ToughButterCup

Ughhh. Self-building isn't for the faint hearted is it?

It depends. Locally, (West Lancs) yes. There is no simple common standard to which builders and architects work. Our architect mutters darkly about builders doing what they want to anyway no matter how much detail is given, and builders mutter darkly about not enough detail in the Construction Drawings. Its another fine mess that they all got themselves into by not caring about communication. I cope with it by collating in great detail all the relevant information into one document. And provide a one page summary and a contents list. A slog, but it works. Eventually.

The same second hand little Honda generator has been running on the site next to mine for about 12 hours a day for the last three years. Very reliable. Annoyingly reliable.

Thinking long term....... what happens when you sell? how do you identify yours from theirs in 10 years? maintenance laying at the same time...... how on earth can that be organised - four contracts, possibly several providers It makes too much sense to do it this way. I mean if wimmin rooled the world it would be done the sensible way, but they don't. Yet.

In relation to the roof; I took a tile (given to me by the roofing company) to the Planner's office. The documentation - if you can call it that - was scratched onto the sample tile with a blunt chisel - the addressee, his department, together with my details and handed it in to the receptionist at the LPA head office. I had a nice time wondering how he might file the slate in his filing system. In relation to the windows, I submitted a brochure with the relevant page marked with a Post It. All very high tech.

Ok, I'll bite. Why?

She is absolutely right. I lost the will to live trying to understand it. ' ... overthinking it again, I suppose ... '

Thanks Nick. I was scratching my head a bit about our foul drain connection. My trouble is (among many other things) that I don't know what I don't know.

My experience exactly. Boring.

The delay in reduction..... It's opposite is increment delay; the delay in increase.

I think advice on flashing might well be specific to the produce being 'flashed' as it were. The best I can do for you is to point to this site and suggest you follow some of the links.

Only on Build Hub, folks, only Build Hub.....

Soon as that eh? My my.

You'll be aware of our little hiccup with a system that, ostensibly, didn't need bracing. And maybe Durisol doesn't - but it sure as Hell does if one of the people installing it has a criminal lack of care. Got the video. So, we had to make our own shuttering. Like this.... The photo shows the boarding on left ready for the second pour and the exposed wall just before being boarded (blue writing). We used 3 by 3 timbers and sheets of 22mm supported by through bolts - M12 , nuts, washers and bolts. Any scaffold planks we could scrounge were also pressed into service. Part of the issue to be considered will be the amount poured in any one session. We didn't pour more than 4 meters in one go. That is two sheets of OSB stacked vertically. In terms of cost, I have re-used almost all of the timber and sheeting, but not the threaded bar. Given lemons, we appear to have made some lemonade. By accident, not design

Yeah, but you're not experienced.....? ' Experienced ' is code for @Onoff or @JSHarris

Bump. Can I just check something, please? Would any of our more experienced members use only Quinetic light switches in a new build? Would it be sensible to have (say) one or two key lights switched by a more traditional light switch?

How the *king Hell do they manage to get away with that all the goddam time..... Debbie has stopped bothering to shuuuuush me when I shout at the TV

I'll see your knee, and raise you a hip. I find myself working out in advance how to get myself up using my arms before I commit to kneeling. I can't moan: I have had forty or so years of cross country and fell running out of them. Wasn't it the dear departed Terry Wogan who popularised the TOG saying: ' Never without pain ' ? Oh how I laughed - then.

Ay Ya dwahling, it was all rather left-field for me : one did suffer so....

And she was on holiday from Switzerland......... just awful, awful.

Beautiful animation of it all here. Quite simply the best use of JavaScript I have seen: ever.

Read about our fun fun fun experience with ecology have you? Here: have a good laugh

Our neighbours talk of them in hushed tones. Our friends look puzzled, and then after a few moments get that thousand yard stare. It’s easy to bore people when you mention the humble newt. But people on buildhub.org.uk searching for what to do about them in planning terms won’t be bored. So here is a summary of our experience in the hope that I can save you some time, money and worry. Quick Read: The great crested newt (GCN) is a protected species. It is unlawful to handle them (unless you are qualified) and illegal to -knowingly- injure or kill them. If you live near (250m) a pond, an initial survey must be done to see if they are present (as well as other species). If that initial survey finds evidence of them, a full survey must be done. That survey forms the basis of an application for a license to exclude GCNs from the construction area. The exclusion exercise must be properly run, and can take up to 80 days, during which time no other building work can be done inside the site boundaries. Imagine the rictus grin on our faces when we realised the consequences of our dear dear children’s favourite summer holiday pastime. Fetching buckets full of GCNs from the surrounding ponds and pools and putting them in ‘our’ ponds. We are, even as we speak, trying to reclaim the pocket money we gave them. Ah, such innocent times they were when it ‘were-all-green-fieulds-rouwnd-heer’ earlier last century. GCNs add at least a year to any building project; one bit of building-lore that we were told that seems to be proving to be true. We started planning our Outline Planning Permission application in January last year. GCNs are active when the outside air temperature is (roughly) +7C. And go to bed when it’s less than 7. So that makes their active time from about late April to early October. Right now (January) they are tucked up in bed in a foundation block near you, snoring gently. They are nocturnal beasts: so they are sneaky little things: you might spend all your life never knowing that a GCN is rat-like, never more that 10 meters from where you are. I overstate a little – mostly it matters not a tinkers cuss. But when you want to build, there’s no avoiding the issue. The full pre-planning application survey which must be done by qualified ecologists is, in essence, an educated guess at the population size. That survey (which will focus on other species too) forms the core of the application toNatural England (link last checked January 2015). I thought the survey we paid for was a definitive document. It isn’t. It’s an educated guess. The confidence levels in predicting population size on the basis of the ecologists’ survey is close to zero. Mustn’t grumble eh? We were given full planning permission to build in October 2015 and we've only just been give the EPS Licence (May 2016). A work schedule was agreed in October 2015, but not followed. I have expressed my disappointment in the appropriate places. There's a lesson then. Project management is important - the devil is in the detail. Costs? I’ll do a separate article about that. About £1500 spent getting us this far, and a guess of another £1500 at least for the next phase.

First of all welcome..... That'll do, ( ☺️) now then..... Which surveys have you had done? I ask because that's how I felt (they're pointless) about surveys before I started. At every build stage where the question (Have you had a survey of [xyz] done yet?) was asked by other professional people, being able to send them the relevant report was reassuring. And in one case (piling) had we not had a survey done then nobody would have taken us seriously. Surveys are about planning: risk identification and reduction.

We find our players at deserted house in the middle of the Elan Valley (of Offa's Dyke fame) Dramatis Personae: NFW Harsh task master, stickler for detail, permanently runny nose, and 3/4" spanner duct taped to his left wrist, roll of plumber's tape inserted in his his ear lobe, wearing an olive on each finger. Some say they were put there when he was 15 by his Apprentice Master : NFW seems to be carrying on in the same tradition..... Apprentice Rumored to be a descendant of Offa himself, is building himself a reputation for truculence. Refusing to take anything NFW says at face value, he is digging in for the long haul. NFW has tried often - without success - to brand him as 'his' by getting him drunk and forcing-fitting copper olives over his toes. There are now so many on each toe, the apprentice can hardly walk. The apprentice seems not to have noticed. The practice of force-fitting olives over toes is widespread in the Valleys. NFW: Oi! Boyo, see that snow box by there mun ? Its blocked. Well it needs a bucket o' steam to mek it work, like. Flush it out like. Yew need to go Screweys to fetch a bucketo steem luk..... Apprentice: Noooo. Gerrit yerself mun. NFW: Well we'll put the kettle on then mun; mek our own steam. It's OK, I'm on my way to to the cloakroom.