Russell griffiths

Just wait for the taxman to find him, and Pimlico plumbers.

So I’ve had the wife sit down with a calculator and add up exactly what our planning consent has cost us if anybody is interested here it is. Topography survey. £546 ecology survey. £1065 ecology cemp. £1008 architect. £4462 hydrology. £1320 landscape architect. £640 planning consultant £4597 council fees. £385 model making. £88 photocopying. £22 total. £ 14134 there you go that’s a bit scary, I had anticipated this costing around 15grand, so I’ve come in under budget. Bloody hell, I’m going to go back to bed and cuddle my wallet as it’s still in shock. On the bright side our land has just increased in value by a large chunk.

I think from a previous thread you asked about an ally for neighbour access so is this like an end of terrace build or something similar if you put up some pics it may give people an easier understanding of your budget.

Are you trying to remove the sag from your roof ? Or just prevent it sagging anymore. If you want to remove the sag you will need to re,build it as it has taken 40 odd years to sag to the degree it has and trying to straighten it will be a non starter. This looks like a relatively easy fix by transferring the roof load directly down to the wall below BUT You need to make sure that the wall can take the load, look at what the wall sits on, if it is just built off the top of the floor boards then it is just a partition and should not really have any additional load placed on it. If it passes through the floor and continues down stairs then it can probably take some more additional loading. You need to do some poking around. Alternativly you can make up a truss type arrangement by adding a spreader tie with a vertical member from this. A spreader tie would be a timber probably a 4x2 that would run from side to side bolted to the rafters on either side, from this spreader tie you can run a vertical timber to prop under the ridge. As I said you will stop it sagging anymore but you won’t push it back up straight.

Bloody hell you lot are well dodgy i was thinking it may creep by 25mm we have no dodgy neighbours and the house is barely visible from anywhere. Thanks all i will crack on and wait for the proverbial to hit the fan.

I am of the JFDI type.

Sorry if this is a sore point being your family home, but have you considered knocking it down and re,building. Does it sit on a big plot, could you sell off a chunk of garden to raise funds for the refurbishment. Can you knock it down and build a pair sell one live in the other. Just thinking a bit out side the box.

So we now have planning consent approved, so nutting down the nitty grittyof how to build it, talking to a few different companies regarding the build method I think I’m going to use ICF talking to different ICF suppliers it seems if I can stick to a wall length that will marry in with one of their block sizes could save a bit of wastage and also a bit of work on site. So the question would be how picky are the planners going to be if for arguments sake my front flank wall grew by 30mm if this seems like a bit of a grey area how difficult would it be to go back to the planners with an amended drawing with this increase.

I fully agree with you on this but you don’t want to do it with the tree still there in leaf, trying to kill off that lot when it still has its leaf area, you will be on a loser. The amount of vigour that fig will have come the spring will be amazing, trying to kill it whilst it is still up will be hard you will need to find the cambium layer to a lot of the stems to allow sufficient herbicide to be drawn down into the root system. I personally would cut it down and use a product called an ECO-PLUG we install thousands of these a year and we provide a no quibble guarantee that if they don’t work we will come back and do it again, for free we have never in the last 4-5 years of using these had a call back, whereas all previous methods only provided hit and miss results. They are not cheap but good products never are. As for diesel i think you will find it is not systemic so will only kill localised tissue and not be drawn down into the root system.

I’m not sure why all the comments on killing these figs. You want to remove them, not leave them there but dead get them cut down and get the stumps either ground out, or grubbed out with an excavator, then you can treat any new growth that may come back with a herbicide. What is is the point of having a dead tree stood up in the air. And as for drilling holes and filling with diesel, that’s not exactly the most environmentally sound idea, ??

That lot is a lot to deal with but I don’t see it being the reason to abandon the project, it will take two things to put it right time and money are you planning on living here or are you having a tidy up to sell it on. If the house is in poor repair as you said it was, then that row of trees could be only a small percentage on your overall budget. As regards the cost it will be based a lot on access, can the tree blokes get a truck near to the trees so it is easy to remove the rubbish, can you get an excavator near them to grub out the stumps ? cutting them down is fairly easy it’s what you do to get it all clear and back to a reasonable finish that takes the time.

Do you mean network to find for example good trade people or who needs some foundation dig spoil and will cart it away free of charge? The chances of this would be like finding a unicorn ? however what you will find is a friendly farmer with an out of the way corner who will except your soil in exchange for a handful of bangers and mash. As long as it’s a smaller pile of bangers than you were going to give the muck away company then everyone’s a winner. Remember muckaway company, not skips, you are doing this big style professional not diy. Look at how the locals do it. Network as Ian said, it’s not what you know but who. Regarding materials, buy like a developer if you need 20 packs of bricks find out how many on a whole truck load direct, it may be 24 packs but cheaper than the 20 straight from the builders merchant. When you go in the builders merchant walk with a swagger as though you were brought up in one, lean on the counter and say morning guv, need to talk to the gaffer about a large order, do not wear tan loafers or say ok yar. Please exchange wording acording to your location

So my suggestion would be, wiggle your mouse a lot, wiggle it in the morning in the evening and wiggle it a bit more on Saturday. Buy your materials weeks before they are needed, make lots of tea tidy up and. Stay out of the builders way. Forget learning a trade learn how to plan manage and deal with lads who may have a different background to yourself. Learn what is actually acceptable, you need to be able to tell the difference between a lad laying blocks in a trench that may look a bit rough to the untrained eye, compared to a diy chancer who has been on a 4 week night course. Do you have any new build near you ? Go and have a look around talk to the owners and ask if they are happy with who they used. If you build to just above building regs you will achieve it for your budget build it live in it, sell it, build another to a better standard you can’t start at the top, take it steady with a realistic outlook and you will do it. No boiling water taps, pop up extractor fans, or wall mounted toilets. There are plenty of people on here having a few dramas, but there are thousands who would give their right arm for the chance to build their own home. Hurry up and get started.

Give us some more details are you after basic understanding or timber calcs and the like.

so Bit of a nosey question, what do you do for a living now and is it secure ? Feel free to tell me to bugger off.

You seem to have forgotten the scaffold also a company approved to carry out insurance work has overheads, you may get two roofers for £300 but who pays there pension, insurance, supplies the van, etc etc. We pay lads £150 a day but a two man team in a van is £625 +vat per day.

Cost. Speed. If there paying.

If you have identified a void why can you not fill it from above. Find bottom of void with camera, find top of void with camera mark area on face of blocks, cut a hole at the top, not a silly hole a mans hole 100 mm square, fill void with a strong wet screed mix 4-1 sharp sand cement vibrate the living daylights out of it. As others have said keep this on the qt.

Mr @Onoff has the right answer a resin anchor with a mesh sleeve or sock as he puts it, used in civils work when fixing a stud into hollow blocks.

Good god man. Dont encourage him.

Er pair of steps.

You stated £900 per m so you must have a budget in mind and you’ve divided this by the size of the house listed in the planning. How big is the planned house ? If there is only two of you could you build smaller and extend at a later date. If it is for arguments sake a 1-1/2 story with dormers and bedrooms upstairs, could you build a shell and only fit out downstairs, We bought a house we plan to knock down, but could not stand the kitchen but hated the thought of spending any money, so we found a second hand kitchen in the local paper for £300 we also found a range cooker for £80 that has just blown up after 2 years of good service. When we bought our first house my wife was still at college and we had £20 per week spare after all the bills (1993) I remember doing a job at a hotel where they were replacing all the carpets, we lived with a blue carpet with little r ‘s all over it for a good couple of years, the hotel was the radisson. I built a large extension on the side and we didn’t have windows in it for over a year, just clear plastic. it depends how much you want it, and how handy you are, and how fit. If you have found a plot and you have the funds and it feels right buy it, work out what you are going to do with it later. Who dares wins rodders.

I don’t see why not if your a handy bloke, I think you biggest help will be a router as most of the seals have to be re-baited in to the frame or door. Have a look on ironmongery direct they have various designs.

The only drawback would be the same as our house, we have a mains fed toilet and the condensation on the cistern is terrible, as the water is so cold.

My neighbour actually brought a barge years ago and put it in his lake as the council wouldn’t give him planning for a house. He raised two kids on it, and said it was a wonderful life, when the kids went to bed he would untie it and punt off up the other end so they used to wake up in a different location, if this rain carries on i might just sail it around to @Nickfromwales house, short sail down the m4.