ToughButterCup

Nooooo..... nooooooooooooooo..... Your lad will come back home with half a tonne of walk-on glazing - and then try to sell it. @pocster would become even more insufferable

Hmmm, have a read of the series of posts I wrote about 'Rollo'. I suggest you start at the first episode here The rest are listed here 'Rollo' is still around, so is his family. See him in the pub : a nod and grin (followed by a quick sneeky gawp at the latest squeeze - often stunning) He is a really smashing lad. I've watched him grow from a wet-behind-the-ears neo-builder to someone who is holding down a builder's job. He's as cut-glass as you can get. Takes the merciless teasing in his stride - but he's stuck with it and I respect him for that. His family is rumoured to be among the wealthiest in the county - matters not a jot. Except I suppose that he knows that he has 'in depth' backing. But the point is he's stuck with it. Give your lad five years of rough and tumble on building sites first. Don't bail him out: that will be the greatest compliment you can pay him. May not feel like it. If he can stick it - then he will have gained some solid self-respect, secure in the knowledge that nobody could treat him worse than those in the building trade AND he's survived it. No difference between that and the process of doing a doctorate, or getting into the Marines or getting a CPL or getting through Medical School. They are all unpleasantly difficult hardening off processes. I wish him well. Does he want a job on my site?

This is going to sound brutal: the intention is the opposite but at this remove, it's impossible to judge. I do hope what I write isn't interpreted as such. And your post is obviously written with kindness and concern. He starts by making his own mind up. And researching for himself: he's over 20 ... The research process will teach him a huge amount. This sector is about as dysfunctional as it's possible to get. The image on old maps with 'Here be Dragons ' on them could not be more apt. @SteamyTea's advice above is sound. If he has a degree consider a Degree Apprenticeship. He will have to start by showing willing and real keenenss to muck in, do what he says he will do, turn up regularly, be on time, and be prepared to take all the nonsense that customers and explotative employers throw at him. He will have to work in teams where it common to have lazy non-committed colleagues, watch sharp practice in action and keep schtumm. Have smoothe edges roughened. If he has an appetite for extremes, get a start with a scaffolding team.

Hi, I'm quite annoyed on your behalf. They talk of a 10 year guarantee here. The issue is '...if ...' isn't it? If the leak is actually in the unit. Can you verify that the leak originates inside the unit, and not (say) the flashing....?

I hesitate to use the word comparable . Durisol is, within the class ICF, a contrast..... And here's all I've written about the stuff. I'm not saying that Durisol will suit everyone, it suited us at the time. And it would do so again primarily because we know all its wrinkles. Experience is priceless, almost.

Congratulations. Your comment, quoted above echoes our experience. I think you'll hear this remark regularly... " 'Ow many more ya gonna puron 'ere then? "

You 'bin lookin' while I wuz ablutin' ?

Ok. Can I ask you for a formula that I can apply to those numbers, please? I know that the HansGrohe is pre-set at 40 , and the input temp is about 18ish....... Flow rate is 18 litres a minute or thereabouts....

Owning a SunAmp , for me, is a bit like a Guess-The-Weight-Of-The-Baby competition. You've had a rubble of your own babies, looked after God knows how many other ones, so you've got a good 'feel' for how much the little tike weighs. Oooops, a bit less now - sick down the back of your shirt. You know the routine. Same routine with a SunAmp: it makes you guess how much (be gentle @SteamyTea) energy (?) is left in the bloody thing after SWMBO has had one of her bath-of-the-century incidents, and the daughter has run the shower for gaud knows how long.... ( ask @ProDave, he knows the score ?) Mine's (SunAmp) a 13.7 kW machine. And up to today, I've assumed that the average bath gets rid of about 5kW, and a shower 3kW. Roughly. But today I thought I'd try a bit of slewthing. When the SunAmp's full, you see this on the Eddi thingy that shunts energy to the SunAmp From this image I can see that its taken 3.38 kWh to heat the PCM from what it was to 'Full' ( hmmmm waasat mean?) Quick sprint to the shower, play with my ducks and have rub down with the Sports News. A bit later that day (today) - no other hot water used Another 2 and a half kWh or more have been sucked into the SunAmp. Does that mean the shower I took earlier today consumed 5.82 - 3.38 kWh's worth of energy? Or am I missing something? Put differently, is my assumption that one of our showers consumes about 3kWh's worth of energy per average shower correct? (We have a quite powerful HansGrohe 'rain' head)

I think I weigh about a stone less than I did this morning. Honestly, I would rather have climbed a Lancastrian Mill chimney a la Fred Dibnah, no safety gear, no clothes on, a woodpecker snapping at my withers on a freezing morning before dawn. Here's why. Back in the mists of time, 6 years ago now, we got Outline Planning Permission, and then Full PP. We went throught Outline and Approved Matters route (2015). Then it was Head down Arse Up Go wasn't it? A few light traumas on the way - nowt like it will be for all those brave souls starting out now - but traumas there were. Successes too. And like the diligent person I am, I save all our invoices in a folder just like I was advised here. And promptly lost them in the move into our as yet unfinished-but-habitable house. Cue an extended office exercise, culling as many invoices as I could get by begging, cajoling (the people at the Screwfix head office are NASTY) and a bit of banter and using online accounts where I had had the forethought to create one. Local BM , Haldane Fisher were smashing. This time, all saved on my computer. VAT refund looms. Read the Application Form first page (VAT431C) , got the spreadsheet all bright shiny and accurate, skim the Notes - nay borra tae the likes o' me Jimmie Time to fill in the declaration and Checklist Nice people at HMRC, they give you a Checklist. This is what caused a sharp exit to the smallest room in the house Just about to type an X in the box marked Yes when I read '...and Approval of Reserve Matters...' Oh (expletive deleted)ety foockety foockety foockinghell. I have never even seen that document . Ever. Ever ever ever. And I'd downloaded all the documentation from that cursed website for future reference onto my hard disk. Hadn't I? Back onto the LPA website, that's where it'll be: (wyre brorough planning website) that den of juvenile web design, that fantasy playground invented by a demented drunken Planner. The relevant document MUST BE THERE musn't it? Oh Please God it is. Nother trip to the smallest room. On the website. Huh? Won't let me in ... need to register .... Whadya mean you twats, I've friggin registered years ago . Arghhh, you barstewards, you f.....ers New website Design. All over the place. Beads of cold sweat trickle down my face Decision Notices. Earliest ones: 2016. Panic is now real - a calm decends. Thats it, no time now before my submission deadline (next week). Oh Hell, how do I break this to Debbie? Divorce? Cat jumps on my lap. Starts to purr. Calm. A moment to think. Ring the architect. "Reserved Matters Approval? Yeah, why, haven't you got a copy? " 15 long seconds later it was in my In Box. The re-designed website had no documentation on it earlier than the summer of 2016. Our Reserved Matters Approval, August 2015. So if anyone wants to refer to a Planning Application before 2016 in Wyre Borough, yer stuffed. I hate Planners, I hate webdesigners, I hate the people who don't know how to handle Databases efficiently, and I really deeply loathe those lazy bastards that learn just enough about database normalisation to falsely claim they know how to design a Content Management system. There ought to be a law against it. Goin' dahn da pub ternight..... Coming?

Local. Pro Wood did us proud. Give Alex Wood 07881806650 and ask him if he knows someone local to you. We're just south of the Lakes. God's Own Country. Ian

... slept better, I'll bet.

No ground survey = worry. What if there's a .....? Harsh, but thats what we found. Piling contractor, groundworkers (we put in our own digester) and my instinct all clamoured for a proper survey. Locally its all glacial till, but in our site there is an (at the time) hidden incursion of sandstone. Had we not known that, the piling price would have been higher and we would have had to re-route our foul drainage. Deduct that cost from the cost of the survey. Neither would we have been able to do our SUDS program as planned. After the survey we were able to replan the SUDS provisionn and save about £2000. Deduct that from the survey cost too. Forewarned, forearmed, better nights sleep. More money in the bank. Simples.

Tiler? Coat's already off the hook.... bye.....

Our screeding company provided a checklist for us to go through before they came. That form had a question about distance from delivery point for the wagon to the floor to be screeded. I was surprised to find out that, as @nod says above 100m is fine - unless thats 100m vertically I suppose. ?

Welcome. Not sure what the issue is with the bank in relation to with gate posts. Remove enough of the bank to accomodate the gate and its posts . Yes, you might need a retaining wall. In relation to design ideas, put together a folder of ideas that you see (on Tinternet and elsewhere - your photos for example ) and then take the best of what you see and ask for quotes for '... something like this ...'

Exactly. Whenever there's a problem - especially in this sector - and you get either lies or silence (such as avoided phone calls) then the temperature goes up doesn't it? I have had two major wall-of-silence issues on our build. And in both cases the people I wanted to contact have the emotional intelligence of the average 3 year old. The vast majority of others just pick up the phone and talk. People show themselves for what they really are when things go wrong: not when everything in the garden's rosy. You have a good case to make: they can either listen and help solve the problem, or be awkward and have a resolution imposed with the help of the PWA. Try another knock on the door - cup of tea, piece of cake?

Hello. Welcome. You have the most important thing already in place: the network of trades who are going to be working for you. So far so good. Party Wall ... hmmm common enough issue on BH to warrant a quick search on this site. Since you are new, I've done one for you. Here it is, with the term Party Wall in the title. The subject often comes up in the text of posts, too often to bother you.... Good luck. Ian

Welcome. You have my sincere sympathy. Neighbours are sometimes Hell - whats the saying : Good fences make good neighbours. Bottom line? PWA route. Why? Because of the behaviours you have described. This is the 'kicker' and the real issue is Many (most) people lie to avoid conflict. Me included. The issue is the threshold at which I decide to lie. Rather than devote emotional intelligence to finding a solution to the problem. The only way I can think to mitigate that shoddiness issue is to offer to have it rendered in advance of any work you might do. Building a few mm short of any of our walls, and I'd be asking how on earth is the wall to be maintained? If you can point to a design locally which is the same as the one you propose ( and it seems theres a good chance of that) then your arguement will be stronger.

West Lancs it is for you then @SteamyTea. I ordered some sheets of WBP a week ago. Nowt changes up here

Ah, ticky tacky, ?

Welcome You are interested in turnkey building. Have you asked any of the turnkey companies for indicative prices?

Welcome. Quick BH survival tip. Dont say stuff like that. You'll get trampled in the stampede: specially in God's own county: Lancashire - well, West Lancs anyway

Tight financial control means restful sleep.

Hi!, welcome. You have a list of questions above, each of which could be answered by a service provider - and better still two or three service providers . We can just give you an indication. Its important to draw your attention to the fact that we aren't experts at anything much - except a few members and it doesn't take long to work out who they are and what their specialisms are. But some members sound like experts and aren't. You need to go through the process of Due Diligence (a self build is an business decision just like any other) with every single bit of your build. Here, you will always get a sympathetic ear about self-building, especially from those of us who are near the end or have completed our selfbuilds. Its very hard, nervy work. We know from bitter experience and I for one am very grateful to everyone who has supported me. Very grateful indeed. Shame I can't give back directly to those who helped. So instead, we help newbies like you. Good luck. Ian