ToughButterCup

Some do know better and have good communication skills. In this case, had the tradesman told me he was short of screws, I'd have given him more. Any job depends at some level on the ability to communicate, especially when things go wrong. And stuff goes wrong all the time. It's normal for stuff to go breasts high. The measure of a good trades person depends on technical skills as well as the emotional intelligence required to communicate effectively under pressure. And which trades course teaches the latter skill? Correct. It starts (if a little late by then) in the Reception class at school.

I'm very aware that being allowed to build is a privilege: as is a forum on which I can vent the most minor of irritations.

Vee Tschermans are not allowed to yoouze zees stooppid screwz. My hands have been weakened by 10+ operations on my hands, 8 fingers left of which 6 are in working order. I can't feel anything much in two of them. Makes punching someone a breeze. Can't feel a thing. Gaulhofer delivered our windows in wooden crates. I couldn't see any heads of the screws they had used for packing: they were that deeply buried in the whitewood packaging . Once I had found the correct size of Torx head, I found that if just shoved the extended bit into the screw holes blind, the bit would engage with the Torx screw and out it would come. No caming out at all . Couldn't have done that with POSIs. Just not enough control over the grip needed to steady my hand. Those Torx are the ones for me, I thought. Bought £500 worth of various sizes from Germany (when that was possible), and never gave the issue another thought. 50mm stainless screws for the cladding - about 30% of Screwfixes price. Couldn't believe the price difference. All the others noticeably cheaper even with the shipping. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good innit?

Yes. But time presses this morning. Like you say - 'm always cross about summat. Need a holiday. I'm more cross about having paid someone to do something - with a clear rationale for asking him to do it, and then find that he did the opposite. I have to see him every morning that I take the grandbabies to skoool. Moving swiftly on.......

It's soooooo simple and so stupid. The stairs handrail was put in - temporarily - using 5 by 100mm POSI screws sunk inside a deep hole (30 mm) in the rail itself . I told the guy helping me that because of my stupid hands, POSIs are a No - No anywhere on site. Torx heads were to be used everywhere and Spax ones at that. I even gave him (to keep) his own case of Torx screws of the right size held in one of those plastic boxes - the boxes with a clear lid so you can see what the stock level is . You know what happens next. I needed to take the stair rail out this morning. It was fastened with six screws. To 'undo' the last screw (of six of the same type - fekkin' POSIs) , I've had to cut it: and to do that I could not avoid damaging the newel post. I'll just have to hide the damage with a mixture of sanding and a fancy bit of quadrant. In the scheme of things it's nowt. Lots of careful work had to be done to get to this stage. Needlessly worsened by mindlessness. I'm a bit over-touchy about how much weaker my hands are now I've had the odd amputation or two (more on the way ?) FFS Get a problem Ian .... Or read your own signature line perhaps?

The answer immediately above is exactly what I would have said (but less elegantly) . What's your risk appetite?

Hello @Justine. Persistence is the key. SWMBO bought our plot in 1985. After decades of being told that planning permission was a pipe dream, we started building in 2016. I know it's easy to say - be persistent - and harder to hold on to doing something about that persistence. It might be a really good idea then to plan in detail ; what's your ideal house? cost it re-plan how are you going to get PP for it? look at the Planning Authority website. Read the planning permissions and refusals for houses of the type you might build. Know the logic behind each decision. There's so much more than anyone expects to do in preparation for a build: use this time a first class opportunity to do masses of research. Know the politics of it too: local and national. Good luck. Ian

Maybe forgetfulness is the way forward.

Yes, but I know. The bodge, doesn't really matter what it is. The result of the bodge will be invisible. But I know its going to have to be a bodge. In this case it's a bodge caused by someone doing exactly what I told him not to. And nobody will be able to tell its a bodge after I'm done. An extra half days work. There is no substitute for watching every tradesperson closely until some trust develops in the mix is there? I'm cross. Again. And if anyone says that its OK, because nobody will know I'm going to ........

But wonderful at finance is you need (say) a billion to help a few people over the water, or a few million for your mates who decide they can supply PPE, and extremely good at spinning . Just for reference, ' Du Spinner' (you liar) is German derogatory slang for someone who makes things up

I researched helical piles : they would have been perfect for us , but the ground conditions for them are quite specific. Can't recall what those conditions were, but glacial till isn't suitable. I suspect ground-improvement columns aren't for you? (Compacted 'piles' (columns) of stone - bit like a pile? ) We built on 64 of them Just in case, Town and Country Vibro did ours : our contact is John Ashton

Can't you 'do something' with that power? Our SunAmp installation is connected to a MyEnergi Eddi. So I have to play the - how-little-can-I-boost- today game. If our SunAmp is full, and there's plenty of sunshine still, I'll find a job for some hot water. Admittedly it only happens on a few days in the year. But yesterday was one of them. Annoyingly, I'd boosted for an hour or so first thing .... Can't you give your Powerwall a small job to do?

Driving one of those is an exercise in self-control. Memories of summer holidays when I was 8, and my dad a bridging engineer building the M5 motorway. He'd regularly farm me out to D6, D8 drivers and (wheeled , I seem to remember) scraper drivers - for a small boy, pure heaven. Hoveringhams (?) were doing the ground work for the Ross Spur. The engine heat, the smell, the noise, pulling the track levers and watching the machine slew. Sitting up high in the cab (on the fuel tank ?) watching tonnes of earth disappear. The thing that really got me was how delicately an expert driver could manoeuvre and how level and even their work was on completion. I still grin when on the motorway when I pass the banking between Strensham Services and the river bridge. Now, H+S staff would explode ...

Join the queue. It's a bit of a let down isn't it: you (like me) came here hoping that you could '... do the right thing ...' One positive you can rely on is that you will find the early adopters here. And sure as Hell, they will be talking about it. Try dropping a turbine in the river Severn?

Here is the detail you need. BH's focus is more on the technical aspects of building rather than the ins and outs of the legal aspects of building. downloaded March 2022

Fookin' Ello! 'Owmanee peepl's in your place? A football team?

Minimum number of moving parts Bury the air blower ( in a ventilated container ) Buy two air pumps (keep one spare - breakdown; replace (£186) and send the other for maintenance: zero down-time.) For us Bio Pure works a treat. Ticks the boxes above. Self installed: 3tonne digger, level, a tonne or so of concrete. Run from a fused switched spur on armoured cable. Loads of similar threads on BH. Here's an evening's quiet fire-side reading And here's a two minute laugh - it is Friday after all.

Too true, too true.

The only opinion worth having is the one given you by the BCO. It's sensible to sort out the footings for both at the same time too. Just a nudge: remember a garage is a storage area: and we all need more of that now don't we? Cars can be defrosted. Just a thought.

Thats not very nice now is it @pocster - giving him a girl's name: Ann Droid.

Hmmm, tried this?

Stop trying to distract from the latest bit of goss -" Chattin' up delivery lads she were........ " 🤣

Paint.

Morning! Ah, an architect. There's a range of reactions to your discipline here: two self-builders in a pub , 5 opinions. You know the sort of thing. You'll be used to that, I expect. In any case you are most welcome.

Quick addendum. I forgot to add an important note of caution about paying for advice in this context. Paying for advice doesn't guarantee the accuracy of professional advice.