ToughButterCup

I deliberately went round local building sites and watched carefully. I saw everything from excellence (Network Rail sites) to utter, dangerous confusion. Now Debbie asks if, on driving past a worksite site, I want to stop and look. Occasionally I do. And I always learn something. I went into several sites armed other hard hat and hi viz and asked the Site Agent if I could photograph the Kwikstage so I could teach myself how to organise it well. Got the odd strange look, but frankly, it's worth it. All the agents asked agreed to me spending time just looking at how the sites were organised. A few were really interested in our self build. There's loads of good will for self-builders. (Except within sight of the build, where there's a surfeit of jealousy)

Novice? Novice ? Every day I go out onto my build I have nearly no clue as to how to do what's been planned. Often, just a bit sick with worry. Take yesterday's cockup for example . It took BH just 10 minutes to sort it out. (Thanks @Dudda and @ProDave ) This is the UK Novice Central. You are in excellent company. And as for saving money, I'm on £12 / 13 k at the moment . This is the most supportive community I have ever found online.

I part company with you at the word resulted. @PeterW will be along in in a minute to dissect the 85% statement above.

WhadaPlonka I'm really tired. I'll take the hint and stop for the day. The next mistake will be worse. Cheers @Dudda

'Old on a minnit...... I'll just try it.....

Have a look at these: if you've built with Kwikstage, you know what's wrong. I've tried loads of fettling and naggling. And you can see that I've thought of a 'fix', but 'ees a bodge, and I no like 'em. Not a pretty sight is it? Honestly, I must have spent an hour fiddling about: I took it all back down and started from scratch. I measured the diagonals - all within a few mill. Whas' goin' on eh?

Its what you have. Making the best of it is the trick. I have a reasonable site with lots of 'space' which I cannot use. But one side of the site I have about 8 meters for storage space. So I found some stillage cages and bought about 10 or so. Made some shelving out of scrap. Got some scrap corrugated sheets and made some roofing for it. That means I can stack light-weight stuff on the top shelf and heavy things on the bottom. Ladders can be stored on the tin roof. Doubles the storage volume, but much more importantly, I can easily see where stuff is.

If you stumble, it's more likely to be because you are tired. Years of training soldiers taught me that a stumble is the first sign of tiredness. They stumbled whether they were wearing boots or cross country-running shoes, on a mountainside or an assault course . I live in the Lakes and when friends come to visit I used to (not so much now) take them up on the fells. A stumble is always a cue to watch for the next one and a reason for increased caution. These trainers (clickable link here) are for me a sensible compromise. have a look at the Safety Rating too (in this case S3 WR SRC) . Boots on their own won't cause a fall. They will hold your foot in place better during falling and on impact, though - as in slipping on wet ground and twisting on the way down. The tipping point for me is the shoe / boots weight and my knackered hip. The ones I have now are so light that I can wear them all day without needing some WD40 for the ball and socket joint at the top of my leg. And just because I know you'll love this, here's the H&S guidance

You aren't thinking about not having some form of toe / foot protection are you now?

That was a key decider. I'm doing so much ladder work and klettering aboot the place , and will be for a year or so, that decent footwear is key. The bridge under the foot arch is well made too. There is so much poorly made work clothing around : it's almost as if the construction sector doesn't care about it's workers. It's very poor.

Now, why so heavy ?

My toes on Saturday. The bridge of my foot is still painful. Mending a broken sledge hammer shaft: the head fell off after I had ' mended ' it.

OK Dad.

Yes: I winced a bit but..... I can hardly feel them - lighter than a normal shoe: already managed to drop a sledgehammer hammer head off the workbench on to them. And my annoyingly old hip has stopped hurting since I started wearing these.

Yes, been there, got the annoying T shirt. Thats why I have a pair of these... Debbie can't get me out of them: too comfortable

Our 7 meter Glulam is only some 160 kilos in weight. The original plan was to get a crane and pop it in that way. But 160 kilos, I mean .... 160... that's just a bit heavier than me after I have had a serious curry. So, thinking about a telehandler or pulleys or something. Thinking Out Of The Box anyway. Yes, I know, thinking's dangerous. But 160 kilos for Gods sake. 'S nowt.

'Smells' to me like a missing 'path', as in footpath.

And I bet ours won't be able to tell the difference between French and British oak (for our shakes) In fact, neither would I in a 'blind tasting' as it were.

Hmmm. Anyone tested this? By buying a 'non-mandated' or 'unacceptable' product? As in you only know what you can't do when you try it on. Just like we all do all the time.

Simple professional concern. I'll sell it as '... belt and braces approach.... ' If that approach works for @Nickfromwales, it'll work for us. Thanks. Slightly easier night's sleep ahead, methinks. Ian

Yes @StructuralEngineer.... my finger-tips tell me you are likely to be correct. And more to the point, your point needs careful consideration because of the evidence you bring to the discussion. I sense a delicately worded conversation with the SE coming on. Could you bear posting a few references that are accessible online , please? That way I can pretend that I found them for myself and start a professional conversation. Whats needed here is a blend of your idea with the one that our SE has proposed. And that shouldn't be too hard now should it?

Hmmm, @StructuralEngineer This is the sketch our SE gave us ( posted here as an annonymised image), and the steel erection company appears to have followed that.... and this is (verbatim) the email from our SE '... The spacings between the 4 holes appears to be 50mm from the photograph, where 48mm is the minimum requirement, so it’s ok in that respect. The top hole is the only questionable one, where again, 48mm is the min. required distance between the centre of the hole and the top of the glulam beam. So, it all depends on where the top of the glulam beam is relative to the top hole. It’s hard to judge this from the photo. Perhaps, the glulam can be located slightly higher up than the plate to ensure this 48mm distance is achieved? If not, then the plate could be cut off and relocated further downwards. So overall, the plate is fine, but it may have to be repositioned in order to achieve the required distance between the top hole and the top of the glulam beam. ...' As written, I conclude that the key issue is the distance from the top of the Glulam to the center of the first hole. So, I will double-check that when the rain stops, and post the result. Your post, @StructuralEngineer is interesting. The idea you cite seems to me to be analogous to a joist hanger. The single glulam (270 by 140) covers two spans one just under 3 meters to a central concrete pillar, and then a further 4 meters or so to the other edge of the ridge. To be clear, I am not asking you for a professional opinion. I am also aware (from direct experience in this build) that SEs faced with the same building problem come up with different answers. It seems I have a choice now. Interesting this self-build lark innit?

... and photograph it before and after. Posts like yours keep me coming back to BH. Thanks very much indeed. Ian

Right. That'll do for me. Thanks @dpmiller When the rain stops, I'll go and photograph the other side and post below. Everyone who knows anything about welding - and who has commented - has had nothing good to say about the quality of many welds on this job. The apex weld (the one shown above) was done in the workshop. How does someone like me (a beginning, infrequent hobby stick welder - famously dubbed by @Declan52 a 'braille welder') judge the quality of a weld? Or more accurately, when should I reject a weld? I am aware of the arguments about Domestic Customer and so on... But the issue comes down to, for something as minor as this (we aren't talking about welding in a jet engine) '... Who should check this weld to ascertain that it is of a sufficiently high quality to do the job?..... That said, I have seen some beautiful welds (since I started dabbling) To an extent, I think I can recognise excellence - on the surface of a weld at least.

Yes, @MikeSharp01, that had not escaped my notice either. There are other welds that are similarly poor. Me being the expert welder an' all ! For those in the North West of Lancashire who might need some steel work done, PM me for the name of the company to avoid. This isn't the place, but I wouldn't want any others on BH to be similarly disappointed.