ToughButterCup

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

A bout of local petty-crime nonsense has prompted me to install CCTV. God, what a can of worms! Within the limitation of daytime CCTV, has anyone any experience of solar-powered CCTV? The idea appeals to me, but I thought I'd test that appeal here first before launching the idea on the ultimate authority. SWMBO. Bless her.

Join the club. My screen name hints at my past, but I'm now retired Ha! Every day I get up and go about jobs related to our house build. And one of those jobs is networking - because I don't know the answer to most of the problems I face. Just like you. So there's a natural push to lurk and ferret information out - reassurance that you're not the only eejit who has put a window in upside down, or had to post 7 meter steels through a living room window (my son's place last night..... don't ask) That's the power of a community like this, everyone's keen to do a sensible job at a fair price, almost within their budget. Ever found anyone coming in under budget? No, neither have I. I have heard of people who did that, but never met them. But, for me it's the massive reassurance of coming up against some form of knotty problem and suddenly thinking.... I'll ask about that on buildhub, and almost guarantee an answer.

Welcome. Yes, it is easy to copy the blog across. If you have the original photos on your hard disk, use those.

Being fairly close to Heysham nuclear power station is no barrier to power cuts for us. We have four or five a year. I am weighing up the pros and cons of doing a similar exercise as you, Jason. I bumped into the problem referred to by Dave above; and have yet to solve it. My son suggests I consider LiPo battery-powered kit for lighting needs, and I tend to agree. A LiPo battery harnessed to LEDs produces a useful amount of light (The Bosch range as an example). This problem makes you think about the meaning of the word essential. Food is essential, but isn't a trip to a local restaurant the simplest answer for many? (I accept that's not always possible) What about MVHR? Is that essential during the modal power cut duration? (and how long is that?) How much is a small gas stove? The trouble for me is that I'm not all that inconvenienced by the odd power cut: we don't live in the Republic of the Congo But I love the idea of being independent of the power supplier

Got any spare then?

Welcome back. And, join the queue of questioners (me among them)