Carrerahill

It wouldn't be that difficult to make something work. Most PIR circuits would work on 18V with a very minor mod in most cases. I'd probably use the 12-24V one and encapsulate it.

Yes indeed! I have just edited it, someone said salt and I had salt on my mind, I have just checked what I have - Sodium CHLORATE! 99.9% I have a feeling it is old stock as the buckets have some fairly dated looked labels on them. It's bloody good stuff - I use it very carefully and only in certain situations.

For all of these options, wear a mask with the correct filters fitted, gloves and long trousers and sleeves. Afterwards I would wash the clothes on there own on a long cold wash, and have a shower. My brother was spraying weeds on the farm about 10 years ago, he had the jetpack sprayer on and was using the wand - he was ill for a week afterwards - it was too windy I think to have been spraying but there were jobs needing done and we did them.

I have a 25Kg bucket of it - local farm suppliers has it. Sodium Chlorate 99.9%.

Glyphosate.

I ran in all the feeds for all my appliances in my extension last month - home runs to each appliance, via a 1G cable outlet or un-switched socket, all fed from a single location(s) on the wall above the worktop - I will use MK grid system and hopefully be able to get the marked ones for each type of appliance. The MK grid will just be part of the ring main. Separate feeds for higher power appliances such as ovens. So on my grid system I will have, washer, DW, hob igniter - on opposite side another with fridges and freezers built in micro etc. In my old kitchen you first need to empty the pots and pans cupboard then lean in to kill the DW, oven and hob a little easier but it would still mean a fight with a tower of pots and pyrex.

Joe, I like your thinking and solution, I am going to invest a Saturday and a pack of copper to effectively re-plumb our hot water system - with the kitchen moving further away and not wanting to relocate the boiler my option was the most direct route (I am also contemplating having a DHW feed to the kitchen sink but possibly just using a local water heater which can be fed with hot water). The 10mm pipe option intrigues me I have about 50m of 10mm copper, great benefit being I can run it more or less the full route with no joints and I get to avoid plastic. So do tell, how is flow etc. with your 10mm pipe? Would it work for a kitchen tap?

We charge a minimum of £300 + VAT - that would usually get you a local site visit if needed and a letter to support findings or a very basic written spec - which for things like founds is usually suitable. i.e. "Foundations based on site findings should be 450mm wide by 200mm deep placed on sound, undisturbed material at a depth of 800mm concrete to be a minimum of C25 Max Slump: 70". At that, everyone know what is required and BC will accept that, the builder can build it etc. If this was me, I would just do a little homework into my ground conditions, then spec a found on my building control drawing and that is it - it either gets accepted or knocked back. People are always desperate to add more info than asked for, it's like dealing with anyone in authority, only offer the bare minimum of information unless asked for something else. My whole build I have submitted not a single calc or detail (apart from the usual wall make up and what not). The only thing I needed to do was get one of our SE's in the office to write me a letter confirming some existing founds could be reused. I didn't even submit U-value calcs. We even have a lintel detail that is nearly 5m long - we just spec'ed it up nicely - to be fair one of the SE's in the office did it - but it was the same as my first guess as to what we would need and no one asks a thing.

All I was saying is that don't make your architect decipher your life too much, I've sat around the board room table for many a kick-off meeting, from a private individual to Saudi Aramco's entourage of Saudi Princes and there is an idea, a seedling, of what they want, maybe something as simple as a sketch to artists impressions and a spec of sorts. I don't want to know that at 08:00 Mrs Jones makes toast while Mr. Jones takes a shower after which he then moves to a seating area to be served his toast. I want Mr and Mrs Jones to tell me they need a shower somewhere a worktop to put the toaster and room or area big enough to house a dining table. If someone started to go on about life-style I would polity ask them to turn that into a document or even a simple list of what they require for them to lead this lifestyle. As for the projector, I appreciate things like that must be planned for, but as I said in my post above, "... just make sure any sizes or building details to accommodate these items is allowed for". Regarding something like a tap - I would arrange that with the plumber at first fix in his spec.

I was unaware OS maps in DXF format came in in meters, I guess for an OS map that would make sense - when we export maps (they show full utilities and other things not normally on OS maps) they are always in mm, if I want a particular area, I key in the grid ref and it spits out a 100m, 250m 500m or 1Km squared DWG with the grid ref location in the centre - that then often becomes the base of our external site drawings etc. - I suspect that is owing to the requirement that we need to often XREF or drop drawings and objects, in mm, onto these drawings.

What you are going to need to do is find something you can scale from, then use a map of a known scale and use that to work out the size of a given object, then pull the new map into CAD, type scale, select the whole map, then click a base point (anything will do, use the corner of the line of the object you now have a size for), press R then select the beginning and end of line of the object you know the scale for then type in the new size, so say 41m type in 41000 then hit enter. The whole drawing will now rescale knowing that that line you have just dimensioned is 41,000mm. You can do a couple of reality check measurements of things to see if it seem about right. Frankly, the chances are PP won't even know if it was a bit out, at that scale they are not exactly going to turn their scale rule to the 1:10,000 side and measure of the drawing! They clearly just want to see a larger area and they are just being bloody difficult. Let's face it, they can look on their own OS maps or indeed Google maps or anything they want to see the surrounding area.

I know exactly what he means, if you import something into CAD or indeed are sent a CAD drawing that has just been drawn or created without a scale (I refute your comment CAD has no scale) then the components of the drawing do not accurately represent the object they show. They are just lines of differing lengths making up an object(s). I would doubt it would be in m, usually mm, meters is far to course a unit to use in CAD. An example - we were sent a landscape drawing for a site this week, we need it to produce HV cable route drawings, it came as a PDF (why people think PDF is an acceptable working format I do not know!) our CAD guys imported it then asked me if I had a reference for scale but this was just the drawing of a chunk of ground and a road in the middle, so when you dimensioned the road it was 1.2mm wide (this is where I refute your scale comment) so I said I know the road to be about 6000mm wide, but I also spotted 2 parking bays outside a building further across the drawing, I told the CAD guy to assume it's a 2400-2500mm wide bay, so we split the difference and went 2450mm for the bay, we used the bay as the reference and set the scale of the CAD drawing, we did a reality check and wham the road comes in a 5986mm! Close enough for me on a HV cable route drawing! So what @SuperJohnG is trying to do is create a scale from which to then allow him to correctly scale it in the paper-space drawing. CAD has a scale, without it half the software used in engineering design wouldn't work!

What irritates me the most about all of this, and yes the skipping of PP annoys me, but possibly not as much as this, is the waste. The environmental price tag on that development and it could all just end up a pile of broken masonry and twisted metal. That is sad. I assume they can keep the tennis court - can't see that harming anyone, well maybe, if the players get tennis elbow.

I appreciate you have put a lot of work into this, this, to an extent, is a common specification document. I'd think of this as Detailed Building Specification, although, it also lacks in plenty of more important details, probably the ones the architect care more about. I currently have one open in front of me for a major private healthcare provider, apart from obvious differences in the language used, the biggest difference is with formatting and it has a good index. I'd use your spreadsheet as a base document to format and copy and paste the document in a word doc and then you can PDF it for dissemination to those tendering. The one I am looking at now simply has a front page, what it is, who it is for, who wrote it etc. page 2 is a nice easy to read index which splits a whole hospital down into 15 chapters, within these 15 chapters further breakdown exists. So it allows me to go directly to the chapter(s) that are relevant to me: Mechanical, Electrical, possibly Data. I am not involved in "Joinery" but looking at that as an example it basically has a written spec for every detail, then there is a schedule of materials including door, skirting, hinge, timbers with model/types and manufacturer listed. In less than 20 seconds I can tell you where to source the hinges for the doors and what finish and screw to use. When you then hand this document over it can be easily read, for example, basically all the electrical systems and home media and all sorts is totally irrelevant to the architect, unless of course you need a detail to house a projector or screen, in which case that goes into the main building spec or do a room matrix which lists what each room must have. Often a room matrix is an A4 or A3 landscape page which has a clear and concise grid/table that goes through each step from the floor upwards. It would not mention sub-floors and wall make up as that is general construction but it might start at Flooring then have a breakdown of the carpet, then onto skirting, Howdens Oak skirting, then paint so on and so forth until the light switch make and model is listed (although no electrical spec, just that they want MK for example). A good spec will allow you to literally read 1 or 2 chapters or paragraphs and every detail that pertains to your involvement or trade or specialism can be understood and then followed. Reshape it a bit, knock down some of the points, does your architect care about a projector model... I'd also remove all the questions/research, this is a spec, have a separate titled, dated, revision marked page or document that has these questions on it, this is easier to deal with. I think the column, "purpose" of a room could be removed - self explanatory, the longer it takes to read the more it will cost. Why does anyone in your build need to know your lifestyle, you use your lifestyle to design the building and make it suit, but an architect doesn't want to have to mentally put on your shoes and come up with a suitable house. I think this should go in it's entirety. Get rid of brands, architect doesn't care - this would be more for the final spec to give your main contractor - however, I assume you will purchase your own items and free issue them to the relevant contractors for installation? In which case no one really cares about most of these things until fit out - just make sure any sizes or building details to accommodate these items is allowed for. Ideas section is fair enough - it's your wish list. I'd arrange them by priority though, lets them concentrate on your highs. Remove storage and simply add it to the requirements.

20mm over how long - it looks about 8-10m? If it was being rendered I wouldn't even get upset about this - a little bit more scratch on that area even to take it to a 10mm difference and you would never notice it.

You will have enough to worry about doing the move, leave it. If they complain give them £40.

You know, I am with Dave. What are they going to do exactly if you leave it - I don't see it being a big issue, solicitors are hardly going to make a big deal out of this. When we moved into our house there was quite a few things left behind, arguably, it wasn't meant to be there, but no one got upset it was just some furniture that I ended up making into garage storage. Say it is part of the house.

Bucket trowel is good - also helps you scoop it out the bucket!

You just need to go for a particulate filter for zinc, be wary, very very wary when buying different filter types - you can sort of lead yourself into a false sense of security. I spoke to 3M's technical guy for about 45m a few months ago and came to the conclusion I need about 5 different filter stacks for my hobbies and building work. For example I spray paint a lot, so I have the filter pack for that which is inorganic and organic compounds + something else + that get stacked with a P3, but that is no use for taking out the formaldehyde gas from MDF cutting which also needs stacked with a P3 (well I don't bother with P1 or P2 and always use P3 which is also the correct filtration for asbestos).

Wait, what about a bit of a rethink - go for a secret gutter detail type affair - even if you don't actually need a gutter in it (is that roof pitched?). Frame it out, gutter to take the drips then just clad your wall as you would making it square and worry not about the banana.

Those details look sound to me, I have been looking at cladding manufacturers websites and note there are a plethora of sill strips and base finishing strips and all sorts - all of which do the same thing - step out and create a drip edge further out than the cladding. I quite like the folded metal ones with the plastikote stuff on them. Lead would look good if done well, if a little expensive as a detail - I had to buy lead a couple of weeks ago for the roof and I must admit I do enjoy working with it but it and you can get some nice finishes with the right tools and nipping edges over and what not.

Note my post! If you disc cut it, wear a MASK. I would not leave the loft for a while afterwards either, I once set my garage door frame on fire and it wasn't until about 2 hours later and there was smoke billowing out of frame that I realised anything was wrong!

You could spec foil-baked PB and that kills two birds.

It sounds like you are planning on doing this all properly, I would just get the BC drawings done and do it without dubiety from the beginning - building notice sounds like a good plan, but anyone who I know who has tried to use it has ended up with it back firing. I also suspect on this case they will ask for drawings anyway - unless doing it through notice lets you break ground sooner I would advise not too. Would I be correct in suggesting that your friend suggested going this way? Often those tasked with getting it planned up and approved do suggest things like this as it let's them hopefully bash on ahead rather than just sit down, and get it drawn up.

If it was me, I would probably use an angle grinder, however, as you alluded to, if it is in your loft and sparks go flying I would be concerned, I have started many a fire with an angle grinder, nothing serious but a piece of paper or my trouser leg (seriously). I think therefore it would be a good quality metal jigsaw blade or if you get that recip saw a good fresh blade in that - just something that doesn't send sparks flying, for any heavier bits you could use a grinder but use a thin disc (1mm) and control the spray of sparks into the tank if you can. Also, the zinc when heated through cutting etc. will give of zinc fumes which will give you welders flu, you will not generate much heat or flying dust with a jiggy but still, wear a mask, it makes you feel awful for a day or so.