dangti6

Just sorted mine, there is a screw missing in the central catch plate and the plate was at an angle. You may be lucky and find yours has moved also. Pushed it square and it’s sorted. Can’t see the screw anywhere annoyingly so will have to rummage for a countersunk screw and cut it down to length - they are only tiny.

One of my UPVC doors has started to do exactly the same thing. Not sure if it’s got anything to do with the temperature dropping - only say that as another of my doors drops slightly on a really hot day.

When you add the loft hatch, insulate it.

Looks like they started lining up the courses nicely but totally lost it half way up. White paint line up the wall does suggest something like a lean to was there before in the same place. Potentially reusing those footings.

And me. Amazon had genuine 4ah batteries for £21.99 last week which I missed

Intention was to attach the wall plate with self drilling screws. Saw mention of this online assuming that still meets regs?

The difference in price I have been getting for a UB is quite staggering. 5200mm in length and primed. Cheapest quote I have had is £339 and the most expensive was £792 (both inc vat, delivered). May ask the cheaper supplier what the RHS price is just to satisfy my curiosity

BCO required something for the file. Calculations suggest I need to go for either of the following 254x146x43 Universal Beam or 250x150x5 Rectangle Hollow Section I’m swayed to the UB - are there any benefits to a RHS that I am unaware of?

Noted. I try and buy half decent stuff where failure can cause damage/disruption. Same story with the concealed cistern, I don’t want something that’ll have a short life and/or be tricky to repair so will have a goosey at reputable brands for those. Grohe appear to be mid range from what I can see so they are a contender.

Thanks MAB. I wasn't aware of such an extension piece to go in between a connector and the pan (another place for a leak to potentially occur is the only negative I guess) That very much sounds like the way forward then. Allow SWMBO to select toilet of choice and if the connection is deep inside i can use the extension. If it's near the back but not quite enough to bridge the gap then I can use one of those extensions and a space saving 90 bend to kick it back a bit.

I'm only building a garage, therefore requiring just a small proportion of trades and services/suppliers compared to most, and I'm really beginning to wish I hadn't bothered managing the project. As soon as I get my head around a problem or source what I need which makes me feel like I am making headwind, I often get let down by trades or strung along which adds further delay. I am starting to think it's an idea to back off a bit and chip away one at a time rather than try and pre-empt everything and make stress for myself that I don't need to. It's as if the more I try and find out, the more questions I find than answers which is frustrating. The more answers I discover the more I feel I could otherwise crack on and make better progress if I wasn't waiting for others.

I’m starting to gather parts ready to renew my downstairs loo. I have a back to wall toilet which is against a false wall to conceal the cistern etc. The pan connector is a 90 degree pipe down to the floor. Presumably I require a new connector like this whilst I’m renewing: My toilet is in a fixed position where it is, I’m wanting to utilise the original false wall arrangement so I now believe I need to consider the distance between the pan connector pipe and the ceramic connection inside the toilet, which I see differs from toilet to toilet going by some that I have been looking at (100mm vs 40mm for example) I can find pan connectors that have expandable sections in terms of height from the ground or if I was joining to a soil pipe horizontally but can’t put my finger one ones that adjust the position in toward the rear of the toilet. Am I going to have to get a new toilet with the same outlet depth as the original in order to keep the placement the same? if I had gone on and bought the one with the outlet 100mm inside, I imagine I’d have found this out the hard way and had the toilet set back at which point I’d have insufficient room for my cistern in behind - unless there is another method/pipe to use.

Are you accustomed to that new carpet yet?

Ha, well either way sounds like the £3600 is on the high side!

It was purely a comparative measure to see what sort of ball park I should be expecting to pay, potentially assuming tradesmen would work out the volume to know how many days it would take etc. Yeah tying in with wall starter kits - made this clear when talking both parties through the expectations that they would be fitting them and again supplied by me as a material. The most expensive quote was broken down to £720 up to damp which is where the lintel faff and 3 courses of facing bricks comes in. It was then £2880 for block above. Say 50sqm of block, that would be £5.76 for each block laid as an alternative measure to compare against others that have had similar work done. Gable shape would be cut from a truss braced in place, with them coming back to complete the gable in another sitting when trusses arrive. (dearer people insist on me sourcing scaffolding, others didn't mention it so perhaps they made an assumption or maybe they will do it off tressles, TBC if I decide to take a punt on cheap labour) In my 56sqm guesstimate I allowed a few sqm for piers on the basis there would probably be one on the side and back wall.

I need to appoint a bricklayer on a labour only basis to build my garage up from the ground to wall plate in single skin 100mm block with 3 courses of facing brick beneath DPC (will be rendered above). It’s relatively standard stuff but there are a few assumptions beyond the simple meterage to give me a ball park of what I should expect to see what’s on the low side and what could be classed as excessive. The rear wall is 5m in length, 2.8m high from footing to wallplate. It requires a layer of block underground and 3 courses of facing brick to damp. From there it’s block again up to wall plate with no openings. That’s 14sqm. The side wall is 5.5m in length but is a gable. Volume of the lower half is 15.4sqm. Volume of triangular section is approx 1.7m x 5.5m = 9.35m/2 rounded up to 5sqm plus the 15.4sqm below to be say 21sqm. No openings whatsoever in this wall either. Front wall is a bit more complicated as it’s a 1m return one side of block of flat to allow for wall plate as it’s set back. 1m x 2.8m doubled for volume of block on flat is 6sqm rounded up. The other side of the front wall is 1.9m x 2.8m, doubled for block on back is 12sqm rounded up. Due to existing footings in this area there is a bit of added time for a lintel over where there is no footing and allowances for a small window opening. In addition there’s obviously going to be a couple of piers along the back and side wall approx 12 blocks in height, so say a few sqm to allow for that. Total volume by my fag packet estimations is 56sqm. Appreciate as part of this there are about 200 facing bricks in the 3 courses up to damp which would take a bit longer and the faff with the lintel and cuts to the gable but is a starter for 10. The guy who I called in to do my foundations teamed up with a bricklayer to assist him doing the footings and they went away after completion to price up building the walls and the price has come back a lot more than I was anticipating from looking at pricing online as a guide. I suspect this is partially down to going through the groundwork company as the labourer element with the bricklayer also requiring an equal share opposed to Bricklayer plus cheaper labourer. They are neat enough and very busy, and good luck to them for pricing for quality rather than a race to the bottom. I would sway further towards them if the lead time was more favourable. They have quoted £720 to damp and £2880 from damp to plate. So £3600 for labour/mixer use alone, as I am supplying all materials. When you divide that by the 56 metres that’s £64 a square metre taking in to account the overall ‘complexities’. Do others agree this sounds excessive? I appreciate I’m going to end up answering my own questions here if people agree with my reservations, but opinions and experiences welcome to help me to such conclusions. I found a local bricklayer on Facebook who came out quickly with his number 2 and gave me a price within 24h. The price received is £1320 for the labour up to wall plate. I know nothing about them other than the 9 month old FB page with several photos and mention of 30 years experience working for other companies before starting alone as a gang of 2. Slight concern that they have a job to finish now and could be with me within a week or two. Their price divides out to £23 per sqm as a comparison. Speaking to a neighbour with a building firm who I approached yesterday, who’s unfortunately busy for 6 months - he was unable to recommend any brickies as those he knows are booked up for the foreseeable. Surely a decent bricky with 30 years in the game would have plenty of contacts to approach and be in work... I am getting someone else over tomorrow to see where they fit in terms of price and timescale to see if the gap closes at all. I guess what I’m wondering is, would you appoint someone you have not had referred to you that you have no knowledge of who appears to be reasonably priced and quickly available? Initial thoughts are to be upfront with these guys and see if after day 1 they have started to deliver what appears to be a good product and be prepared to boot them off the job if they don’t appear to be of a decent standard. Have you given people the benefit of the doubt, and has it bit you on the arse? Equally, I’m sure - people have gone with what appears to be reputable yet turned out to be an amateur effort but perhaps you should trust your gut.

Does anyone local have a couple of electric heaters you could temporarily borrow for your lounge/bedroom to get some heat in to make you at least comfortable? Temperature is only going to continue to drop. Whilst that won’t solve your issue, it may take some of the stress away and allow you to be comfortable whilst you fight the problem.

I'm on the lookout for a 4/5ah battery for the LXT series so if I see any deals I will shout. Likewise if you find any please ?

My groundworker is currently being filmed for a show with Beeny. Not sure if it's this one or another upcoming show she's doing.

Give it a couple of weeks and see if the situation improves before you pay out to have it changed.

Is that not £1050 to dig a hole to put £450 of stuff in it, or is it £1500 in labour plus the £450 materials? (tongue in cheek)

This application came to mind so I had a look and unfortunately see you were refused. "The proposed two-storey side and rear extension would, by reason of its unsympathetic scale, appearance and inappropriate roof form and relationship with the recipient property and wider street scene, together with lack of detailed design features, appear as an incongruous and visually discordant feature that would be at odds with the appearance of the existing dwelling and wider street scene." This stood out to me: '4. Notwithstanding the inaccuracies in the submitted plans' Where do you go from here? Have they offered any guidance on any changes that could be made to appease them?

I went for a Blanco 1.5 with the half bit centralised as I wasn’t a fan of the type that was offset.

I believe they compare it to the size of the ‘original house’, excluding any additions.

Front trench was dug and the pipe was about 300mm or so from ground level going away from my site toward the road (at the rear it was about 800mm down) Rodded it and it ends near the end of my driveway. Capped it and poured the footings. Will expose and monitor.