saveasteading

Only fair I should show my poor display of beans. And I had the cheek to give advice. In fairness to self, I have been away a lot at the project. from the left: 2 inch high from bean pushed into the ground 3 weeks ago. 3 inch high stem, denuded of all leaves and just sprouting some more: planted in pots 2 months ago ditto but kept some leaves so is growing A proper bean, a foot high and multi stemmed. it might be enough on its own. Planted in pot 2 months ago and escaped the snails somehow. as '1', but growing ok sweet peas to encourage insects if ever there is a bean flower. Far left sacrificial salad plant to delay the snails . Behind a couple of garlic plants to confuse the snails. and a courgette growing nicely at last. All other green is weeds....carrying no-mow May into not much weeding June. You may notice irrigation pipes. That will work when we are at 'the project' until the batteries or machine fail. Garlic water also applied....so easy I just broke cloves and chucked them in a bucket of water and they keep emanating into the water.

Praise where due. Having advised our family on site that scaffolders are a different breed, and to prepare for some chaos: this message today from site. You would be pleasantly surprised by the scaffolders: very nice guys, proud of their work and company, and did a full tidy up before they left.

Have had quotes from local specialists. The surprising thing to me is the sheer cost of the Cemfloor material, at about 3 x the cost of concrete. That helps in the sums Nobody has come back on saying 75 screed has advantages. So we will now get PIR prices and see what thickness is likeliest so that we have 140/150 of PIR then 60/50 of Cemfloor. We haven't even prepared the ground on half the building, so could go a little deeper, but I'm happy with that PIR thickness.

You can do it yourself and get the same or better results without solicitors. You know what to do, and people here have confirmed it and made suggestions. The personal approach with some confirmation in writing/emails. I reckon it will go away. What i don't think has come up is the nagging of family and friends...maybe he has been spurred into this action., and a reasonable approach by you is all that is needed.

No insulation ordered yet. 125 theoretical thickness which may turn out to be 120. Also wouldn't want to find a wobble in the existing concrete base that made the screed less than 50. My main argument for thicker screed is that I think i recall someone on BH recommending a thicker screed to make better use of offpeak electricity. But it would then take longer to react in the case of a cold turn, and waste heat if the temperature improved suddenly. With the diminishing returns proportional to depth, it could be reasonable to lay eps 25mm ish on the bottom, if that makes the thicknesses add up.

Opinions please Cemfloor 50mm or 75mm? We have designed the floor as 75mm Cemfloor over 125mm PIR. Two contractors have suggested reducing to 50mm to save cost, implying that this is the normal thickness. We can do this simply by increasing the insulation thickness. The 75mm was not chosen randomly but from research on BH and elsewhere. Very roughly the extra cost of insulation would be £10/m2 in PIR (or £5/m2 in EPS), and the saving on screed about £5/m2, so the premise of saving construction cost is wrong. However, the question is interesting...A thicker more robust screed with greater heat absorption property, but slower to react? Or more insulation?

We have found that the Engineer tends to select a Simpson product as a habit. One costed £42 each so we suggested an alternative at £4. "Fine". A rafter hanger at £19. Replaced by a standard one at 62p. x 30 and x 80 that saved us a lot of£. However nicely designed, it is a bracket, so check for alternative manufacturers.

How many showers have you had , and thrown the clothes in the bin?

I think I see their logic. Without detailed analysis of the aquifer, the certainty of supply and quality might be in some doubt. Proving it would cost more than a tank. Plus, if there was any problem with supply, a tank allows for filling from a visiting bowser, giving you a few day's supply. Having looked into this recently (tank needed for feeding from a spring), the tank isn't too expensive, but it all ads up.

That has always intrigued me. How can it have no factor of safety as an agricultural building , but suddenly be ok for domestic use. I asked a respected BCO and he said that this is not overlooked, hence most such need additional foundations. Perhaps yours has additional support.

Whatever the 'out' level is controls the level of the standing 'liquid'. Also we want the 'in' pipe to decant all its contents and not have anything left in it. So out should be 100mm or more lower than in. Whenever some liquid enters the tank, the same amount must leave, preferably cleaner, hence it needs some barrier to the stuff going straight through.

The chimney breast will contain another chimney from downstairs. Upstairs fireplaces in Victorian house were often very small, for a tiny coal grate. I would expect that all you can cut out is any bricks that narrow the opening but you can get your hand behind. Even then , this is dabbling with a standard construction so the condition of the building is important. At least you have the chimney. Many houses have them cut out to increase the room space, and very often without proper support in the loft. You will have responsibilities and conditions attached to your ownership/lease which must also be followed. SE required, and the answer may be no, you cannot do it. Alternatively apply for building regs and they may say yes or no from their experience, or require an SE. A picture would help.

If that was the only worry we would all be much happier.

I haven't re-read the regulations. However it is important to note that the great big document is of guidelines and suggested solutions. Only the little green section is 'the regulations'. Your challenge then is to propose a solution that deals with the supposed issue. As all sites are different the risks and solutions are also different. The reason for the distance is to allow the water to disappear and not to upset the foundations. The facts that the soakaway was a surprise, and that yours is far away will help the discussion too. Therefore a barrier between the two might work, or the foundations just a little deeper. If it has building regs approval, I assume this was before discovery of the existing soakaway. There is no guarantee of this being approved, and we would need to know much more before giving you more certainty.

Ok as a main contractor that was scrupulously fair... I didn't like extras. They are disruptive to the flow of the main works, and may distract key workers away from the key work. Some workers charge/earn a lot more than others and need to be charged for accordingly. The level of on-cost that a contractor needs to cover management, overhead, risk and some profit is high. It is usually concealed in an overall price but becomes apparent in small extra. If extras make the job longer then the costs of management and site equipment go up too. Extras have to be assessed and quoted for, and then are sometimes declined, in which case the contractor has expended costs for n reward. Meanwhile, some contractors don't work that way and make their profits from extras, and I cant advise which applies here. The best solution if anything seems high is to ask why, and if there are any more economical options.* Getting another contractor in simultaneously can either work or be awful. The new one does not report to the old one, so it can be very messy when their works interfere with each other. And whose job is health and safety? Best of all, don't ask for extras. * a very good client once asked during a progress meeting, for an additional door between rooms . I always liked to immediately give a cost guide to expedite a decision, so said it would be about £300 (years ago). Client knew that doors could be obtained for £30....but not the other elements or work involved. Perhaps you are in this situation and the costs are actually reasonable. QS would act as a intermediary. But perhaps you would be paying them to agree that the costs were fair.

Agreed re more info needed. The 'rules' are not hard and fast, but you need a very good solution to overcome them.

Trying to see the best in this, given that you have got on well until now. Many projects cause damage to the access, by carelessness, uncaring or unthinking delivery drivers and contractors, and plain wear and tear. Perhaps the neighbour, being in the industry has seen this and fears the worst. Can I suggest that you tell the neighbour that you understand their concern, will be very careful, and return the access to the current condition if anything untoward happens? Then take photographs of the current conditions...loads of them. Especially look for cracks, chips, subsidence, wear and tear for your comfort, and general views for the neighbour's. They can do the same. Plan now where you plan to offload and store materials and whether they will be in the way. Will there be a skip, and where? Will the neighbour be short of parking space while this happens. Also have site rules about working hours, no radios etc. If all that fails, then you can't have been more reasonable, which counts in your favour if there is any formal dispute. At that stage perhaps you write to them to confirm how reasonable you have been but you are carrying on as you are entitled to.

Does anyone disagree, that we shouldn't feel cold in a public or office building in summer, due to the aircon being set to shiver levels? Is that corporate showing off?

I wonder how much humidity affects the acceptable temperature.

I am impressed by the Spanish rules for public buildings, recently also a French rule. No aircon unless temp above 26C. No heating above 18C. These are the temps published in the supermarket anyway. This was introduced during the last recession, along with reduced speed limits. The speeds have reverted but the temperature rule has been accepted. If you were imposing such a rule to save national / world energy, what temperatures would you suggest?

I had no slugs or snails on the veg area. That may be because they have all been cleared, out they prefer the grass to the bare earth, or because of the 3 garlic plants I have placed around the beds. The smell of the garlic is supposed to mask the succulent bean-sprout smell. There are never any varmints in the onion or garlic bed. I have some old garlic from last year which failed quality control ('you can keep them: too small') , so may try your suggestion. Keep us informed.

In case this helps in any way: I have what is called 'country drainage'. Just a single brick chamber but with in and out pipes turned to mid depth to avoid floaters escaping. It takes rainwater too, which is a bad thing, but mostly doesn't matter. This goes 20m to soakaway in a nearby field which isn't ours. It had been used by the previous owner for at least 30 years and for all we know was never cleaned. For many years we left it untouched with a 6" crust on top and 6" sludge on the bottom. It shouldn't have worked, then one rainy day it didn't, and mucky water came out of the outlet manhole. My rods and a karcher drain clearer didn't help, as the outlet pipe was solid. I had it pumped out and also got the pump about 5m along the outlet when the driver wasn't paying attention (not meant to do that). Since then (5 years?) all is good. Therefore I think the remaining gunk in the pipe, and also the soakaway, must have continued to digest their contents once the overloading was prevented, clearing the way for the drain to run. Moral: I don't think an annual pump-out is necessary, and have no plans to do it for a while. BTW when the chamber was empty I got in and shovelled out what was left.. No comment about most of what shouldn't have been in there. But there was also a great lump of hip tiling, all cemented together, and some wood attached. Some cowboy in the past had decided not to trouble himself with disposal, and had chucked it in the chamber.

Had another look at it and it does seem identical. If in Wickes I will have a prod. Each fixing plate has 3 screw points, is very sturdy, and pulls comfortingly tight.

Interested in what people think, but I reckon 26C is not too hot indoors, and aircon is un-necessary. If that feels hot then our bodies don't take long to adapt. eg Mediterranean residents wear anoraks and jeans until the temperature is 20plus. Northern types think 18 is hot, and might have to take a jumper off.

Concrete paving slabs are cheaper for practice, but also concrete blocks if you have spare.