Ferdinand

I would say history and the developing world lifting itself out of poverty over the last half century. Making my own sweeping statements ?, as far as I am aware every country in Western Europe (except possibly one or two outliers) has a service sector which is more than 70% of the economy. If you compare UK / France / Germany, the main differences are that Germany has a bit more manufacturing (27% vs 21%), we have more higher value services (eg Golden Circle Law Firms, Finance, International Architects), and France maintains a very pleasant agricultural museum and a government owned manufacturing sector. Services are within 1% of each other at 78-79% for all three. F+G also *may* have tradtionally had more local retail services than UK since say 1990 (eg Monsieur Le Boulanger and German Sundays), but I am not sure if that is the case any more. We are ahead with % of online sales, but I would say that is just a matter of a few years before it is ubiquitous. F

This is a subject where I have not seen *that* much data. There is this page from the EU, (eg below) which illustrates the thinness of some of the information. The main thing I draw is that the stats seem to illustrate the impact of external factors, such as population density and whether the Rhine/Danube runs through your country, almost as much as they show information about water use / abstraction. Why is water consumption in Belgium so low? I do know: - UK water meters are at about 50% of households. - UK water bills rose significantly in 1990-1995 to drive heavy investment, less quickly for the next 15 years, and have fallen recently in real terms. All data from an OFWAT report here. I am not clear about: - Current versus previous investment. Investment by water companies since 1990 has been £130bn, which is I think likely to be slanted to underground and water quality. - I am not clear how that compares with previous investment in eg all those reservoirs in the earlier period (to 1950, or is 1980 a better dividing point)?. I would love to see some data about restrictions imposed on domestic consumption. My sneaking suspicion is that there are fewer of them now, in the period 2000-2015 compared to say 1970-1985, say. I think that like energy saving, the legacy housing stock is a key question ... all the building regs in the world are of limited impact when we only build 0.5-1.0% of new stock each year. I think that, again following energy saving, there is probably more utility to be gained by reduction and demand management rather than building shiny new anything. I would hate to try and get a big new reservoir through the current Planning System. I wonder if we need to start disconnecting larger houses from the sewerage system? Ferdinand

I think there is a bit of virtue signalling and PR involved, but it saves I think around 1%. Still worth having. Here is a vid of Ladybower in wetter times last year - by Dean Read of peakroutes.com . One of my favourite bike routes when extended a little.

Thanks, but I was wondering about 2018.

Any photos?

First look I have had at any rates of change. This was United Utilities in Cumbria a week ago - going down by 4-9% of total volume in a week, and a hosepipe ban about to arrive. Ouch. One can understand why. https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/reservoir-levels/

There also longer screws available if you need them. You can get them from Screwfix and they will probably be called ‘machine screws’. You can take one of yours along, or look at a socket in the shop to check. Other places have better value etc, but if you are there then they have the stuff. Ferdinand

Far easier not to overload the mixer, and put it on a square of membrane.

I am certainly on a number of drugs, but none of them are narcotics. Just for you, Herbert and the Sherbert: If it is Zoot Horn, we expect a piccie in a Zoot Suit with the foam monster worn like a feather boa ! Less painful than the Zoo and Thorn version, which would involve a bear and a pyracantha. We'll be on Blossom Dearie in a minute.

Now why does that music sound like one of those trainspotter journeys in the Flying Scotsman? That's triggered my Zoot Music, though I need to know whether it is Zoo-Thorn or Zoot-Horn? Anyhoo, it reminds me of the swing-dance-ish song Zoot Suit Riot.

I was racking my brain for something a little bigger to make it a bit easier, and I guess you could use a clock or a clock face. Any 5 hours will be 150 degrees. Not sufficent for accuracy, but probably enough to show up if it is way off.

Quick check ... should be 5 sides of the new 12 side pound coin, or something similar, when centred on the meeting point on the plan.

You are Julian Assange and I claim my £5.

Cheers. Just had a useful chat with ST. They do not have any lateral sewers there on there computer .. hardly surprised since it is 1900 vintage, so I need to get a bit of info together, and tell them and Planning and Building Control. It is not a relevant planning consideration aiui, but it can only help to tell them. Ferdinand

I am just after an orientation on what happens here. A neighbour has an Application to build a house over the bit of land where a lateral sewer (ie my waste pipe through his plot) runs. There are between two and four neighbours connected to this waste pipe, all owned by the applicant. The waste pipe will have been adopted under the recent Act, but it may well not be known to the water company. Now clearly this could be accommodated using foundation bridges, rodding points and an appropriate sort of agreement etc, but I would welcome comments on how to tackle this. My preference is that it not be built over. I have no idea whether the chap knows it exists. Who do I go to? Planning, water company or building control? Cheers F

if it is a metal one you probably can put it on - will wipe down with a damp cloth, or put an offcut of batten on and put your level on the batten. Some levels even have screw holes for attachment to the batten. F

Paint that green (or brown, this week) and it can be hills for your Hornsby railway.

It takes some time to go off in the middle. I have a video of the process. If it is threatening to hit any surfaces you could put tape or a thin board there before it arrives (are any of those trims scrap?) to avoid any of the sticky being on the surface .. tough to get off afterwards. If it does go too badly into corners etc you can usually cut it flush using eg a hacksaw or reciprocating saw blade or craft knife or eg bread knife that is ready to be thrown. I had a foam that lost its top by accident once. You do not forget when that happens. But it will be OK afterwards. You need to worry more when it has nowhere to go and forces your wall facing out wards.

Or buy a Landrover...

I think you need to track th3 source of the noise eg is it water hitting the far side of the pipe, or some sort of resonance effect. Then you could decide eg to instead some sort of diverted or absorber at the top eg stuck on sponge or a plastic mesh where the water hits the side of the pipe, or pad the mounts with rubber sheet, or have an extra mount in the middle. if it It is like bongo drums, then that suggests resonance effects. F

Just think how much stronger your wrists will be, without any aspersions being cast. Unlikely to apply, but sealed dg units are not very expensive, so in the worst case you just have to live with a draught for a day or two! It is always good to do something the long way first time, so you understand better for the future. You are doing great. F

Let me throw you a curve ball or two. I am not sure that completely built-in is the only way. For built-in shelves I would be tempted to put a supporting batten all the way across the front for each shelf, rather than trying do extra support in the middle. Then if you wanted to you could do your slats front to back. if I was doing that I would perhaps put a kitchen worktop across at perhaps 900 should a work surface ever be needed, and leave it for boxes below. Though I might tempted to build 600x600 slatted modules, which can then be moved around. if there was something taller than your shelf gap, you could just move the slatted but on the next shelf up. if you wanted to you could even use any shelf or stainless or plastic grid unit from any kitchen system. Another option is literally off the wall ... use a freestanding system, either as @Tennentslager said or even something like iVAR, though that is not slatted. But if it were me I would look to stainless steel shopfitting systems, or the things they use in hotels. Perhaps a set of built in box shelves with adjustable heights down one side 500 or 600 wide (twin slot?), which would not need more support, then a full height gap for taller things (Hoover, Mother-in-law’s broomstick etc) in the middle, and a movable chromed steel shelving unit like this for the linen. Approx the right size, and with brakes. Not expensive, and less work to fit out. Ferdinand

Afaics it is quite area specific as to which new estate agency network dominates. Here we get Purple Bricks, but not many others. I have seen a few with EMoov, but that seems to be about it. I wonder whether the likes of PB will be introducing a Premium or Top of Market service for ‘prestige’ properties at some time in the future, because the savings for te seller are potentially a lot more in cash terms? I think the varied comments on the thread illustrate just how much it is local factors, local markets and horses for courses. And then that there is another layer of personal considerations on top. We *had* to sell due to a parent becoming unable to live in a large house in the country with stairs and a huge garden, so we went to be near a town centre, and really would have not wanted another winter there. Estate agents here are still ,.. all these years later .... in self-consolation ‘it could be worse’ rather than ‘yay, happy days’ mode. I suspect that we are also seeing some SE landlords or refugees from London volatility and low yields buying up here. We are not a classic ‘buy a street of terraces for the price of your 2 bed docklands flat’ country, which is how certain Northern areas have been seen, but I do see occasional sales of eg terraces by the likes of Savilles at auction, which is a telltale for potential sales to investors from down south. Ferdinand

Look good.

I have been running my bathroom extractor and kitchen extractor hood with some success to draw in air from the other end of the house through open windows or doors. But not overnight. The kitchen one has proved very useful when using the oven. F