Triassic

I'm looking for someone for a few weeks to help help clear up after the demolition of our old house, to move shrubs, top soil and bedding plants, prior to the groundworker starting on the foundations. I'm off down the pub to tap up a few of the locals. Fingers crossed!

I'm in Cumbria. Where ever you go in the National Park there are job vacancies notices in shop windows, hotels and in the local paper. I think a lot of Europeans have gone, or are considering going, hence the shortage of workers. The Polish shop in town closed a few months ago and the Turkish barber has been closed all summer, with a note in the window saying they'll be back in September, we'll see! We've started getting ads on the local radio for seasonal Christmas vacancies!

I've talked to our local handyman, he's semi retired and not interested in hard work! He's not cheap either, charges £25/ hour. There's one advert in Gumtree for a labourer at £11/hour, so going with IanR suggestion, it looks like I'll be looking to pay around £11.50/hour.

There aren't enough hours in th day! So ive decided I need a second pair of labouring hands, I've asked locally and the guy I used last time now has a full time job and isn't interested. I've looked in the local paper and free magazine and drawn a blank. I've called a few contacts and still nothing. Can anyone suggest the best place to find a suitable labourer,

I've cut granite worktop in the past, if it's out of sight then I'd use an angle grinder with a diamond tipped blade. Ttheres a few videos on youtube. Might be worth a watch.

It really is down to location, is this a place you are happy to live? Have you a support network locally, regarding the house, keep it simple, timber frame, insulated foundations, insulated walls and roof, solar panels (if you must!) ASHP for the heating and hot water.

Very nice, bet it puts the neighbour's house to shame!

I'm considering buying a new cutter deck skirt and a peice of steel plate and making a whole new one. As you say, a winter project. http://m.g.ebay.co.uk/itm/391443848308 All I need to do then is make a template and find someone locally who can plasma cut the steel plate.

Mine needs a new cutter deck!

From what I've read, this has to be a positive!

Having appointed the ground worker to dig out the basement my next task is to find a suitable formwork contractor. If anyone in the NW of England has any recommendations, please pm me. @iSelfBuild I recall your work in this particular sector, so again all help greatfully received!

@Ryan8087 i can onlyy apologise for my mates! It must be Friday effect! So to attach your drawings! Go back to your first post and hit the edit button, scroll down and look out for the paper clip, next to that is the add file button, click it and find your file, add it. Then sit back with a cool beer and wait for all the useful comments to come in!

This guy also lives at the end of the road, it's worth reading his blog about his efforts to get broadband https://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/?s=Broadband there may be a few pointers!

I'm in the same DNO area as you and about 18 months ago they replaced the overhead cable to our old house, at no cost yo me. I pointed out it was as a waste of time and their money as I'd already applied for the cable to be moved into a new meter box on another building, but they replaced it anyway. Maybe you should report the cable as defective, saying the achore plate is pulling out as the soffits rotten. In out case they moved the anchor point off a soffit board and onto the wall, maybe they could do the same for you.

Looks ok to me, just make sure the horizontal is tipping down to the trap so any liquid isn't sat in it.

That's annoying! There is no excus for poor workmanship. I was going to say, maybe the UK needs minimum qualifications to call yourself a builder, but that would be a waste of time. My last builder had a civil engineering degree and was a Master Builder, he was still crap at the job and went bust.

It arrived plastic shrink wrapped and number plate sized, easily fitted through my letter box.

Here's the link to the petition https://www.change.org/p/reassess-uk-planning-permission-laws-for-tiny-houses-in-response-to-the-housing-crisis/nftexp3/fb_share_post_dynamic/755794615?recruiter=755794615&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish.guest_form_reduction&utm_term=autopublish&utm_content=fb_share_post_copy_6%3Afb_share_post_dynamic

There's been a Facebook post doing the rounds linking to an online petition calling for a relaxation of the rules regarding Tiny Homes and the need for local authorities to allow them. Theres been a couple of occasions reports in the local paper when locals, living in caravans and cabins on family farms, have had enforcement action against them as they don't have planning permission for their tiny homes. As a result there's been a bit of debate about the planning process and it's suitability. Given the lack or affordable housing should we be going down this route. No doubt a few of us are currently living in Tiny Homes! I am.

Looking at the quotes, the highest has not followed the scope of work supplied and has lump a number of elements together without giving any real detail. The one at £40k has been done by a QS and closely matches the price my QS suggested for the job, albeit, the lowest quoter missed a number of items and double counted others, having said that he's the closest to the QS price. I have a groundworker coming this week to look at the digging out of the basement, I'm told his work is good and his prices are keen, we will see.

My wife says I should ask for help more! So thanks for the help. I'm sat here filing things under their correct place in the build, starting with planning...... i like the the idea of using the cloud to share things, I have a phone, an iPad and a PC and currently never shall the Twain shall meet.

I've never been into the folder and sub folder thing, I have one large folder called The New Build, this holds all the information, I also have a mail folder with the same name. I then used a search utility to find everything with, for example, the word 'foundation' in eather the title or within the document. Having changed computer I need to find a new search utility, as the current one is c&rap. I'd never thought of using bookmarks, I've been hot linking to information from within a Word document.

I've recently changes computers and the search on this one is poor, consequently I'm find it difficult to find things! This one only searches document titles and not content. Ive recently started a document that acts as my reference list, it contains links to web pages, snippets of information etc. Hopefully this should help. Ian's @recoveringacademic checklists are also a help, Didn't someone start a post listing various training videos?

I've come to the realisation that I'm disorganised, my workshop is a tip, the garden tool shed a mess, my filing a mess and my management of information poor. Hence it's making doing stuff so much harder. The one thing I could do with is a reference section, that covers each aspect of the house build, organised from the ground up. The days aren't long enough! I tend to be a bit of a loan wolf, I want to do everything myself and I'm realising I need to relax and get some help !

We're on free draining lime stone, the geological conditions are known, the scope of work was clear, the SE, architect drawings and bar schedule were all supplied, everyone quoting visited the site, yet we have a huge variation in costs £40k to £145k. Talking to a neighbour, a surveyor, he thinks some of the inflated costings are down to the 'self Build premium'. I'm thinking along @Bitpipe's line, waterproof concrete, as we're on limestone and the basement is open at the front as it's cut Into a hillside.