ToughButterCup

If you ask an engineer at random, maybe, yes. But if you ask an engineer who has experience with the product (Kore) and proximity to trees, then I suspect the answer will be more qualified. In addition to considering answers suggested here, as standard procedure, Due Diligence needs to be done.

No. The level of information support that the industry gives to self-builders is poor at best. I needed to ask exactly the same question - of several people - before I trusted the answer. You are right, logically. But what they (the industry) don't tell you is that the thickness required to achieve the U value required is calculated at the lowest end of the slope: the minimum insulation needed to obtain the target value. Then additional insulation is added to create the slope needed. So at the opposite end (the high end) the U value will be even lower.

Or a thin wire coat hanger perhaps.... (mis-spent youth skills and all that ...?)

All part of the service @SteamyTea. And thank you for all your help - you made me look just a little bit harder at many things.

Just a little bit of Schadenfreude now and then is delicious innit? You'd 'a loved it if my underpants had come off at the same time wouldn't cha, eh? But they didn't. So there.

Thanks very much everyone. One thing is very clear, the chances of us having achieved this without buildhub.org.uk is close to zero. If we had tried on our own, our bank balance would have been even emptier. There's something very empowering about knowing that, sometimes within minutes, you can have informed opinions delivered straight to your laptop. When the soft and smelly hit the fan we were immediately supported with sensible advice and good wishes, as well as reassuring stories of similar calamity. A virtual group we may be. But the support experienced is very real. Very personal. And very C19 - safe. Thanks everyone.

Brilliant place. Used to train (running) a lot round your area in the 70s: did the Long Mynd hike a couple of times. You are very welcome - good luck with the Planning App. Ian

Thanks Dave. Rendering to do on the west face front needs cladding too - but we now have a magician plasterer and a good chippy - but they are ragged raw with too many customers, MVHR second fix early next year - so spring 2021 ish ? Thanks. I post the difficult stuff partly to help write it out of my system and focus on the future, but also to encourage others. I have not lost my loathing of east winds yet @jack, I need to learn to be a bit more pleased with our progress: I look at the niggles all the damn time.

Over the last four years or so, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. But this is an up. And now, GCNs are very welcome. From a twinkle in our eyes in the little local-stone built cottage (to the left of the photo) to a contemporary orange (coloured) box... which will be silvery grey in a while. Like my receding hair. Lots more to do, but hey! SWMBO reminds me we started when POTUS was being sworn-in , and just moved in by the time he had been sworn at long enough to be kicked out. Is there a lesson there? Probably not.?

hive .... good description. Lots - too much almost - good stuff here. This place can sting you though. Dont switch your due diligence button off, eh? Welcome.

As usual, @Russell griffiths is bang on the money. My Kubota 206 alpha held its value over 4 years. Dealer-serviced and over-maintained. Considering the rental cost over the same period, it far more than paid for itself even adding the VAT and repairs in. Two repairs: broken track clips and a new door (smashed by someone else), and new tracks exchanged for the old ones. Do your due diligence on the dealer. Find out which hire companies the dealer supplies and then ask the hire company what the dealer service is like. Then, ask the hire company . Then find a site repair guy - preferrably a one-person band, and ask him for his opinion of both the dealer and the hire company, and ask for his rates. Then ask him if he knows of a decent second-hand digger. Take him to see it and get him to test it for you. It'll cost you, but save you a potentially massive bill - not all to do with the digger either - delay on site is a right pain in the Bottilcelli. Sometimes mechanics only work on one type of machine - and thats fine - but if your heart is set on one (say Volvo) don't be deflected from your choice without good reason Here's a purchasing checklist we put together a while ago. Probably needs updating now..... A bit of a slog, I know. But it worked for me.

Yes, if you are stacking feathers. No if you are using rock. I made some out of our spare sheets of A393, (5 or so) got rid of a load of rubbish stone in them, but covered the cages with MOT1 and then earth. The cages formed the corner of a carpark. Part of our ecological mitigation strategy. Somewhere for the newts to do whatever newts do in winter.

References please. Online would be great. Thanks.

Well, @joth , in a horrible, uncomfortable way, I'm pleased it's not just me. By turns I laugh, cry, grizzle, fume, joke, write, about lack of connected thinking on the part of people whose salary I pay. Not long ago I would have been hauled over the coals for producing an online experience such as the one dished up by IKEA. And to point out the Zero Tolerance Policy so prominently just beggars belief.

... tell em to leave home while they (think they) know all the answers.

Here's more answers than you can shake a stick at....... Google, useful, sometimes.

I'm not sure: I was given a post code to go to: no address. I asked for one, but..... Yes: thats exactly my point: it says that , but when you go through the whole routine, the final dialogue box says that they don't deliver. The final straw was the ' Zero Tolerance Policy ' placed so prominently on the home page. For me that is psuedo-code for 'Our-systems-piss-so-many-of-you-off-that-we-need-to-tell-you-to-calm-down-when-we-dont-do-what-we-say-we'll-do.' And the lad at distribution point telling me that many customers are spitting hair and nails by the time they get to him lends credibility to my theory.

In a fiddly little wetroom Gary?

How can a simple job, like connecting tubes (or connecting holes, whichever way you think of it) be made so unecessarily complex? Did we really put someone on the moon? Cos if we did (and that's by no means certain) IKEA had nowt to do with it. Need an extra little widget to deal with your dishwasher waste? Certainly sir that'll be £5. Fanx. Now, got it in stock? Yessir: Warrington Tickety Boo. Lets pay for it then..... > Wha ? Don't deliver? 'S ok, you can pick up locally Great > Wha ? Oh, you can't. Need to fetch it from Warrington . Grrrrrrrrr. OK then. OK, I'll pay for it Wha? £10, not £5 like you advertised Yessir, its for the priviledge of picking it up from Warrington. Get to Warrington at sparrow fart. No, its not here, its at our storage facility Grrrrr. Wheres'at then? Hidden in the unmentionable depths of wild Warrington is a secret, totally hidden facility - no sign - just empty IKEA boxes blowing in the wind. Ya' awraaaaght mert? says the spotty thing with an eye patch. He's standing at the in front of a pile of packages - probably a few hundred of them - waiting for saps like me to turn up to collect. Get many people in here to pick up their stuff? Naaahh. 'An wen vey does vey's yooshally spittin' hair and nails. And they have the sheer bare faced temerity to put their Zero Tolerance Policy on the homepage of their website. Is there any point? First world problem innit. I'm being totally unreasonable. Again.

What? Honestly? I mean really?

Here's chapter and verse on ours: Exactly half way between the top and bottom hourly trade (not professional fee) rate we have been charged in the last four years. And the man is a magician: two speeds, dead slow and stop, but does what he says he will do, reliable, arrives at 10 to 8 and leaves at 6ish. And sticks to his price. Gold dust.

Thanks. Ya learn summat here, every day .....

Think I'll stick mate......

My hand tight or yours....? And " I mean that most sincerely folks " ?

Yo! You're no longer an bird's mouth virgin! How does it feel? Was she easy? Did she wriggle? I did my first one on the ground, but later we did it resting on ther wall plate. Ya wanna try that pphhhh..... 'Ere, I had to cut double birds nmouths (tell ya more later)