ToughButterCup

Thanks for this topic Hugh (again) . I'm foaming at the mouth about our EPS licence delay - almost everything else has been sorted out . But the LPA has still to give us their decision on a few things - and I'd forgotten about default discharge. We must be well over the time limit now. Thanks again. Made my day! Ian

Welcome. It's good to see you back! Progress, as long as you can see it, all's well. Nothing depresses me more than coming on to our site and seeing exactly what I saw last week. That's when I've had my head in a spreadsheet for too long.

Thanks Crofter. This is exactly the sort of information which we need to collate and keep as a central resource. As the Americans say " Good jaaaab man" Ian

Exactly what I need to think through next Hugh: I have some steels which need to go between the two containers. Thanks for the prompt. Ian

Oh God. Oh God There's an object lesson in why openness is a bad thing.

The chant "Yer wanna get a digger mate!" started in 2014, and I finally got one two years later. The chanters were right. But what I didn't hear was what they were chanting (sniggering) under their breath. "You're gonna get covered in grease". Let's start at the beginning. How much does a digger cost to hire? £70 per day. How much does it cost to transport it to and from your house / plot? £25. All plus VAT. Bang goes £300 / £350 per week. And it rains, or there's a delay, and it sits there leering at you like some hideous demented mechanical giraffe whispering softly in your ear Use Me Use Me If You dare. But you can't because it's hissing down. And suddenly it's Friday, a couple of hundred pounds has flown out of the window, and two of the jobs you had planned haven't been done. And soon you're driving around noting every single digger sitting there idle in a field or on the roadside and NOBODY'S USING IT. It shouldn't be allowed. Diggers are expensive; they should not be left idle. Or rather those ones that are idle should be loaned to you the second the owner decides to have a day off. It's OK, you'll come and fetch it and bring it back when the owner needs it. Anything but let a digger be idle when you haven't got one. And then you do a bit of maths: how many jobs around the site do we need a digger for? And the list gets longer by the week. The children start muttering about dad being on about a digger for Christmas and birthday present all wrapped into one. And then you start noticing things like zero-swing diggers, and that's a 22 tonner, and is that a 2.6 tonne or 2.5 tonne digger? Soon, you know how to tell. The next thing is: JCB or Kubota? Or maybe Volvo? Hmmm. Well Kubota have reliable engines (other companies fit Kubota engines) JCB - well, a bit sloppy round the edges. Looking on Tinternet for prices and maybe the odd trip out -just to look, no more you understand. A budget number bubbles up in your spreadsheet against the Heading Plant and Equipment. Suddenly there's 10K more than planned. But, you can re-sell it at the end of the build. So nett off the cost against the hire cost (minus VAT) and you're in profit (Ha!). The digger duly arrives. And suddenly a whole world opens up. Move that Cherry tree, no problem (that wasn't on the list), shove those steels through your son's windows (after he takes them out) no problem; move two tonnes of stone quickly from one place to then other - well not quite no problem, but you aren't sweating. See a problem, turn the key. Dig your SuDS drainage in less time than you thought. Move that newt hibernacular three meters to the right: done. The dozer blade is awesome (I hate that word: but here it's the right word). And then there's the maintenance schedule. A Kubota has more nipples than a prize sow. And God can they suck grease. And I'm not the best at changing grease cartridges - when I'd finished I knew what the phrase Grease Monkey meant. I will not want to sell it. How on earth am I going to get that past Debbie?

I see that Faye's doing the back-breaking stuff, like mixing......... typical

I've been on the lager, Must go to a Well Known Glasses Place. (Others are available)

Hello Mark. Welcome...............Have a look at this If you meant how do you make the roof material out of wood, rather than the make the timbers out of wood (and then slate it) , then I hope this will help. You'll see that our plan is to make the roof out of wood: the south face (the one you can see) has a tray of solar PV, (about 10 panels) and some glass over an internal garden area. I am making all the shakes for the roof myself, mainly because we can't afford to buy them (or have decided to afford other things instead, take your pick). Oak shakes from Vincent Timber are about £100 per square meter. We are using shakes, not shingles. I can buy oak locally very cheaply indeed (The local timber merchants turn oak into firewood - I am not joking). Here's what it all costs There are two main issues Roof pitch Roof material The pitch is about 25 degrees. A bit low for shakes. The water needs to run off quickly. So, we've decided to make the roof cosmetic, and to make the roof entirely water and wind-tight using some other materials. Not sure which yet. I hope to have dried enough oak ready (or have bought enough dried oak) to make our own oak beams. But I fear that the U value of oak is a good argument not to do that. Pity, because it looks really nice. With wooden roofs the material has to be one which has a high tannin content - tannin preserves it. So it needs to be made of Western Red Cedar, or Oak, or Larch or Sweet Chestnut. I think your friend is correct. Most hard woods will do for the timbers. But they must be dry (below 17% I think). Good luck with the build. Ian

I'll be following this like a hawk. Ian

My dad used to call that Synchro Smash Gears......

Yes, Declan, I've got there with the half-way revs on my own. The little thing is so powerful, and if I'm really gentle I can move it a few centimeters at a time. It's the best fun I had in ages

I'm sometimes accused of overthinking stuff. And I'm a little weary of it. Here's why. Expert status in many areas is thought to develop after about 50,000 hours of practice. And one of the common characteristics of expert status is the reduced need to think about the hard-learned craft or subject. It (irrespective of subject matter) becomes hard wired. Take my digger. Just bought it a few weeks ago and while using it in the first couple of hours I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. My shoulders ached, my jaw was locked, my concentration fierce. And then I remembered my flying lessons. 'Think it, and it'll happen, lad' growled the instructor. And when the fear had dropped a bit, I allowed myself to relax and reduce the control inputs. Suddenly I wasn't dancing all over the sky like the proverbial in a pot. On the digger, I reduced the control input and slowly the swing was not so large, not so jerky. Then Ed (Construction Channel) said it would take about 4 hours to get a basic understanding. He was right. That was a fortnight or so ago. Now, I couldn't tell you what I do to hook a self-hitch bucket, Now I get annoyed at myself for 'clangy' bucket movements. Slowly I have stopped thinking about it. I just feel it. The next step is over-confidence (pilots call it the Death Zone -about 200 hours into their training). Now, I don't think I'm going to die while using a digger, but I'm going to be extra vigilant in a month or two. After many hours of practice, experts (it's a well-documented phenomenon) simply don't remember that they had to learn stuff. And sometimes are just a little puzzled by someone who asks apparently naive questions. And then -with kindness and reassurance at the root of their response- reply that the questioner is over-thinking it. No, all the questioner is doing is sharing their worry, their lack of expertise, their lack of practice.

Welcome indeed. That was quick, I approved your account just a few minutes ago. Yer keen! Good! I'm in chat for the next few minutes.... Ian

PMSL

Right... it's got to click hasn't it ? Ian

Hmm. Yes, thanks Peter. I'm going to bury it in the Temporary Amphibian Fence (TAF) trench, along with the electric cable. Someone's going to tell me not to do that aren't they.............

Yes.

Aha! Just what we need ... an international sub-section of buildhub... and an international sub-section of our checklists. And since you are an architect, what do you think about this? What would you add, and tell us (and everyone else),why? When you have some spare time that is. Bienvenue! Ian Oh, by the way is that Cerisy on the Somme?

Let's ask Faye about that one...... and get the truth

Your shed is really two sheds isn't it. Can I suggest you think about what happens when it's finished as planned... and you sit there on the decking with a drink (Lager maybe?) and eye the gap between the two sheds. And then it starts to rain. Plan to bridge the gap while you build the two sheds. (Oh, you might also design and build a midge machine gun)

Here's a checklist; it's about briefing an architect, and it's meant as a useful set of starting points for your own thinking. The list isn't definitive. There's also a downloadable print out that goes with it. Ian

Grass was invented by some fiend to control men. In my life I've only ever seen one woman mowing a lawn, and one woman mowing a field. Keep the geese, dodge the poo. Save the money.

Right, got the message. I'll need to run a POE cable to the container. Even I think I can do that! Thanks Ian