Triassic

My father in law is fitted with a pacemaker, so induction hobs are a no-no for us.

Clear blue skies and sunshine in Cumbria. Mind you this time last year we people were bing flooded!

Luckily Screwfix have recently opened a branch 2 minutes from TP and Jewsons, so happily for me I will never have to use them again for small stuff. I'm now a regular at my locally owned builders merchant for the heavy stuff, or I buy on-line. I wonder if TP and Jewsons monitor site like and if it makes any difference? probably not!

Last time I was in Jewsons was for a box of screws, they wanted to charge full retail price £28 and no amount of arguing would change their mind on the price. I drove half mile to a local merchant and I got the same screws for £11. Jewsons and TP are last on the list when buying, I find their pricing policies so annoying, I don't have time to be haggling on price every time I want to buy stuff.

So I have a cathedral ceiling with two exposed timber perlins, the interior designed (wife) has asked for LED colour change strip lighting hidden up the side of each beam, each strip will be about 3m long. I've search on-line and there's loads of it and having never used the stuff, I'm a bit flummoxed by it all and wondered if anyone could point me in the direction of a beginners guide and any hints on what to look for? Also the tapes look rather ugly, I assume it can be hidden somehow?

I was wondering why you've gone down the stone column route, considering the rig mat requirements. in a previous life I manage a project where we installed poured concrete piles in difficult ground conditions using a mini rotary drilling rig, because of its smaller size no ground mats were required. Have you looked at alternative piling approaches and the total costs of each method?

My architect rode off into the sunset a long ago and he's not coming back, so it looks like I'm the client, PD, project manager, health and safety manager, QS, and sweeper up'er. I'm not going to loose sleep over it.

You could make up a DIY temporary Tee piece fitting with a Schader valve fitter, a mains water filling point and a pressure gauge. Then you could fill the pipe work using mains water pressure, if more pressure is needed then use a foot pump via the Schader valve.

Put a tin on the worktop with some loose change in it, when the wife asked what it's for, tell her you'er starting to save for a new worktop, as the current one will need changing soon if she continues putting hot stuff directly on it!

This may be if interest to those of us going down the prefab route, [Via The Times and The Sunday Times] http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tax-breaks-for-prefab-homes-aim-to-get-britain-building-ch7st9hhn

Planning approval. Once the the design is done the PD role is complete.

Tarmac, the latest stuff allows water to drain through.

Who drew up the window and door schedule?

I'd ring up the council and report that someone has fly tipped the tree trunks on the verge, tell them about you nearly fell over the, when walking home in the dark. No doubt the fly tipping team will deal with them. If the rubbish reappears, call the council again, and so on.

I'm also left wondering if building materials here in the UK are over priced? My cousins is a certified building contractor in the US and was gob smacked at some of the high prices we pay for basic buildings materials.

The last three single home building plots sold in our village were sold at £350,000, £380,00 and the latest is for sale at £550,000. Two years ago two affordable homes were build on land gifted to a housing trust on a 199 year lease by the local Lord of the manor, that was the only way the trust could make them affordable, even then they cost over £200k to build.

Another thread reports double digit price increases in material costs. This won't help with affordability! Maybe be the entry of the Chinese into the UK housing construction market will help bring costs down, who knows!

Good to see manufacturers doing their bit to keep prices in check.

The thing is, as a self builder, you are the client, you play a significant part in the design, you select the principle contractor(s) and have some responsibility for health and safety (risk assessment, job safety analysis, work methods etc).

looks like I'll be demolishing our house dusting timber constructed dormer bungalow in 2017. I'm hoping to recycle as much of it as possible. The roof is made of cedar shingles and thes are in very poor condition, so m thinking of shredding them and using them as mulch. The cladding will be reused on a number of outbuildings and the structural timber sold. The plaster boad will be recycled where possible. But what to do with the double glazed window glass? Any thoughts.

I have one just the same and the cover just pulls off, give it a good tug!

Tempting, but expensive! Cant remember the brand, sorry!

I was impressed with EDPM tape, it was flexible and could be stretched and shaped. I'd make a board with holes in and start by sealing this down on the airtightness layer, next I'd put the ducts through and seal each one using the tape. As belt and braces I'd seal the gap between the board and each duct with low modulus silicone sealer first.

Looking at the limestone outcrop on site I thing they may struggle to get boreholes to 2m !

The site investigation proposals are in, so now I need to do is do a 'reality check' on what's proposed and the price, so here goes - Intrusive investigation- 1. Excavation of 4 boreholes to a depth of 4.00m using a Dando Terrier Rig with associated CPT and / or shear vane testing with supervision ny an experienced and qualified geo-enviromental engineer (£550 + Vat). 2. Excavation of several machine dug trial pits to gather further information of the depth and profile of expected limestone roackhead (inclusive in the above) 3. Geotechnical Testing of samples recovered from site including moisture content, Atterberg Limits, water soluble sulphate concentrations and pH testing to allow suitable foundations and concrete design service (£150 +Vat) 4. Provision of a factual and interpretative report with recommendations by a gotechnical engineer on the foundation type and depth at the site, with regard to the development (£350 +Vat) Total cost £1050 + Vat Any thoughts, is this a good deal, am I missing anything critical ?