ToughButterCup

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

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. (she's not like that really )

The boss, initially reluctant to spend a good chunk of our budget on our digger, commented that it is much more useful than she had expected. @Vijay In relation to track-life - if it needs new tracks budget for them (by using that argument to reduce the purchase price)

Another day, another lesson. The cheque's in the post. Ian

Too much detail. Some of us are Southern Softies.

Mike, I'll go back and check the numbers. But there were two tranches of work. Our SE needed the soil results (cores and resulting report), the construction 'method' (in our case Dursiol). Oh, and a good reputation.

Exactly what we plan. Waste not want not

'... drop ship...' means?

I now understand why farmers dump pig manure into perfectly healthy ponds with before submitting a planning application. Doing that kills all the wildlife, and in doing so prevents this kind of thing happening. The following is a simple factual easy-to-read list of what happened, and a brief comment at the end. October 2015, full PP, with conditions attached ' ...get an EPS licence...' (European Protected Species Licence for Great Crested Newts) Meeting that month with the Ecologist to establish a timetable for Licence Application submission: Target November 2015 Several follow-up emails: Licence applied for in February 2016 Natural England write to me explain that there were 16 errors in the application Corrections submitted March 2016 Licence accepted by Natural England May 2016 Licence submitted to LPA May 2016 June 2016, the LPA has still not formally accepted the licence (but has done informally) 30 days of trapping will start in July And end in Mid August 2016 Costs? Initial survey £1300+, and the Licence Application £1800 (details here) On costs; roughly another £2000. The application system is cumbersome. Great Crested Newts are common. I will give full details in my blog soon. I'm not cross - just wiser and more understanding. I've used the enforced delay to improve plans and do a lot of preparatory work myself. If I can't take a joke, I shouldn't have applied, should I?

Thanks Mike. We look forward to your photos.

Took me a second or two....

I'm eight weeks away from having to get this right for myself. And so I'm looking up at this new learning curve with a good deal of trepidation. Up for it, but scared a bit. All I need to sort it out for myself is an authoritative reading list, and some sensible suggestions about buying the right kit. I have done a good deal of background reading, and looked at YT videos. Wary, as ever, of online shared ignorance, would someone start me off, please? Reading which explains a good bit more than the basics An example of a sensible bit of kit Please?

EXACTLY what I need for a meeting next week Terry.

The current edition of SPONS is much better than the 2014 edition because it separates out labour costs. In addition you get a link to an online version of the book where you can easily search for all instances of (say) hardcore. That enables you to look at prices in a variety of contexts.The massive advantage is the ability to share the pricing information with your supplier / builder, secure in the knowledge that both parties are dealing openly and fairly. At the very least it gives a firm basis on which to start discussions. For me, computer-phile that I am, there's nothing quite like a real book to browse and poke around in. Being able to search online as well as read the book is unbeatable.The book gives a series of local adjustment factors, Outer London being classified as a factor of 1. Lancashire where we are has a multiplier of 0.96 (I think). In addition, the book does point out that there are highly local variations - such as Sandbanks or maybe Alderley Edge for example. It cost me £150. And saved that 10 times over in six months. For someone as green as I am to building, the book's priceless.

2.0 tonne Kubota: first job.... The first thing I did with my digger was dig out the root bowl of a cherry tree (12 inch diameter minimum) that I had stupidly sawn off at ankle height. I was fed up with it. The centre part of the tree was rotten, and the fruit was stolen each year with unnerving stealth by Blackbirds. BTW, on Declan's advice I now no longer sling loads like that on the bucket teeth. I use a 4 tonne shackle on the back of the proper lifting point on the quick hitch.

Hmmm. Spoonerisms - you're good at those.

No it's not, it's torture. It cause road rage. It cause sore necks. It causes road accidents. It causes wives to sigh. It cause children to tease. It causes bigger holes in bank balances. It's fun.

Peter, it's nitty-gritty stuff like this which I realised wasn't always included in the calculations that made me start and maintain this entry in my blog Re-reading the entry -and some of the comments, this thread too- makes me all the more sure that cost per square meter is a rough and ready guide. No more. It depends on what's measured, or not. Additional phone calls? Petrol nipping to the BM? Overnight stay for a trip to the NSBRC (.... doesn't count because we had a nice trip down to see friends as well)? And anyway, I needed that SDS drill......I'll keep it after the build.