ToughButterCup

See .... told ja' ... you're missing out on a complete realm of human existence. Gay American politicians and electric wheelbarrows : yer missing out boys, missing out. #sadbuggers

I don't care. Unlike some, I'm in touch with my feminine side - I use underarm spray, I choose my hair artist with care. As well as working on the build, I work out most days at the gym, I wear dungarees, my tattoos are really expensive and I file my finger nails. And Harvey Milk is my hero. I'm trying to suppress my flounce though, I'll give you that.

Help us @CalvinHobbes : does your question relate to the area with the red cone ( patio ?) or the entrance gate - or both? Patio area = if you want a drain, have one. French drain will do - just a simple soak away Entrance gate = MoT3 raising the drive to a good few mm above the water running down the road - topped off as @Conor says above If the apparent slope of the road really is down towards your house - ( image taken with camera level ?) , you might want to consider a French drain to the right of your entrance gate ( looking towards the road ) . I'm thinking of a cloud-burst type rain or persistent heavy rain.

You want it so you can put your partner in it and show her the lovely garden you have made for her innit...😑

Late to this party .... What to buy? Any buy into any 'system' that your children don't use. I don't need to go into the reason for that now do I? Exactly what I bought ten years ago now.... doing well ... all sorts of abuse including being left out in the rain... concrete splashes ...

Not at all jealous. Not one single ...spit ... bit

The liquid either runs out of the IC - or not. If it does : tea and medals. It would take a large amount of energy to move a chamber or rather the top section of the chamber ( - hit the top section with a three tonne digger ?) I managed to drop a huge stone into an IC from a digger bucket, jamming it in the top section of the IC. Nothing much happened to it

Yes: within limits. Your image is of the 'bare' ( no IC lid) Inspection Chamber (IC) top, correct ? If so, then you're highly likely going to put a casing of sorts round that - the thing that contains the IC cover. Correct? If both the above statements are true, then you more than likely to be able to hide that much 'out-of-level' in the IC cover casing. Or get an angle grinder and make it level? That groove visible in the photo will help you mark up the correct level.

Over 2" stone , loosely compacted driveway : the bogie wheel digs in Over 20mm stone the bogie wheel digs in too. Up a 20% slope loaded with two wrigglers giggling their little heads off - OK as long as they moved their weight over the drive shaft I'm thinking about 'age-appropriateness' in terms of keeping myself out of the NHS's hair.

Well, I bit the bullet : 1 tonne moved a hundred meters or so . Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Age Appropriate Wheelbarrow (Branding deliberately removed by AI )

One element of your build calculus appears to be missing from this thread. It's what I fell over multiple times on ours. Networks. Knowing who does what well and who is available when Knowing who knows someone who has experience and dealt with [...] before Knowing which other trades person knows the tradesman you're trying to contact - and failing. Because his phone appears not to be working. Knowing where that tradesman drinks. It's as restrictive a network as the so called Upper Classes, or the Landed Gentry. The White Van Class makes or breaks selfbuilding. It's taken me 10 years to nurture a core of solid trustworthy people. They're pure gold. They lower blood pressure, soothe the psyche, provide military grade one liners. So, since today is a Friday, get down the pub - about 4 ish- because they will be there, swapping war stories, oiling wheels, making stuff happen. How do I know? My son is a chef and runs a local. Why 4 ish ? Because by 6, they've all gone home for their evening meal. Her indoors oils wheels too.

Hmmmm, all the Polish plumbers have gone back to Poland - there were a few around here, but, according to our son's Polish girl-friend, post Brexit they found that they could earn more money in Poland.

Hence our passivhaus-adjacent build. In addition the fees payable on the way to certification are substantial. And there isn't (or wasn't when I did some research ) any real need for it. Germans like me love our certification(s) But in a for-ever home there's no point because we are not intending to sell. In addition I've seen many argue that certification doesn't ( or didn't back then) command a premium price. @Gema, we really love the way our house is full of daylight - what I hadn't expected was the effect of full moonlight streaming through the house.

We worked hard on that, especially on our Winter Garden (at the back , partly hidden in the photo) I fantasized about variable geometry (incidence?) baffles on the brise soleil. Snapped straight out of that into reality when I realised exactly how much that was going to cost. On a really bright, summer's day for an hour or two, the baffles aren't enough when we sit outside in the Winter garden. Inside the house is fine. It's a small problem - solved by a pair of sun glasses

Ditto. 2016 Welcome! Fast Forward 10 years: 1 disaster, two new hips, endless (expletive deleted)ety(expletive deleted)ety(expletive deleted)Ups later (most detailed here) we have - Passivhaus adjacent plenty of south facing glass (cleverly covered by our intelligent, thoughtful architect) still some solar gain less hair than I started with more entertainment value from BH than I could ever have expected no money Deeply grateful for all the help I've been freely given here