ToughButterCup

Bliss, sheer bliss. Would have saved me thousands, and about a year. Ya live and learn, eh?

And you'd still be dead right.

That's a real shame for all concerned. Aesop's sucking his teeth. Be not hasty to envy the conditions of others

Yes. Unforeseen delay. One company we employed disappeared for five weeks: no notice - well that's unfair, they did tell us at 4.59 on Friday that they wouldn't be in the following week. Over a month later, they turned up. Discussions about the £585 scaffolding charge for that month were interesting. It was the scaffolder (a really decent local bloke) who warned me about the company. The scaffolder had just had to remove the boarding from another job to force the company to pay his bill. It was quite spectacular - I'd never seen a scaffolded two storey build without planks before: right in the middle of a local town.

I think that clause may well be common.

Our PP has the following Condition. PD rights have been removed. I understand that (locally at least) this is a common requirement. Not sure of the rationale, but there it is.

Welcome to the Avalanche Ski Club.....?

PMSL... wet the sofa, tea up my nose, cake stuck in my craw, coughing fit to cause a hernia. Seen this? or this? or read this? For a calmer take on things, read this ... The height at which the wall collapsed was 4 meters plus. You can (but dont ever try it) pour a complete house. I have seen it done. Its a stupid (and should be ) an unnecessary risk. The pour height issue is one where willies are waved and sales spin weaved..... I have a feeling that a good rule of thumb should be - dont pour more concrete than you are prepared to lose at any single pour. For me, thats about £500 (concrete, plus pump, plus reinstatement). Not all of the concrete poured will come out of any single block burst. Multiple block bursts will almost certainly be the result of negligent or criminal mishandling of the blocks or substandard blocks which should have been identified before placement.. Multiple block bursts are rare, but in our case - a godsend. I kid you not Read on

I've won one: the award for employing the nicest work-experience chappie. I get given pints every time I meet his dad in the pub - yes still - 2 years later! (Here's a link to the series if you are interested)

Having flooring cock-ups under my belt (including losing my trousers in the process) may I support what @PeterW says. Maybe I'm too used to coping with cock-ups, but now, I tend to shrug and get on with it far earlier than before. That doesn't mean I'm satisfied with shoddy work, or that I don't face the issue head on at the time . But lawyers, contracts - they win in the end, nobody else. I don't pay for shoddy work (any more) either. So come to an agreement about Pete's suggestion if you can, and part company company if you don't.

Who wouldn't? But I sometimes long for someone to give our J a really serious, well-argued run for his money: if only because we'd all learn far more from the back and forth. Expert power needs to be handled with care (because it's Personal power French and Ravens 1958 ish) . Otherwise, I do what Sue (above) does.

So that's where it is. I knew I was one short. Mystery solved

I do. We are. Keeps the kids away ; grand children are welcome to stay.

I missed that.... Come to think of it 4 tonnes of water has a significant thermal mass dunnit? (I'm off - no apology - too tired)

Tried BuildHub? All the right words, but not necessarily in the right order.

Arrrgggghhh, there ain't nothin' like a self-made planter ter warm the cockles.....

Got a concrete pour coming up? Use the excess. We have the screeders coming next week: I'm trying to find time to make a simple shallow 'tray' to absorb some of the excess. Got an old, shallow metal kitchen bowl? Force some sort of container into the bowl during the pour Got an old 25 litre liquid container? Cut the top off and force a couple of empty 5 litre containers into the 25 litre container during the pour. Pop a bit of scaffolding pipe through the bottom (drainage) Etc.

How much water is there in a transformer then, eh?

Yes. The discipline in our case wasn't the engineer, it was the ecologist. And the consequences cost us £6000. How to deal with it? Fulminate, swear a huge amount, get pissed. Calm down. Move on. When I see an opportunity for revenge appropriately professional feedback, I might just take it

I have 8 fingers left, of which 6 work well: the other two are only good for hooking underneath a pint glass and emptying the dishwasher - I can hang four cups on each - and I can hang unbelievably heavy weights from them - cant feel much. Used to teach: to base 8, not 10. Great fun watching kids count and re-count my fingers .....?

Before I forget, beware of the dust caused by trimming the blocks. It gets in your eyes - and its vicious. Get an eye wash kit. And some form of eye protection.

And level (or laser) or taught string line, or all three. Check every single block for line and level.... Twice or three times.

All I'm saying @scottishjohn, is that I've become much analytical - not to say critical- about what suppliers (of anything) send me. In this case, the lack of accuracy in something as simple as a building block causes significant amounts of aggro downstream. For which I, personally, this time, have had to compensate. Less aggro sending it back and insisting on accuracy next time.

Evidence? I'm not sure that one can distinguish between the level of inaccuracy in all three dimensions : because the inaccuracy to which you refer may well be caused by the variation in drying rates (I think). I say that because I have seen the production process in detail and looked at the drying process on the same trips to the factory. My guess is that inaccurately dimensioned blocks would be more likely to have been stacked on the edge of the drying stack. The drying process - after an initial drying period, takes place in stacks of blocks . Blocks on the outside of the stack cannot but experience different drying conditions to those in the centre of the stack - the production manager's argument was that all blocks are stacked in the same atmosphere - which was true. It would have been churlish of me (at the time) to push the point any further. But blocks on the outside of the stack would have been subject to drafts and local variations far more so than those inside the stack. All the blocks come off the (Austrian) block-maker correct to the millimeter. I know, because I measured a small sample in front of the manager. But to claim that there is (will be) a significant difference in contraction (solidification) in one dimension rather than all three needs evidence, please. Full disclosure: my house is built with Durisol, and while I would build another using the product I would sample delivered blocks at the time of delivery and reject pallets of blocks that vary more than a few ( 3-4) mm in any axis. Why 3-4 mm? Its a real pain in the Botticelli to compensate for more than 2mm variance in a layer of blocks.

Ed, I knew there was something I wanted to tell you.... These people also formed a consortium They are very approachable, friendly sometimes garrulous people. Idea?