BogBeast

Thanks @Dave Jones, hopefully by energising one of the spare wires I wont upset the BT cabinet I think the cable goes for about 200m before it gets to the area of where I will be digging, so this is definitely going to be my fall back solution 🙂

I am going to be clearing land and digging foundations before too long. The arear where I am digging is free of the usual important services (no gas mains, sewers electricity, fibre etc) but there is a telephone line that is 'somewhere' . I would rather not find it with the bucket of my digger, as the landline is till in use (at least for now). A multicore cable terminates at a BT box (picture attached) and then goes off into the ground. I looks like at least a couple of the wires are unused. Can anyone suggest some sort of tracer that I can (preferably something pro that I can hire rather than something too DIY off of eBay) use to trace the cable route? Many Thanks

Tempting to rent something that big. It would make very short work of the holes I have to dig. I suspect I would have my basement dug in less than a day... Not sure I coud hire one of those by the day...

After a bit of stop and start I managed to get down to Diggerworld before Xmas and spent good few hours on a JCB 3cx and a Komatsu 22 ton 360. Very enjoyable and worthwhile, got to ask lots of questions and gained some insight. Very helpful bunch

I am (potentially) building in the Beckley/Stanton-St-john area. Provided the LPA pull their finger out and finally issue my pp Thanks I am hoping so - I am gonna have to get my head around CDM next. And no, nothing in this game is cheap.. Will be doing as much as I can myself and going to try and keep the build as simple as possible. Excellent - happy with your JCB or did you which you got a 360 instead? Thanks! I have. I am looking at Jackon ICF and have been on their a current build site in Gloucester. It is going very well by the look of it.

Ok many thanks, I will speak to them

? Don't have kids, but will be sure to find some to take...

Thanks so much for the replies. I did set the notify me but it seem to have sent me a notification. Thanks for this - I will give him a bell. Thanks for this - 90 mins should be enough to make my mind up and should be giggle. The vast majority of stumps are 4 > 6" hawthorn/blackthorn with the odd sycamore that's a bit larger. Certainly nothing older than 20 years. The area that I am allowed to build on is quite small (yay LPA..) and probably won't take much clearing, but I have another 3 acres of literally hundreds of similar trees and brush that I want to clear/landscape. I have spent more weekends than I care to mention cutting and clearing by hand (about 1.5 acres so far) and I come to conclusion that I really want a big ass machine. Yup, already been told I will be very popular locally, especially if I end up with a road going 3Cx. I am reasonably sure I will buy by a machine of some sort. I just figured that a backhoe might be more useful in general considering the mix of clearing/landscaping and general ground works. I sorta figured I might need a dumper as well... Again thanks for all the replies - I will post pictures of my trip to diggerland !

Over the years I have hired a few mini/midi diggers for various home based projects and become quite proficient at using them. I am pretty practical and have pretty much self-taught myself. I am about to embark on my first self build and I am going to need to clear a lot of land and dig a lot of stumps as well as start doing quite a lot of excavating. I could hire another midi-digger but I am thinking a JCB 3cx or similar backhoe loader maybe more useful and just as capable for the majority of excavation that I am doing. I have never driven or operated anything like it. I am looking for a couple of days of introduction and basic operation training, just to get me upto speed on the use and operation of one. I not looking for any formal qualification, but just to spend some time with a knowledgeable person and get some time on a machine before I decide to either rent or buy an older 2nd hand one. I am based in Oxford, but don't mind traveling. Can anyone point me to somewhere that can provide to sort of training I am after? Many thanks for any tips or pointers... (and any pointers to any decent 2nd hand buys )

Hello. I am approaching the end of a multi-year planning process to build a new house in green belt just outside of Oxford. Crossing fingers (and everything else) I am hoping to get a final approval in the next couple of weeks, so am now faced with having to to do something. Hoping to build in ICF, with the intention of getting a main contractor to get me to a main structure with roof, after which I can will then carry on (or organise trades) with 1st and 2nd fix. Or that's the plan. So, will be spending quite alot of time on here I think. Be interested on hearing from any other ICF builders in the Oxford area.