Alan Ambrose

>>> when I’ve dealt with all my invisible animals i guess someone has to ask. Might as well be me.

If it helps any, Octopus were by far the most sensible company I've dealt with re smart meters. Time for a 3-phase meter smart meter swap (from a previous 3-phase dumb meter) was 3 months. Some other suppliers don't even know what 3-phase is (or at least the call centre staff don't).

My solution is to get proper fibre if you can (or 'fibre to the cabinet'' if you can't). Run it into a box next to the box on the edge of your plot ('kiosk)' that you're getting your 'temporary' builder's supply electricity to. Put your router/access point in there (with power from the box next door). Run wireless from the box and/or or CAT cable to your static. (Cable will be faster and more reliable.) You'll be doing a lot of online googling / looking at BH / placing orders etc Then run both your electricity and internet in ducting into the house when you're ready. Leave the 'temporary' boxes where they are. Same with water if you like.

OK for anyone in a similar position... After bu.......ing about with Eon for 6 months, who said it was possible but could never quite get round to it... It took 'a little reminding' but Octopus had a 3-phase smart meter installed for me (swapping out the old 3-phase dumb meter) yesterday - a little more than 3 months after I first asked. A successful conclusion (well Octopus say it can take up to 14 days to go live) to this 7 1/2 month project ...

>>> the force to pull a screw pile upward will be greater than the force to push it downwards. I appreciate your thinking - e.g. for say a steel bar the 'modulus of elasticity' means that's true over the initial linear region etc. But ... the pile has unlimited ground underneath for the pressure to be spread over, but limited ground above. Sometimes you see a theoretical diagram of how the pressure is distributed underneath a pile. I can't imagine it's that similar to the pressure distribution above - unless the pile is very deep maybe?

0.5C per hour? Assuming no one has used the hot water? I'm not sure that's great actually - I'm getting about that for a badly insulated thing from 30-years ago. Interesting data though. In a real-life case, I wonder how much is heat loss and how much is just mixing with the incoming cold water. Actually I'm interested if anyone else has data - as I had on my to do list to replace the cylinder here with something more modern with 'better insulation'.

And another one: 5 Serviced Self-Build/Custom Build Plots, Old Stowmarket Road Location Woolpit, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk https://www.plotbrowser.com/plot/132237 Maybe this is a positive new trend?

I like these Bosch sets for their quality and compactness. You'll need a separate driver handle or a battery-driven driver. The 'cased' sets take up too much room in my book. Quality is a good thing in itself but screwdrivers and bits are a bit of a consumable these days. https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-1-4-hex-shank-mixed-screwdriver-bit-set-32-pieces/6810t

I think that 'if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well'. There's so much low quality housing stock in the UK, I think we have a bit of a duty to do a good job. The extra cost will probably be minimal and at £1.5m you might get buyers who want something up-to-date. If the likely buyer is a well off 30-year old, then they'll want modern things that 30-year olds want. So I vote for insulation, air tightness and ASHP - not every 30-year old is a luddite.

Suggest you use the phrase 'consistent with safe access' liberally. Just noticed this text from someone's lighting statement fyi: "XXXX have completed lighting calculation to provide adequate emergency escape lighting from the building to comply with BS 5266. Wall lights mounted on the external walls of the building and above exit doors will provide emergency illumination along the escape routes. Their drawing below incorporates lighting level (Lux) isolines along with design standards and luminaire technical performance data. Two post top LED lanterns are proposed to provide adequate lighting for the car park, the exact position of these lights will be determined after trial holes are dug to confirm existing tree root positions but they have been shown indicatively on the plan below. All chosen luminaires will have a ULR (Upward lighting ratio) of 0% and will be ‘dark sky compliant’." A bunch of buzzwords there...

Congrats. Presumably several cold beers

It's hard to be let down by professionals - you assume that they're 'professional' after all and have a higher standard of work and ethics than the general population. Here's my 10 cents: Would it be feasible to find a new architect at this stage to take the project forward, or would it even be possible just to work with a builder if they can do the project management? If you're at the stage (or nearly) of house designed / planning approved / building warrants done - then you now need a builder and/or project manager. Some architects can and do project manage with varying degrees of success. Similarly, some SEs. And some builders also. It may depend of the complexity and innovation level of the design. If a builder has built a very similar house before, then they probably don't need a project manager. If there's a bunch of new stuff, materials, construction methods etc then you might need a dedicated person - probably an engineer type. I would say you need someone looking after quality. On a commercial job that might be called 'clerk-of-works'. Maybe that's a project manager, maybe that's you if you know what you're doing, maybe an SE if you can be sure they're going to be on site regularly. What are the architect's professional obligations in this context (looking at the RIBA guidance, these seem pretty vague)? If your agreement / contract doesn't commit you both for the build / project manager stage then feel free to use someone else. During this conversation, make sure you have access and rights to all the drawings etc you need - maybe in digital (i.e. cad) form. Read your contract if you have not done so already. Even if the contract commits you to the next phase, you have a get out if the architect doesn't make themselves available. Give the architect every chance, then call the contract 'frustrated' and therefore terminated by virtue of his unavailability. Same as if he had a long term illness or accident and was unable to fulfill the contract for that reason. From your experience, how long could it take to find a new builder? Maybe our expectations are simply mismatched with what's normal. However, at this stage we are simply trying to get a gauge of which builders would be available from when, rather than detailed costings. Long as a piece of string. Personally I would wait for the guy who you think will do the best job. If we were to ditch this architect and decide to get some of the work done independently, who could we turn to to help us plan the project, if not another architect? (see above) The key thing the architect brings is design. Once that's done (and I think, in this case, it is), an architect may not be the best project manager anyway. Yes, you'll need to give up your easy solution of 'architect gets his mate the builder to execute the job'. That may end up being for the better anyway.

That’s assuming you’re working the boards on a bench rather than already mounted in place.

Check out the little ‘trimmer’ routers. Much easier to use for simple chamfer / round over jibs imho. If you can work from each side with a round over bit with a bearing, that might be easiest than a full bullnose. Practice on some scrap, it’s a fairly easy job but e.g. important to get the direction right. Loads of YT videos on the subject. It’s possible, for the most blemish-free job, that you might want the adapter that runs the trimmer on plunge saw rails.

Yeah, unless she reads BuildHub...

Hi Mike, That was a very interesting post. Is their an intuitive way to think about how the pull force measurement relates to a downwards load requirement? Or am I missing something? Alan

>>> We have 21mm Engineered Oak over UFH and B&B without screed That works OK heating wise? Gut feel suggests that (a) wood isn't the best heat transfer medium and (b) that the wood might get upset (bows etc) with the heat below. Good to know if that works well?

This is a personal thing, but I hate OSB and any other boards made with wood dust, wood chips etc. Ply I somehow put in the 'proper wood' category. The price difference on 1 sheet of good quality exterior grade ply vs. 1 sheet of OSB3 won't be much in the great scheme of things. The 1mm won't be an issue - you'll be lucky if the roof doesn't have +-10mm dips and humps in it - maybe more depending on the age of the building.

I would pay up for the pump - that way they can concentrate on getting a good level pour, not crushing the pipes etc rather than spending their time and energy muscling in the heavy stuff.

Ah I see that application has been permitted already - so a possibility for Suffolk self-builders.

>>> Isolator on the inside - which you should have anyway along with a non-return valve. Just turn it off when you go away. +1 also you can shut off and then drain the tap during the winter to avoid pipe bursts.

I think it depends a lot on your construction - but they effectively are the engineering design (the planning drawings are the aesthetic design) - so they need to be right (and then you need to get your builders to follow them). If very standard brick and block, then you can probably find examples to copy. I think if you're asking then you probably need to get someone to draw them - but then someone needs to be across the detailed engineering design. Maybe that's your builder or your SE, but I think you need to be clear who that is - because that's the person you sue if the engineering design isn't right. I'll probably do my own, but I'm an engineer and I want to make sure the detail is right. And I'm prepared to take on the risk.

Very nice.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Sounds, on the face of it, a good initiative though.

Yeah agree, looks easy to get to, so probably only 10 minutes work - even if you do it carefully