ToughButterCup

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.....

Diverter ordered (for the down-spout). Digger on site today for a dig-out tomorrow to redirect the piggery roof supply to the pond. The stupid thing is that, based on that BCOs (poor) advice in relation to the piggery, we created a small pond supplied by water from the house roof run-off (and a spring).The house roof delivers water to the pond.

The Poo Plot thickens. I rang up BioPure (ours is the 1- 5 version) and talked to their expert. Told him the whole sob story. After ruminating for a bit he said "Know what: try leaving your tank as it is. It might just get itself together again. Oh, and tell your BCO to - [ ... I leave the rest to your fetid imaginations ...] " Smart fella- because thats what I was going to do. Now - how long do you recon I can convince the two wimmin in my life (daughter / wife) that doing nothing is the best idea? Week? Ten days? There is ZERO chance that I can get them to read this thread. Lets pray for a windy week or two..... Please God - no blocking High pressure systems please.

We are too. 'S a tough ask mate.....

Luckily for us, we drain to a free-flowing stream. So the consequences - for us - of the over-flow are minimal. Pumping it out and a yearly service will sort everything out. But I feel a bit bad for the local wildlife. I had no idea how important a gentle slope to a stream can be in assisting the free-flow of foul water

Yes it does. The complaint was about their failure to do anything about the legality of the installation. The smell coming from their site was (and still is) incidental.

In our case the rainwater will have flushed much of the the foul water into our local stream. Albeit the effect of the deluge will have been mitigated by the sheer volume of clean water added to the liquor. It's really annoying : I used to trust BCOs. Not any more.

18mm will always sag - even with an aluminium angle front - it just sags at the back, but not the front. 36mm kitchen top will sag less Almost Finished @Paene Finitur, almost ?

We recently had a large rain 'event' ( as the Met Office are wont to call them) . It rained hard all day - no wind just hard dense rain. All day long. A couple of years earlier, our BCO at the time - never had a visit from the same BCO twice - suggested we connect the guttering from one side of the Piggery (roof area 10sq m) to the foul drainage. "It'll just keep the foul drain wet and help flush stuff through" was her memorable advice. Good idea I thought. The tank has been ticking along nicely for the last three years. 24 hours after the deluge, the poo tank started smelling . I don't think her advice was a good idea now. I have no proof that the rain caused the change in the processes going on in the tank. But a few hundred gallons of fresh clean water must have changed something. Local advice "Yer wanna foind a good-n dead fezzunt and stick'n in lad... tharal sort it" (On reflection, I think that guy might have come from Somerset)

Exactly correct ( === ) . Here's a memorably informative post from a few years ago: it might help ....? Two authors ( @Jeremy Harris and @Stones ) provide really good summaries of the issues. The soft and smelly is as hidden as it can be in the UK. Vee Tschermans are not so skveemish.

That's what Durisol does. (Did)

My name's Ian and I'm 69 and eleven twelfths. I'm likely to die before anything new-fangled fails: so I wish I'd chosen to make a few really important lights and sockets to be hard-wired - and make the rest as sexy as I could get. I'm told that @SteamyTea controls many things in the house with his brain. And @pocster....

@The Reverend is here for a quiet life (ostensibly) leave the poor man alone. Leave 'im to mind his knotweed in peace.

Any glass in that sample ... eh?

Brilliant question. It's the key question to ask. So many tasks in house building are repetitive and simple. And that tempts so-called professionals to cut and paste text from one specification to the next. On our build two or three times a principal merely signed off a piece of work that was done by a junior member of staff. And in one case that error caused a fortnight's delay and cost quite a bit of money. The quotation that you've been given appears to me to be more about expectation management than a sensible evidence-based costing

I'm rendering a wall in what proves to be the hottest day so far: despite a forecast of overcast. I thought it was an ideal day. But. The first coat dried faster than I thought it would: consequently the render mesh wouldn't embed in the mortar. Warran eejit - all I needed to do was put the first layer on for a meter or so and then press the mesh into that. But I had the bit between my teeth. Can I put the render mesh on the wall at the same time as the next 'layer' ? In other words put the mesh on the scratch layer at the same time as the render for the top coat?

Its no secret, loads of us have used them : Tanners in Eire. Superb. Saved the price of their fees many times over.

The set up cost for our piles was about £5000. The additional cost of (unplanned - 'where we might want to put a garage' ) piles was £50 each. We threw in a couple of others between our piggery and the house for when the piggery is extended 'into' the house Have a read of my stuff about piling. Overall cost for 146 sq m was £6500.

Sauna. Sorted.

The BCO himself agreed with me that if I did as suggested above - fit and later remove - was fine: he had fulfilled his duty. He did not encourage me or condone removal. He then, with a knowing grin, also said that that was exactly why Grand Designs generates such howls of derision from most builders. How many non-compliany staicases are featured on that program ?