Gone West

I don't think cod fishing in the North Sea has been banned yet, but probably soon. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/24/north-sea-cod-menu-two-years-fishing-sees-stocks-halve/

We could do that, but the point is that it doesn't yet have to be built on more greenfield sites. The government owns huge areas of land, brownfield sites, around the country which could be used for housing. The problem lies with the government giving sites away to private companies rather than handling the development themselves due to political dogma. Sometimes it works as in the sale of old army barracks in Canterbury, to developers and houses get built but often the really large sites are just mothballed.

One of the plans I saw was for the 'Old Fort', where the contamination levels were greatest, to become a museum for the work carried out at the establishment in the past. The rest of the site could easily support development but it's difficult, when you don't know what is going on behind the scenes and with these sites changing ownership to find out what's going on.

The government owns several large sites, as a result of department rationalisation, which could be used for new towns. For example Fort Halstead near Sevenoaks was owned by a development company and rented by the MoD until closure. There was substantial opposition to the plans from the surrounding villages even though traffic links were good with the M25 less than a mile away. Don't know what the current situation is though.

And not waste so much of it.

Use the side of the hammer if necessary with pre-drilled holes in the joists so the 100mm nails only have 50mm to drive them in.

If they're all equally spaced there's no problem. Just as difficult for all of them .

Haven't been called that since primary school .

TBH I can't remember exactly. I installed it nine years ago and I think it's quite basic, just a metal tube that the air comes out at the bottom.

We have a self installed WPL Diamond DMS2 which supposedly has four year emptying. After two and a half years the diaphragm in the Secoh air pump split due to the back pressure from trying to pump through the sludge so we had it emptied. We decided it would probably last two years but we actually have it emptied once a year which is done in the summer. This is for two adults occupying 24/7. Edit: I notice their website now says up to three years for emptying.

If I had five joists I would just space them equally and cut the celotex to fit as it's not a large area. I would also fit the noggins either side of a centre line so they are easier to fit.

If i were doing it I would do 400mm centres and 22mm decking, but then I tend to over engineer. Looks a lovely spot by the way.

I initially set my MVHR rates to satisfy building regs. and SAP for the BCO, who incidentally wasn't interested. After the building was signed off I set the system to PH rates because I think it makes far more sense to base the set up on the volume and purpose of each room than overall rates.

Our DHW is stored at 45C heated by the EASHP.

I used brick slips on the outside of my house as a plinth and my son used them on a chimney breast. He just used tile adhesive and 10mm spacers.

Our TF company used threaded rod fixed into the concrete with resin.

I had a small piece of horsetail growing up next to the sandstone path leading to the house. I put a small amount of salt (NaCl) on it to kill it, as I often do for horsetail growing on its own. Unfortunately I didn’t know how damaging salt can be to sandstone until I searched the internet. The effects of de-icing on sandstone buildings in some Scottish cities is well documented. It’s a pity I hadn’t heard about it and this is the result. Needless to say I won’t be de-icing my paving with salt this winter.

I may be wrong but I don't think the guide is accessible until you've made ten posts.

What a great looking build, well done.

I have a range of one handed clamps from 50mm up to 300mm which are very useful but I still use G clamps for some jobs.

As @JSHarris has mentioned I think it is mostly young birds that hit our windows. When a sparrowhawk flies around here, there is panic, and the small birds fly off in all directions. The older experienced birds know which direction not to fly in but the youngsters often fly into the windows. Most of them are casualties rather than fatalities and after a rest for half an hour or so they can be coaxed into flight.

After what @Onoff posted I did wonder about using a CT sensor rather than plugging into the circuit.

Now that's what Wendy wanted, but I think I prefer a tenner.

Thanks for that, it's a good idea, I didn't know they existed.

For my sewage treatment plant I have a semi-buried box containing the air pump and electrical conections. It has two warning lights on the lid one for an air pump fault and one for the holding tank liquid level being too high. Since connecting the sewage treatment plant to the shed consumer unit, there is no way of knowing if there is power getting to the sewage treatment plant other than to check in the shed. The MCB on the dedicated circuit for the sewage treatment plant or the RCD could trip without me knowing, causing problems with the holding tank backing up. The simplest solution would be to put another beacon on the lid, which is lit all the time there is power, to indicate a problem. Are there any other ways of indicating in the house that there isn’t power in the shed?