ToughButterCup

Right: got it: it's going in the wall. Now, where's that router?

Working in East Berlin and behind the Iron Curtain for a few years made me acutely aware of the difference of non Party Otto Normal Burgher, (The Average Joe) and a Party member (of any rank at all). In contract negotiations, it enabled Party Apparatchiks to say to me without a hint of shame '... We may be dealing with your company, but you are still a Class Enemy...' Otto Normal would never have said that. He might have thought it, but would not have shown it. If you haven't seen it, watch this film: it accords directly with my everyday experience. The Lives of Others. I even had a KGB minder - all of us who worked there did. Lovely jovial bloke; we went diving together on many occasions. Relating this to the thread: The Average Joe could ignore -had to- involvement with anything controversial, anything which might lead to Police involvement. I read that the person who carried out this bombing appears to have hinted at fringe behaviour '...But others had a different recollection. Mohammed Saeed, a senior figure of Didsbury Mosque and Islamic Centre, said Salman Abedi had looked at him “with hate” after he gave a sermon criticising Isis and Ansar al-Sharia in Libya...'. (Guardian online May 2017) In Germany (of the 1980s) such open (there, at that time '... hate-in-his-eyes...' would have been 'open' ) behaviour and might well have lead to the start of covert surveillance. We now know how all-pervasive surveillance was at that time. That'd be too much for today, for here. But ask 22 sets of parents, 22 families (apologies if I have the number wrong), all their friends and acquaintances. I really don't mind SIS or MI5 or the Police poking around in my Social Media. And I make myself change passwords fairly regularly, never open apparently pointless emails, let alone the attachments. That's all I can do. To adapt Timothy Leary : Switch On, Tune In, Think, Watch Out is all I recon we Otto Normal folk can do.

I can't answer your question @jamiehamy. But I am grateful to social media - a mask behind which many think they can hide - for exposing what's behind the mask. I read the same ugly, ill-informed diatribes on social media in German, French, Italian and Murican. It's not confined to the UK. Many are unaware how they expose their Id with a few unfiltered taps of a mobile phone keyboard. After all POTUS does, so what's wrong with splurging the contents of that sump which passes for a brain?

Sounds like a job for @JSHarris level of analytical skill. He might not be feeling well today.....

As a first step, what's wrong with that? Then find out why the summer by-pass appears not to be working.

The cowardice of attacking a group of young people -the softest of targets- takes my breath away.

Thought so, thanks. ian

Our services design shows plumbing runs in screed of the ground floor. A big bit of me wants to avoid that. There seems to me to be no good reason to run plumbing where I cannot access it easily and quickly. What have I missed? It seems too simple to just shove it in the ceiling space. Ian

Thanks very much J. Ian

She fell in love with LEDs. So much so that I recon we might be able to install a 12 volt circuit in the kitchen and bathroom. I've searched for "12 volt circuits" here, and there aren't any. Do I really have to have a forest of sockets and transformers under the work surfaces or hidden above and behind cupboards? With all the warnings that @JSHarris has given us about cheap noisy LED drivers full of RF interference, I'm wondering; for 6 sets of LEDs in the kitchen What's the lowest number of 12 volt circuits I can get away with for the kitchen ? Should we have a separate 12 volt circuit, or should we just install a/c sockets and plug each string of LEDs into them? Very roughly, what's the maximum lead length for bell-wire size DC circuitry? Is it worth getting hard-core about this (for fun) and install our own transformer(s) Anyone know of good online reading about LEDs in house builds?

Ed, Another way of looking at it is that you would have independent evidence of what is a reasonable rate to charge. On another matter, does Faye own a nailer? If so, I'd be checking my shoes first thing in the morning. Might find them hard to pick up.....

Declan I would not know what to do if I got hold of one. But if a bad woman was packing a Dewalt Nailer, then that would be different.

SPON'S (2016) Architects' and Builders' Price Book, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, 141st Edition. The superb thing about it is that you also get an searchable electronic copy, and that means (using this thread as an example) you can search for all instances of 'blocks' in Approximate Estimating and, or, for the same term in Price's for Measured Works. Having both the online copy and the physical book open is -for a neophyte like me- a real help. It means at worst that there is a reduced chance of me making a howler, and watching local trades people snigger when we walk into our local. A view of all instances of 'blocks' with the book itself also open gives a real overview of how 'blocks' are used. I sometimes sit in the evenings and read the book.... Just a set of lists. Sad, but true. 'Will you walk away from and fool and his money? If you want it, here it is, come and get it, but you better hurry 'cos it may not last....Did I hear you say that there must be a catch? Honey if you ....' (forgotten the rest)

Buy the book Ed ..... It only costs as much as a good night in the pub

Vacuum storage bags is the answer folks, vacuum storage bags. It's amazing how well I can think after a quiet pint or two .... Still

Hi folks, This is what I mean; I have no interest in SPONS Architects' and Builders' Price Book. Expensive, but -for what we are doing - worth it. There are four pages of the book about block work prices. Ian

Hmmm. It's May not April. And, of course it'll work for rip saw chains as well as cross cut. Anyway, I like sharpening my saw chains. Helps me avoid kitchen cleaning up duty...

@Ferdinand must have started the Friday-Night-Is-International-Party-Night a bit early.

You may laugh..... Lots of our stuff has already gone to charity shops. Much more to follow. I'm trying to guess how much Hugh's likely to charge for a wee nook in his palace for Debbie's tutu...... Waralora stoof ya gather over the years!

During a build, inevitably there comes a time when SWMBO needs storage for her ball gown. And tutu. But self builders know that their lives are full of dust, damp, fumes, paint and swearwords. And Debbie wants her ball gown suitably protected. And I don't want to pay much. Oh, and by the way SPONS hasn't got a 'Store-Your-Ball-Gown' section. How (never mind how much) have you stored your precious clothes?

PM me the spec. Yes.

I have never made the mistake of telling anyone that I use the book. But I have smiled and politely and declined several estimates on the basis of what SPONS suggests. Neither do I begrudge anyone what they think they are worth. At the same time I do not want to be taken for a fool. Take piling for example: I had four estimates ranging from £15 to £22k. I paid £6,500 for piles . SPONS costs £150. I had some ground work done; actual cost £3000. Two quotes came in at over £11,000. SPONS makes it very clear that there are local variations. I suspect that prices in Sandbanks vary greatly from those in Poole for example. I use SPONS precisely because I know naff all about building.

But the task is of a known size. That - in conjunction with SPONS - makes it possible to make a judgement on whether the day rate is reasonable. SPONS has saved me about as much money as buildhub.

It doesn't matter: you have a known area to build; multiply that by the price per meter. SPONS itemises both labour and material costs, and makes an allowance based on Outer London being the base price; Lancashire's price will be about 0.96 of that price. Your neck of the woods , Ed is about half Outer London cost.... Too easy, too open to inspection.

SPONS sorts out that problem by citing a price per square meter.