Thorfun

Can’t help you there! Good luck with your decision.

create a VM using Windows 10 home and see what happens. then if it's rubbish get the cheap PC. that's what I'd do.

lol. still £99 more than you'd need to spend if you can run a VM on the NAS. Windows 10 (home edition) is free so should be ok for your needs, it's just you can't Remote Desktop to it so would have to administer through the console on the VM software. running windows 10 on a VM is a bit of a dog with only 2GB ram but if you can give it some more then you should be ok. give it a go and see what happens! the only thing you'll lose is a bit of time.

thanks. surprisingly few conditions to be honest. the usual landscaping plan, parking to be completed before occupation, external materials etc. a couple of ecological conditions as there are GCN near and bats in our current property. but nothing that is too major. they did remove our permitted development but I was expecting it and we're not that bothered as we shouldn't need much else after the house is built.

<drum roll>.....we have our planning application approval! yay!! I was really expecting a long drawn out process but pretty much a month after we hired our planning consultant we got our approval. I'm pretty gobsmacked to be honest but we're over the moon. can't believe it all happened so quickly. I had discussions with the planning consultant about what we were willing to compromise on and what we weren't. we also determined what we could potentially build using PD on the existing building and the planning consultant also did some research and found other approvals for applications that were similar in size increase over the existing property as ours. Putting it all together we ended up offering to remove the annexe whilst keeping the rest of the building the same but with increasing the basement to the full size of the main building. A bit of escalation within the department as our planning officer was out of office for a while and we were told to submit the new drawings with the annexe removed and a decision would be made on those new drawings without the need for another consultation period. all of the above equated to us receiving our approval this morning. ? the bubbly is in the fridge chilling and waiting to be opened shortly.

couldn't agree more! although I probably contradicted myself by not going the Makita route but the Ego stuff isn't cheap! it's just not as expensive as Makita/Dewalt. ? although, only time will tell.

bugger.....spent so long procrastinating that I missed the deadline for shipping today! ?‍♂️ but my new Ego multitool should be here by the weekend. I'd just like to take this moment to apologise to all those that suggested I use Makita. I did listen to your advice and it was much appreciated but in the end a few things swayed me elsewhere. availability, price, and needing to use 2 x 18V batteries for the Makita range.

thanks Peter. it's good to know! arrrrggghhhhh! why is this so difficult to choose. I was supposed to be working today but seem to have spent most of my day reading/watching reviews and using spreadsheets to compare. I'm sorely tempted to keep my garden equipment and my household tools separate for no other reason than not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket. Also, the Ego multitool works out about £250 - £350 cheaper (depending on where you buy) and I can get it next day delivery! whereas the Makita multitool body is out of stock most places and SWMBO wants to start in the garden asap. so, I think that's pretty much made my mind up for the garden tools then. I am very impressed with the range of tools that Makita offer though and so I think I'll probably ditch Erbauer and buy Makita for my tools for building with. i can probably sell my Erbauer drill as I've not used it much to recoup some of the costs. thanks for all the advice. it has been (as usual) very helpful.

all the reviews seem to rate Ego. a 56V system as well. more research required but glad to know that someone on here rates them. ?

I've moved on from Oregon now. just researching and watching some reviews of the Ego tools. seem to get good reviews although I'll probably end up with Makita I like to research as many options as possible!

oh dear. this is not a good review! https://www.techgearlab.com/reviews/tools/cordless-chainsaw/oregon-cordless-cs300 I'm starting to lean towards Makita. too many recommendations to ignore although I will definitely do more research. Anyone got any first hand experience of the Oregon power tools?

thanks. seems that there are a lot of Makita happy customers! I definitely cannot ignore that.

so, again and sorry to bang on about Oregon stuff but their 36V chainsaw is a pretty reasonable price. https://www.screwfix.com/p/oregon-cs300-36v-li-ion-brushless-cordless-40cm-self-sharpening-chainsaw-bare/2432k once you already have the batteries that is! I just don't know how good their machinery is, although I believe their chains and bar quality is not in doubt.

interesting, I didn't see the multitool. however (and just playing devil's advocate here as I'm a believer in you get what you pay for but there is a form of diminishing returns on that the really expensive stuff) it is hugely more expensive than the Oregon multitool. and seeing as a lot of these company use Oregon chains would the actual Makita tools be that much better than an Oregon tool? https://www.screwfix.com/p/oregon-ph600-4-36v-4-0ah-li-ion-brushless-cordless-4-in-1-multi-tool/922hf

I can't see a Pole saw from Makita though so I'd still need to get another manufacturer for that. ? but a very interesting point about not changing fittings often as that happened with the Dewalt drill I have. the batteries won't fit their new stuff so if I went with Dewalt (although probably won't due to cost and your mate's review!) I'd have to buy new batteries as well.

they look more expensive that DeWalt but I guess you do get what you pay for. I'm not a professional builder though so I'm not sure that sort of robustness is needed but I will research them some more.

agreed. so if going with multiple manufacturers you'd end up with multiple batteries and their chargers! this is an interesting concept and not something I'd really considered as I would generally be working on my own on things and so with 2 batteries one would be on charge while using the other one and I doubt a situation would ever arise, for me, where multiple tools would be being used at once. although the shortened life span is not something I'd considered. Would you then buy multiple manufacturers or simply one battery per tool?

in this thread I started it was recommended not to go for a 'basement guy' as they'd likely slap some zeros on the end of the quote as they're specialists.

morning all, I'm wondering if there is such a thing as brand loyalty these days where you completely buy into that company or if, now that most manufacturers have the ability to share batteries amongst all their equipment, it's simply a convenience to use all of the same manufacturer's equipment? The reason I'm asking is that I recently bought an Erbauer SDS cordless drill and a couple of batteries with the thought of buying new Erbauer power tools as and when I need them and I can use the same batteries with them all. and they do a lot of different tools which should satisfy my needs (most of my other tools are corded apart from a really old DeWalt cordless screwdriver/drill which is on it's last legs)..........but, I'm after a cordless Pole saw to do some trimming of branches around the garden etc but Erbauer don't do one! so, as I've only got the one Erbauer power tool at the moment and not fully in their ecosystem do I knock them on the head and start buying a company who does Pole Saws and go with them for everything? or do I buy one company for garden tools and stick with Erbauer for building tools? or do I mix and match as required? and then if I start with a new company for garden/external tools who should that be? I've been looking at Oregon garden tools and they seem to be pretty good and reasonably priced although their batteries are hugely expensive. Then there's DeWalt who are expensive on the tools but the batteries seem to be cheaper. I'd like to stay away from the 'budget' end of the spectrum as I'd like these tools to last through the build and beyond. anyone have any brand loyalty these days? or do you simply buy as you need and not worry about who the manufacturer is as long as the tools do the job?

if it's under an existing garage then I can understand steep costings due to underpinning and digging out under an existing structure but £72k to dig a hole and waterproof it seems crazy. I wish you all the best with it.

£72k for a 3x3m basement! holy cr@p that's a lot. I'd be looking to build a shed instead. doesn't bode well for when I get my basement priced up.

out of interest (and it's probably because you've already got the batteries) but why go for an electric one instead of a petrol one?

yep. I agree for the road side of the hedge but I still have to do the garden side!

I have a 3m high hedge along 2 long borders (photo below). We currently have an electric hedge trimmer but i’m not sure it’s up to the job so I’m following this thread with interest!

I'm no expert and haven't even started building our house yet as we're still waiting on planning permission! but I have had numerous quotes for open panel 140mm timber frame with the idea of fitting the insulation myself to save a substantial amount of money. the external wall makeup you've got there should yield about 0.14W/m2K and is pretty much the exact same make up I'm looking at doing but I might stretch to 80mm of PIR which would take it to about 0.12W/m2K. I'm still not sure about using the propassive osb instead of the VCL as I'm sure you can get excellent air tightness just using the VCL. I guess the propassive has less risk of someone piercing it and creating a hole in your nice airtightness layer when running cables and pipes etc. as such, I'm going to be eagerly watching this thread so I can read what those who actually know what they're talking about say!