ToughButterCup

A peace and quiet spur says Debbie

I am in the course (curse) of ripping out old, semi-dead badly maintained fences. Part of the process is talking to testy neighbours about what the actual line is.

Nothing to do with evidence, or experience. Much more subtle stuff going on here. Just Do It Ian

3:00 am, bolt upright in bed: I didn't check the positions of the piles yesterday. Ahhhh: concreting tomorrow. Bugger. Why the panic? Read on. We have ground improvement stone columns (often misnamed piles) put in by these guys. (Town and Country Vibro ) They gave us a piling design, put in the piles, and a piling log, together with the test results. Spent £6500 putting in over 60 'piles'. I think that's bloody good value - £60 quid each for a stone column about 4m deep and 500 mm wide. All put in by a very very nice man called Jay. And tested to way over what is needed. Come to digging out time to lay the strip foundation and I see something suspicious: have a look at this The inset is from the piling design. All we could see (at the time) was that we had cut into the side of a pile, not the top of it (we thought it should be pile 40) which was way off the centre line (light green line) Cue panic. Cue phone calls to Architect and Tanners. Cue cup of tea. Outside, crowbar and shovel in hand dig around. And there minding its own business was pile 40: we had cut into the side of pile 39, as indeed we should have done. The colour of the stone in the stone columns is EXACTLY the same as the surrounding clay. Add a splash of water and you just can't see the pile. I won't forget pile 40 - ever. We'll be pouring concrete at 3:00 this afternoon - unless we lose another pile. (I've prodded each and every one: they're all there: thanks Jay). Ian

You have more courage than I do. While admitting I probably haven't done much research on the issue (but having followed the linked discussion), I wonder if you'd be kind enough to tell us how you arrived at the decision to install this system. I suspect that factors other than cost were involved. What were they? What type of reactions have you had? If the topic comes up in conversation, what do guests at your house say? What does your BCO say about it? Have you had any interesting challenges from other professionals? I ask because the system answers a problem that, I suspect, stops some people from building their own house. I know for certain, from personal experience, that the system is widely used in Germany; there, the whole topic of 'issue' is no issue, as it were.

No hole? Too simple? Ian

Not acceptable. Ian

LMAO

@swisscheese , moments like that are character-forming (I tell myself). However, in relation to discussions with Councillors, I find myself less tolerant, less generous in my interpretation of obviously avoidable insolence. "I don't believe that any house with space for 5 cars is going to have only two bedrooms." said straight-faced by the now Chair of the Parish Council at a public meeting. Debbie's stiletto digging in my foot forced a painful silence. The Councillor didn't even have the good grace to blush during the ensuing pause.

DP = Double Pole? SWA = Steel Wire Armoured? CU = Consumer Unit? Waterproof Gland = one of these? Henley = a connector like this? KMF = a fused main switch - one of these ? You lads with your lingo..... It's good for me to feel flummoxed by techie terms occasionally. I do it too often myself. Ian

According to our DNO, our meter tails must be no longer than 2 meters. Really? I expect I haven't been asking the right question(s). 2 meters means that the meter must be installed within the heated envelope of our house. It's not that I begrudge the meter its rightful place in the world, but 2 meters? REEaallly? I'm looking to the Collective Wisdom to come up with a stunning plan to allow me tails of about 8 meters: because that's where I (the customer who is nominally King) wants the meter. Why should we keep the DNO's meter nice and warm? Ian

Mouldy, mouLDY MOULDY?

Glad I'm not the only one...... (not to have got it the first time)

Ahhhh, right, click. You are creating a space in which to insert a ready made shower tray. Not creating a shower tray out of the concrete.... Told you I feel like a Bear-With-A-Small-Brain today.

That'd be so kind, Mike. Thanks Ian

Objections: forewarned is forearmed. Here's some practical help May I suggest that if you are pressed for time you follow the link (above) to the Government's own advice of what cannot be considered. My oh my, sooooo much rubbish is routinely talked about planning proposals.

Breaking ground today and your post is therefore particularly welcome. Help me @MikeSharp01 get my head round this, please.... In the photo above, the former shows how the foul drain is connected to the shower drain the holes in the former allow you to check that the concrete has flowed to the level of the bottom of the former and the final level of the concrete will be level with the top of the former The floor make up elsewhere will be (say) 25mm higher than the top of the former It's Monday, and I feel like a Bear-With-A-Small-Brain today. Have I got this right?

Exactly. That's what I remember. The insulation might well handle it, though. I'll be interested to see what happens Ian

indeed.

@Onoff, tell me I've got this wrong..... UFH under the wet area of the shower floor? I kind of wince at the thought of heat near the shower drain. Evaporation......

£5.00 per hour. Worth double that for the entertainment value. The image of him using a blower to clean the bed of a low loader will stay with all those of us who watched it. Billows of dust arcing high into wind and descend in a dense cloud round his head. Priceless. The way he attacked a huge lump of best Lancashire Glacial Till with a house brush had us all pi55ing ourselves. And his idea of steel-toecaps had the ground workers enjoying themselves stamping on his toes. "I say! That was decidedly uncool Mr Simpson" "Less uncool than dropping that road plate on your foot eh?" Off he went to buy a pair of Aldi's finest Worth every penny. Ian

6F2 (recycled) as opposed to 6F5 (fresh). 2 is £9.20 per tonne and 5 is £10.50 round here.

Bush Telegraph?

Seriously, teenagers is where its at (man)