Ferdinand

I was interested that the capacity is to assemble 2500 units per week, which is approx 5000 kitchens per year or a turnover of up to 5m+ per year. GIve or take that is 1% of Howdens. 2:20 in the vid. F

SO that looks to be complication-free using this with gas, then? PRovided the shower is thermostatic. F

That is inexpensive enough that I might try one in a house that is going to struggle on its EPC in a few years. Can anyone advise on what features are required in the gas or electric shower if any, and the practical difference for the user when controlling the shower? Does it make the water warmer at a lower setting on the dial compared to a system without a HR device installed? SO that the experience is the same but the shower is just turned down a little lower on the dial ? Presumably on a thermostatic controller the shower just modulates down the input power required. Assuming showers costing 28p each and a 25% energy saving the simple payback period is about 2000 showers on a cost of £140, or 3000 showers if you pay £70 to fit it. From Romania and 40ukp charge. Hmmm. Thanks for any comments. Ferdinand

I will get a quote from there next time. British, Northern, and decent quality / customer service. What is not to like? Though iirc Howdens are based in Yorkshire, so also qualify.

Taurelilómëa-tumbalemorna Tumbaletaurëa Lómëanor. Quite.

Never heard any complaining...

Given that it the Indy, I predict that the Maths is probably wrong.

My first reaction to "fill a 2 fence panel" gap was "2 new fence panels, perhaps screwed to a knocker post" but I am guessing that is not what you want. I think the challenge is "what will establish and thrive in year 1" *and* grow thickly enough to be a visual block, and TBH I do not know anything that will unless it is a reasonably big plant in a big pot, and you plan to discard or transplant within a year or two, or a climber in a big pot that will go up a framework (eg trellis or even chainlink). The 2 possible ideas I have are to use in a coppice form. I have Common Bhuddlea, which goes 2m high in a year, or Eucalyptus, which can be grown as a coppice. The latter may need more time to start. I have a screening bamboo (Gigantica, I think) for next door's bathroom window, which should get to 5+ metres, but after 4 years reaches 3m+ in the summer then goes back smaller in the winter (currently at about 2.5m) whilst going a bit higher each year and thickening. Our soil is not rich, but it is in a former asparagus raised bed with lots of compost from the start so should be well fed. The other thought I have is to use a fabric backdrop and plants in front. I saw very convincing use of astroturf over site fencing around building compounds in Istanbul. Made it all look much greener. The other Other thought is to find someone with a big bush they need to move and have that with much labour. "Wants" on freecycle? Local gardening club? Ferdinand

1 My grandparents used to have Myrtle in a hedge right on the beach road in Prestatyn, which worked. The soil was almost sand. 2 Might Aucuba be better than Laurel? 3 For salt tolerance I would suggest a small tree such as Tamarisk, or Holm (Evergreen) Oak. The latter can be cut into a good hedge. Or various sorts of evergreen (eg Juniper). Tamarisk can be a bit of a bully. Ferdinand

@Barney12 I wonder about the less expensive Everbuild product in their ASBO range eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everbuild-Anti-Graffiti-Coating-Protect-Concrete/dp/B01N902A0J/ I think that is a sacrificial one that you repaint with the same stuff after spraying off the graffiti. My wall has only had 2 lots of graffiti that I can remember,and the current one has been there a year or so with no further additions, so I perhaps do not need a top top top product. The other question is how breathable are these ... this is a house wall, though I will be improving ventilation there this summer anyway. Ferdinand

Ladders More ladders

I have a wall facing a public right of way that needs protecting from the graffiti which appears very occasionally. Here is an old piccy from Google Streetview, though the wall is currently painted with white masonry paint. I need something that will let be: 1 - Go over masonry paint after anything loose has been removed via wire brush. 2 - Is coloured to cover a bit of graffiti that has recently appeared. I think I am looking for white, brick red, or brown. 3 - Allows future graffiti to be washed off with a bucket and cloth or power washer. I may therefore need a 2 part system. 4 - Does not come off on people's clothes. The area I have to cover is about 50sqm. Any thoughts will be most welcome. Ferdinand

Lordy. So the ones I bought first at Wickes yesterday are S1P (composite toecap plus reinforced midsole). Do I need to take them back? Cheers. F

This is a fascinating project, @Juj. I may be guilty of looking too hard for problems in this post. I've been thinking about this a little, and I think you are perhaps too focused at this stage on what we in IT call implementation-technology (building materials, heating systems etc), and that it may be beneficial to step back and explore the context and purpose a bit more. Implementation is about how you create something, and is only meaningful once you have decided why you want to create it, and what you want to create. Apols if you have done this sufficiently, but let me ask some questions to test that. I can think of at least 4 areas deserving thought - What are you building and why, Planning, Legal / Financial / Tax Setup, and How you plan to live in it. I hope I can express this clearly enough. Is this 3 dwellings, or 1 large dwelling you intend to live in as 3 socially conjoined households? Looking at the plans (no internal link between you and your brother's sections), it looks like a pair of posh semis, one of which has a detached parent-annexe, in a joint garden, behind a single wall, with a shared entrance. That is possibly neither one thing nor t'other. Which could make it complicated when trying to make it fit into Planning and Legal systems. Examples of possible complications - How will this be assessed by planning when you apply? How will it be assessed for Council Tax? What happens if one family breaks up and one of the former Mrs @Juj's suddenly becomes entitled to half the assets of her marriage, which include half of one-third of your joint forever-house? Could you potentially trigger HMO regulations? As presented, I think it is a "compound" not a dwelling, and that is something which likely cuts across the grain of UK Planning and other Law, which is oriented around the concept of the nuclear family. The consequence of that is that you may hit obstacles at every point. Compounds are more characteristic in general of Africa, Asia or Latin America afaik. The only areas where I am aware of separate-but-joint family dwellings together in the UK are: - localised family businesses such as farms and possibly Estates - within immigrant communities where extended families are the norm (*) - in legally separate but socially associated dwellings (eg 3 houses next to each other) - in single dwellings with related families (nuclear family Brits reverting to earlier social forms), - in communities with somewhat different institutional or planning arrangements (eg traveller communities or intentional communities such as the Bruderhof). - perhaps in some areas outside England / Wales where there are fewer restrictions on some forms of planning (crofting or - in Eire - small townships) There may be lessons to learn from all of these, especially as to how and what should be set up legally, and what socially, and how to mix the two. And you need to think about social interactions ... eg there need to be indoor and outdoor places for privacy and interaction for each person, each family, and all the extended family together. I am sure it can be done, and be done successfully, but you need a planning, legal, financial, and social routemap, and the flexibility for whatever you build to fit in, and be adjusted, for whatever might happen in the future. Specific comments - I would probably build it such that it can be split into 2, if not 3, separate dwellings, fairly painlessly. - My gut feel is that building your 2 zones with a gap to be filled in with a link later (either officially or JFDI behind a visual block) that can be removed to make 2 detached houses may be a good and tax-efficient way, either by sale of plot or by sale of finished house. If you go for a single dwelling then you need to think carefully about ownership setup and implications. - If you do not have residential PP for the front-annexe already, it may be tricky to get due to closeness to road and relation to the building line. Perhaps lessons to be learnt from city infills - visual intrusion may be a key consideration (grow a big hedge?). - Building of the Year was a multi-related-family thing on an Estate last year, but they seemed to be as rich as Croesus. - I hope the whole thing so far is one PP, or if not that you can prove that development of your extra foundations started within 3 years. - I would go for a sweep driveway, or careful layout, to facilitate a later split. - I think that pre-Planning advice from the LPA would be advantageous here, and perhaps relevant consultation with experts and planning consultants. @Calvinmiddle's Planning Saga may have relevant insights on how to navigate the system - see his blog. @Construction Channel's experience with Planning may be pertinent. I think he is the only Buildhubber doing his development on his family's own property (redeveloping a barn on a farm). Lots of similar on Grand Designs over the years. - Strongly recommend a book called "A Pattern Language", which has much insight about the social functioning of buildings, and a set of concepts for design / test. In addition there are many international insights and examples. Website: https://www.patternlanguage.com/ Ferdinand

You should also ask the seller for an informal water supply, too - for obvious reasons, and perhaps electric. A water sub meter is cheap. Not sure about electric. Ferdinand

Thanks - will go for those.

Cheers.

I am honestly not exactly sure. YOu need to allow for the potential costs in your offer should you choose to accept this mission (!). And that means you need to have some idea of what you think the costs of carrying this out should be. You could try asking or paying for an estimate from groundworks engineers, or looking for similar plots in your LPA (prob via reading lots of decision notices for Conditions) and asking the applicants. Walking up to self-builders on their sites may be fruitful if you have the front and some specific knowledge about the site to get past the protective barriers, but there are some accounts of resentment at 'nosey parkers' on BH. The positive side may be that the report will scare everybody else off, though third party fools may rush in. You cannot account for them. It is what it is worth to YOU. It is also better to have the report than not. It is also in your vendor's favour that he has actually given you the report. Do not be bound by any idea that you need to make an offer within a felt-fair range of the asking price; that may be your internal self-conditioning speaking. You also have the advantage that he has sunk money into the plot already and is on a ticking clock of 3 years if he has PP. My approach would perhaps be to get an idea of the cost and all the background info I could in the time, then widen my contingency and make what I think is a reasonable offer. But costing piles before you dig holes is probably another black art. Then you need to deal with the difference between your wrong estimate and what is actually needed once yo have bought it . Or you can treat it as a lesson and do the dating 'date 10 then make a choice with the next one who is better than those 10" thing. Where's that graphic? Ah yes: @recoveringacademic has some good advice in his blog posts. Ferdinand

BUmping this thread, I need a pair of safety shoes or boots to visit a site .. the gym unit I was talking about the other day. I do not do much site work myself, but I need decent occasional boots / shoes. I am diabetic Tupe I and foot care is very important for me. Can anyone recommend a decent compromise? IT is probably to my advantage to try them on in a shop if possible eg are any of the ranges in the DIY sheds eg Wickes or BQ OK? I am inclined towards trainers rather than boots as I expect more comfort. In practice the budget will be what it needs to be, but I would be happier at £50 than £100+. Cheers Ferdinand

WHere does that £6000-6500 come from? Sounds high. Asked the people who installed mine a couple of years ago about their 2018 price for a 4kw system recently as a check and it was about £4500-£4800 for a MCS system, which would include the inverter etc. That is about 5-10 percent below the price they offered me for 4kw on a Bungalow in September 2015, which was £4999 for monocrystallne 250W black panels, the inverter, fitting,and an extra small consumer unit as the existing is full. Ferdinand

Thank-you for the comments so far :-). Posting here was with the aim of useful solutions and problems being pointed out. Replying to comments so far. @Onoff Sorry - is that libellous? Get a swim spa into that bathroom ! Falcon Trunking may be the one; I remembered an system alternative to someone proposing wooden boxing-in in a bathroom. We are more self-supervising than self-building on the refurbishment side, though we will be doing equipment etc. The guys who run the gym are very competent and well-qualified in training and gym things. For a bit of background, all work is being done by the appropriately qualified professionals. I am picking a pair of steel toecaps this afternoon so I will be allowed to visit. The LL is refurbishing a 55m x 18m unit which has been empty for several years (spending a 6 figure sum), and the scope of his works are not quite where we thought they were - we expected lighting and a water supply to the to-be-refitted washroom. Hence the questions above. I helped fund the startup about 3 years ago when asked, and my role is generally background and pointing out potholes in the road (eg how long planning takes for anything :-) ). We are moving from our current premises, which are about 5000 sqft - so all the special flooring, H&S, ventilation issues are familiar and being managed. The current premises have been properly inspected by the right officials etc. But the current premises (until next weekend) are also upstairs, so we have managed weight dropping, H&S etc particularly carefully for the sake of the people downstairs. Planning for change of use has been a saga, as ever. Many gyms seem to operate unlawfully in their B1 or B2 premises, where they really need D3 use-class. We have the right class, though it took months and months to go through (full sequential test etc). Accessibility has been front and centre, though exactly what accessibility is required in a gym, and for whom, is a little debatable, and what degree of adaptation etc is required. Difficult questions are very welcome. @jack Yes we have the right floor coverings, and a culture (so far) of not slamming weights around. And yes, it is eyewateringly expensive even if you cut test-and-demonstration deals. But cheep-and-cheerful involves significant compromises, so we think it is better to focus on reducing the cost rather than finding an alternative. There is quite a lot that can be done in that regard. Thank-you for the article. I will pass it on. Lighting is now looking like one area where we need to think carefully. @Nickfromwales Thanks for all that. Ferdinand

This is slightly off topic, but we are technically "self-building". I am involved in moving a (Crossfit) gym into a new unit. This is a photo of the unit pre-fit-out, and we will be having the far end in the pic when a wall has been built across. The left hand side is the front. Dimensions of our unit are 30m front to back by 18m side to side, giving a 5800 sqft rectangular space, with loos, showers, and changing rooms on the right hand side in this view. The eaves height is about 5m, and the apex height is about 9m. The facility will run potentially from 6am to 11pm six days a week plus special events on Sundays. The walls will be painted grey to a height of ~4.5m. The issue that I have got is a pair of normal self-build elephants that have appeared out of thin air at zero notice and are now standing on my foot, and I have a very few days to decide how to deal with it, and there is not very much in the budget - but what is needed will be found. Basic heating is gas and will be staying. Electrics are generally not an issue as Crossfit does not usually involve machines with power supplies. 1 - I need to replace the lights. The cable is staying in place. 2 - I need to run a water supply from the LHS where the new metered supply comes in to the changing rooms and showers. Water heating will be electric at the shower. Lighting For 1, which I think is the more straightforward, it is a case of rapidly sourcing the right LED lights for a gym lit from that height, getting them and probably paying the LLs refurbishment contractors to replace them when they take the old ones down to avoid messing about with big scaffold towers. Plus a need to think about certification if required. Can anyone advise me on light intensity, types and perhaps colour of light (warm or cool white?), and perhaps recommend a source? Water pipes etc For 2, it seems to me that I can run the water supply high or low, exposed or hidden. I need to decide: 2a - Type and size of pipe. I think I want plastic (JG Speedfit?) on a 100m reel, or perhaps 2x50m for ease of handling, so it is in one or two lengths only. 2b - High or low? Hidden or concealed? If I am running it at ground level (and therefore round at least one or two doors depending on which way we go) it will need protecting, perhaps by the type of plastic boxing in which was pointed out by I think @Onoff some time ago for bathrooms. I think that is complicated, and more expensive, but if I did it I would probably also run a pipe and conduit in tandem in the other protected space in the boxing-in product so I can get electricity anywhere later round the walls. I think I prefer to run it at perhaps 3-3.5m to go above doors and nto have things dropped on it, but not be stupidly high for ease of installation, and to leave it exposed so that any leaks or damage become immediately obvious. For wallball exercise spots we would need to install facing boards over the pipe. Not a problem. 2c - Do I need an accumulator or similar? We will be having 2 showers, with potentially one or two extra later, but if we grow to need them we will have more money to spend. Wrap-Up 3 - Have I missed anything? I would welcome comments on any of the above, perhaps especially from known gym users such as @Onoff and @jack or relevant pros. Any advice from anyone would be most welcome. Cheers Ferdinand

Yes they are, as the urls are public. Unless the site is configured to ban search engines by using the robots.txt file, or some other less obvious way. And you can link to all the posts on a given tag: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/tags/cement/ But a forum has so many ways in that the amount of extra search prominence without external links may not be *that* great. F

If you want to submit eg Planning Documents on paper, then they may insist on colour. The Planning Inspectorate do, for example. Unless you really know what you are doing or precision is not critical, or you only use the *printed* thing to look at (therefore having a local standard in your own environment), it is probably not worth using them to specify precise colour - since camera, screen etc will all be different in appearance for the "same colour". Calibrating it all to work through the process is a pain. The A3 may be an advantage for plans, as may duplex (which is available at all price levels and can be a basic requirement) given the length of planning documents. I do have a big colour laser (A3 duplex, to about 300gsm card, 25k page toner cartridges that *hurt* to replace), but it came secondhand via Ebay from a print-shop that discovered more demand than expected so was about the price of the toner that was still in it. I also have a little sub-£100 mono laser. If you can handle moving and maintaining it (mine weighs about 75kg), a big secondhand one is relatively very cheap (mine: ~20% of new at 6 months) and will last a long time. If you need one. Ferdinand

I do not like the look of that gutter liner finishing on the inside face of the wall. That could drive water down the inside of your wall if eg it is filled with leaves or if snow settles. It needs to be mortared 25mm into a joint in or taken over the top, surely? How are you going to access and maintain it (and the bigger roof above)? I would want to make the shallow pitched roof walkable-on. OK with GRP if you avoid the joints; not sure about EPDM - perhaps with deck shoes. Ferdinand