Triassic

Just a quick update. I've talked to the private BC guy and he's visited an looked in my trial pits, He's happy for my to dig down to the clay and agrees 600mm wide foundations are OK. That's good as it saves me quite a bit of money to spend elsewhere.

Completely useless web site, the video wouldn't load and I couldn't see the rest of the offering. Rubbish.

I've had a call from a friend, his architect has quoted £2,500 to produce his Building Control drawings. He wanted to know what should be included, as the architect has been rather vague. To be honest I'm not too sure myself, hence the question here?

That was supprising, I thought British companies were on the crest of a wave at the moment.

Permeability is all to do with pore size, i.e. the space between the lumps of fill, the larger the lumps the larger the pore size. So if you use a sub-base with lots of fine material it won't be very permeable. one option would be to use crushed concrete as the sub-base, let that get trashed by the vehicles. Once your ready for the finished drive, lay a drainage layer over it and then place the block drive. Section 5 has some good information https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7728/pavingfrontgardens.pdf

But is it! You've got to form a driveway anyway. You don't want to be taking muck onto the road. Dig out the driveway first, backfill the hole with hardcore, the cheap recycled stuff will do as it's going to be below the finished drive, never to be seen again! Are you you going to save the top soil on site for making good after the build? Will the muckaeay firm do a deal on the recycled fill?

Turn the water off before you do anything! You, the house and the cat could get very wet if you bust the fitting clean off. It's old brass and anything could happen.

Hire some temporary roadway. The other alternative is get the machine driver to excavate the driveway first and pile the soil on site. Get the first load of agrigate tipped just inside the gate and the machine driver can level it to form the hard standing. If necessary get a second load of agrigate tipped and levelled, then you have a clean loading area. If i were the tipper driver I'd refuse to reverse onto site before the hard standing is in place. A recovery truck big enough to pull a loaded 8 wheeler out of a bogged down site is the best part of £1000.

Most drivers won't want to leave the hard standing of the temporary drive. Probably best to load them there, that way they won't get too dirty. Remove any serious lumps left after loading from the temporary drive and roadway with a shovel and a brush.

Muck in the ball cock, no doubt Prodave will be along soon with dismantling instructions. As he said, turn the water off first. Edit. Had a quick look on Utube and found this

A friend is in the middle of a mortgage application and the broker has asked that he contact the previous owner of the house he want to buy, as the mortgage company want the builder of an extension to certify that the craftsmanship was up to building control standards, they already have the BC completion certificate for the extension. He's seriously thinking of telling them where to go! The sellers not too happy either! No doubt a robot has a box to tick and no tick = no money, laundered or otherwise!

Just read the whole lot and then realised why I couldn't find it, it was on Ebuild !! I'll start a new thread.

oh bugger! Forgot all about that one!!! Being a tight wad I fiddled with it and made is work for another 18 months!

I've searched for computers and laptops, but I'm not sure if what you're referring to is coming up in these searches? Any chance of a link?

Its always best to talk, ask if it's possible to move the parking bay, maybe start by saying the council planners have said "The formal on street parking space on Street Name may need to be modified to accommodate the proposed access, and allow service vehicles access.". Ask if that's OK. Say you'll pay for the work to be done! DO NOT be confrontational at this point. Try your best to get him on side. Only as a last resort get the council to deal with the incorrect road markings. Then you can blame the council!

Anyone spotted a ny deals on desk top computers?. I've been nursing mine along for a while now, but it has to be replaced, as her indoors says it's far too slow and she's loosing the will to live when using it.

At some point I also need a sewage treatment plant, so keep up the good work. A table showing capital and running costs would be good!

We are using (maybe that should say 'we were using') an architect, but he passed us off to a SE for the foundation design. The SE company then said that they wanted boreholes in three locations, this without visiting the site. I pointed out that there was bedrock in one of the locations and a trial pit in another location shows clay within 200mm of the surface. I've rather lost confidence in them. I've got the feeling they have and the architect have bigger fish to fry. The other problem is the cost £2100 for the boreholes, soil testing and a report and the foundation design. My next call will be to the private BC guy, he's been helpful in the past, so fingers crossed he'll be helpful again!

Should have said the corrugated pipe I used had a smooth lining.

I'm starting to pull together a package of information for the Building Regs guy for the main house. The one area I'm struggling with is foundations, what sort of information and drawings will he require? When I built the cabin he simple came and inspected the dig prior to concreting, no doubt he'll require more information, but what?

I ran mine through small bore plastic corrugated conduit. The wall of the pipe is thinner and its more flexible than UFH pipe.

Don't forget to shop around as TP prices aren't that keen. I found this product for £54 online.

Can you not get the beams with holes in for ducts and cables?

Our meter reader will have a bit of a hike, our meter box is in the back garden, a walk of about 100 metres from the front gate.

£3.99 a month to watch RTE via their player!