ToughButterCup

That was a cruel post @SteamyTea, cruel I tell ya. I'm damaged for life now.

phone calls trips to the BM networking administration the costs associated with the mental stress of building research time the stress imposed on partnerships the effect of the build on children the time wasted on Build Hub 😉

Self building is as much a test of character as anything else. We can't control everything , so we have to keep up the pressure on ourselves to perform well. An impossible standard for others to match. So in attempting to work with others, disappointment is built-in to our job. Normal therefore. So we can plan for it. That's the theory anyway 😔

@SteamyTea, I didn't know that you are brilliant. Is it natural or did you have to work at it?

Here's what I have written about Durisol. There are 189 hits on this search (Search> Durisol > author search> @ToughButterCup ) - so I think it's fair to say I know my way around a Durisol block. I have made every single error there is to make on the system, from simple sloppiness, to under-ordering - to allowing a complete wall collapse. Blow-outs, some spectacular, others piffling. But it's hard to separate my initial incompetence and naivete from the merits or otherwise of the build system. I now - after eight years with the stuff - have absolutley no doubt whatever that an experienced builder who has built a few houses in the system can build a very airtight, highly insulated house with Durisol. No doubt at all. The principal issue is that the system is marketed as suitable for first-time - (and likely once only builders) I was (but am no longer) the very weak link in the chain . The cost of that experience has been bourne by my long-suffering family who have constantly believed in me, grinned and bore the substantial errors and ommissions, and continue to sing

OOOoooooffff keep calm Ian, keep calm. Shut yer eyes man, and recite the nine times table. Backwards (All my year 2 children could do that at the end of the academic year)

👨‍❤️‍👨 Working for you would be worse though..... trees are heavier than mortar

Hmmm, yes, I thought about that. It strikes me that I'll have the opportunity to make a deliberate mistake with a small diameter drill and then see how easy (or otherwise) it is to correct it. I'll drill some experimental holes on the piggery to see what happens.

Yes, I've seen a video of that technique. There's another similar video of someone who suspended a large open-faced hook on the drill shaft; lean one way and the hook travels towards the wall face, lean the other and the hook slides towards the drill. That's a good quick check, useful for things like large fence posts - but it has one disadvantage: it can't check for lateral accuracy. With all this excellent advice, I'm going to have to drill some perfect holes aren't I ? I'll drill some test holes as soon as I get the jig. And post here..... Thanks very much everyone.

Anyone ever told you, you're a genius? I'll need to think of a simple quick way of holding the threaded bar in exactly the correct alignment. How hard can that be? Yep, overthinking again I expect. But it's fun. Stops me feeling sorry for myself having worked as a renderer's bitch all bloody day yesterday. My back is Killing me. You assume @Iceverge that the wall is perfectly vertical in all eight ( two balconies) drilling spots. Naaaah, they ain't. Its the obious quick answer though. Thanks.

Exactly. I want to mitigate the potential for error by drilling from inside - out. The block has 40mm of 'wall' and then 110mm of concrete, the rest (on the way out of the house as it were) is insulation and so won't be likely to affect the direction of the drill. I've made an exact template of the glass juliet balcony, so all I have to do is to line up the centre lines of the door (currently a suicide door) and the glass balcony: and drill ..... Thanks @pocster, thats the principle I feel like using: mark out using the template fix a decent jig to the wall (the drill-guide as @Conor above suggests) adjust the drill guide for level and direction (torpedo level; thanks @TonyT and @MikeSharp01) take my prayer-mat out, face east drill swear repeat

@MikeSharp01, I'm trying hard to avoid being told that I'm over-thinking stuff AGAIN. I'd like to qualify what you say to '... they just need to come out of the wall in the right place and heading in the right direction....' because (over 400 mm: 300mm block + external wall fixing) a one degree error would be enough to make me swear.

Thanks @Conor With 210mm of travel on the jig , and since the concrete is on the inside (so to speak) of the block, it makes more sense to drill from inside - out. The blocks are 300mm thick (of which 110mm is concrete - the rest is insulation). I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of measuring and re-measuring. Yes, @pocster, something industrial like that appeals to me. Its the jiggy thing that defeats my imagination at the moment.

I need to drill four perfectly horizontal, that is level, holes through a wall. They need to be level because I'm hanging a Juliet balcony from four stainless steel threaded bars. When I have problems like this to solve, my first port of call is almost always YouTube. There are plenty of videos about drilling perfectly vertical holes and only one or two poor quality videos about drilling perfectly level holes. Is there such a thing as a jig which would help me drill a perfectly horizontal hole through a wall? Or do I need to make my own jig to do that? Part of the problem appears to me to be how to make sure that the drill bit is perfectly horizontal (level) all the way through making the hole. Is there some tool I could hire to help me get the job done accurately? This is the kind of job that needs to be correct the first time I do it, not the last time I do it as usually happens

Excellent start. Well done. That sentence stuck out for me. That idea - future proof - was one of our design key ideas. Little did I know at the time that I in a couple of years time, I was going to have two new hips: both done in 6 months. The dual-use bedroom / office built next to the accessible wetroom has made a huge difference. It has (Ithink) speeded up my recovery a good deal. For example, stepping over the bath rim (as would be required in our last house) would have been painful or impossible. And certainly riskier. I think of us as being fairly hard-core selfbuilders. Nowhere near as much so as you are though. For example Keep fit and take enough rest, eh? Almost impossible, I know, but I didn't, and suffered at least a year's delay.

The man is still polishing the wall - polishing it for God's sake ..... 12 hours after he started. No lunch, two coffees ( half drunk ), no snack. Just Radio 4. Lets hear it for Radio4. It must have summat.....

Whatever you pay yours @nod, it's not enough.

Translated: Your proposal is for a separate dwelling. But you describe that dwelling as an annexe. It isn't.

Have a read of @VIPMan's posts...

Guess which she chose .... she's right of course... Cough.

Well, at least he's engaged with the issue of fitting windows: rather than couldn't give a hoot. Put another way, he is on a learning curve about both the MVHR fitting process and diplomacy.

This morning: still air, no wind at all. No smell. It's mended itself over about 10 days..... Diverter to be installed soon - and not missing a trick SWMBO says "Oh, I'll order a decent waterbutt then. " Have you seen how expensive they are? 😔

As you hint later on in your post: divorce is expensive. Part of our budget is the knowledge that we both want this house, and we are both prepared to compromise. She's only been a bit down about the lack of progress twice in eight years. Pragmatic is the right word. And the recognition that self-building is a massive priviledge. How many do we know who would give their right arm to be able to build their own house?

Wot @Jenki said. We're now bouncing along on what we don't spend elsewhere: thank God I'm a s l o w worker.

He was horrified. That bit of his feedback was hidden in the [...I leave the rest to your fetid imagination ....] above. He was very critical indeed of the advice given . From memory he questioned the training - or rather lack of it - among BCOs. Off to dig a new rainwater drain now.....