saveasteading

Lots of good advice above. Knowledge is your main friend. If you can project manage#, do ninja buying*, and read up about each trade just in time, then you will save more than by diy. On our project, my son-in-law has become a superb PM with the judgement to gain the respect of the trades, but be no pushover. Gradually finding better contractors along the way. In the process he has discovered a liking and skill in masonry, and groundworks has become a family and friend, diy process, with huge cost benefits. But it depends on your own abilities. We have also the benefit of design professionals in the family, so the design is lean and practical. Without that, it is important to find designers you can trust, and who are prepared to discuss with you, even be challenged. You want good bricklaying and plastering? Leave it to the people who do that one thing every day. *skilful procurement isn't just about shopping around and discounts. Far more important is to minimise waste. A QS or a builder using your money is likely to overorder by 10%. That will cost you 5% of the project cost. Materials can be scheduled and managed to limit offcuts and waste. excavations dug just big enough and no more, and so on. A skip costing £300 is filled with stuff you have paid £2,000 for. # overhead, management and profit for a main contractor is about 30%, then each of their subcontractors about another 20%. Some of these can't be reduced, but some can. Not to dabble with: Bricklaying joinery plastering final screed electrics plumbing roofing maybe worth a try with a very big IFFFFF: groundworks wall cladding decoration kitchen floor cover ???

The speed limit for the road is the issue, and a survey won't change that. Also it would need just one car speeding stupidly round the corner to make the survey worse than not having one. Save that option in case there is an objection. If you can see the required distance now then I suggest taking photos of cars at that distance. Photo from the driver eye point. A white car to make it easy to see. If I was a planner I would welcome that practical proof, and it could save them a visit. Also promise to keep hedges down to the necessary height, if applicable.

About 60% of the cast iron materials have been rescued. Now they have been de-rusted and thoroughly repainted on the exposed faces. But what about inside the downpipes? I don't know if these were ever painted. Should they be? Of course the insides of the pipes are regularly wetted, and never see daylight. Does that make them constantly exposed to rusting conditions? Or do gravity and rising air do enough to dry the insides? If painted, somehow, it will not be as thorough as the exposed surfaces, and may cause more harm. The best method I have so far is to paint a ferret and send it up and down many times. Or perhaps use a wax spray as used to be recommended for rusting old cars. I really don't know, and so any proper knowledge or best guesses are welcome.

That isn't a commercial supply. But collecting it off a beach and processing has to be better than burning it. I have seen news of rejected applications in Scotland for industrial scale harvesting of live seaweed 'fields' which, of course would affect whatever else lives and grows there. My interest having been piqued I have now found this. Generally very small scale production, the smallest being the Summer Isles 100 kg of 3 species All year round Hand plus larger quantities gathered as waste at docks/power station, which again seems better than dumping. But then a large quantity at Lewis Up to 11,500 wet tonnes per annum Hand and mechanical using modified boat with cutter. Maybe I am just suspicious but what is the chance that some large corporation will end up stripping the sea.

At some stage caravans become worth less than the transport. They re just a box on a chassis so can usually be cut into slabs so that you are not paying to dispose of air. There is possibly some reusable plywood and polystyrene in there....but you probably don't need that now.

May I refer you to the parallel discussion 'how does your garden grow'?' you may be able to help on there.

I have 2 slightly raised beds and am working on the no-dig principle. I am not fully signed up to the extremes of the Charles Dowding books I have, but most seems sensible. The ground is 45m of clay and it took me 40 minutes to dig a 300mm deep hole for a new plant last month. That clay is under the no-dig beds too, and it is amazing what a difference the top 200mm does. Is seaweed sustainable? I wonder sometimes where it comes from.

They interview people that are hanging around the high street in the day, who also have the time to spare to talk to a journalist. ie not typical. Also, if you have a reasoned, considered position of the options and complexities, they don't want it; they want an extreme view.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-standards-technical-handbook-2020-domestic/3-environment/3-9-private-wastewater-treatment-systems-infiltration-systems/

“The latest Scottish offshore wind energy price: 3.7 pence/kWh unit. Melt that into the political equation when your bill charges 28p (pence/kWh unit) or whatever it’s going to be when the cold sets in again. " Shocking if true. If I understand it, these wind generators (Swedish and Spanish?) then get paid at the price as if it was generated from gas. The same article explained the costing structure like this, which I thought was quite a good analogy. Why is the price of electricity linked to gas? Imagine you had to fill a bucket of fluid every half-hour, and then dispense it to people in thimbles. The bucket varies in size, sometimes it is a regular size, sometimes it is huge, and sometimes it is small. Each time you start by filling the bucket with the cheapest fluid, water perhaps or supermarket-brand fizzy drinks. Then you turn to the pricier drinks – wine, craft ale, non-alcoholic gin. But for the last third of the bucket, most of the time, the only liquid available is single malt whisky. That is going to push up the price of the whole bucketful. That is the system that is used in pricing electricity – it is set by the most expensive ingredient in the mix, which is electricity produced by burning gas. In the UK as a whole, gas is responsible for about 38% of electricity generation. So when the price of gas goes up, so does the price we all pay for electricity. And then there is this. anybody know if it is true, and why this would be done? "existing wind farms are regularly forced to turn off the power or face fines."

Why isn't it? not sexy enough? Wouldn't make money for cronies? Simply zero rate all insulation tomorrow and diy would increase

The ceiling is at 3.05m so this was the only one I found. But I think even for 2.2m I would need a step up.

The bco does not and cannot check everything. It is a spot check, and the fee does not allow for full checking of the design, or formal quality control. f the bco disagrees with the SE or Architect then I would leave them to discuss it.

I fitted a concertina loft ladder today, with great difficulty. the instructions are the worst I have ever seen. Might as well have said 'fit ladder'. Imagine my surprise when I came to try it and couldn't reach the manual hooks. I have to use a stepladder to use the ladder. Then I saw in the operating instructions...ladder may be unwieldy, recommend use stepladder. I also find that the hatch is now very tight for access...bad choice.

With good reason. Not a good idea. Try finding a recognised builder who does it, and wonder why they don't.

Unless it has come via an intermediary. Actually they test it and know where it came from. Russia selling happily to India it seems. Come the winter will the oil companies supply UK and Norway at the old price and to Germany etc at market rate?...I think we know.

I use ts and sf for convenience not for value, so do check around. Often the specialist merchants can do better. eg Saw some fence washers at £50 / bag in TS that were £15 at fence merchant. Drainage much cheaper from a drainage merchant...but ts and sf great for a quick in and out, if in stock.

10% off a £1 order or £1,000. At the end of the job it is 10% of a lot. Keep at it. I have been in Wickes with a 10% voucher that isn't scanning, and thought, 'is it worth the wait for 50p?' Of course it is. I can't speak for Appleby v LAP but will say not to buy own brand (with made up names) from these stores.

Excellent. What will you do with the water? In the rainy season will it be partially emptied for car washing etc, before the next rain storm? I

No it won't if it performs less well, and eps performs significantly less well than PIR. The actual thickness is not a 'thing' in itself. EPS provides half the u value of PIR, at half the price, so either 350 EPS or 175 PIR, is what I am saying. Either or, to give the option to suit construction detail. Buying twice the volume with EPS might have a transport implication too. There is another option of grey EPS with a 10% better u value than white. Something to do with graphite, so 350mm of that would be like 200mm PIR, roughly. We costed all the options in great detail recently, and there isn't much cost difference in the material purchase, so it is down to whether you have more or less excavation/fill as a result.

Well, many thousands insulated and tens of thousands not....if the building is big enough, floor insulation is not needed, certainly in the middle. The manufacturers used to make that clear but now seem to have forgotten to tell us. re the drawing. 350mm of EPS is a lot. If a thinner construction suits you then 175mm of PIR will do the same job at the same cost. or 75 of eps under 100 of PIR would be a pragmatic spec.

I couldn't. Height discrimination.

Good, that was rather my implication. I can do it but still find it hard. Just check /enquire of the Engineer if there is any natural way to reduce costs rather than crates. Being pedantic here, drainage is Civil Engineering, not Structural. Your SE may very well be able to do this but might choose to sublet all or some of it...watch the costs, as I have seen 40 page reports where 3 would suffice. The SE does not have to dig the holes or carry the buckets of water, so you should pay for observation time only, if they want to observe rather than accept your figures. Probably sensible to do this again, and it may even allow a reduction in caution, and soakaway size. That is surprising as it increases flood risk downstream. I thought there were always constraints. If you haven't done it yet, I urge you to find a way to reduce this flow for the general benefit. It is all these small increases in flow that cause flooding problems. Unless, of course, your water course ends up in the sea in a few minutes. Or into a reservoir would be good.

Yes, the stated limit is 15, so we are just outside that. However, I'm sure SEPA would have accepted a faster flow, as there is 15m of the same sand below that, so the water will be very well spread out before it hits the stone and runs off to the burn. The fast limit is to prevent erosion and sinkholes, and over-fast flow to watercourse, and neither would apply,

In Scotland you now need an air feed for 5kW or more. The more I think of it , the more a direct feed is the right solution, even for under 5kW. I first intended to fit a louvre close behind the burner, as this would provide the air, yet not cause a draight. But it must not have a closer, so it will inevitably create a draught. We have put in a 60mm pipe from outside, then through the PIR to behind the stove position. In due course it will be connected into the back of the stove, as yet not selected. It can all be plastic until close to the stove. I am hoping that more manufacturers start allowing the rear air entry, as currently they are very expensive. As a bonus , opening the vents will create stack ventilation, if ever needed.