ToughButterCup

Keep it simple. Ask a couple of well - regarded local firms to come and 'have-a-look-at-the job'. No exploratory work ( as in "Well to answer your question, we'll need to take this out and that down and fiddle with this" ) . Listen hard to what the people say. You'll learn a good deal from those conversations. Then get back to us and we'll make it all much more complicated than it needs to be. 🤔

Sane living means ease of use. And that means efficient storage. Efficient storage means reduced self-build stress.

Manager ? In reality I'm the resident labourer, and got fed up falling over stuff left behind by others. So the role evolved into - every day- clearing up after everyone else. Clearing up is a very necessary job: bit like oiling the cogs in a machine. Clearing up wet concrete has to be done at the time - but mostly you cant do that. So it needs planning for. @TerryE's suggestion saved my sanity. I would have blown a fuse if I'd been faced with @Spinny's ermmm, dump We have about half an acre, so a good few nooks and crannies . House is about 10 by 10m I think it was @TerryE who -years ago - suggested self builders make a storage plan - so I did. Very glad we did TBH.

Washout is useful. Now, 5 years later, I find myself wishing we had more. We built a 10 by 8 , and 6 inch deep lined pit. The resulting washout area became a useful base for all sorts of things during the build after concreting. And then, when broken up it was piled up out of the way. We found a use for very last bit of it.

How about cover as many car parks as we can with solar PV.... ?

Welcome. How much of a slope? A gentle slope is a massive advantage. 1 in 1 , not so much. We used about 2000 (ish) tonnes of MoT1 and other stuff ( dig-out from elsewhere) to make the raft sit 'comfortably' Tell us about your slope please! Ian

Ahhhh, thats nuffin ..... 🙃 OR Take your pick. Exactly, @saveasteading I'm so glad - in retrospect - that our two disasters were dealt with by a properly professional company. Because they discovered more incompetence and rectified it - and here's the kicker ... for less than the original company were attempting to charge me. They were going to take me to court for non-payment, until I sent them the security video evidence. Its an ill wind that blows nobody any good To your point @saveasteading: I wonder how the repair in the first post was financed?

I used a pair of these for a year, until a pair of wrens nested in them two years in a row. They tucked themselves up underneath the cross-beam where the legs attach to the beam. The following year the (same?) wrens decided to use the padlock cover I welded onto our container doors. I know when I'm beaten.

Christ @SteamyTea , what size stiletto heels do Cornish folk wear down your way ? Judging by the three that are visible above the glass in the photo they'd fit Shrek's missus !

Plant pots on top of the glass right? Have they been watered recently? If so, temperature difference

Two Bosch workbenches. PWB 600. I've had them since 2016, been outside in all weather for almost every day since then . Cost £80 ( then) I'm going to replace them with the one @Nickfromwales suggests because the replacement cost of the Bosch is now £120 - at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask.

"Freedom Citizens, Freedom. Come the revolution we will remember..."

Language matters. Reading it with care matters more. Thats why any text should be read with polite, respectful scepticism. Hardest of all is reading ones own words with the same detachment.

Its worth doing a @markc above anyway because stainless set screws reduce the annoyance of lifting the I/C cover when - several years later - you're in a hurry to get it lifted . And, of course, the slot for the screw driver has been buggered. Might be worth a Torx screw head (?)

Thanks @SteamyTea . yes, it is useful Ian