ToughButterCup

In haste .....There's a brick matching app - and a couple of websites and a quick search on this site shows the same question has been answered before.

Yes they are. Scolmore's website is ( was when i used it) just dreadful. They sell all sorts of interesting switches, but you have (had maybe) to hunt for them. I've one switch which sometimes 'sticks' bewtween ON and OFF. Never happens to me but (why oh God why ?) it often happens to Debbie. Male designed that's why innit ... 🙄

Reading between the lines I felt that might be the case. OK.... how about this aproach (the one I came to think was the only thorough repair)

I've looked at this issue for myself (old cottage , full time job so too busy to 'fix it') : I'd like to be proved wrong - but there is no product that deals with the problem. Your problem statement hints this is just one problem in a chain of related things. We had rotten wood, loose putty, worn this that and the other. And yes, I tried a couple of 'solutions' (that much abused word) to the problem. While I have no criticism of the various 'products' , the original problem merely replicates itself at the join (not joint) between the wood and the repair product. Water gets in freezes, expands and out pops the covering paint, more water gets in and the process repeats until the owner decides he can't stand the delay any more (after she has been as patient as she can). How about this. secondary glaze until spring 2024 Spring that year : window out; Support the lintel replace window frame and opener or repair (frames) properly with wood replace repaint Idea?

Ah not to worry: if your experience is anything like mine, most of the sockets will be in roughly the right place, but in-the-wrong-place in SWMBO's opinion. and you'll need at least six multiple socket extensions to placate her but the dog(s) will object and chew those sockets . then the grandchildren will be inserting pens in the unprotected sockets and you'll be glad you fitted RCBOs

In a nutshell: the argument for finding an excellent - not necessarily expensive - PM. Key 'interview ' question for a potential manager : Have you any suggestions about local builders and trades folk that you would like to make? Who's a reputable plumber round here? How long have you known him / her? Do you know of any local chippie / brickie partnerships (team) Do you know any concrete dispatchers? : ( listen to the answer) what's the chance of getting a part load from that company? - and where do they do their slump tests? What are the local window fitters like here: do they deal with imported window companies like Velfac of Gaulhofer ? How much is concrete a cube yard from company [...x...] ? Ring to check. How long has [ company x ] been trading ? Which is the best pub for local tradies ( Local to us its The Patten Arms) Go and waste time there. Then triangulate the answers.

One of the key issues on a build is the hidden local networks which operate: often in the pub, the cricket pitch, the building sites and elsewhere. The networks started at school : friends grew up together, chose different trades and over a few years came to know and trust -or mistrust - their school mates practical work on sites and jobs in the locality. They talk to one another, dig one-another out of holes, help out with job xyz. But they form firm bonds. Those bonds are - unless you're in the network - hidden. A good PM will know those networks well. A PM will know who and who not to employ, who hates whom and why - because they all 'go-back-a-long-way' together. And how on earth can you choose a good PM - as opposed to someone you pick from Yellow Pages? One answer to that question is that you won't be able to get a good local one for a few months or maybe a year or so. You might just get an excellent builder who's large enough to be able to call on lots of mates (likely to be old school friends or mates of old school friends) See where this is going ...........? To answer the question, you now need to network like mad - with the emphasis on work. Got the time?

In relation to size, I'd go and have a look at similar windows (mates houses - catalogues - NHBC guidelines - YooChube - don't pass a skip with scrap window frames in them) . Feels kind of strange offering you advice Clive ........

Price of milk has just dropped 16p per litre ( to the farmer )

Play the video at double speed.... Settings>playback>choose speed

Thanks very much for the link to Booglehead's videos. YT isn't to my taste: but that said I spend some time on it every single day, and hours on it when - as normal- I have no clue about to do [....] The issue of shared bad-practice does rear its head now and then. But often that's as instructive as the opposite.

Lets ask the NHBC to add a section to their Building Standards 2024 shall we: Effective Communication : Customers and then a similar section on How not to answer the phone politely

I use Windy's Solar Radiation (Power) layer ( solar power and UV index) to help me predict how much to boost our water heating once the sun has gone down. So I'm almost always well aware of how much 'water heating ' I can get out of the sun on any one day. Yes, I know, its not for everyone. Most will just want the system to tell you how much hot water you have left . But. I know for sure (at least I thought I knew until the stats below became available) that this month, we never generated enough solar power to fill our SunAmp - trees in the way and lack of sunshine. And then I saw this: I'm actually EXPORTING to the grid ... not much, but I am. And that tiddly bit of power is worth more to me as heated water than exported From Octopus I get this and checking on my EDDI I get this The only thing I know for certain is that power is being exported to the grid when it could have gone to heat our water. (The EDDI will not give me a readout for last week's export value) Am I doing anything wrong? Could I change any settings to prevent small amounts (20p worth) going to the grid ?

Will you lot stop with the Maureen please....... she was, as well as my teenage nightmare (one of those so called duty girlfriends) , -twenty years later- the self-same Maureen was my nightmare of a line manager also. Christ-on-a-Bike - she could pick holes in sheets of polished stainless steel. All Debbie has to do is to start saying the name, and in remembered mental agony, I clutch my withers still.

YooChube is your friend here.... a good few videos showing how others solved exactly the same problem..... Good luck

I'm sucking my teeth for you.... I don't know the answer. But an SE will do. Question is; which one? Don't forget all SEs are not the same. SEs habitually err on the side of caution. See if you can find an SE with experience of a similar problem. I am almost sure that our SE (Tanners in Eire) will give you a well-informed answer, or will know of someone who could answer your problem properly. +353 (0)25 51000 Good luck! This is one question that needs a properly expert answer. (And we aren't experts .. )

No. There is no requirement for them to survey neighbouring properties. How do I know? I asked before our piles were driven (62 of them) However, ask the site foreman directly if they are recording the shock levels caused by the piling (seismometer) On our piling day, the company hitched a seismometer to our house (we were living next to the build 12 meters away) and those results were recorded on site and transmitted simultaneously to the company head office. The question to ask is - Does the company have a seismometer recording during piling ? They do so -in part- to protect themselves from unfounded claims from neighbouring properties. I have forgotten the shock threshold for stopping piling - the foreman did tell me. I filled a bowl with water and food colouring and recorded the wavelets on the surface. The size of those wavelets increased significantly when the rig hit some underlying sandstone. Its a very uncomfortable process, especially when you have no control over what happens. You have my sympathy.

The bigger the hearth the more generous the 'feel'. Go to the pub. Get your laser measure out and measure the hearth. (Laser? Because many won't notice the laser spot. Everyone will see a yard stick or tape measure)

Wimmin aren't banned.

Compromise is a very common build method.

Questions so many questions. Lemme fink.

SWMBO on the subject..... "Its the very best thing we bought for the build". We maintained ours (Kubota 209 alpha) properly (Kubota agents) and covered the maintenance costs in the re-sale price. And we pulled next door's the JCB out of a hole at least twice - and his cars twice also. Until at moment, I covetted my neighbour's JCB. There is something very attractive about a JCB. Maybe its the generosity of her buckets? In the JCB Snog Marry Avoid stakes, snog one purely for reference and research purpose, but don't marry it.

Shouldn't?

The only place we've had issues is where I got that wrong. -

@Indy, the process is a Character Test as well as an administrative one. Only sleepless nights, digested for a fortnight or more can answer the questions you raise above. We waited 35 years from first twinkle-in-the-eye to breaking ground. Maybe let it stew for a while?