ToughButterCup

Well, now I've got the story from the horse's mouth .... makes depressing reading, though.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. @MrsRA has a series of Kitchen designers in her sights.

Well @Nick, tell me will you, why I can't source British decent triple glazing? Oh, btw, welcome! Ian

@Redoctober I was concerned not to be more of a PITA than I need to be when talking to professional colleagues. Going over and over something a simple and trackable as levels and getting it 'wrong' made me think I was being stupid. Fear of exposure as an eejit...... The last thing I want is for an email from me to cause colleagues inwardly to groan at my stupidity, grit their teeth and wait for 48 hours before they reply. That's why I usually explain what I've done to try and solve the problem myself. As it is, Sam emailed me back within the hour.

That is the most reassuring thing you have ever posted.

I have been politely and probably correctly been taken to task on these pages for over-thinking stuff. And, I have responded Today, luckily, I have been found guilty of the above crime. Going over and over the levels for the piling mat and subsequent foundations - and getting errors - I decided to do some of the simple things that coders are taught to find errors in JavaScript or Flash Action Script. Print the levels out on a separate piece of paper. Read them 'differently' Make a separate sketch diagram : compare that with what you've got Annotate the diagrams you have got : use a pencil - don't look at the screen Go away and have a cup of tea and walk the dogs : forget the damn thing Sleep on it: and try not to let the niggle keep you awake : fail Sod it: email the architect - 'I expect I'm making some sort of stupid error, so would you help me .... this is what I have done to try and solve the problem for myself.....' 'Yes, here's the diagram... not to worry, this has the correct levels on it' I had been looking at 1100.D.7 for a few weeks. The correct file to look at was 1100.D.7B I know all the levels off by heart now........ FFL 27.650, Piling mat level 27525, Top of Pile 26925, Top of Pile Cap 27225. I could go on. Good for the soul this kind of stuff. Good for the soul.

Welcome. No. Get a sealed log burner. Get someone who really knows how to design it into the house. I haven't quite finalised the design for mine, but here's too much detail on how I arrived at the design we have - thus far. The low occupancy issue is an aspect I haven't had to consider. My first thought was that you might therefore be tempted to fit trickle vents. Probably not a good idea in terms of air-tightness. Given a SW orientation, you'll need to consider the effect of insolation. You are in Devon. Thus it might be an idea to run a PHPP model (£200 to get it done for you). Simple answer to insolation and low occupancy: draw the curtains before you leave. Or fit super-expensive treble glazing units with integral self closing blinds (Internorm). The principal advantage of that is you won't advertise your absence. @MrsRA fell in love with individual MVHR units built in to Internorm windows. Shockingly expensive, but in your case you might be able to get away with fitting (say) two of those instead of a bigger system.

Passive aggression is available to all.

How about Keep Calm and Carry On. or That Was Then and Now is Now

Well @noobuilder, its good to feel the energy in your enthusiasm. Now that, that takes skill. Ian

Good to see you back. The Internet is the place to find shared ignorance and thats why your technical understanding is so valued by so many people. People are allowed to be wrong on the Internet.

I'd change that slightly to, '... just enough and no more...' Reading similar successful applications might well be a helpful strategy.

Newts might do it for me.... I'll apply for some research funding

@IanR, not sure I need to come up with a properly specified request. Off to t' pilers again.

That's what I've come up with: maybe a water bowser or grain wagon - I'll just need to check the plated mass I suppose. Hmmm. Thanks Ian

Yo, just as I thought (suspected - logical thinking doesn't work on Fridays) if the mass of the counterweight is so large that it greatly exceeds the required 8 tons (in my case), then it doesn't matter.

Yes but in this video, the wheels stay firmly on the ground: Another case of 'Tinternet a place of shared ignorance' eh?

Well now, @IanR, have a leedle look at this then

This here piling mat that I'm sorting out needs to be tested with a plate test. And to do that I need an 8 ton reaction load. Following the by now normal steeeeep learning curve I learn from some that it is common to use a loaded 20 tonner's back axle, from others that I need a dead weight, like a 10 ton digger (no suspension). Where do I get a 'dead weight' 8 ton reaction load? (Keep it clean, please @Nickfromwales @ProDave) If I have 32 tons of lorry parked on my piling mat, and the test plate and hydraulic ram is put under the back axle, won't the test rig merely tend to jack the lorry back off it's suspension system? And thus invalidate the test? Here's an example of it done with a wagon (sprung) And here with a digger (unsprung) What I want is Vorsprung durch Technik, fellas! And it'd be good if I knew the right Technik.

Oh how I have come to agree with you: painful. A thorough check of an Invoice against the relevant counter dockets with my local BM showed an error - of £15 in my favour. It could just as easily have been the other way round. And I have only checked a small sample. I had become sloppy at keeping the dockets and then checking them against the invoice. All the dockets are hand-written - sometimes so sloppily that I once remarked .... 'I'd love to meet the person who taught you to write'. Not joking, his writing looked like the scrawl of a drunken left-handed inky parrot. "None of us can read his writing either" was the chorus behind the counter. There's huge pressure on the sales folk to get account customers served and out of the door. They'll never see the hand-written docket ever again, and couldn't care less. It's the folk in the accounts department I feel sorry for. Cash, up front from now on - if the lads at the counter have to look the price up and every one has to wait - well that's the price of accuracy.

Bingo! Even I can do it! Simple things make my day sometimes! Right, can't wait to see that contractor again...... I am so going to enjoy the conversation....

@Onoff, thanks. I'll need that later set of commands later when I get my hands on a copy of AutoCAD. I have DWGTrue View. This appears far too interesting to me to let software do it for me. I'll try steam first and then see if the software gets it 'right'

Whoooaaa! Lots here to distract me from the nitty gritty of the Windows Schedule. Thanks for the excuse.