ToughButterCup

There ya go. Knew it was our fault. I'd agree with you John if my German family didn't moan about exactly the same thing among the people employed in their company. Even in a society which values practical skills. I wanted to emphasise how difficult it is for self builders to manage the family dynamic in the pressured environment of self building. The problem here is poor management, not low skill levels.

But everyone wants to help' Its a minefield. Ifeel awful if all I need is some muscle and hard work. And they dont know how to shovel (say) gravel so that their back is still usable after for hours of the same hard graft.

A chance? Yes- with a relaxed planning regime. How? Buy and wait. We did that. (30 years wait). One changed sentence in the planning law made it possible. ... presumption in favour of Sustainable Development...

My my what an unexpected minefield. Delighted that they come and lend a hand. Delighted to be able to do jobs I couldn't do without their physical help. Lift, shift, move, squeeze, jiggle left a bit, right a bit. But beyond that... I hadn't realised that unskilled help from a relative is just that. The same as unskilled help from anyone else. It's me that got it wrong. Putting someone Whose main job is to move electrons round a hard disk in charge of a speed square is a recipie for repeat cuts on the same bit of 3 by2. It's all the fault of teachers innit? I mean vey dun lern Um nuffin veez days do um?

Na und? ( tr. So what pal?) A German biochemist once told me that you never know which enzymes Unilever slip into washing up liquid. He worked for them. Safest always to rinse - twice.

... A useful exercise in self- discipline then, @jack ?

And the neighbour has access to the detailed plans with all the levels marked ? Really?

Could not agree more. If your site has a slight slope your scope for losing it is greater.

But they'll know how much others will pay for it. In other words its value.

Welcome! Here's how to persuade your man. It's easy really. Tell him he won't need to lift a finger. Because you'll do it all. All the research , all the finance, all the rows with the Planners , take all the moaning neighbours niggles on the chin, get the quotes, decide whom to employ, chase the invoices, do the due diligence, sack the lazy sod who can't build a level wall, choose the windows , make sure they all fit, find out what C 24 is, make sure it is delivered on time, and have a pit dug for any that's left, charm the roofer into doing what he said he would do, at the price he said he would , make tea and biscuits appear magically at juSt the right moment, refuse to be patronised or irritated by the sheer volume of mansplaining, take all the design decisions with confidence and deep insight, fix the leaking flat roof, do little bits of tiling to show the tiler how it is possible to tile level and straight, keep accurate records , do the VAT return. And make sure his pipe and slippers are waiting for him when he gets back from the pub. Easy.

United Utilities operations teams (the lads on the ground) could not have been more helpful. Every person arriving on site looking at the design (detailed here) agreed that someone in the office did not provide a competent design is (one that takes into account the fact that stop tap packing glands fail occassionally) Another less charitable interpretation is that they do know how to design competently, but are deliberately not fitting stop valves. What is the likelihood of a Plasson Stop Valve packing gland failure? I mention that because the operator in the New Connections Team let slip that they were not fitting external stop valves nowadays: and immediately she said that, I could hear her biting her lip...... Alls well that ends well.

A stop tap. As you get older you take more pleasure in the little things in life.

No alternative. Useful motivator is that ...

Well maybe not wrong. But it is certainly useful. Made me sit up and think

. Welcome David. Interesting post. Tell us how you went about achieving an airtight design...

As I understand it, at one level the issue is simple - reduce the temperature difference between the floor and the air above it. Mould vanishes When the contrast is low. How you do that is covered in detail in many posts on B H.

I suspect you mean distress local to the cut (you?) made Dave. And I think what @Sensus might be emphasising is the risk to the sole plate from water trickling down inside the timber frame. Or have I misunderstood?

@Sensus, I do remember a post by @Jeremy Harris a year or so ago explaining exactly the process you outline above. This may be the post - about that good old friend interstital condensation. There are some others too..... Here's the search I did on the matter

e-commerce isn't zero overhead(ed) though....... Once set up it's very flexible - scalable - adaptable.

One of those long T shaped thingys with a yoke on the end of it. They are coming fit the container box for it sometime soon. Thats not what concerns me ... The hole will fill with water, and thus sludge. (fine bits of glacial till - sandy clay). Wont be long before the tap becomes unusable, unless I do summat about it. I think I'm just going to have to connect the hole to the land drain. What I could do with is a tame, obedient pet mole: I'm sick of digging up our frontage. I understand @Construction Channel trains them ......

We all focus on the job in hand - "Get [...] done". That's where the profit lies. Urgency.

Two extremely sensible gorillas from UU turned up yesterday: muscles come out of their ears - I would not like to have tangled with either of them. In tow - a brand new Volvo digger in a proper smart digger trailer: I drooled. They listened patiently to me drooling "Loada Crap is 'em Voulez Vous diggas mert, load a crap" Using a Mark I shovel - I kid you not - they dug a neat hole in the time it took me to bring them a cuppa. In the time it took me to supervise the site labourer (SWMBO) they'd fitted the stop tap. In the time it took SWMBO to bollock me up hill and down dale (I'd jumped on the Gabions and knocked them out of line by a mm or two) they'd gone. What a neat, professional job. The shovel strikes again! Our ground is full of nasty glacial till stone. Hard as nails those lads, hard as nails. Thank God.

A really interesting post. Thanks. Could you expand on the issue of VCLs and (lack of?) integrity over time. Are you hinting that there is an issue with all VCLs, or perhaps that over time VCLs get punctured or fail in some way and so their performance is degraded?

? Well I like it. So there! Take that Southern Softie....

I couldn't work out whether those pipes (inlet , outlet) were inside the heated envelope if so, then maybe no need to lag, perhaps?