Conor

There's a fair bit of time pressure actually as the thing is fully visible from the road and we're using it to screen the garden from the road. I'd be aiming to get the frame and cladding done over the Easter break, so 3 or 5 days. Hiring does make more sense and I can't see myself really needing it again. £45 for a long weekend hire, makes lots more sense than £300 for a new machine that I might never use again. https://www.balloohire.com/product/equipment-hire/finishing-nail-gun

Watched a video where you basically build a 4x2/3x2 frame all around the container, with bolts at the corners through the lifting eyes into ply board blocks so you don't fix through the container at any point. I'll be fixing into 3x2s at 600mm centres, horizontally. (Instead of the domino clamps which are £80 a pop, I'll be making my own out of treaded rods and routered wooden blocks.) I'm also planning a GRP roof with sedum on top, with large overhang on one side for a potting area. That side will also have a living wall.

thanks Russel. Hadn't considered nail finish, but happy would be happy with lost /part buried head rather than having a head on display.

I'm planning on cladding my shipping container with an alternating widths mix of 25mm thick softwood. I'll have thousands of fixing pints, don't fancy doing that with the impact driver. What kind of nail gun would be best for that and also things like fence panels, decking etc? I've a Makita collection but don't see anything suitable in their range. Something like this gasless first fix gun work? https://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/dewalt-dcn692n-xj-18v-xr-brushless-1st-fix-framing-nailer-body-only?srsltid=AfmBOoqwQGfkNGoyVZQk24KRdVQDvKzm6mnDr2idh6UWV_EFg9j5tvRijTY

Just don't over twist or kink them. Or over tighten. They usually have rubber o-rings and don't need much more than hand tight.

My mate owns and runs a ground works company. His mates rate for him and his machine and accessories is £55/HR. Worth it. I do some diggering, and I'm planning doing some grading, garden wall founds, and landscaping next week. Will be about the fourth time I've hired a machine for a week or so. You do get the hang of the basics pretty quickly, like skiing, but I'm not tackling a black run any time soon. He can do at least twice the work I could do in a day, and far higher standard. Same as any trade really.

You really want the company supplying the door to do the measurement. It can't be that hard, fairly standard in the industry. Doesn't matter who then fits it, just make sure the supplier takes the liability of measuring.

The 15mm pipework and stop tap on the incoming supply will be a bit of a bottleneck. I'd replace the old lead pipe, probably encrusted and causing a fair bit of friction. Check your water suppliers policy, it should be free on the site if you replace yours ast far as the boundary.

That's the size we used, and the tiler used the same adhesive as the rest of the job, same for spacers etc. didn't see him do anything special. Apart from rip two of them down after we spotted the colours were different from the rest of the batch. Made his day 😂

Nice. All that south facing glazing is going to cause overheating galore in the summer. Its about the same as we have so I know all about it!

I feel your anguish. After nicking a pipe with a grinder while making room for a shower tray, I decided to leave it. It was pressurised, pipe didn't swell or leak. Though if it ever did leak I'd just isolate and forget about it... Only a small WC that has a towel rad anyway. However... That's significant damage. The aluminium layer is there as a gas barrier and will degrade now it's exposed. Aluminium and cement do not like eachother.

Sunamp is a heat battery, based on phase change material, but it's still essentially a large mass that is heated by electric wires. You can just use a solar diverter on your existing tanks - assuming that the immersion element is at the bottom of the cylinder. You don't need 3.6pkW, likes of an Eddi diverter can work with a couple hundred Watts. Resistive heating is resistive heating, no matter what the packaging or sales pitch is. For heating when not sunny, you can time the tank to be heated on off-peak electric. Will be less efficient (higher standing loses) than a sunamp, but how long would it take to make up the difference based on the cost of three sunamps?!

These kind of meter boxes often have a removable tool to turn them on or off. Deep down, on the supply side of the meter, there will be a small hex, slot or square shaped fitting that is the top of the valve. Get a torch and have a look down there.

BCO was happy with my own spreadsheet showing flow rates.

We successfully claimed our extraction hob. No questions.

Change the 90⁰ bend for a long radius rest bend.

Have you ever observed this moisture when it's been cold and dry? Like the other week during that cold snap.

The dimpled surface is the part that sits on the mould. The white patch area is where water settled during the casting process. The top surface is smooth. If the pavers are just set on compacted sand, fairly simple to lift and flip over.

Same as @cwr, I asked our BCOnround for a pre final inspection walkover. Pointed out the things hat he'd want to see finalise before his inspection. Really useful and helpful was more than happy to do it and commented that he'd like to see it more often... Lots of time wasted on inspections with things that should have been sorted before hand. In the end, only a handful of issues that once sorted, a few photos emailed over were enough to get the final cert.

Fyi aluclad PVC is about half the price of aluclad timber (internorm)

Hire somebody. I got 5x 180mm holes drilled through 200mm RC for £250.

Doors might be a small % overall, but in the spaces they are located, they can be the dominant factor. E.g. in our entrance hall, 90% of the external facing structure is a door + side light. We went for the highest spec door we available in our budget, and it's something like u0.8. In super cold weather, the outside face frosts up and inside the hall is just as warm as the rest of the house.

If you have FPP, a self build mortgage provider will lend based on the theoretical final value, and release funds based on current value of the plot. So say 80% of £350k is £280k. Draw that down, build to the next substantial phase, get another valuation, draw down again. Ultimately all depends on you meeting the lender's requirements. I recommend Ecology, it's who we used, and this is how we managed the funding of our build. How big a house are you planning? £300k for everything from design to finish isn't much these days unfortunately. Depending on where you are, budget a min of £2k/m2.

Ducting is not needed.

No, just a high density insualtion that will give you decent U value for the thickness and allow you to put loading directly on it. More used for door blocks etc. I'm not aware of the exact detail you need to build but sounds like under the 125mm build up needs to have an air gap?