ToughButterCup

As so often , (it is painful to admit ) @Russell griffiths closely followed by @scottishjohn are right. If you have to ask about mission critical stuff, employ someone with Professional Indemnity Insurance. Do proper due diligence, talk to several of the professional's previous customers. On our laying out phase, I did all of that and still found an error of exactly one meter in two places. Cross doesn't begin to describe how I felt.

Yellow Pages. A professional to do it for you.

Bloody Hell Gary. I'm tired just reading that....

The inside of our piggery is nearly finished. It's walls are lined with OSB. The piggery acts as a utility room. It'll be dampish in there for short periods. Painting OSB is new to me. Any gottchas?

Get a farmer to run a flail over it for the first pass. That photo - to me - shows it's too much of a job for a normal hedge trimmer. Much too high. Unless you've got the shoulders and biceps of a gorilla. Then any of the serious tool companies do sensibly priced hedge whizzers. My preference is for Stihl, but there are plenty of good alternatives . Keep on top of that thing... hedges run away with you if left even one season.

Welcome. I almost remember those hopeful days - Building the Dream on every Friday, Kevin Whatsis-Face when we've had enough of Charlie L. I won't make that mistake - look at that stooopid design, that's nice can we have one of those dahling? How much? Ya jorkin' Ah those were the days. Travelling hopefully. Hold on to your optimism and energy. And good common sense approach to standards. We need folk like you to energise us. Thanks for joining. Ian

Phhhhhhhhhh ovewrthinking again ?. Bloody Hell.

Have a look at @Jeremy Harris blog. Loads about it on there.

That about nails it. Ralph's point about location is critical. SPONS ( the architrects price guide) gives a national level guide using factors. With Outer London as 1 (one) it gives various factors for the regions. The factor SPONS gives for Lancaster is 0.96 - but Sandbanks in Dorset will be significantly different (2.5?). Locally (15 miles away), there's a millionaire's row. Tradesmen talk about silly prices being the norm there.... (you can see it from the West Coast Main Line). I'll be glad to come in at £1600 on 146 sq meters. The Devil is always in the detail. There seems to be a good deal of antipathy to SPONS on this board : costs £150. And has saved me many many times that price. Its hard work to get into, but a couple of days working at it repays the effort.

Call that a mistake? Whassa matter with ya man?

I'm on about £1500 ( I guess) a square meter (146 m sq) . And thats working too hard, too long, moaning too much, enjoying small bits of it. It's 'King hard work. I could not have got this far without help from the folk here. The advice and moral support (well, some immoral) is critical.

Interesting. Never heard of one of those until now. This what you mean?

Well, Russ, its good to know that man of your standing in the world of self build is just as incompetent as I am. Very satisfying, that. Blew the bung out while doing the internal pipe test as well , this morning. Thats three meters of pipe (vertical) , so that makes about 300 litres of water pushing on it - 300 kg: you'd 'a thought I might have worked that out before hand wouldn'tcha? Got it in one hasn't he?

Unfortunately , yes. You might get away with cutting an inspection hole for a random sample of joists , making a generalised judgement about how adequately they are fastened and then making good as necessary. In the preceding posts, I smell aggro. It might be as well to get an independent surveyor (RICS ?) to write a proper report, and then present that to whoever needs to see it. It'll take away all the you-said-she-said-thats-not-needed nonsense that you appear to be facing. And get the surveyors fee added to the bill.

The title says most of it .... Is there any point in getting a smart (whatever that means) thermostat for something as humble as electric UFH? I've got a fused spur time switch - I'm not getting up extra early to make sure that Twinkle Toes has warm feet. ?

Hello Tim, welcome. I've built using ICF: not the only system available among ICFs , but there's a healthy range of offerings on the market. Here's my experience of ICF - not all of it good: better you know about the warts as well as the laughter lines innit? The key strategic decision at your stage: who's building it for you ? - experience counts for almost everything. (I take it you'll not be doing it yourself - you've got a decent Beemer parked in the drive - you wont want the carpets to get muddy now will ya? Specially with a wee hoos like that in Bearsden or Milngarvie eh? ?) Ian

If the cash settlement is a complete and satisfactory repair, then thats the best of a bad job. But what might satisfactory mean? To my inexpert eye, just putting noggins across the centre of the house would not be satisfactory. Maybe this is a case for an independent surveyor's report and recommendation?

First post: welcome, therefore. .... you beat me to it, cross post - could you show us how out of level it is....? 10mm over 2000mm .... Ouch! I haven't got a clue how to remedy it simply... our carpenter's here, so I'll go and ask him now.

Anyone got summat to help Debbie read in the shower? She reads more than she breathes

I lost patience with our providers in a similar case. Kicked the problem upstairs. They sent a new lad out . He discovered the signal was going past our place, two or three telegraph posts further on, and then coming back to our pole. Bingo. What I'm trying to say is the problem might be between your house and the last mile of wire....

I knew it ! Heavy metal fan innit!

Hmmm, a bit like those plastic clips that are used to vary the dosage on a medical (infusion) drip? Goes from wide open to completely shut ... Anyone got any idea what I could use as a pipe clip? I've googled around a bit ... tried a clothes peg - a G cramp (that works, but it'd bugger the line up in no time.) Those small plastic cramps are too weak. I'm a bit short on lateral thinking today.... Help!

Whadger fink I am Ed? Some sort of amateur?

The Italian Job came to mind today. Only blew the bloody test bung out of a 110 pipe didn' I? What with a Manometer? No, with just a little more force than that. Bought myself a nice little test kit, and for whatever reason couldn't get the damn thing to work. Tried a test rig before using it on the real thing. Bloody thing kept leaking. So tonight, in the bath, instead of abluting, I'll give it another go. See where the leak is. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I'd had an idea. If I were to fill the piping up with water from the top of the rodding point (just visible) like this I would effectively have a couple of meters water pressure pressing on the bottom bungs, and maybe a bit less on each of the joints. As I started filling the pipe, my suspicion was aroused by the creaking of the plastic joints - specially this one You can see there was a bit of a drip there, but I wasn't too suprised because its unsupported. An hour later I got bored of checking the water level. It had gone down a bit: 100ml or so. So I went for a coffee. The pipe is eight meters long or so - about 880,000 cc... (?) How much is that? I dunno. Pop! PPPPSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! I'd blown the bottom bung out hadn' I ? Neighbour stuck his wizzened head over the fence, swallowed his tongue laughing. Tried it again. Full on Charles Atlas screwing the bung tight this time. Two hours later, got bored took the brass cap off the bung. Got wet. Very wet.

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