ToughButterCup

@TerryE, you'd be the first to tell me to KISS

Its insured for loss on a self-build policy. I tell everyone that they use the scaffolding at their own risk. I suppose I should get folk to sign that I've told them - but to date I haven't done so. I did fuss like a mother hen when trades folk are on the scaffolding. I hate anyone else being on it. Including Debbie. I cant wait to get it down and sold.

I was very pleased to read this in the user manual and fitting instructions Now, that makes sense. Yes Dave, I've thought a lot about that. But our back door is right next to our Great Crested Newt Highway - and while newts wont (or better put, shouldn't) account for too many additional 'switch-ons' we get lots of nocturnal activity on the south side of our house (its a wild-life corridor). Is it possible to 'tune' PIR to sense only (say) the heat coming from a car engine or human, but not a small rodent?

Can someone take us through the basics of these apparently useful switch systems, please? I have a very simple use-case to sort out. You know the kind of thing: return home from the weekly shop: both hands full of heavy bags, you open the back door. It would be good if a sensing switch automatically put the lights on. And there's the first puzzlement for someone like me. Should the switch be triggered by heat (PIR, I assume) or by the movement of the door? And then there's a whole host of considerations that only @Onoff or @ProDave will be able to explain: Momentary Push Switches (whassat?), dwell times, dual switching, timer switched circuits to name just a few. Can you wire a normal (one gang) On /Off switch to a circuit which also has an occupancy sensing switch? If you can, which switch has precedence? The more I read the tanglier the story gets. Whats one of those switches called that you get in stairwells sometimes: all you can do is press the switch and then the light stays on for (say) 20 seconds while you fumble and fail to find your keys - and then it switches off? It seems this time, that the simple must be made complex before it becomes simple (again)

Do you mean - at the ridge and the wall plate - the roof is in contact with the wall. Everywhere else there is a 10mm gap?

Thats what 'got' to me. The wall rocked from side to side as if being hit by a huge hammer - 10mm back and forth maybe more. Mind you then final pour, I couldn't have cared less. I just prayed for no bursts - a 20mm wobble is nowt - but a burst 3.5 meters up is no joke.

Gary, the work rate you and Deborah pump out is something you modestly gloss over. How long did it take you - two full years - bit more? OK, so you are a building professional - you have the networks. And access to mates who maybe owe you a favour. And that's important. But you both work full time for God's sake!

8 by 4 panels of EPS. Until they blew away across the site. ?

But what about fuel consumption? Does it really save fuel? I bumped into this the other day - pretty light on hard evidence - but claims expert status. Is there any properly constituted research we can read?

OK, you foam-gun-fanatics: how many guns have you ruined over your build? Anyone managed to rescue one that was blocked - ever - so - slightly - iddy - bitty - blocked ? Hmmm? I'm working hard on keeping my heart-rate down cleaning my third feckkkking blocked gun, step by gritted-teeth step. Sodding thing.

If, like me, you've lost some digits, and some of the rest have no feeling : a pair of high quality leather gloves. Recovers some of the lost strength.

How long is 'extended' ? To me, a 6 - 10 month build is the blink of an eye. Locally the building world is divided in two. Those who can get scaffold erected for a one off price, and no subsequent hire charge; and those who cannot. A local scaffolder (small-scale) explained it to me thus - repeat business customers with a quick turnover means no hire fee even if there's some delay on the build. Mates Rates in other words. If my assumption of up to (say) 12 months is right, get three quotes from reputable scaff companies, ask those companies what their policy is about minor alterations Then ask a company like this one for a quote - they'll do a design for you. As usual, Gary @nod (above) is exactly right. It depends to an extent on your appetite for risk. The local trades will always say they don't give a toss until the soft and smelly hits a fan. SWMBO in our house has a simple way of putting it. "Have you thought about the injured tradesman's partner ?" Code for "Are we insured for the risk of a tradesman falling off the ladder?" We have Kwikstage. Why? The soft and very smelly happened. The contractor left our site for five weeks with 10 minutes notice one Friday afternoon. On the Monday after, (July 2nd 2017) a severe turbulent easterly gale blew up. Knocked a wall over. Scaffold contractor was on site a couple of hours later. We agreed - in terms of scaffold hire - it would take too long to put it right . It was taken down that day. The KwikStage arrived the following week. The business case for DIY scaffolding (not necessarily KwikStage) became compelling. It's fully insured. We are preparing to re-sell ours now. I expect it'll not take long to go. But I'm keeping a good chunk of it: too useful.

Seems simple enough ..... so far.

?

Of course, it would be silly not to make it accessible ( ? hadn't given it a thought). A 135 tee -double Dutch to me - but only for a few hours. Yet another steep learning curve eh? @zoothorn, you are not alone.

Enlighten me do ... pressure test ... blow down it, up it? At last, a genuine excuse to use my compressor ?

Nope. Bit by bit, I pop small bits of spoil each week in the recycling bin. They come and take it all away - no questions asked - every Monday morning. Amazing what a weekly cheery bit of banter and a Christmas box for the Recycling team achieves. Top lads! (well, there's one ermmm..... humourless too.)

Well lads, as you can see I'm well on the way to breaking out of Colditz. (And you thought Germans can't take the piss eh?) and that means I can shove a bit of pipe on a 135 bend ... This is the full schema. Remember I ask ze qveschuns yes? Solvent weld or push fit ? And vy?

Easy there Tiger. You'll have to hold your own for now.

It could. But it won't. The building sector has no incentive at all to make substantial change. The training infrastructure isnt there, the political will isn't there, developers have a strangle-hold on the supply chain. I am building an ICF house. Locally the level of disbelief in anyone building something other than entirely traditional house is substantial.

Last century, in Berlin, (1984) I'd regularly get shouted at by pedestrians passing my car while I was waiting in a traffic queue "Motor Aus! " (Switch Off!) And I'd reply just as tartly - Quatsch! Maul halten! (Rubbish! Shut yer face) Takes more fuel and causes more emissions, more wear, knackers the battery (I was told by my boss way back then) to restart the car than allow it to tick over quietly. Is it any different now?

I bet your SWMBO is pleased about that ...

Thank you very much indeed @JSHarris. That was very kind. Like the other man said was as close to bang on correct as you can get. (Typical ? ) For stiffness, I think that simply copying local practice will more than likely suffice: rip cut a piece of 4 by 4 along its diagonal and fasten. If I double this up on the longer 4 meter sections, and stagger the support timber so that each one partly straddles a neighbouring set of verticals then I will be able to sleep peacefully.

... louvres. I have this little problem In brief: how do I support our louvres? The end in mind is to remain comfortably tucked up in my little wooden bed, sound asleep when the inevitable hooley breaks. I can probably cobble something together myself just by looking at how local hit and miss boarding is supported in local barns. But our louvres are set 'on edge' , rather than face on like hit and miss boarding. Yes, @Russell griffiths, I'm probably over-thinking this, but I tell ya wot, I love my sleep - I need to be at least reasonably confident that they won't pop their moorings and smash down-wind windows. So, anyone know of an SE who has worked in this area? Or know someone who might be able to refer us to an appropriately experienced SE?

Hmmm - that's an idea. Faff I can do - ' long 's it's faff with a point. The last thing I want to do is be woken at 3 a.m. in a hooley to the resounding crack of louvres flying downwind - straight into our bedroom. Time to get an SE's opinion methinks.