Ferdinand

I wonder if he has evidence that reversing out there is a problem.

I haven't found stays very effective given ours are often open and it can be a touch gusty, so I retrofit a bungie cord from Poundland once every year. Having some bounce in the restrictor probably helps.

IMO you really want a screen with a cross-brace to the wall. It looks as good, and adds a hell of a lot of robustness. Not sure whether the glass in our student houses are 8mm or 10mm, but the shower style is exactly like that with a fixed screen and a brace. No problems 4 years later across 4 bathrooms. https://www.flickr.com/photos/66008860@N08/ Try eBay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html?_itemId=330747771143&_nkw=1800+x+760+Walk+in+Recess+Shower+40mm+Stone+Tray&_trksid=p2047675.m4099.l9146 Mine came from a UK company manufacturer called MX Group, and were under 300 delivered for a tray and screen. Bought via their shop on eBay. Not sure about delivery charges to Remote places :-), but my screens weighed 73kg. Took lots of carrying yo the 2nd floor. F

Do try it and let us know when you find out . I have had so many expected Tradepoint discounts turn out not to exist that I tend only to buy at B&Q if I see a sale or if no one else has an item, and the Tradepoint is a bonus rather than a substantive reason for going there.

Stand up straight, you 'orrible little man ! (Sorry .. spending too much time with Cadet Core type Sergeant people.) Welcome. That looks like my garden.

Looks OK. Wickes 3 for 2 at present takes it from 24 to 16, so trade etc would be similar to Costco. F

@Grosey Do not forget to order/pay on a Wednesday and take granny along ! Could save 10% if an over-60 joins the Diamond Club. But B&Q are more enthusiastic with exclusion clauses about combining offers than many so you may be poleaxed if eg in a sale. Should combine well with a cash-card though since they are a "back end" saving not visible to the shop.

Did that change of responsibility extend to projects that were more mid-stream? I would doubt that unless the project itself was rebooted.

B&Q Quickstep Uniclic Laminate £9-£15 per sqm. I know we are generally not *that* impressed with laminate. However B&Q have quite a number of Quickstep Uniclic laminate products reduced to about £9-14 per square metre, if anyone needs something OK but inexpensive, including light wood, dark wood, and stone patterns. http://www.diy.com/search?Ntt=quickstep&Ns=p_price|0 The Quickstep Livyn Vinyl Tiles having gone back up to £30 per sqm, so I am having 20sqm of one of these on Wednesday. Ferdinand

Making some progress on other membership organisations running discount schemes. UNITE the Union run something called Unite Rewards, which is similar offering cashback, voucher and prepaid cash cards. However, UNITE's also offer separately a single cashcard which works across 50 retailers. Ferdinand

That is interesting. Chance would be a fine thing if i could keep a balance on a Wickes card - in and out 2 or 3 times a week at present. Just tested a small payment and my Wickes card topped up in seconds, so I could top it up with exactly the right amount before leaving home. But that would guarantee I would find something else I wanted once I arrived at the shop, even though I tend to plan for larger purchases. But I am sure I have something somewhere - probably something else - that only guarantees Next Working Day.

Excellent Wickes offers on Postcrete, Mastercrete and Blue Circle General Purpose Cement. Postcrete: Normal £5.15. 4 for 3 => £3.87. Trade etc discounts could put that at £3 per bag. http://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Building-Materials/Cement+Aggregates/Mortar/c/1039000 Mastercrete: Normal £6.75. 3 for £4.75 each. http://www.wickes.co.uk/search?q=cement%3AtopSellers GP Cement: Normal £5.49. 3 for £4.25 each. http://www.wickes.co.uk/search?q=cement%3AtopSellers Also discounts on a few other similar products. All have free delivery over £75 order (presumably online orders). Ferdinand

Halfords 3 for 2 on Ratchet Straps and Bungie Cords. Here: http://www.halfords.com/motoring/roof-bars-roof-boxes/roof-box-accessories?partnumber=103295,103360,103378,103386,103394,103402,103410,103428,103550,103568,103758,103766,121149 There are probably cheaper places, but I've stocked up because I have couple of gift cards that need using, and the 10% discount for British Cycling membership seems to apply to everything in the shop, not just bike stuff. Halfords usually honour web offers in the shop. If they don't you just order click-and-collect to pay in the shop, and gift cards or discounts still work. You can usually even price match them in the shop against competitor websites (need a printout - read the terms). I'm going bacck for more today. They review well, except the review by the poor bloke with the well-exercised thumbs who complained he couldn't make the 5m ratchet strap short enough for his load because the ratchet got jammed after he had ratcheted the first half meter from the end onto the buckle :-). Obviously a design flaw somewhere . We've all done it. RTFM, old chap.

My Wickes is 6 minutes, but an order for that paint over £75 will be delivered free. I would beg to disagree on paint and most commodity products wrt keepingg it local. For a commodity, does that much of the value actually accrue to the local supplier, and by cutting him down by 20-25% have you taken most of his profit? If I have taken money out of the distribiution system or the finance system, then I can redirect where I want to locally - whether paying a blacksmith to make a garden planter, a local artist to make me a stained glass window, to send a young brickie on a training course to learn to build stone walls, or to buy a tent for the local scout troop. Or keep it in my bank account if things are very tight. I like to go as far back up the chain as I can, and if there is a local source making things locally then excellent , and I'll sometimes pay over the odds for it. An example here is wrought iron gates, where we have several 2 or 3 man bands in small industrial units doing it and i like to buy from them. Fence panels and posts are similar - but long-established local suppliers here undercut the normal Wickes prices by 50-80% with a better product anyway, and even saving 25-30% on the Wickes price doesn't come close. All stuff to think about, and horses for courses. Ferdinand

If you are not properly ventilated the condensation will migrate somewhere else because the air seal will now be better. Or you will have to run it at a highe temperature to jeep the moisture in the air. F

And where do get a CAT to detect the Mouse :-) ? I know nothing about this at all. Is there a basic CAT and Mouse system? What would it cost? If I want a simple system to detect pipes - mouse which attaches to my drain rods, CATscanner of some sort, and I guess a signal generator, will I have to lay out say £300 or £3000? (Update: I see that that mouse is made by Leica and costs about £250 https://www.lsengineers.co.uk/digimouse-signal-point-tracer-by-leica-geosystems-731053.html) Thanks Ferdinand

@JSHarris said: Can anyone advise me on such systems. "Flexitraces" seem to be £500-1000. Are there alternatives, and what other kit do I need to use one? Can I, for example, attach a transmitter to my drain rods and detect that a few metres away? I had someone spend half a day last week looking for an old (clay) waste pipe. We have the manhole end and want to connect up 10mm away, and haven't found it yet. Cheers Ferdinand

Good to know about Zeek.

@Dee J Welcome and thanks fr the full information. I'll do a detailed comment, and I'll be blunt about potential problems - feel free to disagree and put my comments aside, but think carefully. I think there are several questions here: 1 - The conditions applied seem to me to be rather standardised and not different from those applied to larger developments. There is no evidence that this Rolls Royce solution needs to be implemented for your single house, just assumptions. Picking up your text and putting it in Google reveals identical conditions for housing estates and Dr's surgeries. It is the sort of thing that may be required when Persimmon want to build 100 houses, but is OTT for here. A Planning Condition has to meet 6 tests (look them up - some info on this thread), including being necessary and reasonable. Since one Planning Decision should not form the precedent for another (that is the principle, but usually they can find some wriggle room to create precedent), there should be scope to argue for adjusting that Condition to reflect your individual application. In reality the original applicant should have nailed these down before it got to a decision first time around. TBH the "40% for climate change" looks like something created during a workshop or pulled out of thin air and applied to yours because that is the default. They need to prove that that is reasonable, and that means a scientific basis; it is possible that such justification exists somewhere. The best way to modify this is to engage with the Flood Authority and get them to change their requirement in your case, and you would need a suitable Ologist for that. Second best is to win an Appeal on that point, but by then you will have sunk more money and time into the project. The normal way I say to find an ologist is to use your Planning Consultant or talk to the most experienced and qualified person (prob. a MRICS) at the local *independent* estate agent. You should get a brief verbal assessment for free and you will be into £500 for a proper memo report on your options, with recommendations. To have the thing renegotiated by your Planning Consultant and Drainage Ologist will be anything from £1-2k upwards - it all depends on how the Authority react. If you end up having to do those elements then they could potentially be in a single report, or very brief, or straight out of your Drainage Ologist's last job. That needs to be negotiated. 2 - Relationship with vendor and purchase price/time. Do not be rushed. Time is your friend here ... their Planning Application will soon run out and that puts the leverage more and more onto your side. If there is a desperate competition for the plot from naive idiots then let the naive idiots buy it. There is no reason to jump into a potential snake pit just to get ahead of a person with a death wish. The vendor chickens are going to come home to roost here, because they have left an elephant-sized risk in their plot for sale. You either need that risk mitigated or the money to manage it off the price. To build such a scheme as demanded could be £10k for the design, £10k+ for the ground testing and God Knows how much to build it. If you accept the Flood Authority claims then you could be into 25k or 100k. Require them to come up with a solution and adjust the price to match, and/or retain a sum sufficient for you to manage the worst risk and pay them the difference once you have your Completion Certificate. That sum could be 20k or 100k. In any case I suspect a large garden pond at the bottom will need to be part of your landscape design . 3 - It may be that the vendor will refuse to engage with the problem here, in which case walk away. If they do engage you need an enforcible agreement in place (Property Specialist Solicitor - £1-2k or +) while it gets fixed (which will take at least 2-3 months and could be a year), and all that taken into account in the price etc. 4 - Wildcard The easiest way to buy this plot may be when the PP expires and they have to take it to auction. 5 - On the other hand this could be a situation where you buy it reduced and are able to renegotiate the risks or simply get that condition removed on appeal, in which case you could get an extra £100k of added value for perhaps 10k. OTOH you may do that and lose. You need to decide where you can afford to be on the Risk/Reward spectrum, and how much you are willing to spend understanding this plot. My feel says talk to some professionals, and perhaps pay the £400-500 for a formal short evaluation, then decide on that basis. Do not spend money that you cannot afford to lose on a risky proposition. F

I have ordered samples for comparison. For me the USP of Quickstep products has been that Uniclic is the only floating system I have ever seen that really works, but Polyflor have excellent products in other sectors eg wetroom and changing liners. Since Polyflor are owned by a UK company company James Halstead plc, and manufacture in the North-West (HQ in Oldham, I think), I would switch to them immediately were there an equivalent, equally good product available. Ferdinand

Discounts with Reloadable Cash Cards. I have been planning to put up sample discounts available through Rewards Programmes or Employee Benefits Programmes, which are backended by people such as Reward Gateway. These are some of the discounts I can get on pretty much everything I spend in store. Argos - 7.5% B&Q - 8% Boots - 15% Currys - 6% Debenhams - 8% Halfords - 10% House of Fraser - 8% Marks and Spencer - 8.5% Sainsbury's - 4% Wickes - 10% It is like a permanent version of Topcashback / Quidco, with about three to five times the savings. I have access through the Westfield Health cash grant scheme (eg for glasses, dentists, chiropractic, hospital stays etc) Reward Programme. Since for many people Westfield more than pays for the subscription, the Reward Scheme is a free bonus. I would love to hear of more membership organisations who offer these programmes to their members. Others get such schemes through their employer. I am plugging Westfield as it is the only one I know available to self-employed people. Ferdinand .

@Lesgrandepotato Hey! Love it when people aim to sweat the detailed costs and spend it on getting a better house, affording a house in the first place, an extra bathroom, dinner or lollipops. If you mean this stuff ie Leyland Trade Brilliant White Matt paint in 10l tubs, then we can probably help you save some more next time. If I have the wrong one the ideas may help anyway. This weekend (I would wait until Monday for reasons below) I would be paying £12 a tub for that at Wickes, which is my closest DIY shed. Others may be able to do better. These are some steps you can do in the order they would apply at Wickes. You may not have all of these, but you could do some of them, and perhaps some different things if you look around. 1 - Basic price at Wickes £19.99 per 10l tub. 2 - Bulk buy offer: £15.99 each if you buy 3. (Same link). That is quite a mean offer, since they often do 4 for 3 or 3 for 2, which would make it 14.99 or £13.33 per 10l tub. 3 - Trade discount. Minus 10% for a Trade Account. Fairly easy to get with a couple of bits of paperwork. Should be doable for many self-builders if you meet the requirements. Very reliable minus 10% at Wickes off everything. £15.99 per 10l tub becomes £14.39. 4 - Extra 5% Trade discount on Mondays at present in July and August, due to a relaunch. ie Wait until Monday £14.39 per tub becomes £13.59 per tub. 5 - Pay with reloadable Wickes cash card for a further 10% off. £13.59 per tub becomes £12.24 per tub. These cashcards are an element of many Employee Benefit programmes, and are available for scores of big stores. If not an employee working for someone else you can get one my joining a Westfield Health Cash Plan (only route I know for self-employed), which is a long established - pre-NHS - institution which lets you claim back money you spend on glasses, dentists etc and will usually pay for itself. 6 - Top up the cash card from a Reward Debit Card before you leave home. This will bring it down to about £12.10. I would want to see if I could beat that by leaning on my Johnstone's Decorating Centre. Everything is dead simple once set up. Feel free to ask questions over on the sticky Money Saving thread. Ferdinand

I just received 'Livyn' Vinyl Tile samples from Quickstep Uniclic. They seem *really* tough. 4.5mm vinyl with uniclic joints. Look to be a good option if you need a thin but hardwearing floor. Prices are just a bit large, mind - from about £30+ per sqm. Left to right: Chestnut, Slate, Travertine. The laminate uniclic can be relaid a couple of times without undue damage. This should be reusable more times. Worth a look, Ferdinand

Or plastic decking. I cannot see how something with up to a metre of fill can't move, short of leaving it as a rubble pile for a year or two to settle. Presumably the management will not spprove of that. I think your slab may have to be self-supporting and reinforced. F

Do you decent ground conditions there now or is it already full of rubble? If so why not cast some concrete piers in situ first using shuttering or moulds. Or drill wide - say 300mm - 'post holes' using a hired auger, then put an 8" pipe down the middle but not the bottom to the height of your patio support. Fill the pipe with a wettish mix which will come up the side to give a wide base, and you have a post from which you can cut off the pipe if you wish. Or hire a couple of people to do it. Then fill around your structure with your rubble or whatever, and build the patio on the piers. You can buy such moulds off the shelf if you look. Or design your patio to be relayable easily. Ferdinand