ToughButterCup

Now that is interesting. Worst action because.....?

Now that's neat. Remember we want photos. Instinct tells me this is maybe a bit complicated (?) One factor will be the quality of the wood; definitely a case of going to the BM and choosing the wood yourself. German chippies would solve the shrinkage problem with foam😑

No: the opposite. Making it parallels learning ( for which read the 'errors' ) involved. That learning builds over time. And thus confidence. But most of all quiet satisfaction. And deep pleasure if only we ( I ?) allow ourselves to enjoy it. There's your opportunity right there. Excellent. Do it. Photograph it. Self-build-porn that'll become. I mean you might even get a compliment from @SteamyTea ( mind you it's not Friday yet)

Welcome. There's a whole winter's worth of reading here. Many of us have been here for years - and still find its worth the effort to waste time learning stuff.

Well @Pocster , hair won't grow round this one.... A quick look for a cracked foul drain scouring out the pipe trench ? Cheap, quick, easy.

They would tell you to do that. In addition to the quip about weight and blocks, the next thing they'll say is "Oh, don't worry about the rain and the chipboard - it'll be fine. " Birdcage - keep going

Grinder (shank bit) or drill @Onoff ?

For the sake of completeness, I thought I'd list the 'issues' I came across while doing the drilling; Here's one - I used AI to see if I could find an answer to the problem ( remove the broken stone stub ) . The answers - tap, poke, fiddle didn't work. Since I don't have a pillar drill any more, this ( below ) is what I'm going to try next ( 48 holes yet to be drilled ) The aperture of this drill is a good bit bigger, and there's a slot for a screwdriver to wiggle broken bits of stone out of the core. The narrower one above has no slot. I'm thinking of using the type of core 'drill' that attaches to a grinder (threaded shank) rather than a drill chuck - because I will be able to exert more pressure. But I'll have less control perhaps (?) Anyone have any advice?

😁 Naaah, the GPS signal is poor here - shaded by trees. Now if they did a robotic strimmer on the other hand

There's nothing incompatible with low maintenance and lots of plants and trees. The terms Low maintenance and plants and trees mean different things to different people. SWMBO designed our planting for exactly those criteria. Easy to maintain (self maintaining) trees, zero mowing, and no-faff plants. It took her two years ( or a lifetime depending on you POV ) to design it. There's a lot of fun in thinking about it and visiting places to get ideas. And lots of friendship in chatting to anyone and everyone about their ideas. My criterion? Zero mowing. ✅

Yes. I used one of those hollow diamond-tipped drills with wax in the internal 'hollow'. I dribbled splashes of water to help form a grinding paste - interesting to watch the water on and in the surrounding stone evaporate after a few moments - cue for another splash of water. I find myself increasingly using AI to solve little problems like this. Annoyingly, I also find that AI (Gemini in this case) just plain wrong. Hence the check-question to BH. Thanks everyone for your help.

Thanks folks, on my way to Screwy's as we speak

It's getting expensive now - any ideas how to do so without smashing the stone? I need to fasten some fence baseplates through capping stone ( Indian 'stone flags' 50mm 600 by 600) So far I've used a 6mm SDS with hammer action - might as well have used a pick axe used it without hammer - I want to finish the job sometime this year splashed a bit of water on the slab - better but still iffy.... Ideas please .....

Quite right. But, I'd like to have a go at making one. There's a couple of jobs that need to be done first (finishing off) but I have had a hankering to build one for a good while. It's an itch. And it's mine to scratch.

@jack it was who told me -years ago- to make a plan and stick to it - and then to take photos of what actually happens and tag them so the photos are searchable. Or repent at leisure. Well thats what I'm doing now : repenting. This post is about trying to make the best of it - by building a grease trap. This thread is about how to design build and install one We had no idea where our kitchen sink was going to be. So instead of being able to duct the foul drain out under the foundation, I had to bodge. Drill a 50mm hole in the wall after the sink was installed, pipe it to a trap outside the house. It worked for a while, and worked well. Until she decided that it would be great to have a kitchen garden. Some plant roots push soil up and outwards. Not a lot of people know that. I do - now. The plants picked up the pipe bedding that was round the drain and dumped a great deal of it inside the drain. It took me a year or more to notice it. I had no idea that pipe bedding was really good at filtering kitchen fat and waste. Man did it stink ! But through it all, the kitchen sink drained fine. Slowly, but well enough for us not to notice a problem: until I did. Based on @saveasteading 's post here I thought I'd design, build and install our own - in parallel with the current system. And then switch systems once the grease trap is shown to work properly. I've looked at grease traps online now for a while. They're either to expensive or too small, or frankly sloppily designed. The trap needs to be easily maintained. Easy and quick to empty as well as easy to clean. My first question is how big ( volume ) should it be? Some advice says 40 to 50 litres. Ideas?

... erm , stronger positive correlation I think. 😁

When someone - anyone at all - finds acoustic insulation that works, please send me a postcard. You can still hear flies fart in our bedroom when we're outside. I propose swapping the aphorism Money for old Rope to Money for Shite Acoustic Insulation.

Yes. Yes. I had the same 'jangle' that you are having. And to a lesser extent that feeling remains. Its almost as if keeping foul drainage inside the house rather than getting rid of it out of the house as fast as possible is 'wrong' . I still feel a small 'is-that-necessary-wince' every time I hear the passage of foul drainage inside the house. And that 5 years after the piping was successfully pressure - tested. And it still hasn't leaked

@Alan Ambrose , to the point as ever. @flanagaj hints at the trauma suffered by self-builders when the trust-building exercise faulters: they suddenly 'go-dark' , lay bricks with a muck-spreader. Pulling the project back on course when stuff goes wrong - now that's an art form.

Your question is fundamental. It goes to the heart of the horror that self-building can become. And is the main cause of self-build-sleep-deprivation-syndrome Humility, respect, time, trust, effort, plain speaking. And knowledge of their (the trade's) networks Self builders are - to the trades we deal with - mostly one off customers. And because we self builders have to invest so much more time , emotion and 'fizz' into our builds than those who 'simply' sign a cheque, many self builders ( not all) think we're special. To trades people, we aren't. We're one of many jobs they have on the go at any one time. Either invest in someone who can manage the situation for you or take the time to understand the trades networks so you can break through their communication blocks and accept that substandard work does occur and that some work will have to be remedied but most of all - be lucky DIY know when an error is something you just have to accept - and when not. After more than 10 years at it, I'm only just getting to know like and trust a core of people who communicate well, do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it to an acceptable standard. 10 years to many people is just too long.

So forget the problem.

Kept goats free on the Malvern Hills for years. ( 1960s: Commoner grazing rights) Some stayed, one or two just buggered off, sometimes bought back by - politely annoyed - neighbours. Flail, scythe, forget the problem, find a suitable teenager, hire a Pyrenean goatherd.

Your idea isn't simple enough. Others above have - between them - listed many of the barriers to entry into the self build sector. Solve any single one of them , and you're in business.

Next door neighbour - knows you are away - pops round for a quick top-up 🫤

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. 🤔