :-) Oh one pic is from land before diggers arrived lol

i have looked into this loads and think you are being massively overcharged. Lots of online guides on how to do a perc test yourself (dig away or get digger / driver for a day for a few hundred quid) then pay a few quid and use a tool (I paid for one from 'yourspreasheets.co.' others are available :-) ) This takes the data and calculates the size required. Submit the output to thames water for their approval. The other option, dep on roof size, is to use more than one soakaway; if the roof size being drained is less than 100m sq then perc test isnt usually required and the calculation is very simple. Have to say for ours the architect just put 1m cubed soakaway and BC / water authority didnt bother questioning it. And having done the calcs we need one closer to 3m cubed...