ToughButterCup

Terry's right.

That was a really interesting read. Thanks. I hope you get many happy years of use out of it. A home-from-home when you're away. Something that will become part of the fabric of your family life. Brilliant. Ian

Someone -forgot who- suggested that I make a site loo cabin out of the shakes that I'm making. So, that's what's happening. Shakes, ...... site loo.... geddit? It'll be good practice for me about the whole process; working out how many shakes per square meter and all that. And it'll be drafty. So that's all good then.

Thank you very much indeed for that post Steamy. The information in the video was extremely interesting. It is a great pity that the narrator doesn't explain in any depth why the North South separation of the Jet Stream matters. There was a bit about earth temperature evening out because of the mixing of the two 'blocks', but very little about why we should worry about that. Has this happened before? How long is the period of this particular Rossby wave pattern? I had the great good fortune of meeting and befriending a climate science research associate at my old college - he was researching the underlying mathematics of Rossby wave patterns . He did that in a lab where he documented the patterns in a Petri Dish of all places. And that sparked a life-long interest in Jet Streams. Thanks for the nudge! Ian

Thanks. I'll give them a try. Ian

There's free air circulation on your build, and thus no temperature difference between outside and inside...? Internal and external mould you say. So I may well be right. I'm making loads of shakes for my house. Storing them in open, but covered racks. Exactly the same spot mould. Don't worry in the slightest.

Thanks for the nudge. Hmm, yes I had read that. But have I got the confidence to use one? No, and here's why. Ian

Thanks very much. Would you PM me the details, please? Thanks for the nudge about asking our SE: wouldn't have thought of that. Ian

We need some piles. Into every life a little rain must fall. I know nowt about piles. So, onto YooChube, onto the architect, onto the SE, and I have some outline advice. Use screw piles. Why? Here OK, so now what? I know the cost will be significant, and when my bank balance is about to get hit, I get cautious. So, I've decided to blog about it in a good deal of detail. Because there's one process that makes me more jangled than anything: how does anyone compare like with like? Reducing risk is the key thing I think, but I still feel damn nervous about it. And one way of reducing that horrible feeling that grips at 5 in the morning - what the Hell have I missed out now ? - is by turning that fear (yes fear) into some sort of creative, positive action. Hence the blog and this post. So, I'm putting all of the information on line (suitably edited - no emails, no phone numbers, no company names, no addresses) so you can all have a look and comment Please come with me, linger, lurk, laugh, look, learn with me. And comment, poke, challenge, ask. Please!

Why Piles? Because we are on a spoil heap. Our house will be built on the spoil heap of what was a clay and sandstone quarry. We are here The ridge of trees 50m to the south stand on the top of what was the old quarry face. We had a soil survey done (have a look at it here) The bore hole location map is on page 47 and the profiles are detailed on the next pages. Here's how much it cost to get this done. (Feb 2015; desk study and geophysics). Our house will stand on the site of the old chicken shack. Debbie (SWMBO and @MrsRA), bless her heart, had the foresight to buy this piece of land in 1985. And I had to mow it. Win some, lose some. Sold the mower the other day - paid for the survey. Won that one. The desk study and and ground investigation report were supported by a proper site survey (see page 47 here - the bore holes are the green smudges) The full site survey is an A1 sheet which I've had printed and attached to the wall of the kitchen for reference. There'll also be a copy in the container office. It is a key bit of paper (vinyl). Our Structural Engineers are simply brilliant (PM me for details if you like). They took the details above and turned them into a plan for our piling. They needed all the above details - cost of all the above about £3500 if you take everything into account. Result of that expenditure is reasonable confidence that we aren't making a significant error in design. Here's a copy of the piling design, together with a table of the loads for each pile PilingCalculationsInsulatedFoundation.pdf I prepared a simple zipped briefing pack for each piling contractor: contents: Soil Survey, SE's Piling design and plan, Architects Plans, Photos of the site, Site surveyor's report, United Utilities Underground Services report, Screen Grab from Google maps, overhead and Street View. I googled 'Screw Piling' site: .uk, and contacted the first three or four attaching the site briefing pack. I also googled ' piling Lancashire ' and rang up a few local companies. "What, you've 'ad a site survey done, mate? What, how moooch did that costcha? ....'OW MOOCH? Hmmm, we'd a dun that fo ya fer nowt maaate" "Thanks, I'll be in touch". Pity that. I'd love to spend the money locally. Next problem. How to compare like with like when -if- the quotes come in? How can anyone compare quotes fairly? It isn't easy. Hence this blog. So, I've decided to expose the process as fully as is sensible (protecting suppliers' confidentiality, and removing all names and contact details) Come along with me - pick the process to bits for yourself, and maybe make the process easier for yourself.

Southern Softness personified you are.....

Water enters the tank having passed through a filter first. A pump lifts water from the saved rainwater and gets used in your house. To make a backwash happen, arrange for that pump to also Stop pumping to the house and instead Pump water through the bottom of the filter up through the sand, direct to waste If, while it's raining, you drop a spoon full of aluminium sulfate into the water somewhere upstream of the filter, and wait for a while, the aluminium sulfate (alum) forms a gel on top of the sand and really cleans the water thoroughly. It helps greatly with the backwash process. A very small amount of alum will do the trick. I'm almost sure that alum has been used since Roman times to help purify water. Keep it away from your eyes.

We intend to have copper rainwater goods - so won't the resulting weak copper sulphate (? I'm no chemist) solution provide some anti-bacterial action while the water is 'resting' the tank? But will that - together with a simple but efficient sand filter - be enough? And Debbie says the smelliness should be sorted by the weekly very hot (60) wash. So that's Ok, then.

You bad man. Wash your mouth out - with dirty diesel.

No teeth in this narrow bucket: it's little wider than a shovel. I tried all sorts of jiggery pokery, but it still jammed full. And made no difference whatever. I could still dig perfectly well. In the end I used a crowbar - yes a crowbar to get the soil out. Soon lost interest in that, though.

There are two holes smack bang in the middle of the sides (cheek plates). It's the small trenching bucket @ProDave ...about 12" wide.

Digging my TAF (Temporary Amphibian Fencing) trench wi' 't digger... all's well, when I notice the bucket is full, and won't empty. Shake it, rattle it and roll it; nothing. Bucket full of earth. Stuck. Fast. And neither did the full bucket stop the digging process. I carried on digging fine, got the TAF trench dug. But I suspect I'm doing something wrong. Yes, there's a good deal of clay around, but it's mostly loam, and there's a little bit of concrete stuck to the inside of the bucket. Overthinking again I suspect, but I thought I'd ask (Declan....).

Boeuf! Cela ne me concerne pas! (Gallic Shrug) La vie, pour moi elle est magnifique, faux pas que tu la compliques avec ces petits details. Bon, on fait la greve maintenant non? Allons les citoyens, aux barricades! Si tu veux pas, j'en ferrais une maladie, hein!

"Sor, the f@*&^%# n f@*&^%# er's f@*&^%# ed" I've heard that before - Army I think. Makes me wonder what they say when they are truly annoyed, or as SWMBO says ' I'm really disappointed' When I hear that I know I'm in the dog house.

PSA group = ? please. Ian

Enjoy that time, relish it. Suddenly (now the EPS Licence has been accepted) I have far too much to do in too short a time. TAF to dig and put up, piling contractors to find, decisions about services, CLD to chase up, countless little tasks, newts to count, welding, fiddle and faff.... you know where this is going. It may well be - I can't know yet - that effect of the ecology delay forces a great deal of the build to the winter. I need to plan for that eventuality. If I can't take a joke, I shouldn't have applied for planning permission.

General Daily: Check oil, fuel, coolant, front end buckets (squeeze of grease if you're going to use it all day) V belt and water-in-fuel indicator. General Weekly ( one week = 50 hours on the instrument panel) Cast an eye on the tracks ... splits? grease swivel gear ( for my Kubota three nipples, 5 pumps each) general quick check ; nuts tight, pitch bearing. Quick look at the battery every month. Same for the air filter if very dusty. Check track tension most weeks (i.e. 50 hours; sag >= 15mm). Every 500 hours full service (Fixed cost at Kubota - a couple of hundred quid) Not too onerous: most of the stuff can be done during a simple walk-around. Ian

Change the oil anyway: knowing less than nothing about diggers - and a bit about engines- , it was the first thing I checked, the oil was clean and clear. And so I was just that little bit more confident about buying it. Cost £10 (?)

500 hours, Dave. Greased once a fortnight (five pumps per time)

It's this kind of comment and feedback that keeps me coming back to buildhub over and over again. You've just saved me a good few hundred quid at least. Thank you. Ian