saveasteading

The Garden of England has a lot of heavy clay so it is not a certainty.

Thanks, but we needed size 4, and have now ordered them online, coming Tuesday they say. £50 each and £60 delivery. That equated to about 5 weeks hire so will be useful throughout and then sell..eventually. worth bringing yours by the looks of things. We already have some size 3. they are hydraulic, and absolutely beautiful to use, without the need to belt the pin to get a decent pressure. I recommend this product and can refer anyone interested. Unfortunately they don't do size 4, and that is the need to reach our roof ties and hold the building up (and ties to hold it down) But thanks again for the consideration.

If you have loppers then you can get a lot of very good kindling (or make a heap for critters) and meanwhile reduce the bonfire to a fraction. If burnt inefficiently you will then get a charcoaly ash that is great for the ground and plants. We will then praise your green credentials. (remember to cry 'come out you rodents' before lighting the fire.

Beans need lots of light and lots of water. Bottom better for water but will shade what is behind. Up the slope i another option.

This is the depth from the cover, so make sure that your site is not lower than this, every mm is counting with your numbers. Let's assume that the land at your site is the same level. The drain has to go underground and the minimum will be 400mm if you are clever enough with the layout. that is leaving you with 1.15m, and things are getting tight. If I was your Engineer I think I could show that a 100 pipe can go at that sort of slope, because the volume is small and the building reg slopes are a bit cautious. In fact the smaller pipe might run better over that long distance. It is very much cheaper to do this gravity drain if you can. 90m of pipe from your own 'gathering' manhole, a proper manhole at the connection, which the water company will want to approve, and a couple of intermediate inspection chambers for rodding. you cannot afford to lose any height from the property, so lowering the floor would create an issue, whereas lifting it will help. re treatment tank/ septic/ cess tank: these terms are much confused. The building regulations are well written on this subject and I recommend reading several times. My second choice is treatment tank, because it costs much the same as a pump and connections. (it has to be a big tank in case of failure) , it is all yours and you don't have pay sewage rates. Although it is correct about digging a 1m hole, you can try a hole nearer the surface as a quick guide.

good thinking

anybody got the daily mail take on it?

The Scottish 'too fast' fail is a higher rate than the English fail....fair enough perhaps because of the water quality on average. So what is the solution here? Taken below the level that might reach the loch, or into a denser stratum?? Fortunately ours passed in sand, so is ideal. Ours is glacial sand yours ancient dunes?

Fails because percolation is too fast through the sand?

Thanks. None available in size 4, but will try Gap.

Should be fine as I have heard of them often enough. You don't ever have to buy a packet again because you just let the last few pods grow to maturity and harvest the fat beans for next year. The beans I grow with most success have reddish brown beans with grey specks. I have no idea of the name as they are on 15th generation now.

Yes, and also prevents sudden discharges of untreated sewage in cases of bad installation/ no maintenance/ overuse/rain connected and washing it through, curry night.

Do any of you Highlanders know a source of acrows in a hurry? Can't find any to hire, and the merchants tried so far can 'get them in'. Mail order will prob take too long, as 'next day seems usually to mean 'in a few days'.

There is where I believe that aesthetics should come second to function. Never have rainwater inside the envelope of the building if it can be avoided...there is so much that can go wrong. To bring it deliberately back in and out again horrifies me. Embrace the Pompidou Centre / Lloyds Building principle of showing it, and emphasising it...as you have done. But make sure it is done neatly.

I refer you to the answer I gave earlier. So they will again spend Millions of our money on administering the schemes, and hardly anything in grants. It can no longer be ignorance and must be cynical (followed by a photo op of putting petrol into a borrowed small car)

You can use expensive pipe, (either the brown drain pipe with slices cut in it, or ready made black perforated pipe) that is lovely and smooth on the inside. this is what the Building Inspector would like you to use. Or cheap coiled agricultural stuff (a fraction of the cost). Theoretically the crinkles will fill with crud on the bottom and it won't work so well, but you could always use the next size up if that is a concern. The only real issue is keeping it running to a fall, but perfectly possible,

Corner of the garden in case they come in handy.

No. sometimes you just have to live with it. Control of the elements is a great human achievement, so be proud of displaying it. I prefer pipes to be visible than to cover or paint them, as that will end up scabby.

Yes you have to lie or do silly things in most cases. If this was brownfield then there is a chance. A new building on virgin ground cannot increase nature, but can play with diversity . Really you have to study the guidleines and tick the boxes. I don't know what your targets are , but for Breeam ratings they have examples of what they count as significant creatures. So if there are sparrows but no bluetits, you put up bird houses that will encourage them, and a peanut tree. Etc Don't assume that the officer who checks this will have the faintest idea so just go for it. If you have a pond you cannot assume fish, frogs and newts. Only one of these will survive the others. Like paper, scissors, stone. But the officer probably doesn't know this. Google and google until you find someone else's report, and plagiarise it.

Nicely done crazy paving.. That needs an eye for shapes which you clearly have.

But they will still ping if the building is moving. My best solution has been to fill the holes with Easifill as it sticks well and seems to hang in (because of latex in it?) Also easy to handle for me as a very poor plasterer.

And Marsh Industries In theory it can be much longer. It depends on what people have been eating, and if the tank was the right spec. They are designed for a house being fully occupied, so a lower occupancy will not stretch it and there won't be much crud. I have been down in our 'country cess tank' after desludging to repair the pipes. What a lot of interesting things have been flushed over the years. Plus a load of timber and tile waste that a roofer had decided were easier chucked in there than in the van.

But let me complicate things. The really good designer will spend more time on detail and economy, so more hours, but your build cost is reduced and/or quality increased. so their fee would be higher and your build cost lower, and so their percentage would look high. The converse is....quick design without revisiting any decisions, no iteration of the structure...fewer hours, higher build cost. For our conversion project, one Engineer quoted a percentage, we told him our budget, he said that can't be done I want my percentage on double that cost, whatever you do it for. We will never know how clever and economical his designs might have been.

Ahhh, I don't think it is quite that simple. It is that word 'always'. I would agree with nearly always. For a conventionally designed house yes. When open plan or large rooms are designed then that changes because everything gets technical and heavy. Plus when you allow for the loss of useful space for the stair and the stair approaches x both floors, the useful space is reduced. This applies much more proportionally to a small house. For non-domestic, which is my thing, I would tell a client at first meeting that it was much the same cost £m2 of useful space, and the use of valuable ground might be more important. Lifts also add to the cost and loss of space. Single storey easier and safer too, as there are no holes in the floor and don't have to carry plasterboard up.

Yes,I said grey but the right kind of black is fine too. UV resistant....ask to make sure.