Alan Ambrose

Will be there .

Or a QS?

A new SAP assessor maybe?

I think the reality is that groundworks is a often a rough and ready process - maybe on a fine day with the right team it isn’t, but on a bad day or with a less skilled team it just is. 1/2 an inch is a good tolerance in groundworks, anything better is probably uneconomic. It is upsetting to a certain kind of person and I’m one of those. I have internal drainage out by up to 200mm in horizontal position and the same in invert level. And I suspect I have not discovered all the faults yet. I wish I hadn’t trusted my groundworks guys and looked over their shoulders more. Will it result in impossible-to-fix problems - probably not. Has it cost me much extra time and effort - definitely yes. I’ve resolved to buy a total station and do my own detail layout for the ‘next build’. My surveyor is good but a total station to use to check a position or level any time I want would be better.

Suggest buying a small bit of each material and, say, tapping it lightly with a hammer to simulate a stone hit. Acrylic can be cut by your local laser shop, polycarb by a cnc router shop or both materials by hand with a jigsaw on slow speed (to stop it melting and gumming up rhe blade). Or an online place like cutmy.co.uk. Or a hand saw.

Acrylic is a bit brittle if it’s going to get any wind on it, polycarb is much tougher.

@G and J ah sorry to miss you, was at a memorial lunch today. Try to take Sundays off anyhow . It’s all getting a bit tense as we have some prep still to do and the frame guys are tipping up next week. Sure you were at the right site - I assure you I spend about an hour a day trying to remember where I last left some tool or some fixings or somesuch. Impressed you took some time off.

Well I hate to bring the original article up again, but... The list of biggest carbon emitters seems sort of interesting to me - the usual suspects, and a bit simplified - presumably it's not so much the fossil fuel companies themselves but their industry and customers.

Here’s a new detail: land registry plans are only approximate and cannot be relied on - see the Land Registry website for more info.

Can I ask, who’s planning on coming to @JohnnyB ‘s on the 18th? i.e. next Thursday.

Climate change is a fraud? Who are these people financing the cult and what are their motives?

>>> I doubt the people checking the cil liabilities look at the plans, just the answers you put on the form. Not convinced about that - I had some to-and-fro with my LPA's CIL people before we agreed on the number - there's some detail in the rules e.g. areas under stairs etc.

For the first time, scientists have quantified the causal links between worsening heat waves and global warming pollution from individual fossil fuel and cement companies, pushing the boundaries of extreme weather event research in multiple surprising ways. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, looks at a far more expansive series of heat waves than previous research. It also incorporates the causes of climate change into the calculations. Instead of looking at one or two localized extreme heat events, the new study encompasses 213 heat waves around the world from 2000 to 2023. It finds, not surprisingly, that heatwaves became much more likely and severe during that period, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels. Between the first and second decade that the researchers investigated, climate change made the heatwaves climb from being 20 times more likely to 200 times more likely, according to lead author Yann Quilcaille, a climate researcher at ETH Zurich. Scientists trace heat waves back to individual fossil fuel companies, with potentially sweeping courtroom implications | CNN Carbon Majors Entities

Congrats

Anything greater than 100%.

Ah, you’re not allowing for box-ticking processes and that junior staff are forbidden to use their own common-sense or judgement.

The EPS grades are not so much density or a load bearing measure but ‘design load at 10% nominal compression’. That is, put 10 K N / m2 (approx 1 T/m2) on 100mm thick EPS100 and you expect it to compress by 10mm. So, what grade you need depends on what the load is and what compression you can tolerate. Probably a question for your SE in most cases unless this is., say, for a shed. in true ‘ub fashion I’ll answer the question you didn’t ask - in that you might want to consider XPS (e.g. Ravatherm) rather than EPS as it has better long term thermal properties with time and moisture. Design load at 10% nominal compression (kPa)

I suspect the LPA just wants to be sure it’s getting the max charge due to any increase in area - as CIL is calculated as charge per m2 x area.

I think, that unless the changes are very small (i.e. non-material 😃), then pretty much any change in footprint or ridge height is going to need a new application.

>>> replicate what the old bitumen was for What’s your best guess - was this a DPM?

Yeah, agree with that. This was my last email conversation with 'the CEO's email' (presumably he actually uses a different address): Hi Clive, Thanks for responding. I’ve taken a couple of days to mull over how to best describe the problem. Firstly, Mxxx Cxxxxx is doing a sterling job advocating for Openreach. Unfortunately, he ignores all my arguments. I think there are two problems, one policy related and one cultural: The policy problem is that Openreach has no specific policies for self-builders – it forces them through the developer mangle. One developer policy says: “we install only into dwellings and also only when they’re completed”. I’m sure that suits both the big developers and Openreach fine. But it means that Openreach concludes, for policy reasons, that it’ll make me wait for 18 months to get FTTP installed when I can usefully use it now. The cultural problem is that Openreach is a modern aggressive monopoly. So, unlike Essex & Suffolk Water and UK Power Networks which are comfortable connecting into my permanent kiosks and providing a service while I’m building, Openreach is happy to refuse for policy reasons even when I can get great benefit from the service now. What advantage does that refusal bring Openreach? The part of UK Power Networks that I’m dealing with dates from 1948 and Essex & Suffolk Water from 1973, so although they are monopolies too, they have a less aggressive, more amenable stance. I wonder whether Openreach might consider being more agreeable to its prospective new customers. So, I would like to see a little consideration both in policy and tone for the needs of self-builders. In particular, to enable connections into permanent kiosks early in the build like we do with power and water. I would be more than happy to be a volunteer. BTW the address details are yyyyyy yyyyyyy. Kind Regards, Alan Ambrose This was the reply from the 'Complaints': Hello Alan, My name is Mxxx Lxxx, I work within our Openreach's Executive Escalations And Complaints Team, I work within Myyy's team. I'm just picking this up as Myyy is out of the office this week, I appreciate you taking time to email Clive. I've taken a look over your email below and the case and I really appreciate your feedback. Managing newsite escalations as part of what our team does within Openreach and we work closely with the newsite reception team. I understand there is currently some changes taking place within the newsite reception team to hopefully improve the overall journey. Your feedback has been noted, and we will take this on board. The challenge with our full fibre network compared to other utility providers is that there is less of a presence of full fibre across the UK compared to water mains, gas mains and other utilities, most livable homes in the UK have access to running water, however, not all homes in the UK have access to full fibre broadband. In short, in a lot of instances we're having to install new fibre network for a lot of newsites across the UK. Nonetheless, I appreciate that there is a growing need from developers to have access to full fibre into sites that are being built so I will ensure this feedback is sent to our newsite repletion teams and I want to again ensure you this is greatly appreciated. Best regards Mxxxx Lxxxx So, the question is whether they will eventually install FTTP into the kiosk I have build and along duct route I agreed with them ... or not? I guess we'll find out in a year's time. In the meantime I need to pursue other options...

Yeah, that's an interesting subject which we don't talk about much here - how much do you enjoy / depend on / respect your workmates / contractors / helpers? How much do they tick you off / do not as good as a job that you would like etc? How important is that all to your project? I like things a bit neat and tidy and exact, even when it's not necessary and feel it necessary to use my best friendly management style - not so easy when you're exhausted, anxious & behind schedule. I tend to be a bit friendly, hands off and trusting - that's how I let the electricians go without them finishing the stuff I had detailed carefully in an email and how they installed a product different to the one I specified.

Thanks Johnny, looking forward to it.

Congrats, from here it looks like you're going at great speed.

I think you're mostly on your own here. Suggest these are the options: + find someone who's done it before and ask them to do it for you. + find an off-the-shelf product / solution. + design it yourself - well you can sort out the electrics, which leaves the matter of the physical design of the edging. Here's some leads: Google Search Looks like your example is from a Kenyan company - maybe you can ask them to design it for you? Outdoor & Landscape Design in Kenya | Affordable & Professional Outdoor & Landscape Design Services - Prestige Bluestar | Luxury Interior Design & Renovation Experts in Nairobi, Kenya My guess is that it's not hugely maintainable, but LED strips are fairly reliable, no?