Ferdinand

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.

By the time it had collected in all the corners they would approximate round anyway. ? ==> ?

Just checking back in with the kitchen. have been too much of a fustilarian this last couple of weeks. Kitchen looking good ... apart from that cable. When you cut the hedge cable before your experience could be dependent on many things, including the weather and your type of shoes, or where the current happened to flow; might be different next time. Time for some more Zoot Music? This is Rick Springfield and the band Zoot. This is 1970, so I am sure there were some forum members rocking that Star Trek Series 1 - Moonbase Alpha inverted cross “This is strumming my guitar with no other implications” revolutionary look.

For the frame, can you get a local wrought iron business or blacksmith to make you one? It would need careful design to avoid looking like a patio item, but it might work. Alternatively, there are lots of chunky metal legs on Ebay, including some of these. Ignore the hairpin legs. https://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/metal-table-legs Ferdinand

I am more a fustilarian.

I think you would want steam as well as heat, and the bending needs to be a different operation from the planing. You could presumably build a frame and runner to guide your plane, and an electric plane may do it. I am sure that various of us have them - tbh I would not let mine loose on that without some idea what the condition would be when returned. The best people to ask would probably be an oak table factory ?. Or a smallish timber merchant who have their own kilns etc. Or a joiner who starts from the tree or the plank - they are probably around under categories like "artisan". I recently saw a documentary where there was a business who supplied the components for chairs to a furniture company, and their core busines was bending wood. But no idea how common such are more widely. For the base, what about making some trestles? Ask here? https://www.woodworkuk.co.uk/forum/ F

I think I am going to have to resort to Shakespeare, then. Though I am not totally convinced these are all in Shakespeare. For self-build sites sites these might fit and not sound too baroque, for example: CUMBERGROUND - someone who is so useless, they just serve to take up space. DORBEL - a petty, nit-picking teacher. For that phonecall to planning. FUSTILARIAN - someone who stubbornly wastes time on worthless things KLAZOMANIAC - Someone who only seems able to speak by shouting. MUCK-SPOUT - A dialect word for someone who not only talks a lot, but who seems to constantly swear. QUISBY - In Victorian English, doing quisby meant shirking from work or lazing around. A quisby was someone who did just that. WHIFFLE-WHAFFLE - An indecisive, time-wasting ditherer. I like Klazomaniac. Ferdinand

I think the concrete block solution may not be competitive with eg Sunamp Container-Size. The 400ft High by 100ft (guestimated) diameter of the concrete tower stores 20mWh of energy. A Sunamp container is quoted as ‘Multiple mWh’, which I make as perhaps 3mWh based on 50 pallets in 2 layers each storing 60kWh. That makes the Sunamp equivalent a 8ft x 40ft footprint to a height of 8ft x 7 = 60ft, Or I expect rather more energy storage in a single layer of standard containers on the same footprint as the tower. Lots of approximations and guesstimates and fiddle-factors, but I make the Sunamp storage density more than 50x higher, which is some barrier to overcome even if I have estimated everything 100% out the wrong way. So my call is interesting but unlikely. And I wonder what the emissions are from manufacturing all that concrete. Ferdinand

Watch out for Aldi and possibly Lidl branches being built. I have a T who is self-building a conservatory/porch by mutual consent, and the new Aldi being built near here had 7+ pallets of bricks left over, which the site manager opined he would rather have stolen. Buff facers which are worth around £1500-£2k afaics. Anyway, the T is now building his conservatory dwarf walls from free bricks, having obtained a secondhand conservatory for about £100 previously. The dg door is costing about £30 from eBay locally. (It is a let to buy when they can afford it deal). F

Can you teach us some Celtic expletives? They always seem to be very good. Bampot, Parcel of Rogues and so on. I am sure I am still to learn some.

Far too complicated. Install a Ha-ha. With spikes, just like the Romans used to. See Alesia, Battle of. Whatever you install must be visible. If some divot drives their car into your concealed rock, you may end up liable.

You could always fill it up from the over order of the MOT 1 from the driveway ?.