ProDave

Don't give me ideas. I have a pile of hardcore building up that when it gets to a trailer full I was going to put on freecycle (would save me loading it up and taking it to the tip). Perhaps I'll try it on ebay first?

SSE specified 110mm for the electricity duct but did not question when presented with she smaller 65 (or was it 56?)mm duct. I only needed short lengths so bought some leftovers from ebay.

But finish one job before you start yet another.

What staggers me is the length some people go to, to sell worthless tat. They will probably get 99p for it and a lot of hassle getting the buyer to come and actually pay for it.

Check carefully your council's replacement dwellings policy. There have been cases where if it has been derelict for a very long time that permission is refused. If it has only just burned down you are probably okay

I have mentioned before, we didn't provide anything. we live just 2 doors away from the new build so told the builders the toilet there was available. Only two ever took up that offer (presumably for a "No 2") otherwise they "made their own arrangements" no doubt taking advantage of all the trees on site. That's actually quite common up here, the new build I am wiring at the moment has nothing. You just walk into the woods for a pee, and remember to do your No 2 at home before going to site. None of the trades seem bothered with this arrangement. It's only now that the house is nearly finished outside that I fnally have the treatment plant connected and can use the toilet in the static 'van at last.

That's not what I used, but at £16 per square metre for everything including the insulation panels it does sound very cheap.

I can't help you directly as although my ground floor joists are 300mm JJI's, I am only making "provision" for a downstairs shower not actually fitting one. So I am just going to provide a 4" branch off the main stack with it plugged off. The 4" pipe will be just under the JJI joists so I guess if I ever fit a shower it will have the trap in the normal place then out if the trap into a 90 degree bend and straight down to a reducer into the 4" pipe.

Speaking as a sailor, MAB = Manky Auld Boat.

Bit low for a bedside table. Is that the result of sawing a bit of each bed leg in turn to stop the bed wobbling?

Here's my "scaffold stairs" that are serving me at the moment. I think part of the reason for me not wanting to fit a temporary set of real stairs, is mine will have a half landing and return, so it's a lot more complicated than just bang in a cheap set of mdf stairs. But here is what you can make cheaply. These are my garage stairs in my present house. the upstairs of the garage is technically only a storage platform so these are not meant to comply with regulations. they are in effect a permanent ladder. they are made from leftover bits of 8 by 2, and (you can tell I am not a joiner) each tread is just fixed to the stringer with three 6" nails.

Digging a trench along a footpath should still be something you could choose to use a private contractor for. The contractor must have a minor street works permit (might not be the exact wording) and get a road opening permit from the council. You may find the private contractor does not think they need traffic lights. Worth a try?

When you get a quote, it should be broken down into contestable and non contestable items. Non contestable is what the utilities have to do like the actual connection to their services. Contestable is things like digging trenches for them and even the road crossing. These you can appoint your own contractor or even do it yourself. In my case I had the road crossing done by Scottish Water as they were cheaper than both SSE and an independent contractor. And since the trench was already open for the water connection, enlarging it slightly to make a connection pit for the electricity was easy. Of course it was handy that all sevices come from the same place.

Well in this house, the builders put the drain runs through the solum and they just used standard bends, not rest bends. So in terms of the accuteness of the bend, a normal bend seems to have worked without issue. So it just comes down to supportng the stack, so how about a normal bend and set the base of it in a bit of concrete?

That looks like a good plot. If the ground is good for normal strip foundations I can't see a problem with an insulated slab. Yes you will need the discharge permit from SEPA, and you will probably need to get that at the time of doing your building warrant, that delayed our building warrant as we "discussed" alternative drainage arrangements. Re your water and electricity connections, You can probably reduce those charges by doing the trenching yourself. I got the electricity cost down by nearly £1000 by digging a short bit of trench and digging the connection pit (and filling it in afterwards) it saved them bringing a digger to the site so they just had to send the jointers.

No midge problems here, that's why we chose to live on the East. Mind I have been on the boat all day and they are never a problem there.

If more than one service has to cross the road, get water in first (as theirs has to be deepest) and when the road is up to lay their pipe, drop in appropriate coloured (black for electricity, grey for telephone) ducts, with draw strings through them so you only need to have the road up once. Only 1 road opening permit and less delays.

Is this to make a road crossing? It took half a day to make the road crossing over our single track road, but because of the VERY low level of traffic there was no requirement for lights, they just slid a big steel plate over the trench when a car wanted to pass. I always understood the utilities had a permanent road opening license and don't need to apply to the council each time, so why are the council poking their nose in?

I have a "scaffold staircase" 6 "treads" each 2 scaffold boards wide, and 0.5m rise per "step" So it's big steps put perfectly do able to walk up them, and big items can be lifted up a "step" at a time. That's how all my windows got up to be fitted from inside. I'm out all day but I'll try and post a picture this evening.

Hi and welcome (back) I am glad you have found us.

The Baumit render system worked out about £20 per square metre for the render, and about £25 per square meter for the labour to apply it. I used 100mm thick wood fibre board that is a lot more expensive than cement board, but the whole point being it's another 100mm of insulation on the outside of the building.

Well if water is flowing out, it must be also flowing in somewhere, so which if either header tank is re filling? Another possibility: A thermal mixer on say a shower failed and back feeding mains cold water into the hot water system?

Yes the flashing kit works for my tiles that's the easy ones done, now I need to start cutting tiles up the side of the window. Back to "which window" I was doing some more at the new build I am wiring. Previously I had looked at his UPVC velux windows and decided I don't like them. but I noticed he only has those in the bathrooms. In a bedroom he has a Velux 3G top hung with a painted wooden finish inside. Now that I did like and the fittings are much better quality, so I's pretty well decided that's what we will use for the two in the main part of the house. The painted wood finish inside will go well with the Rationel windows.

How was the water being heated at the time? immersion of boiler? If immersion, probably the thermostat failed, water boiling and venting out the expansion pipe. If the boiler, heat exchange coil perforated. If the heating header tank is higher than the CW header tank, the slightly higher head would over fill the CW header tank. Is the hot water running clear or is it dirty? contaminated by the CH water) Time so consider knock down and rebuild? there seems to be a lot of "issues" with your house.

I did the same in our previous 1930's semi that was 9" solid brick walls with no cavity. When I bricked up the doorway I used 3" blocks giving me a small cavity that I filled with insulation. It probably didn't meet with building regs but I thought it was better than a solid wall and nobody ever asked....