Ferdinand

I think they should, yes. Unless it will cost them more than I think roughly £500 of officer time.

For future readers (if we have any ?) you can always access the records via a Freedom of Information request. Most places would also probably supply you the docs as PDFs by email.

I love that the instructions are only available in French. Can anyone price a new equivalent from the mainstream? Would about 10k be right new for one without the tracks that narrow to get through a door? F

OK. Having done the bathroom Objoke, what do we think of this digger? In my terms it is a micro digger not a mini, being 640kg all up, 85cm wide and a fuel tank size of 0.8 of a gallon with a 5.5hp engine? Is 4900 Euro = 4250 ukp a good value price for the built up version? By adding a couple of k you can get things like a 9.5hp engine and various shovels and augers. Useful for those developing a large garden as a general tool? F

We know the answer to that. Engages function-key @Onoff aka F-OnOff. Altogether now: Less time than doing a bathroom.

@dpmiller I think the obscured bathroom window is a little cruel. No view for you from the bath, then, unless you have a Camera Obscura in a black shower cubicle ! I thought you were in the back of beyond with one neighbour and the wild animals. Are they concerned that you will traumatise the squirrels? Will you? Perhaps removable-later obscuring film is called for. F

So the person needs to run and keep up with it ?. We have a chappie who walks 2 dalmations every morning, and one of them thinks it is a husky because it howls at ambulance sirens and police cars and reversing lorries. Great fun. District hospital is just around the corner :-). Need to look out the Hornit for the bike.. F

Buildhub prescribes a husky or a sheepdog ?. Personally I would say utility cycling. F

Ouch. Sympathy. This is a real life Paddington episode. I have my own tale of woe for another thread, which involves a supplier going bust.

As someone who has regular bop measurements, there has been a noticeable move back to traditional pump bulb over tech pump methods for measuring bp amongst practitioners.

As a counterpoint some of it can be included in the VAT reclaim if included as part of the scheme for Planning Permission. And there may be advantages to planning where eg a hill and raised seating area going, which can be built out of rubble and driveway gravel.

I used Geneva pattern to add perceived height to openings which were lower.

Sorry I love this sort of nerd query :-). The English Register of Listed Buildings has about 2400 entries which mention grey brick. Here and put grey brick (no quotes, just the words) into the Text field: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/advanced-search?searchType=nhleadvancedsearch Hopefully that will give you some relevant local examples. Ferdinand

Don't know about ceramics, but apparently a lot of the Great Wall of China,Imperial Palaces, etc is built from grey bricks. Tourists got a lot of it, but there is still some left ! Perhaps @Hecateh should have had some in her Great Wall. A chappie called Wenwen Xia wrote a Thesis about it: "An Investigation of Chinese Historical Grey Bricks of Soochow, Jiangsu and the Effect of Tung Oil Treatment" They seem to date back to 7000BC. Not sure if that helps an argument with Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh District Council Planning Department, unless you lob them at the windows. ? This might though. Late 1600s to 1730 are mentioned as desirable by the Georgians. Killed off by cheap London Stocks etc. https://www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk/brick-development-through-the-centuries/ There is a bloke in Cambridge called Dr James Campbell who is a specialist in the History of Bricks. https://www.martincentre.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/building-histories/history-of-brick Wrote the definitive book on the subject. Should be cheap on Ebay as it was published in 2003. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brick-James-W-P-Campbell/dp/0500341958 There is also bound to be a museum somewhere with an Historical Brick Library and an enthusiastic chap or a lady looking like Fred Dibnah and / or Mary Beard looking after it. There are also a frankly worrying number of blogs about lego bricks. F

Phone these people. Brick Development Association. http://brick.org.uk/ They have been publishing a magazine called Brick Bulletin for at least 40-50 years. It is in competition with Concrete Quarterly if that is still running.

And umpteen slaves... "Not Angels, but Anglicans".

I would phone them up and ask for their thoughts.

I believe metric doors, available from the same suppliers, are 2040mm - 2.5 inches more. Enough? F

For Westfield, yes. They are all different in their packages. Since you can read my compressed screen dump, Dr Ferdinandus the Unqualified thinks you probably do not need them too often ;-). It is like those low level security screenings: Q Do I need to check you out? A No. Q Good then I don’t. Do you want a cup of tea? I’ll post a list of the approx 10 such organisations I know about. F

There's quite a bit more in the article linked. The below is also from a bit of research I have done. A number of these organisations go back to way before the NHS, (eg 1870-1910s )and have their roots in mutuals to provide health care for ordinary people by putting a little aside each pay-day. I am not aware of any that are profitmaking - but I have only checked 3 or 4. Non-profit companies, Friendly Societies etc. So they may get some tax benefits, and have quite large memberships (eg Westfield: 400k menbers), and deal with schemes for companies and membership organisations (eg Unions) in addition to those for individuals. They also seem to have linked Charitable Foundations which make substantial donations to Health-type causes. I would expect that the Rewards' programmes a few run are paid for by the companies getting the Trade. I dug into this but did not get very far. 10% off Wickes' or Argos' profit margin still leaves them being very profitable on the transaction. I do not know what ratio of people who are members do not use their benefits, but there must be value in the bundled services. They rebalance their packages of services and grants to match the state of the organisation every so often. One I am looking at is BHSF (was a "Hospital Saturday Fund") which includes eg personal accident insurance up to 100k depending on the level of premium. They are remodelled as "NHS Top-Up" type policies, and of particular value for people who end up with regular needs which are not covered on the NHS, or cannot afford or get PMI, or are self-employed and want a cushion against the 'slings and arrows', or perhaps want to know what they will need to spend and have cover for the consequences of unexpected events eg if back trouvbe means they need regular physio for the rest of their life. Age cutoffs are also generous, so may be good for some buildhubbers as we get on a bit ??. F

Agree. Different animals. Denplan is not a Health Cash Plan, which is the category I was highlighting.

As I understand Denplan that is more about spreading the cost of expected relatively expensive treatment. These are more about everyday costs and usually require no medical. Here, for example, is the premium / benefits table from Westfield Health "Good4U" Health Cash Plan (information, not a recommendation). Premiums from £6.80 a month to just over £40, F

I do not think we have discussed these as such, so a thread may be useful,. Typically you pay a monthly premium from perhaps £10 to £50 depending on level of policy and provider and get to claim back the cost of glasses, dentists, health screening checks such as WellMan or WellWoman, surgical applicances, "treatments" eg chiropractic or physio, and have various other benefits such as a daily payment if you are in hospital as a day or admitted case. Just claiming the glasses and the dentist costs often cover the entire cost, so the rest is a bonus in financial terms. There is usually no medical, though pre-existing conditons are (usually - there are at least a couple of schemes that do not but may impose a longer qualifying period for some benefits) excluded. We have touched on them as one way of accessing Discount Schemes at major retailers (personally I have saved hundreds via a family member who is in a scheme). They also bring specific benefits for specific injuries if there is a Personal Accident element eg ££x for a wrecked joint or a cracked skull or an amputation or loss of an eye etc. There is a good, though slightly old guide on MSE here. I am currently looking to join one as an individual and wonder if anyone has recommendations or can point to schemes that exist but are not well-known. I need cover for pre-existing conditions (diabetic), which is limiting. Given that they can easily pay for themselves and then some, it seems an obvious thing for Self-Builders to take out - especially given that we can get a daily grant for out or inpatient care, massage and other type therapies, accident insurance, and eg an extra auto-10% off at Wickes. Ferdinand

Welcome. Do ask away. There are a lot of areas you mention, and I would start by framing some specific questions which we can then broaden out. Not quite finished yet ... so still plenty of opportunities ! I think my initial general comments would be: - Use the @JSHarris spreadsheet to build a thermal model. Here. - Look at Sunamp. Could that mean a smaller boiler? - Look at a larger solar array. Ferdinand

I used Polyx Oil for patio door thresholds, but they were internal and I expect to redo them every few years. Any exposure will just be occasional or internal moisture. The 5 Star sounds like a good call, but are there implications of not having done the all the wood first, and is it protected from water pontetially standing and soaking in? Exterior wood paint? My inclination would be protect not waterproof so that any moisture can get out again, but ... but... F