Ferdinand
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Everything posted by Ferdinand
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Looking good - always nice to see the build progressing before your eyes.
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This is very much a current issue in employment law, and the core issue (for example) of the arguments around Uber - which people are employees, workers, or self-employed service providers? It impacts on benefits and pension and holiday entitlement and sick pay, for example. (Note: using this just as an example; if we want to debate Uber lets do it on a new thread - this one is too important to divert). It tends to turn on who is controlling the day to day work of each individual, assessing whether they have other jobs ongoing at the same time, right to substitute a comparable worker etc. AIUI Deliveroo did not fall down the Uber elephant trap because their contract gave an explicit right to substitute. What is written in a contract may not be the last word. The arguments have a similar 'game of chess' feel to those we have seen around the applicability or not of Council Tax. I can see that someone working for a longish term on a site could be construed as an employee or a "worker", depending on several factors each of which would be a matter of "fact and degree" (to borrow a Planning term) - ie "determined on the individual merits of a case", and you don't know whether you are buggered or not until afterwards. That is an old Hewlett-Packard management mantra from the 1970s - Management By Walking Around, where it gives the management a random sample of workplace operation and keeps people on their toes. A good reason to not give the manager a posh system that lets it all be run from a seated position in a nice warm office - also a good reason for not letting "management" be its own discipline. A very good discipline. Ferdinand
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And timing is critical for insurance, as we all know. I had a tree branch fall on someone's car, and the house insurance had been moved to a different company 3 hours previously. The new company accepted liability. Ferdinand
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Yep. Various variations on that have been used by others. These panels go in for (hopefully) keeps, so it is thoroughness, what is known to work, and detail detail detail detail detail. F
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Ooops. That should have said I have a shower room which was done out in panels in 2010, and is still pristine. Ferdinand
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ISTM that 3 and 4 are strictly unnecessary, as that is the job of the Planning System. You might ask what happens if the planners want something different. I would be a little worried about the restrictions imposed by 2. That seems to limit any attempts to complain about eg excess noise. Definitions of words matter eg “right”. But in practice if you organise for the plot to be owned by you at this point, then your wife could make the complaint or objection. You could still just transfer the built property on to yourselves jointly later .. so the transferee here would be you alone. I think if you are married or cohabiting then there would not be tax implications for swapping assets amongst yourselves like that (?). Q Does this already have Planning Permission? You might try and time limit some of it. F
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I guessed the colour after taking advice here and from a bathroom I already have. If you read my other thread. did not see that they were a distinct national product until quite late. But City Plumbing Supplies of Pate Street, Melton, are a showroom listed on the brand website, amongst others: http://www.multipanel.co.uk/where-to-buy/find-a-distributor/?Location=Le13+1ae&Type=&Range=&Product=&Latitude=52.7637292&Longitude=-0.8852222999999999&SecurityID=59e1131f80126c1f8b481abb6c20869466a4e855 I looked at the concept of panels in a bathroom in a conversion done by an architect for us back in 2010, then asked on ebuild or here about brands. @JSHarris answered lots of questions, then I guessed the pattern and it worked Ok. Very much a landlord decision .. 20+ year lifetime and attractive to get and keep the best tenants, but as inexpensive as possible and no skimping on quality, not white to not show marks, a pattern to hide marks. Would have gone with the aqua lock but I had prevaricated and did not have time to wait so went with the alu. profiles. Bought an extra panel to tip over into free delivery as I know I would be doing several. Ts love them as they are easy to look after. I was planning Blue Eiger, which looked to have flatter tones, until the last minute, then decided to switch when I was actually ordering. I went and checked my existing bathroom and the pattern is contrasty splatters but that works too. Ferdinand
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@Moira Niedzwiecka Checking through the prices as they are now, there seems to be little difference between hydro lock vs straight joints, except that 1 - Hydrolock may have a short delay as they may be made to order (my stockist did, others might not). 2 - Hydrolock have a Machining charge, which now appears to be as near as dammit the same as the cost of a straight joint profile. 3 - Suspect the Hydrolock are less work to fit ... one joint not 2 sides of a profile. 4 - Different look. I have one of each and I prefer the Hydrolock smooth look You pays your money and... It is worth a note that the things on the wall look .. to my eye .. to be better than the piccies on the net, and the textures less spiky. So do not necessarily choose patterns for the way it looks in a small pic ... go and look. I am standardised on I think Classic Marble now, as it is attractive, in the lowest Classic price range (next range up is plus £20 or so per panel) and I judge it likely to stay in the range for spares and bulk orders etc. From my supplier above the Classic panels are priced at £125 per 8x4, plus about £11 for the joint or alu strip. Think that includes VAT, but reckon another 20-30% for joints, edgings, and adhesive etc. @ProDave were they actually £100 or is that ex VAT? I really looked and the prices seemed quite uniform and within about 10% or so. Ferdinand
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It is unfortunate that it should be necessary, @recoveringacademic, but the case from @newhome has the scaffolder willing to 1 - falsify evidence by doing safety paperwork later and 2 - be willing to deceive the authorities about working arrangements. I wonder how much of that is due to heavy consequences. Does a scaffolder get deregistered and lose their livelihood, or have to employ a separate independent checker if they get caught? If it is heavily regulated, do leeway and informality necessarily reduce? Ferdinand
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Another argument for site security cameras and keeping then running 247.
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There are two threads which cover much detail including pics here. read both threads. and here Note that ABB are a distributor not the manufacturer, who are Grant Westfield as described on my thread linked above. The cheapest source I found were Big Kitchen Warehouse, who do free delivery with an order over £750. My 8 ft x 7 ft bathroom used enough panels that I only needed one extra for stock to get the free delivery. http://www.thebigkitchenwarehouse.co.uk/ourshop/cat_975511-Multi-Panel-Wall-Ceiling-Panels.html BKW were about 15-20% cheaper than ABB for my order. My trims were the correct ones but came from elsewhere. Prices are quite variable. If you go for the ones with aqua lock trimless joints there will be a lead time of a couple of weeks, but it will save you £15 to £20 per straight joint and look very swanky. You will need trims for corner joints. High quality sealant is also important. It is also quite variable on price depending on the design, and you can even get them done with a wall size enlargement of a photo you send in. Those are several hundred though spectacular. I have a shower room done throughout with these panels in a rental back in 2010, and they are pristine still. Ferdinand
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There is a large conversation somewhere about these panels. Two key items are the core material being marine ply or MDF, and the joints between the panels .. if they have joints that do not need a trim it saves quite a lot of money. Ferdinand
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Thanks both. The first one seems to be an exact match. F
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@JSHarris Can you give me a steer on how much to buy, and the dilution rate? The cheapest suppliers seem to be to the horse riding community, where they treat paths with a 1kg to 10l dilution and buy sacks of 25kg of copper sulphate for about £75 in order to help keep bugs out of hooves. I have about 25 solar panels to treat and will probably use a floor squeegee for application. Ferdinand
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If you rely on sand for colour, make sure that each undivided visual section uses a consistent colour and buy enough in each purchase to cover that ... because they will not necessarily be consistent over time. And buy enough ! My garden wall at the Little brown Bungalow deliberately used red sand from a particular local BM that was redder tan everybody else’s sand, and it caused a problem when we ran out at a weekend when they were closed. The render in this pic is entirely coloured by the sand, and uses normal cement. Ferdinand
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Does anyone know where I can get a pair of these for one door? I reckon the chap who did our house had one too few. The result is that we have knobs not levers on the inside of both bathroom doors, and they are awkward to use. I can find equivalents without the 3 grooves, but not identical. They are 7-8 years old. The specs are: length of lever 125mm, diameter 17mm, finish I think is satin nickel, rose cover diameter is about 52mm. I would punt on them being a former B&Q range, but that does not help. Cheers Ferdinand
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Has a safety boot saved you?
Ferdinand replied to epsilonGreedy's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
No, but robust shoes with thick soles have when I stood on a nail. In garden when it was being cleared out. And similarly on a previous occasion 20+ years ago. F -
Thanks.
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Bath Surround / Boxing In, and concealed pipework
Ferdinand replied to Onoff's topic in Bathrooms, Ensuites & Wetrooms
Clip it down. That is the avatar. -
Can planning permission mandate a specific supplier?
Ferdinand replied to epsilonGreedy's topic in Planning Permission
Irksome. A wonderful word that I had forgotten. TO be used at every opportunity. WOuld that not be the normal process. PLanning Appeal. Or Planning Officer then Line Manager then Head of Planning then Local and National Procedure and Ombudsman. Or Councillor or MP to try and short circuit it. Or Judicial Review within 3 months (also applicable to each appeal stage within 3 months of that decision?). Or High Court action. ANd much of it is disfunctional from the point of view of solving the presenting problem. AN irksome system. F -
Glad all that has been considered . Good to hear. F
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Can planning permission mandate a specific supplier?
Ferdinand replied to epsilonGreedy's topic in Planning Permission
I thought there was an Appeal case that had overturned the single source requirement in a National Park several years ago. Lakeland to Wales? Was it mentioned on ebuild? -
Plot Boundarie Identification
Ferdinand replied to iSelfBuild's topic in Party Wall & Property Legal Issues
Wishing you well with this, and particularly wishing you cooperative neighbours. Ferdinand -
Bumping this thread. A few of my solar panels have now suffered serious attention from lichen and algae. They are under a tree and have got quite a lot worse over the winter. Now that we are nearly back in the serious generation season, they need some attention. There are a couple of photos. The bottom of the array is at about 2.3m from the ground, so access is not that difficult. I may be able to reach most of them by hand with care. Questions: 1 - Is there a cleaning agent I can add to my long hose-connected solar panel cleaning pole (see start of thread)? Mild bleach? Vinegar? 2 - Is there any kind of copper tape that I can add to each panel to help keep then clean in future? I am wondering about either adhesive tape (eg the sort to control slugs) or perhaps copper wire as used on roofs. Thanks
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One more question. Are there complications with a shower bath type setup, due to the branched cold supply? I guess it depends on the exact layout. Ferdinand
