ToughButterCup

Yep, I know, another set of chargers will be needed. How many have I got so far? (I got bored counting the chargers I already have) Ideas anyone?

Just this minute come back from having done exactly that to our dog's favourite ball. I never knew that collies could give dirty looks.

But folks; is the CIL the issue? And not the contamination? If the contaminated land is the issue, can I suggest it's the study's findings that are important. I expect I'm missing something here. My LPA doesn't know what CIL is (yet )

@nod, your post refers to contamination doesn't it; the CIL isn't the issue - as I see it. We had a Contamination Study done because we are on 'made ground'. ('Made Ground' is code for the spoil from an old quarry which supplied clay for the local canal). A tiny amount of Lead (Pb) was found. An old bloke used to wash his paint brushes out in a shed on the ground on which we are building. A contamination plan was submitted, and accepted. What did your survey find? If it found nothing, I'd be tempted to suggest (not advise) 'get-on-with-it'

Did the mum do an hour or two on the Naughty Step then? Or maybe the daughter did?

Ah stop being so damn reasonable man!

Mmmm. In the long and winding road that lead (to my door?) to discovering the proper authority for our package digester discharge, we found that the EA isn't. That's because we will be discharging to a small stream. And the EA have transferred responsibility for small waterways to the LPA. We already have one land drain which simply discharges to the neighbour's field as surface water: the pipe invert is above the level of the neighbours field. @PeterW can you point me to the relevant bits of paper, please?

The end in mind : connect the surface drainage to the discharge side of our package treatment plant. Is that allowed? Our foul drainage goes into a digester. That discharges via a 100 meter pipe to a stream I'm about to sort out our land drainage. I want to have a simple French drain - or two. Can I connect up the surface water discharge to the pipe on the discharge side of the package treatment plant? I've looked at H3 Section 3 and the relevant paragraphs of H1 and find nothing to prohibit it. But then I may have missed something. Advice please! Ian

It's a context thing. We bought ours at least in part because I want to enjoy my retirement. And my time is mostly priced at zero. But if speed and accuracy is what you need, then don't get one. The key thing for me is that now I factor the digger in to my thinking; before I had one I'd never have given it a thought. Need to move that hibernacular (newt refuge) ? - Digger, 10 minutes. Need to move those slabs from a to b? Digger 5 minutes. Need to change the wheels on my Land Rover? Digger 15 minutes. (Strops under the bumper lift and chock) But as @Declan52 and @Construction Channel will confirm, you can do soooo much damage in a few seconds. On the other hand @MrsRA is really good at it - and far more careful than me.

Completely reasonable. Use the same model as that employed for the Party Wall Act

Mmmmmmm, @PeterStarck, I got the feeling from smooching about online that your experience is not uncommon.

Anyone got any recommendations of which to avoid, please? My reading suggests cheaper ones, like this The 'sensible' ones are about £100. The way I'm going at the minute I'm going to open a tool hire shop.....

Thanks............... ah damn.... I'd forgotten that.... ah damn forgot that.... (sorry darling ) Ok.... so how about well-ventilated, but dry storage? I'm wondering if out-in-the-open, but shielded from direct rain with lots of circulation will be OK. I'll price some large tarpaulins up.... Ditto. I've tricked myself into trying to enjoy that time as 'my time' -no phone calls no emails, no interruptions. And it works ---- occasionally. Ian

Great Crested Newts. Bless them, and bless the planners one and all. Here we all are a year -closer to two- years later than planned and winter's on its way. The question is simple: buy the expensive stuff now and store, or wait until Spring? Key things to source: Durisol building blocks (a form of ICF) Windows German (yeah, yeah, right) plumbing bits and bobs Here's the RICS on the subject for September Storage is a bit of an issue, and with windows it is an issue - maybe I'll be able to buy now for delivery next year..... I feel an OUCH! coming on. I'm really scratching my head over this one. I'd appreciate a non-political focus on this one please.

Exactly. That's the route we intend to take. I am going to be on site all day: and, as @ProDave says probably drink tea with them. I am hoping that the presence of the paymaster will influence work rates. Context is important.

An accountant friend of mine pushed that thought more firmly into my head when he suggested I work out how long I have to work to cover the tax I paid each month and how long do I have to work to pay my NHI contribution Made me gulp a bit when I worked it out.

No, I don't think so. But, it would be useful to start one. How about it @swisscheese ? If you do, you won't be on your own. I'm sure members will muck in with you. I will too. Then we can pin it. YooChube has a good range of how-to videos, and they are often a good starting point.

Ah, flachspul.... literally 'flatflush' (flach = flat) Still dunno what it means....

Ja, kein Problem Junge. Many Germans are expert scatologists for reasons explained below. We know our toilets! Spurandlos ist ein bischen kompliziert..... because of the delightfully annoying tendency of Germans to run words together spul means flush rand means edge the suffix ...los means without Literally translated edgeless flush; which is why its never a good idea to call yourself a translator - interpreter is better. The word might mean direct flush, that is, it doesn't flush the edge. For those of us who can keep it all focused and accurate perhaps. tiefspul is deep flush .... a flush for No2s flackspul, no idea, never heard of it .... spray flush, perhaps? Or maybe the toilet uses anti-aircraft guns to shoot enough flak at it all to flush it (and the toilet itself) away? Bear in mind that many Germans have what we would call an unseemly interest in scatological issue, and examine the product (which is presented on a shelf in the loo itself) before flushing. The water trap is in the front of the loo, not towards the rear. Which is what made me ask my mum whether German anatomy was the reverse of its English counterpart. I was 6 at the time. Out of the mouth of babes and children.....

No need to buy, all you need is an agreement to lay the pipe and thereafter to maintain it. As Nick suggests, just ask. We are in a similar situation: we asked, the permission to cross the land was valued, a sum was agreed;and here's the detail (December) Or have I missed something?

My dad had a name for the tool with which you hit rather than screwed screws to fix them in the wall: a Birmingham Screwdriver

Oh, there! How stoopid could I be? Didn't think of that.

Right, Once you've got them, how do you store the sodding things.......? Eh? Answer me that!

@K78, go and have a look (and feel) at the Denby Dale passiv haus open day. There are a good few others you can visit too. But the owner at Denby Dale is a really nice bloke - given the chance he will chat to anyone for ages and give you lots of technical info. Nothing in the PH standard says you can't open the windows. It took me ages to accept that.

You are absolutely right to be concerned. I was - until I spent a few days researching the issue, and visited several passiv houses. @MrsRA and I always sleep in a draft: year round. Our Tomcat (Sid) will not use a catflap (we haven't got one) and so uses the windows. I work outdoors all day (on the build), and so loathe stuffy rooms. Sounds to me we are quite like you, therefore. In the planning phase, at one stage I thought we'd go 'hardcore' and have a naturally ventilated passiv haus (instead of MVHR) and read several research articles on the subject. As a spin off from that exercise I read about how common it is for MVHR installations to be 'tuned' badly, switched off even, unbalanced and commonly poorly maintained - filter left uncleaned, that sort of thing. Air quality suffers as a result. I have yet to choose an MVHR system, but in researching suppliers I have come to realise that there is a common conflict of interest: suppliers often both design and specify the system. And I have yet to find a supplier who is obviously competent at design. Maybe the sales reps I talk to -not one of whom is interested in design- simply fill me with dread because they couldn't give a stuff about the customer; they just want to close a sale. We went to Denby Dale passiv haus open day this time last year. What did we see? The owner chatting enthusiastically about how he leaves the window slightly open all night because he -like you, like us- can't stand a stuffy room. I think the answer is take great care tuning (balancing) the airflow, and, if needed don't be shy about keeping the window open a bit. Yes, it'll unbalance the airflow, yes it's counter intuitive. But nobody has ever said passiv hauses have to have the windows shut all the time. Not even us Germans.