ToughButterCup

Ah, those pesky decimal places, some you win, others, like this one ,deceive.

Thanks very much indeed. I'll copy that recipe. We own the land immediately to the west (left, looking north) under which the line will pass, so there's no need for a wayleave - although the lass I was dealing with tried insisting that they would need to investigate whether one was needed. Good luck with that....

Got it in one. Build a bit of our front wall, and be done with it. Like this... (lime green dot below) Is there any reason why I can't ask for the boxes to go on the back of the wall, out of sight? Contestable? All of it except the bit where they wet their fingers, twist the wire and make the joint @Triassic, my fingertips are telling me the same story: the discussion with the Electricity Northwest rep was markedly casual, uninformed even: she constantly had to ask for advice from colleagues on what I assume are standard questions. Maybe she was in training. Adding a caravan connector is almost a no brainer. Jeremy, what's 'decent strain-relief'? (ExLax?) Thanks for the tip about HO7RN-F cable - didn't know what you call that nice heavy floppy cable. Thanks. Ian

Thanks for the support. I think the operator I talked to let the cat out of the bag when she said 'Most developers round here use generators....' And yes @Triassic, I will have to pay all over again if I get a temporary connection, but wait for it, -even if the temporary connection is in exactly the same place as the temporary one. So, it's a diesel genny for me... say 6Kv?

I'm trying not to laugh, but to ensure a temporary connection, I've been told I need a brick built cubicle. These are screenshots from the quote I have just received..... and here's the object of desire.... All for the knock-down price of £4000 I've missed something haven't I? Tell me it's not true, give it me straight men, I can take it. I'm ugly enough. It's the brick-built sh1t house that gets me...... Ian

Wyre Borough charges £24.

Hello and welcome. The question you ask is exactly the one I did a few years back. And the answer is in a program called PHPP, or quicker, cheaper and just as good (probably) is a spreadsheet written by one of our stalwarts @JSHarris Damn! I've lost it.... not to worry @JSHarris will be along in a minute. And anyway, I'll try and dig it out and attach it later. The PHPP cost me £200, allowed me to play with very many variables, and enabled a common sense compromise. At the moment we are aiming for 19W per square meter rather than the passivhaus standard of 15. Long term, the PHPP program (it's a spreadsheet with a good deal of VB in it) will save me an appreciable amount of money.

That's sheer genius @Onoff. It's genius because it's also easy to take down: loosen 6 bolts and that's it.

The second time the HERAS blew over I ended up parking my Land Rover against it, and securing it with really thick zip ties. I knew roll cages were useful for something....

There were a couple of years of planning, while we were talking about generalities , that I tended to overlook the number of German and Austrian products I looked at. And then @Bitpipe wrote that post about Megabad, and someone ( @Stones ?) asked me to do a bit of translation - as did someone else. How nice, I thought, they like German stuff. Me on the other hand, I wanted to buy locally - put money into local businesses and suppliers, use British products. Got to be cheaper. Well, here's a little list; Piling company: uses a 20 year old piling rig (Zeppelin) made in Austria, powered by an 8 liter Magirus Deutz "Best in the business" says the rig driver Doors and Windows: Gaulhofer - Austrian Thresholds : Purenit - Austrian Brickslot drains: ACO - German Build: Durisol: German design, ICF 40 years old, locally produced Bathroom kit: Geberit Washing Machine: Bosch Hand tools and workroom kit: Bosch. I am proud to own a DeWalt nailer though. Build Standard: passivhaus That's most of our budget spent abroad. I suppose some of these companies might have parent companies elsewhere It occurred to me today that I might as well hang the German and Austrian flags on our HERAS. That'd go down well on our lane - really really well.

The rules have already been relaxed somewhat. I would have had to reapply for my license in May. Now that date has been postponed to December. Why? No logical or scientific justification given. Cynical? Me? Yes.

what colour for the GCNs, Pete?

Plodding through our Mechanical Services architects notes, I read; '...Generally, the contractor should use the same trenches for other services, where possible, provided they are installed to the correct depth and distances between services are achieved....' And as luck would have it, I'd quite like it if our sparks and water shared the same trench - because that way we can keep them both at the very edge of our site, and protected from delivery wagons and errant Great Crested Newts (Found a large one minding its own business inside our bedroom last night: rare they ain't. ) But thinking about it, if I am to achieve that desirable state of affairs, and since both sets of contractors are never going to be on site in the same week , I will need to maintain the trench, and drain it aren't I? Oh..... and catch bloody GCNs in it. I'm thinking it ain't worth trying? Right?

Your 600mm challenge isn't too much of an issue. Provided you follow the General Binding Rules (I assume you live in the UK, apologies if I have that wrong). @ProDave's advice (above) is the most important thing to sort out first. Given that you follow those, then my research lead me to follow @JSHarris , @Stones and other's advice: choose a digester that has the fewest moving parts. And if there are any moving parts, don't immerse them in the raw discharge. Inevitably, they need maintenance. So we choose a digester that does nothing more than blow bubbles through the liquor. And the air compressor (the only thing with moving parts) will be held in our Winter Garden, so it can be maintained in the warm and dry. Push comes to shove, I can always get Debbie to stand there and blow down the pipe

You must be so relieved. And with Storm Doris just getting ready to test your tiles and windows, you'll be battened down with a big smile on your face. Ian

It was Trumped Up from the bottom of my id, Mike. Alternative Fact at best, cods wallop at worst. But normal for across the pond eh?

People this is FAKE noos, very bad Guardian reporters. Bovis inherited a mess. Give the builders a break. #makeBOVISgreatagain

Try JQuery and HTML with a bit of CSS. A morning's working on it will see significant progress. The JavaScript will rub off on you on the way past.

@JanetE, I have a file of notes taken from EB and BH, so I copy the relevant stuff here (from @JSHarris I think...) First the basics. There are separate HMRC forms for receipts where the VAT is broken out as a separate figure and where VAT is just included in the total price. HMRC will accept spreadsheets that look like these forms, and have told me that they are happy if there is an extra serial number column at the left. I'll post copies of the blank spreadsheet versions we used later, once I've cleared all the data out. HMRC need the receipts to be ordered in the same sequence as they are entered on the form, which is where the additional column is useful, as you can pencil a serial number on the top right of each receipt to more easily keep them in sequence. I found that we had loads of till receipts, rather than A4 printed receipts, and there are two main issues with these. The first is that they are heat and light sensitive, so keep them somewhere cool and dark or else they will fade. The second is that they are a pain to try and keep in order, so staple each one to the centre of a sheet of blank A4 paper. This then allows the serial number to be pencilled in the top right corner, makes them a LOT easier to handle and allows you somewhere to write notes regarding ineligible items and then write the calculated VAT or total price figure down. The latter is important. You need to go through every single receipt and check that there are no tools or other ineligible reclaim items on it, and if there are you need to mark them, recalculate either the VAT (for a receipt where VAT is given separately, or recalculate the total price (for a receipt where VAT is only included in the total price). The receipts need to be in date order and must contain evidence that you are the purchaser (so your name has to be on it, and for a till receipt this may well just be the name on the card used - so take care to use a card with your name on it). The receipts also have to have the sellers name and their VAT number. You cannot reclaim VAT from a non-VAT registered seller, or if the receipt doesn't have the VAT number on it. This latter point is a pain, as I've found several online sellers who fail to put their VAT number on the emailed receipt. In each case I've had to contact them for evidence of their VAT number, but things would have been a lot simpler had every original emailed receipt had the VAT number on it to start with. If I were doing this again, then I'd start by keeping better control of the receipts from the moment I received them. In the case of emailed or web page receipts, printed off, then I'd have checked straight away if they had all the correct information on (my name, suppliers name, VAT number, date, etc) and asked the suppliers to correct any that weren't in order. I'd also have started stapling till receipts to sheets of paper to better be able to file them and keep them from getting faded, torn etc. On some of these I'd have made pencilled notes on the attached paper that better described the items. B&Q, in particular, use a very abbreviated description on their receipts which makes it challenging to work out what the items are. Finally, I bought a lot of stuff via Ebay, at a good price, but virtually none of it has an eligible receipt. Many of the sellers are probably not VAT registered, but even those that are very rarely give a receipt with their proper company name and VAT number on, so unless you are saving more than 20% by buying on Ebay items may well not be the bargain they seem.

Advice Please! A triple glazing rep (Gaulhofer) is due to call tomorrow. And I don't want to look too much of an idiot when talking to him. So what should I look for, or ask about? I know the basic stuff about his brand of windows, like the figures for the glass and frame -they're all within the range for PH - if they weren't the rep wouldn't be calling. I need pointers towards what I should look for in terms of manufacture. I'm conscious of the recent thread on windows and security, so I'll ask about the relevant standards. But to be honest with you, at the moment, to me, windows are windows are windows. But I'll be spending a good chunk of our budget on them. .....Not a time to get it wrong.

According to my son, it's the weapon of choice in Morecambe.

I'm bumping this thread out of pure self-interest: our windows order date approaches. My lads partner is a CSI. I'll talk to her and see how much information I can find out about gaining access through windows: and strategies for making it harder. It might be that she can tell me more about how thieves cut themselves on the way in and out - but it's worth a shot innit?

Pin heads are small places. And self-builders have been know to err on the side of being assertive, @Mrs H. May I suggest a way into this market; a way which has low barriers to entry, and might be worth a little bit of investigation? I am willing to bet that there isn't one self builder who isn't welded to their computer - without the Internet, we'd all of us keel over and scream - it would hit us right in the bank balance. The Internet can be seen as part of the Gift Economy. Consider the many online channels you could employ to give some advice and assistance. Think about what types of support you could offer online (have a look at say, Emplaw, the Employment Law website as one model) There are many models; have a stand at the NSBRC in Swindon, attend self-build shows all over the place. Offer to give seminars and talks to self-builders. Link those activities to a developing Social Media strategy, and get yourself known on line as well as in person. Build a reputation for connecting with customers. There are lots of good media companies who run free courses on how to build an online presence. A few thousand pounds will see the job done well. Or you could look at a few small companies known to you and copy the Social Media model they use. For next to nothing. Whatever you choose, I wish you well. Ian

Credibility as a professional. The term Professional has a few interpretations, but the reassurance given by PI is a major factor in people's understanding of professional status. You can be a poor architect, and still have PI. At a slight tangent, @Mrs H, let's say an architect is removed from the register: would the now was-an-architect's PI be invalid?

Hello, and welcome. I have a quotation in front of me for our foundation. Looking at the detail I can already see a couple of minor errors: I already have the GeoTextile we need -deduct £280- , we don't need the MuckAway services (because we are on a slope and can handle our own surplus soil) deduct £960, I'll dig my own land drain, deduct a few hundred quid. As Jeremy (@JSHarris) says above, discuss price changes on a regular basis. And that means fostering a good working relationship with your contractor. Please keep the questions coming! Ian