ToughButterCup

Exactly right. Get your spreadsheet out. Network.

And I have an excellent architect. Registered, tame, polite, gifted, sensibly priced. Can I suggest you 'waste' time on BH? Ignore the brickbats about your discipline. They are slightly relevant - but no customer is going fully to report their own shortcomings are they? So tales of difficulties with architects are unlikely to be objectively reported. The board contains ample primary evidence for your research. Few come here and tell us what they got right; most are asking for help. Very few posts go unanswered. So how can you tailor your service to people like us? Listen. Read your customer. Connect. Build trust. Explain simply. Signpost self-support. Offer further engagement as required. Principally, connect.

This is all far from easy. Preparatory work is almost never wasted. Some basic considerations (forgive me if I write about an issue that has already been covered) What's the end-in-mind? How will that be financed? How soon do you want the work done? How much time do you have to run the project? How much and what type of support do you have in place? I am always amazed by the level of commitment and energy shown by BH members - many of whom do a full time job. There is a core of BH folk who are old codgers like me: retired, recalcitrant, pig headed, determined. We have time. We are probably not too fussed about schedules, and likely can finance our way by selling our current house. Some are more fortunate than that. And we are unlikely to be building to sell and move on. Many combine standard 'normal' family life with self-building. Energy levels off the scale, fantastic personal organisation, significant technical understanding and experience, and a network of mates 'who-know-how-to' [...], loads of grit and determination. How they do it, I honestly don't know. Some do it serially. Guessing between the lines (let alone reading between them) it might help at this stage to write a simple cash flow forecast, set a budget, ask for fee proposals (for example some or all of these: SE, architect, architectural technician, solicitor, building planner, soil survey, topographical survey, ecology survey) and then take some decisions. At this stage forget the Builders' Merchants: too early. There is much to be gained by networking both on and offline. Read the PP with very great care. How with the foul drainage be sorted out? No off mains drainage no house. How long has the barn been on the market? Why? Ian

Thanks for taking the trouble to start this post. Mixing theory and practice is an interesting and particularly useful approach - because it helps us decide why not to do something we might reasonably be expected to do. I am toying with the idea of piping cold water only round the house - to three sinks, a shower and to a SunAmp PV. Heat will supplied by under-sink heaters of some sort Why? Simplicity. And because of standing heat loss, lack of space, lower cost and maintenance. In a house built to almost PH standards, electric underfloor heating and a high spec MVHR system means that there isn't any requirement for water-based heating. So to address your final point directly, would it be possible to consider cold supply only in the overview, pease?

No, it's not normal.

The job requires tests to three piles. One has already been done. (11 tonnes on a single 4 m pile) The hydraulic jack needed failed between tests, so there has been an enforced delay. Your point about transport is EXACTLY correct. I wrote a carefully worded Traffic Managementment Plan, and sent it to the TCVibro. They outsource their transport. I am not sure what happened, but the rig arrived on a low loader with a fairly cross driver. He needed a good deal of reassurance and charm to bring him down from his annoyance-induced high. As luck would have it, Daniel Cowley -our Groundworks Company- was there as the rig arrived. Daniel had brought his 16 tonner, dumper and other gear (by sheer chance) on a bigger low loader than the one needed for the 42 tonne piling rig. Daniel's brand of no-nonsense plain talking to the driver was a significant asset. It was then left to me to do the soft stuff: bacon butty, coffee, drive around several exit routes with him for reassurance. For the return trip, I am trying to arrange that the company rings me before the rig sets off. At least I can meet the driver a few miles out on the A6 and we can agree a strategy in relation to unforeseeable hiccups - like people parking in the lane and going for a walk blissfully unaware that a piling rig will be passing a few millimeters away from their brand new Ferrari. By then, of course, it won't be my problem. But, no need to spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar, eh?

Yes @MikeSharp01, it was a baptism of fire. And I do remember the thought that 'nothing-will-be-as-bad-as-this' when the the rig engine shut down for the last time. Swiftly followed by the thought that this board is full of cautionary tales, and full of support for people who have been through far worse. I can see the rig from the office window: sitting there putting many tonnes of pressure on two piles. The first test completed yesterday, showed that a single pile took in excess of 11 tonnes on a wall that will, at most, need to take 4.... serious engineering indeed. The SE's PI must be expensive eh?

I can't wait to sell mine. It'll mean I have done the job. It'll be a gut wrenching sign of success. God I love that little thing.

That's a generous description. I'll take a few minutes tomorrow to jump up on the rig and take a few close up photos. It looks like a lot of hydraulic gubbins are needed to grasp the probe in the first place and then shake the living daylight out of a tonne of stone plus the weight of the probe - and ram both four meters into the earth (6F2 to. 38 of a meter) . The ground visibly bulges like a bow wave around the probe as it descends, perhaps bulging by 50mm sometimes more. I'm told the power plant is an 8 litre beast.

That's a very flattering comment. Thanks. It's an issue that needs to be addressed. How do we make the complex simple? Online stuff needs simplicity at its core.

You see before you an extremely relieved person. 64 piles in, done, dusted, testing happening now. I'm trying to remember when I was so nervous for so long.... and can't. Tucked up warm and comfortable on our bed, and lying in the crook of my knees, the cat growled - he's never done that before - a car had parked outside the house and stopped at stupid o'clock. It was the pile driver chappie arriving a day early. Swiftly followed by a 42 tonne rig.... thus; and before you could say 'That's Big', this happened The piling probe (called a poker) that sits on the front of the rig looks like this Big innit? So how does it work? The rig picks up the poker (heart-in-mouth-stuff), and when positioned correctly, vibrates the poker into the ground to a predetermined depth: in our case 4m or less if refusal occurs before that point. But the trick is to tip some stone into the hopper at the top of the probe. Pull the probe back up a bit, reinsert the probe (into which more stone flows), compact, and do that a few times until the pile is made. Now, this thing vibrates. A lot. So for fun I did this with a bowl of water and some Vimto. Cos frankly, it worried me.... there's a water pipe running very close to 4 of the piles (2m) Not much, but it's hardly a scientific test. Town And Country Vibro set up a wobble meter (forgotten what it's proper name is) which is connected to a modem so the Head Office can see how much wobbling is going on. For comparison I went up to my office and had a look at my wobble waves there. None, or almost none. That did absolutely nothing to allay my fears of bursting the water main. We had prepared properly, though, thus; Man was I relieved when the vibration stopped. No leak, No fountain, no bill from United Utilities. That's not going to stop me taking photographic evidence of the pipe and pit when the road plates come off on Monday and it gets back-filled. Only to bump into a cliff-hanger on the last pile The probe had hit a glacial boulder smack in the middle and split the stone such that the remains filled the exact diameter of the probe. So none of the stone fill could flow into pile hole. Jammed. Solid. Four lump hammers and one sledge hammer all hitting the probe at the same time. Me hitting it as hard as an old codger can; which was a sight harder than the lads were. Too much invested in this pile.... Plop. Out it fell after 5 long minutes. Angels sang Heavenly music when the 8 litre engine stopped and the foreman jumped down. "Ya weren't worried were ya whack?" he asked grinning like a Cheshire Cat. "Naaah" I lied. Ian

Grass was invented by wimmin to keep men out of the way for a few hour every week. I'm with you on this one. How many hours of my life have been wasted by grass? And I'll never get hem back

My God it was brilliant fun. Just fabulous. Its so stable and smooth. And easy to nick the track with the bucket teeth because it's got a quick hitch, and so the arm's that bit longer. The controls are exactly the same, except for foot pedals which makes spinning off (is that the right term?) much much easier. 37 tonner due to tomorrow with a stonking great big vibro thingy on the front; the contracts manager has promised me a go on it. It's their smallest machine. (!) And @MrsRA choses today to go to Copenhagen for a girls bonding session. When she could have had a go on the the piler. Oh dear. Never mind, what a shame.

like this.... Rig arrives tomorrow - a day early ! More pics then. Ian

Mine is on Saturday. We are just digging round the water pipe now and suspending it so that the vibration has less effect. Keep us posted! Ian

Smells like a bit of a try on? Care needed.

Mmmm, lovely. Except those that were from the compost heap.

@JSHarris, your hard evidence is not what sales folk want. But it is exactly what I need, so as usual, thanks. With, in my case 60+ years of being told to put-another-log-on-the-fire, and a few years of Uncle Tom Cobley and All looking at me in disengaged disbelief when I talk of Passiv standards (about two cat's worth of heat per per meter squared per annum), I have come to realise it's HARD for anyone to get their head round how little just a little heat is (Apologies @SteamyTea) And when the listener has nothing, nothing at all invested in your house, disengagement on the part of the listener/ reader is the norm. @Redoctober's summary of the arguments is interesting. The psychology related to warm wet feet appears to be important. We (almost all) have very little experience of ablutions where we have warm soles, but cold lower legs - because yer legs are wet, and your soles warmed by ufh. An expensive Afghan rug would have the same effect -but be really stupidly impracticable. What @Nickfromwales, you've got two afghans (his 'n hers) in your shower? Soz mate!

@PeterW, I look forward to your missive.

@MrsB. Read. Network. Read. Worry. Read some more. Go down the pub - forget Rinse Repeat. Ian

I'd missed that one. Thanks. Ian

It's the whole point for us....... and we usually end up cringing. With embarrassment.

Morning @MrsB. Welcome. Is this too early to nudge you into thinking about one or two things? I am guessing- please forgive me if I'm wrong. You might be some way away from a main sewer. I read the words '...viable...' above. No foul drainage, no house. Get that issue sorted early on in the development. Have a read of this Please don't confuse my status as Admin with expertise. I am not an expert. But my heart was in my mouth the moment I realised that lack of a foul drain would mean no house for us. Don't worry too much; at this stage finding out the exact details in relation to drainage will useful information in preparation for an eventual exchange of contracts. When there's a hiccup, come back to us and we'll all pile in to help. Ian

I think one important factor to add to the decisionmaking process is your degree of personal involvement in the build. I am very involved, and so I am doing a good deal of interpretation of the architects submission to the BCO. For example this week I have decided we need a simple table of levels to which everyone (all trades) can refer. The information is available in the drawings, but it's difficult to extract because it's to be found spread over several separate drawings, some from the architect, some from the SE, and (in our case) from the piler. Reading that material with care has been most instructive for a first time self builder like me. No matter who drafts which drawing, there will be a need for coordination. A professional colleague being 'just-down-the-road' could be an asset. But proximity is no substitute for good interpersonal chemistry.

I am not concerned to gain Brownies. I like them, but at my age it doesn't matter....