ToughButterCup

I do remember our discussion about dependent and independent variables : he knew his stuff. I remember that just as clearly as the water coming in over my soggy running shoes - the sand and mud stinks out there: he was working on the saltings a mile or so out from the shore. He had had the sense to wear boots.

Wish you'd been with me Ed: it would have been informative to listen to you both discussing the issue. I might just spend a little time looking to see if he published anything online. As it was, I thought the guy was one of those lucky people who can become delightfully focused on a tiny, rare something-or-other. And then do something about it. Would that we had more people who cared quite so much, eh?

Walking along the saltings on sea-front just south of Heysham power station I saw a man way out on the marsh, apparently aimlessly wandering about. He looked lost, perhaps confused. Given that the tide was coming in, and the areas reputation for suicides I trudged across the marsh to have a chat. He was a botanist, measuring the frequency of a unique and very rare marsh moth. His theory was that the temperature increase caused by the underlying electricity cable - the supply from the offshore Morecambe Bay Wind Farm - heats the underlying sand sufficiently to drive the moths away. God knows how big the cable is, but it isn't 10mm. How much warmer will your cable make the ground above it? Might it drive the Great Crested Newts away? Might it cook a few moths? Could you fry and egg on the earth above the cable?

That word : simplifying . Seems to me to be the key. And so hard to achieve. It implies knowing what really is complex and so could be simplified. This place is full of people trying to make the complex easier. So you are among like-minded people. All the more welcome then! We'll get there before we die, eh? ?

I dont care what anyone says, buying my own copy of SPONS together with the online access repaid the cost of the book many times over.

Morning @K78 Here you are .... this is based on SPONS 2016 prices - I'm not sure how to convert 100mm blocks to square meters - guess 10(?) If I'm right, that would be (24*0.96) / sq meter - say £23 per sq meter / by 10 = £2.30 per block. This screenshot is for EXTERNAL walls - Just in case you meant INTERNAL walls .... The numbers above are for Outer London, so multiply by 0.96 for Lancashire. (SPONS 2016, online downloaded 2019 ) Ian

No. I have help on the weekend, so sitting in the office shoving molecules round a hard disk doesn't count as sensible use of SWMBO's time. Got the guttering up. Its working hard at the moment. However, yearly income and expenditure review well underway this morning: only two Whassat? moments to date. Lunch and then gym. Monday's my day off. ☺️

I'm just beginning to understand the really deep meaning of the word infinity. The trick is trying hard to remain positive about it : you know the sort of thing - suffer from a bad dose of optimism bias.

Man up: build yer own. A few yards of 9 by 2 for the stringers and whatever is lying round the site for the treads - spare sheets of glass will do. ?

Brilliant. I cannot remember when last I saw a hedgehog in Lancashire. Maybe 20 years ago? More?

Come on lad, what's yer secret? Plenty come past our build every day. Not one of them stops. Most are running (away)

Ugh ... you ruined my Sunday morning now, ruined it I tell ya! I was successfully managing an @Onoff on the paperwork.

Just bought our cladding from ProWood in Wigan . We've bought Siberian larch; in the context above, the exchange rate was mentioned as the most important issue.

Yer a star, thanks. Ian

@jack, any chance of a photo? The reason I ask is that I don't have a clue about how big the gap should be. I'd guessed about 10 mm - busy going through cladding images looking for the shadows and trying to estimate how big the gap is ? Why not 20 mm, or 6?

Thanks, helpful. About the fixing - fix the insect mesh to the sides of the battens? I'm a Very-Slow-Bear this morning, with a 15mm shadow gap, how might that work then?

? I think they could both work; but what worries me is having membrane in direct contact with the cladding. There's a high chance of the membrane keeping moisture close to or in contact with the wood. Not good.

This thread is a very helpful discussion on some aspects of cladding. @Russell griffiths made the point that he wanted to avoid building an insect theme park as well as a house. In that context, it was suggested by @the_r_sole that the breathable membrane be placed on top of the supporting battens, and the boards directly on the membrane. That's a very appealing idea because we want to have 10mm shadow gaps. AKA an invitation to all invertebrates and some fauna to live happily ever after installing our cladding. Come to think of it, a tribe of Great Crested Bloody Newts would have no problem in setting up home in there either. So: membrane against the wall, battens on top then cladding OR wall, then battens, then membrane, then cladding Which?

At first sight, your answer solves the problem. But... Your suggestion means that the back of the timber would be in direct contact with the membrane. If that's the case, then would that not promote timber degradation where it is in contact with the membrane?

Yes. One. But is that advantage; low weight, worth it to you? I'm not as fit as I used to be - but even I can handle a four meter POSI entirely on my own: lift it off the wagon, stack it, store it, swing it into position, line it up with it's partners. But of course, my beer gut got in the way didn't it.... ?

Put those shorts back on @SteamyTea - might get lucky(ier) this time ?

Its 2019 for Gods sake! Why do people bother to even try?

SPONS takes some working at. Bear in mind that a legitimate copy also comes with a license to use the online version. That's useful because searching online for (say) MOT1 will find every instance - for our purposes read 'context' - of MOT1. Reading those contexts taught me a great deal. It also helps filter out that commonest of self builder problems crass overcharging. If you are not in the local building network (AKA drink in the right pubs) a copy of SPONS is a sensible precaution.

@Robert Clark, while JSH spreadsheet is useful, it is comprehensive to his build - not yours

I am itemising and checking over what I want to sell at the moment. It'll take me a while (month?) to get that done properly for all my stock. How much do you want? In total I have enough to do three lifts on two sides and two lifts on the other sides of a 10 meter by 10 meter house: but I'll need some of my scaffolding for a while yet. If you just want a small amount (three lifts over just under ten meters) I can release that almost straight away. Its all ready and properly stacked. In terms of price, I'll sell at the price I paid minus a bit for wear and tear. I have the invoice and I'll happily show any interested customer exactly how much I paid for each bit ( roughly (£7000 - for all of it). I do want to keep some. It's just too handy.