Ferdinand

@MikeSharp01 Have you an idea how much you will use on the garden and car etc? Rainwater for that will reduce your input volume.

He does seem to be very "Murray Walker". Exact contemporaries to within 2 years, except one is dead.

Does anyone have any good Yogi Berra quotes?

>t.i.h.s.g.o = d There is another term. Or d = 0.9 * P(F) where P(F) is the probablility of a post by someone who's forum name starts with F. F

Never sure about Oxford Uni. Seems to produce a lot of very highly intelligent intellectually-penetrative fools, based on people I know who went there, politics and the meeja. 10 of our 13 Prime Ministers since the war went there for a University. The others were Edinburgh, none and none (Brown, Callaghan and Major). Perhaps not a good sample ? . The international HE rankings would disagree with me. F

Would not a kitchen squeegee or sponge mop do the walls and behind-the-bath? Another one of those where 'middle way' does not work (like 6" gaps between houses or extensions) - close the gap off completely or make it easily accessible?

I think it is because Scandy houses tend to be designed to have bathrooms with wetfloors and have a drainage grill in the floor, without paying much attention to eg floor profile to direct the water. To me it makes sense to have a freestanding bath draining into the grill. A good buggeration-free way to alternate bath/shower should you need without needing to dig up the floor. Over here the practise is perhaps more to make bathrooms into bathing bedrooms, bathing-lounges or bathing-snugs. But you have to admit it makes the problem just go away completely . My other suggestion would be to make a feature of it, as one does with chrome hot and cold water pipes in a shower rather than destroying a tiled wall to hide them. In this case it could be something metal, or something off-the-wall like a reclaimed or newly made barrel or stainless steel item to provide a bath-tidy and hide the gubbins. F

There is another delightfully simple option which occurs in Scandinavia but would not impress Hyacinth B - have a grill in the floor and do not necessarily connect it at all. Here are a few variations on the theme, including a couple of horrors with drainage pipes. I love the simplicity and would have one in my own house, but it might not work for other people.

Not the sharpest knife in the draw to boast about that to a customer :-).

Supplementary question. Are there any of these schemes that are useful for finding tradesmen. Clearly they help with basic checks, such as CRB or trained in trade certifications, but are there any more general schemes that are useful from both sides. Is TrustMark any use, for example, as the ‘only government approved scheme for trusts traders’, whatever that means. I have two angles on this.One is that I want to know as a customer; the other is that I am working on some marketing with my handyman to broaden his customer base since I do not have enough for a full time requirement. Hope I am allowed to say that much. Cheers F

Interesting little development. My local County Council - Notts - seem to have outsourced their entire scheme to CheckaTrade. http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/business-community/trading-standards/approved-trader-scheme That may not help. The first year of CheckaTrade membership costs getting on for £1000 for the trader. The only stat I have is that within 15 miles approx of me, searches on the CheckaTrade website are about 100 per week under categories related to Home Improvement, Handyman etc. Ferdinand

if your staircase is a separate module, floor fixings for that?

Y for Mistress?

Depends what you make them do, I suppose. Wonder how their fingers compare?

Sorry, no.

In England serious challenges to policy or decisions will be High Court or Judicial Review.

@recoveringacademic Create a pseudonym that sounds like a real name, and use http://whatdotheyknow.com. They (run by http://MySociety.org of theyworkforyou.com fame) will also have an example amongst the 470k FOI requests they have administered that could help with your wording. Here is the page for the 229 previous FOI requests to Wyre Borough Council. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/wyre_borough_council I love the one about the Risk and Method Statement for Paint Spraying Dog Poo.

i am getting quotes for several roofing jobs at present, across about 4 houses - mainly small pre-winter type ones but one larger. Roofer this morning will be recommending a rendererererer, as he doesn't do it. F

Good one, @Crofter. @JSHarris a pleasure to read you again, sir. Just had a roofer tell me this morning that a repacmenet valley would be better with a new roof. The joys of landlording.

If it is just the one, can you just phone up the HoP and ask him which one he meant ? :-). Or not possible for a good reason? That answer sounds a bit like code for "we tried to enforce and got an expensive spanking by a bloke in a wig with a butt-hammer." One way, which is free, would be a carefully framed FOI request. Perhaps you need to decide whether you mean precedent setting or not. If the former, you may also need to consider Planning Appeal decisions too. I would probably suggest an informal phone chat with your Council's Legal Dept first - framed that you want to find out xyz, and asking them how to frame your request to make it focused and as painless as possible for them. You can also ask the Freedom of Information Officer, as there is an expectation that they should help. You could also try searching the BAILLI database https://ials.sas.ac.uk/digital/bailii or Court News, who cover lots of stuff. F

That in the @PeterW comment the quoterbot ignored, without the gravel, is the absolute traditional way to do field hedges. Dig a ditch, make a bank, plant hedge on bank. If you wanted to you could make the ditch into a French Drain by putting a perforated pipe down there (maybe soil pipe in 5m lengths with lots of holes drilled in it), and line with weed barrier folded over the top and weighed down with gravel or cheap pavers. Needs somewhere to drain to, mind.

Or a shed base, or dustbin spot.

Born of my experience talking to roofers yesterday with phones that sound like the summit of Snowdon in a windstorm, you could try: Make gurgling noises into phone. ”Hello, I’m in a drain” or In Truth, I’m on a Roof It perhaps more about sounding credible and not-a-plonker or timewaster, and being willing to spend the t8me making it easier for them. That is if it is a decent supplier. And as you say it went OK - good stuff. F

Not good. 2 from 10 That might be a bit more once cleaned. I would perhaps have wanted the vent round the side. Has he done wider joints to avoid making it a bit wider or cutting bricks or because you ran out of bricks and he was on the last day? One for the snagging list, depending on your relationship. Brick acid, yes. Or for a cover up what about slices of - thinner - paver? F

65 liter garden wheelbarrow at £10 each. Need to check if the delivery charge underm8nes the offer. They seem alright especially at that price. APL online based in WAlsall. I had 4 last week Tyres are pneumatic. Ferdinand