Ferdinand

For future readers, SAP is the model used to create the notional numbers published on EPC Certificates. Ferdinand

Like the best magazines, this article consists mainly of pictures - as it is nearly Bank Holiday weeking and I am heading off to a Camping Barn near @recoveringacademic's place with friends. The problem is straightforward. About 5 years ago on moving to the current house I had a 8' by 8' shed constructed in a corner of the garden which consisted of (perceived) well-packed rubble from many years ago. We used a base of concrete fence-posts laid flat to allow some minimal give, and room to expel any unwelcome undershed-dwellers, and to avoid the extra expense of a full concrete slab. How wrong I was. The ground turned out to be as movable as a slow-motion mattress, probably due to the rubble not being as compacted as thought, heave from a nearby tree, and a succession of extreme summers. The thing seems to move by up to a couple of inches at one end or the other up or down depending on how the weather, the tree and the rubble are changing. And the shed has needed adjusting twice since it was put in, and it still looks wonky. A further issue was a frame on the shed not quite strong enough to prevent shear distortion (ie the roof moving sideways relative to the base to give a rhombus shape.) I decided to use a product from ASP Wallbarn called Adjustable Support Pads, in this case their Megapad product which supports 1500kg per pad, and which give nearly 4 inches of vertical movement on each pad. These were installed under the existing posts using a couple of trolley jacks and a bit of digging. The pads can be adjusted after installation. The cost for 8 pads delivered was just over £70. If you order these or similar from online trade or retail sellers, then you may well be much more heavily clobbered by expensive shipping costs. I ordered these over the phone from Wallbarn, and they even reduced the £15 shipping cost to £7; the products arrived the next morning. Total time taken was about 6 hours for one man. This photo shows the full range of adjustment, and the component parts. The shed as it was on Wednesday morning Leaning to the Left. Wedges and a door that has not been lockable for some time Doing the job Levelling Up Correcting the shear, and installing a new brace Job Done. I hope. Will it work? Ask me in a couple of years, when the ground has moved again. Total cost was under £200. A new shed plus a concrete slab would have been about £1000 or a little more done professionally with careful sourcing. The chap doing the work is the excellent John Smith of Little John Property Services (M: 07702 033296), who does a lot of property maintenance for me.

I don't think anyone has noted your arrival, @Ed Davies. Welcome to the forum. Good to see another long term GBFer.

I think he has already ?

We all know that Planning is a game of poker. Is this a pre-Poker consultation with the Bank? Now where's that @Onoff "post scrumpy so don't give a hoot" widey smily smiley. Aha. Here - F

At this point I am baffled why @Onoff isn't just tiling his bathroom. Cutting tiles that are already around 2cm square to make them smaller seems everso slightly unnecessary. What is going to happen is that the other end of the design will be out by another 7.23mm and he will have to profile them with a nail file. Lord help him if he ever buys cafetiere coffee for an Expresso machine by mistake. F

Is Primary Demand including losses in generation and delivery (ie covering supply losses back to the resource or power station) or is that number for "energy delivered to the house"? ie Do I have to apply fiddle factors to the numbers I measure at my house, and what are they? Ferdinand

Ew. That place could have been so much better given a bit of imagination and some sweating of details. Love the Scattergun electricals. Look like light switches designed by Messrs Corbett, Barker and Cleese !

Woohoohoo.

@Onoff I dare you. Take a pallet in to Screwfix and test it.

Er .. dunno ?

But that technique has value as a checking or audit tool. Pick a random sample of a few detailed points and a couple that catch your attention and follow them to the bottom of the rabbithole. It needs a surprisingly small sample to give a decent level of competence. I learnt this when I started off an MSc in something called "Software Reliabilty", which was even more mathematically painful than my Engineering Degree. It finally proved that my brain is bent differently to that necessary for abstruse mathematics, so I got out. Like trying to learn AutoCad after using Windows for 25 years. F

I think we need to roll out Rumsfeld again: "Donald Rumsfeld stated: Applies verbatim to self-build - the expensive bits are the things we discover later that we did not know at first, which is why everyone obsesses with what is underground. See also The Parable of the Oil Pipeline in the Wrong Place. Here the neighbour not the buildhubber took the hit, 'cos it wasn't where the Planning Documents told him, and he had to redesign his house iirc. I wonder if we need to use such a high-level KUKU grid in out Project Planning? F

It doesn't say whether that includes taking away the rubble , even in the blurb at the top. So presumably that is considered to be a separate operation.

Hi @laurenco Sorry to hear of this problem. 1 - I am not aware that there is a "norm" - because a lot of self-builders do a lot of different things, and may plan for example for much soil to be left behind to reprofile the site a a way of saving budget. 2 - It is true that "verbal contracts" do exist, they leave a lot of scope even more scope for ambiguity and different interpretations than written contracts, and it is very difficult and/or expensive to resolve these. And, in the end, it comes down to I-said-you-said. 3 - You may have been the victim of their sharp practice plus your inexperience in someone deliberately not pointing out something they suspected you did not know, and you not knowing it. Another example - how many of us think about the value of weighing in the pipes and water tanks from a heating system which is being replaced (can be worth hundreds) or the value of logs from a felled tree. 4 - In the end though, that is a borderline though normal tactic, which we all use at times. I am sure that we are all more enthsiastic in pointing out price-reducing factors in plot prices, than admitting that we have found xyz document in the planning file that will potentially save us £20k, and means we could actually pay more. 5 - There are various ways of helping to deal with it - involving professionals (eg PM), or books, or informal mentors, or going slowly enough to accumulate the experience (or as you are already a Chartered Surveyor with I assume substantial experience so perhaps complementary experience is what you need to be after). I think my most helpful suggestion is at granny-sucking-eggs level. I think there will not be much comeback on this unless you persuade them to do it free or at a reduced price by asking nicely or threats (reduce payment). I think it may be 'make the best of it and sweat the detail all the other times', while focusing on those areas which are outside your existing professional experience. Can you find a buildhubber locally further down the track and offer pub-lunch-and-sanity-check every so often? I think we all like being taken out to lunch. Ferdinand

I have to praise Wallbarn, the supplier of Adjustable Support Pads (aka to me as Patio Feet), who have just given me superb customer service. I have used their Megapad Extra version .. adjustment range 125m to 210mm, pic to be added.Spoke to them yesterday after the shipping deadline, but they got them here by 9am this morning for a shipping cost of £7, and a total price of £70 for 8. And we have used them today. Excellent service, and a lot of robust product for a competitive price. Very happy. The photo shows the pads at their lowest (125mm) and highest (215mm) for this model, which will carry 1500kg each. Cost about £6.20 + VAT ordered over the phone. I will post a thread or a blog about what we used them for. Ferdinand

Cheers. My stance is that Topping ... like Frontal Lobotomies and Bleeding of Patients ... belongs as an hysterical artefact, and I cannot see why a competent tree surgeon would even have it on his publicity :-o . Shaping, crown lifting, pollarding .. yes. Topping .. noooooooo, except perhaps to remembered as a once a decade technique in extremis. F

I can’t help wondering whether an “expertly topped tree” is actually a thing. Perhaps they will also expertly maintain my windows with a sledgehammer.

These are available via various routes for normal lofts, but - as you say - it is usually for the simple ones, and not on the slope. AIUI. I have had several rental properties done - most recently in December 2016 iirc. Ferdinand

With draw wires ;-).

I think you can get oval conduit which might help, or 2 runs. I have had to disconnect some of mine because it was run out of the wrong cable. It was being used for LED footlights anyway, so I feel better without it. Ferdinand

Where have I heard this before ?- going on an adventure at 50. Ah, yes ... Welcome to the forum. You need to choose your mindset developer vs self-builder, or a blended version. There are differences throughout. I try (as a LL renovating) to work from the mindset of imagining it is not my house to strip what I need back to the core, then add necessities and enhancements that are strictly required. Ferdinand

Arise, Sir Lurkalot ?. Welcome, Sunil.

Drainage pipes do not run full !

Having estimated Russell’s lake, I am planning for him to host the Buildhub Hovercraft Grand Prix.