Triassic

My brain is just not big enough, being retired I loose track of the days! So how do you keep track of all the important bits of information gleaned from this forum, web site, manufacturers, suppliers etc etc?

I mixed my own concrete for the base for my cabin in the woods, four big bags of ballast. It was hard work! But easier than pushing a wheel barrow of concrete up the drive and across a garden into an orchard, at least 100 yards. if I were you I'd get the local barrow mix guy in. Maybe Debbie could help

I recall your in the Lake District, if you need more rough sawn planks for mantle pieces etc, I've just bought a 7 foot long Oak Plank 2 inch thick, from a wood yard on the way into Grange Over Sands, for £25. He has a good selection. You can't miss the yard, it has wooden toadstools on display outside.

I've always worried about ICF bursting, is this an issue in practice. What is the cost difference between ICF and traditional shuttering? The current spec calls for a waterproofing membrane to be applied to the concrete. How would you go about waterproofing ICF?

I'm slowly moving forward with my foundations. Because of the sloping site we went with an L shaped configuration, with a lounge and bedroom above in one wing and a walk in basement with kitchen above in the other wing. Having sent the drawings and a scope of work to six companies and got three quotes, the cheapest is £50,000 and the most expensive £145,000. However, the cheapest quote doesn't cover everything listed in the scope of work, leaving me thinking I'd be better following Ian's lead @recoveringacademic, and using local trades to do the individual element. A few phone calls today and I've found a local ground worker to do the excavations and the drains, ive also got a local company to do the concrete pour into the insulated slab, I'll be installing that! Now to the question! I need to do the formwork for the basement walls. Is this something a local joiner could do, or is it a specialist job? I was also wondering if I could DIY it as I have loads of timber left over from the demolition of the old house.

Getting rid of our builder was the best decision we made. He didn't even come back for the tools he left on site and we never got a final invoice. It did left us in a bit of a hole but we pulled things together and in doing so found some great tradesmen. the only thing is, don't under estimate the time you will need to put into the project. My wife suggests it takes three times longer doing it yourself.

My last big build was a roof off, floors out renovation of a five bedroom house built in 1770. The builder I used was also poor in the paperwork department and employed too many muppets, a few of which were paid cash in hand. His lack of paperwork finally caught up with him when the VAT man visited, a few months later he went bust leaving a number of unhappy customers and a lot of unpaid suppliers. Luckily for me, we'd parted company a few months before, leaving me to finish off the work. Maybe I was a bit harsh to call your builder dodgy!

Oh well, that's a second quote ready for the bin! Won't be using your dodgy builder! At this rate I'll be doing my build on my own. where do you find good sub contractors?

If the WC is congested you could route the right hand set of feed and returns under the door of the cloakroom.

65,000 tracks, that must be at least 12 solid years of music. Why?

Are you growing your own garden in the poly tunnel or is it storage? nice neat foundations!

I just wish I could get some sensible quotes for foundations.

This is the company I used http://stores.ebay.co.uk/everydayaccessories/ It cost £6.75 including postage.

We often hear of poor service on here and only infrequently of great service. Just ordered a new trailer number plate after busting mine in half. Twenty minutes after placing the order it was dispatched and should be here tomorrow.

I must admit, I only went along with her 'scheme' because I was thinking a cellar might be a cool place to store veg and other items!

It's chucked it down all day here, so the wife is stuck indoors with a pile of house magazines. The problem is she's spotted one of those spiral wine cellars and wants to know how difficult would it be to build one under our, soon to be built, utility room? So not wanting to let her down just yet, I said I know someone to ask, leave it to me. As an aside, the local farmer has three large concrete rings in a field close to us, no doubt I could do a deal with him for them! Over to you.

I've only just started thinking about Windows and I'm now worried!

We visited a U.K. Window manufacturer yesterday, as part of which we had a look round the factory and saw first hand the production process close up, all very interesting. However the one thing that struck me was the lack of attention to detail, things like poor paint finish, machine marks showing through the paint, knots and indentations in the timber showing, Ali cladding corners not finished to eliminate sharp edges. A background check suggests the company went through a serious 'restructuring' last year, I know why! Quality and finish sells, but not in this case.

A week after the call regarding the site datum (see the above post) I received his quote for the insulated foundations and reinforced basement walls, £135,000, in comparison the other quote I have is for £50,500 and I thought that was a lot! I've sent Trish the drawings and she's said they will happily quote for the work, I eargerly await her reply!

A Suffolk company is set to make millions of pounds after inventing the world’s first cordless garden hose. The clever device ensures gardeners can water any sized garden, because the nozzle can be taken anywhere without the hosepipe running out. http://www.suffolkgazette.com/business/cordless-garden-hose/ thought this his might be of interest to some of you!

I've used these panels previously and found that the most important thing is the seal between the bottom of the panel and the tray. So I used this product https://www.bellabathrooms.co.uk/classi-seal-shower-tray-and-bath-sealant.html

It's it funny, you send out a request for a quote and you have a deadline for responses and it's missed, So you call to be told the boss is on holiday for three weeks! Oh well you think, he can't be that interested in the work! Then today he calls me out of the blue to ask which point on the topo survey is the site datum. I ask why? He needs to work out the quantities for the quote!! I go along with him and don't question the missed deadline. If I were ever daft enough to use this guy, I'm going to write a timescale clause into the contract. If the speed of quotation is anything to go by, he'll be paying me!!

New diesel and petrol vehicles to be banned from 2040 in UK. Great headline! But is it a realistic wish? just a pity they don't target the housing stock and bring these up to a high standard, surely this would go a long way to reducing emissions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40723581

I would have thought its good.

Cutting and fitting Celotex (other brands are available!) the worst ever job, never again. I'm getting mine factory fitter by the timber frame company, that have a large saw to cut it into the correct widths and the saw is fitted with an extract system, so no dust.