ToughButterCup

The one above is the only one I've found. House Planning Help isn't just about planning - which is why I don't rate it as 'good'. The author should rename the podcast. I have spent a good deal of time looking. The trouble is the subject area is so large. Different people learn in different ways: some of us like reading material, others video, others like listening. The best I can suggest is some (of the millions) of YT and Vimeo (I'm sure there are others) resources. But filtering by presenter and content is the issue: along with shared ignorance.

Micropolitics matters.

Too bloody right. Here's a re-print of what actually happened to me a few years ago ..... ========================= Waiting in line at the local BM. An organisation that hasn't changed from the 1990s when I first set foot in Lancashire. But I suspect it probably hasn't changed much since time began. A powerfully built but small white haired man get to the head of the queue. No neck, just muscle, shoulders the size of an American oarsman's coach. His frame must have been put together before steroids were invented. Several staff are chatting behind the counter - there's a queue, no, audience of at least 10. All builders (except me) Roofer: Riaaat mate ah want sum roofing felt: cuppla roles laaak BM You mean Vapour Control felt: how many rolls d'ya wunt? Noooo mert, ah want sum roofin felt, just'a culpa rolls laaak. The BM shop assistant, spotty, super-clean hair do, biro tattoos : 'Mum' and 'Hat', one on each forearm looks flummoxed. Well we've got [................... A series of trade names.............] Silence. Complete silence. 10 builders (and me) , Hearts almost stopped. The roofer eyes the sprog behind the counter, and cold as ice and says Maaate if yer wanna know why wimmin dunt ever cum in 'ere, it cos o' twats laaak thee mekkin me feel laak a reet prat. Ah been cummin' in ere since long afore yer dad wuz born orderin' fookin roofing felt. '..... Kin rooofin felt 'assss all. An if yer can mek me feel laak a reet prat, yer can do 't same fer wimmin. Nay wonder ya never see a wun in ere. The shop door opens, all eyes swivel (just like a pub entrance door) and in walks a large female, in dirty dungarees, severe hair cut with purple and red highlights, forearms the size of my thighs , most things pierced - the list would be too long - sporting a chunky paint-spattered watch. And clogs - proper Lancashire clogs. Two days later my tongue is still sore where I bit it .

"Thanks for that price. I have three other quotations due in the next [...] . Can I ring you to discuss your price when the other quotes are in?" "Well, the main issue is that I want to be sure to compare like with like. I'm trying to be fair to each supplier, and not simply rejecting the quote on the basis of the final figure " "The other comparable quotes are substantially lower than yours. Do you have time to discuss them with me?" "Help me understand why your quote is so much higher than everyone elses" "Why is your quote so cheap?" "Your quote is so high that it makes me wonder wether you want the business". "Your quote seems to be substantially out of line with other quotes I have. The others are all about 15% cheaper. Can we explore why that might be" "Why did you waste your time sending me a quote that high?" "Self builders are not stupid" "Do you have a line manager I can talk to, just to check a few items in this quote ...." "Really? Honestly? Have the decency to wear a mask the next time you commit daylight robbery."

Bitter experience, and years of reading the threads started by BH members.

Leave as is. In 3 months nobody will notice, and you'll have forgotten.

Opening measurements to a couple of mm. Installers fix. Gaulhofer. Architects sometimes argue - that whatever they specify, the installers do what they want. And the installers say, the architects don't know what happens in practice so they have to sort it out. The Gaulhofer team were good - not excellent. We needed to ask one specialist to come and sort out our very heavy doors. The architect was not invlved at all.

I have supervised undergrad teaching students in classrooms of thirty or more children (+1 teacher and 2 teaching assistants - ie. nearly 40 people in one room) where - in winter - the classroom teacher refused to open even one window : because she was cold. You could chew the atmospheric fugg in the classroom. On to the next classroom: male teacher just as many children, most of the small windows open, on the same day. "If they're cold, they can wear a sweater if they want. By the way, he said, one child this age is the equivalent of a one bar fire"

There's your drainage report. AVOID. Or immerse yourself in the depths of the most dysfunctional sector of the building industry. Everyone is an expert on your dollar.

And one (practice) which, belatedly, I realise I am still clinging to. A very open design internally: mezzanine leading to two bedrooms each with a full length glass door upstairs, and a 4.5meter slider downstairs. The slider and the doors are wide open as I write this. Outside temperature 9, windspeed 17kts. House is in a wind-shadow, and sun-trap. Both bedroom door-windows are opened (but the bedroom doors shut) all day, and closed at tea time. Often the bedroom window is open all night, especially if the wind forecast is anything other than a strong south westerly. The trees round us provide enough cover. No MVHR yet - because it seems to me that - for us - MVHR, while not bogus, would be switched off for most of the year (April to last week in September). We just wear an extra pullover when necessary, or heat the air in one bedroom-office as needed. Yep, she's special, I realise that. To cite the OP @DavidHughes We haven't got sign-off yet. So there's a lot of tooth sucking at the minute.

Its really encouraging to see you engage with our feedback. I think you now have the hardest job of all: building trustworthy working relationships with a set of experienced professionals and tradesfolk. That will take time, and luck. And, reading between the lines - is this a renovation? Or is it a knockdown? Old houses are good at hiding nightmares.

Here be dragons. Big nasty dragons, and oceans of tears. The sums of money involved in this case are not to be sniffed at. Unless your friend has worked for you before, and you have come to know and trust his judgement and practice, may I suggest you do not employ him? Professional distance is what is needed here. Ask your mate for confidential advice, contacts, his judgment about other companies you employ: but don't employ him. All too often we hear of mates rates relationships which have gone wrong, and in my case that has happened twice. And in this case, re-read @miike , @Bozza , @Canski , @Mattg4321 hint at above. The warning signs are already there.

One of those TFFT moments. Our repayment disappeared pretty quickly: one of the reasons I can forgive Google Photos for those reminder messages of what happened 'on this day in [20..] . Its so easy to forget the progress made.

Na denn ran an die Sache: auf Deutsch natürlich.

I've been using SensorPush for the last five years or so. Using the Buetooth version, I get the data pushed to my phone. The granularity is 'overclocked' , but occasionally - in addition to the readout - I download the data as a CSV and strip out whatever I feel is appropriate at the time. Once per minute is fine. For what it is, it's expensive.

In part because he used a self-indulgent (German) written style: guaranteed to piss readers off. Mercifully absent in your writing.

You're at the end of a lengthening queue. 😔

Quite the most polite way of saying ... Put the horse in front of the cart eh? But @DanDee, we do what we can because we can, because we're engaged, most of all because it's fun.

Our POSIs were sometimes referred to as EcoJoists. But then nobody really cares, as long as you spend the money with 'them'. Key thing is here: ask for designs and quotes using the terms acceptable to the manufacturer - because the joist manufaturers must produce a competent design (CDM2015) Give Steve Grice a ring (our designer / producer ) 01928 360021. He's always prepared to listen and talk stuff through. Ian

And I'm outraged for you. Not one newt, - not a single one - will benefit from your payment. Instead contributions will be made to ecologists mortgages. My whole GCN exercise cost about £6k all in. And - this I hope is a smile inducer for you - it was our children who 35 years ago went round with buckets and 'stole' GCNs from other local ponds and put them in 'ours'. Gave them names, looked after the 'nests' - the works. 'Nest' = a single blade of grass snapped, bent over, both halves stuck together to protect the eggs. I've recently been trying to reclaim their pocket money. Not going too well that. Have you tried suggesting you could create a hibernacular as compensation? We made three or four (out of waste-wood and rubble). NE liked that ....

Well, scaffolders would be sucking their teeth a bit if self-builders all changed to that method. Top idea to make a platform outside a top floor window so you can step off the roof onto that platform and then duck through that window inside the house. Cladding and slips would be easy too. Wonder about the maximum shelf-loading internally .......

Here you are. Comparing quotes is not easy.

@SteamyTea, I am interested in the detail of how you measure the temperature within your house. I have five sensors distributed at what I think are sensible places in the house, kitchen, living room, bedroom, mezzanine and wet room. In working out the average house temperature would it be sensible just to average all the readings from all of the sensors I have? For me, the end in mind is to look at the average difference between the outside temperature of the house and the inside temperature and look at how that correlates to overall consumption. I ask for your advice because I've become increasingly aware that the devil resides in the detail of how things are calculated and I just wondered what you thought.

Here's one way of deciding.... Asleep at 03:00 and someone shouts fire. You have had a good night on the giggle water ... If you think its sensible to ask the question, then the answer is ... Just Do It.

I am wondering why you can't answer that question for yourself by looking at your Building Regs Application? Our BCO noticed that the roof on our piggery is quite small: 20 sq m. She suggested putting the outflow from the gutter on one side of the piggery into the foul drain from our wetroom. The resultant saving in expenditure helped cover the cost of the BCO fees. My direct answer to your question is: IF the outflow from the roof is small, it probably doesn't matter. Ask the BCO when she / he comes on site. The rest of our rainwater outflow was planned for and set out in our B Regs application. Maybe your SUDS (rainwater) plan is tucked away in an Appendix to your application?