Alan Ambrose

We were working on this today. A properly anal approach, but I wanted to be able to get it out easily if there was a future problem. Very doable DIY - although it would be easier .... the next time 😁. Main issues were falls (courtesy of some earlier careless groundworkers) and, believe it or not, making the straps work sensibly. My digger skills are improving, although the original dig out was done by an experienced guy in one day. There was properly hard dried out clay that far down. The dry mix was done by hand on a piece of ply - we didn't even bother to get the cement mixer out. The perforated twinwall in the last picture is for checking on GW level.

Well I'm sorry to hear that and it's a good thing that someone is taking this nonsense on. >>> after submitting a minor amendment to our already-exempt planning permission, we didn’t realise we had to send in a second CIL commencement notice I've never heard of that particular excuse before - is it possible to say a bit more. What kind of amendment and 'non-material' or 'minor material amendment' and/or a 'Section 73 amendment'? I'm interested what part of the CIL law details that gotcha? Did the LPA explain with reference to the law or did they just assert their position? I know some LPAs do make stuff up / 'have their own special interpretation' where the law is a bit vague. Was the LPA's assertion challenged by a solicitor?

How big is the plot? Would it ‘make much difference’ if the dwelling was moved over a bit?

The thing to watch out for is the FX rates/spread - a lot of bank cards these days use the Visa or Mastercard rates which are not crazy bad (but not crazy good) at 2% of the transaction. As usual, financial services usually takes the micky on anything that isn't written in plain English in front of you. See e.g. Currency Converter – Exchange Rate Calculator | Visa Whenever you see 'zero or no commission' that means they're trying to fool you into thinking there is no transaction charge. Some people call that 'lying'.

>>> minimum of 10 minutes a day, talking to the plants, and stroking the bluebells It would be fun to sneak that into the statement somewhere - at least as a test of whether anyone has read the doc.

Maybe sheet piles would give you the room you need?

Errr, one method is just to use the piles as the 'shuttering' for the excavation, then a metre gap for working room, then the actual shuttering for your basement walls. Apply some external insulation before you backfill. What are you doing for the other sides?

V nice, btw are you pleased with your windows?

Ah, strikes me the HMRC rules are over-complicated. Also, if this is meant to put us on a level footing with small builders (who can presumably claim back all their VAT) ... it doesn't. I'm guessing our VAT reclaim/zero-rate is actually applicable to ~50% of our actual costs. Also, is the obvious 'mitigation' to get, say, a groundworks company to incorporate muckaway and labour in the same same job, which will then mean the muckaway is zero-rated?

See: Why are Solar PV Panels Getting Bigger? • Solar Energy UK It seems this is not helpful for later panel replacement, so I'm now assuming something like a 20-year complete rebuild of fixings + panels.

Ah, I found out why my joist manufacturers didn't call me back following my email enquiry with some teaser drawings. I broke down and called them both today. It's evident they regard the sale/purchase process as a power battle - I need to prove that I'm worthy of their product. If I can jump over their hoops and satisfy their requirements, they may deign to deal with me. I've never dealt with a Ferrari dealer (one day maybe) but I've heard they take much the same approach. Mutter mutter mutter, 12-week process, duty-of-care, British Standards, mutter mutter mutter. They both spent most of the call telling me what their requirements were, about the limitations of their software, how they need to avoid being sued etc. Why did I want roof joist that deep, that's very unusual (Passive house standards maybe)? The Easi-Joist guys said their software doesn't figure out the roof lights in their deep joists. They both ignored my stated needs and wishes. A good job we don't have all that BS when ordering standard timber.

Congrats

Looks like someone has had a look at this and not found the problem yet. Maybe check out other odd possibilities that have not been fully checked out. Is any silicone seal 100%? Possible that it’s a leak behind the mixer tap? I’ve seen both of those cause a hard to find leak.

Unfortunately, I doubt it. The thing that I find odd is that the tiling looks quite neat which suggests a careful job. If you’ve regrouted, the grout should be fine, so might it be a plumbing problem? Worth checking that the pipework joints are tight. I think unless you can see where the leak is, it might be quickest to rebuild the whole set-up from scratch. Try an endoscope camera maybe? Post up a pic from underneath?

Btw those wifi devices are partly cute but note that Mike of mikeselectricstuff thinks they’re quite dodgy:

I have an old site office container and it’s fine. Not sure how it’s insulated, but so far (we have not used it for a winter yet) it’s good.

Might be easy to cut a neat 1 foot square hole in the plasterboard in the ceiling below to get an idea what’s going on.

Fantastic, and good timing 😃

Reckon, 1.5mm will take >4kW, box is probably <100W.

@Nickfromwales - yeah one was the local Pasquill office.

I just got my Octopus bill, which reminded me of the weirdiama billing they've been doing over the summer. I wonder whether Octopus was hacked - no company fails to bill for nearly 4 months unless they have major systems problems.

Yeah, I contracted two posi-joist manufacturers on Monday, attached a few drawings, and asked them to contact me. I'm expecting to spend well into 5 figures on joists. Think they can be bothered? Well not yet certainly. I also have a couple of suppliers that I expect to spend over £100K with. Think they can be bothered to act like suppliers that give a .... monkeys?

This has been discussed on 't 'ub numerous times before - feel free to search.

OK I thought I would report back for anyone else looking at this subject in future. There don't seem to be an great timber-specialist suppliers in our area BTW. DIY Building Supplies, Materials Market & Sheet Materials Supply Wholesale will ship both small and large quantities and put up bulk quantity prices on their website - at least for some variants. Their prices are look cheapish and the product is almost certainly Chinese. Proper external grade i.e. 'waterproof' is BS 1088 Class 3. I also found these other professional suppliers - they actually have datasheets / certificate for their ply which gives the structural strength, country of original, wood species etc: Meyer / Robbins / International. There are probably a few others. They don't have prices on their websites and most likely supply wholesale only. But they have great info - apparently the best plywood is Gaboon or Sapele species from Africa and Meranti or Eucalyptus species from Indonesia or Malaysia. The glue for all class 3 products seems to be formaldehyde.

I've also seen some kind of surface treatment to the inside roof - ah yeah, one is called Grafo-Therm. Don't know how well it works. Also Absorpoles. Think I would keep clothes in one of those airtight sacks you suck the air out of.