PeterW

Can be cut and snapped quite easily or you can use a cordless circ saw - will be useless by the end as the dust does for power tools !! Corners and reveals are easy with a bearing guided router.

Just checked and total inc VAT for warranty and private building control is £1850

Just had a quote from BuildZone of about £700 for warranty...

I saw one of those vacuum tube things for cash transfer in shops at an auction recently ... Transfer the cat to wherever they wanted to in the house ........??

Glasroc H Tilebacker according to my site book ...

Just be very careful they are not giant hogweed or similar as that causes burns to the skin. More likely to be wild angelica, fits your description well bookmark this page ... http://www.npms.org.uk/sites/www.npms.org.uk/files/PDF/NPMS ID GUIDE_WEB_0.pdf

So that's where it gets a bit odd - your builder has invested over time in his tools. A self builder has to go and buy theirs at a cost which will either be a lost cost or an investment - neither can be included in the cost of building. As a rule of thumb I've included everything the mortgage would cover - this is more than the VAT reclaim as it would include kitchen appliances I expect

I had this conversation yesterday evening - when it comes to the full cost, I can't see how they include items such as building control, warranty or insurances as there are too many variables. I expect that the models include basic tiling in bathrooms, no floor coverings and a coat of white/magnolia everywhere, uPVC double glazing and minimum spec insulation

Watched them do that in India - 3 blokes, one in the hole, one pulling the muck out in a bucket and one with a big hand cranked fan blowing air down the hole !! Every couple of hours they would roll a new segment over the top on three wooden scaffold poles, and then keep digging .... I reckon they'd be about 30ft down when I left - and it was about 38c in the shade !!

Sounds like you need to do the appeal with the 6 nearest sized ones (2 above, 2 same, 2 smaller) and look them all up on VOA. Then submit the appeal with the info and see what happens - you can but try...! I've spent this evening checking the VOA and houses round the site in readiness !!!!

You can make one ... all you need is a scaffold pole, a Capri back axle on its end, and an engine ... You'll be 60ft down by tea time ... But on a serious note, have a look at Jeremy's blog as it's a mine of info on all things borehole related !

Google Earth maps ..?? Spot a few likely candidates, snap an aerial image and overlay a rough shape of yours to see what's within a similar area ..??

Rightmove is a pretty good source of house plans so you can look at the floor plans and work out who's got something of similar size. Then check out their rating from the VOA site.

So humour me here ... Do they use the internal floor area or external and multiply by 2..? Just wondering what is included to make sure it's like for like ..!!

This should work fine http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Philmac-25mm-MDPE-x-27mm-34mm-other-pipe-universal-transition-coupling-UTC-/141826781765?hash=item210588f245:g:mukAAOSwRLZUGshc

It could well be due to the heat of the concrete curing has increased the pressure and it has now settled down keep an eye on it over the next 24 hours as it should have stabilised.

The problem becomes that the house is not a house until it becomes habitable - insurers then insure the main house plus its contents and potentially any ancillary buildings Containers don't fall well into this last category - and aren't great for anything with soft furnishing - so they can't tick the right box. One off the wall suggestion would be goods in transit insurance - not overly expensive and it's "technically" what it is ..!

You will struggle to get a true leaded stained glass triple glazed unit. Glass used for stained work tends to be 3mm and the lead cames are 5mm ish - this gives you an uneven finish to the leaded panel that won't fit into ordinary warm spacers without a lot of work. Leaded glass also leaks in the cames so it won't properly seal between the inner and outer - it becomes a big double glazed unit with an inner panel. What you may be better off doing is having the leaded panel bonded to the middle pane - using 3mm it works fine and you can use epoxy on the edges to hold it. The inner pane is added and the unit sealed. That allows you to have whatever you want in the unit but without the hassle

Just don't hit a UFH pipe....

So the reason the UC is so big is because he has put two uprights providing the support to the roof part way into the span. It may be worth checking if you can move those outward and angled to end on top of the supporting walls as then the lower UC is only taking the load from the centre (which will be less as you are putting the "arch" into compression) Flange detail will be critical as the bolts will be in shear if it's done correctly but the number and type will need to be part of the spec !

If it's rubber to metal then a Stixall or even CT1 would be preferable.

Thanks ! I thought that would be the case but wanted to check ..!

Is there a rule of thumb or calculation about how closely and how deep you can dig to new foundations..? Contemplating a rainwater system that would need a hole approx 4m x 1.4m x 1.5m deep to be dug to contain the storage. Its not suitable to be driven on, so one thought is that it goes under a patio - the only thing being this would need to dig within 2.2m of the foundations. Foundation will be around 1100mm deep so its not as though there is a huge depth difference but I can't find any real guidance.

That's great - always useful when you can match the words on a report to the actual items they are referring to.

Any idea on the supplier / cost on the buffer tank ..?? It only looks about 50 litre ..?