Ferdinand

Is there any reason why you can't just concrete in two or three fenceposts closer, and put your datum points on those? It would need a real survey of the exact locations when set up, but should help after that. Concrete fence posts exist that come with bolt holes already in them for a mount. No one knows where the permanent structure is apart from your surveyor having surveyed it; he can surely survey a semi-permanent structure created on site. That's probably what I would try and do, and I'm interested to know any reason why not. Don't you just need a slightly out-of-the-immediate way-but-close-by place on your plot that will not be disturbed during the build? F /ministry of innocent questions

welcome.

I worked for a time near there. I love that there is a village called Moira and another one called Conkers. Lots of nice trees and bicycle paths locally in the National Forest so an increasingly fantastic place to be in the next few years' time.

I appreciate that you have identified yourself as an Interior Designer trying to understand the market up front. Thank-you - that gives the basis for a useful conversation. My comments relate to my use of an ID on a recent project as a small LL. I hope they are helpeful to you and also to other SBs. As an ID you need to pattern your engagement very individually, and IMO the key things will be understanding the requirements, and educating people as to what is possible. Each self-builder is very different, and the market is perhaps well-desribed as "micro-segmented into units of one", which you *may* find ways to aggregate *a little*. ? The example of upfront guidance and material provided by the Architectural Practice Allan Corfield may be a good parallel example you could learn from. I used an Interior Designer for the design and refurb of a student rental in the last 2 years, so my comments are 'notes for a customer' and relate to a customer view, not following the question structure. You need to look at the other side of this view to find your routes to market. The key aspect for me was that I as given advice by a professional lettings agent I already respected. It was left-field for me, and I had to do some work to appreciate the possibilities. - For an established ID with a proven track record the costs per day will not be that different to hiring an architect. - Proving experience is likely to be more difficult, but it needs the same due diligence as you are hiring an artistic skillset, which is more personal than a trade skillset. But IDs do not have a standard training route as well established as an Architect. Past portfolio is critical. - I treated PM as a separate skillset. Not all Architects are good PMs; the same applies to IDs. Needs a separate segment of due diligence. - £250 will honestly not get very much, unless using eg a student or getting a favour / loss leader. £250 is less than one day if you are only buying one day, which may not even be enough properly to understand your requirements - but £800-1200 plus expenses may be one week. You may get a few sketch ideas, or perhaps a piggyback off another project. - Like an architect, you get out what your put in. The only way to judge the outcome is if you have defined and communicated your requirements / expectations / scope well. If you have not, then your ID, as your architect would be, has nothing to go on except their own opinions and guesses about your needs. You need to have enough knowledge and self-knowledge to ask questions pertinent to both. - You need the skills to distinguish between style and fashion, and to communicate the your aspirations to the ID. - It is important to have enough creativity remaining in the project to give satisfaction to the ID. IDs and Architects are rightly not happy if they are reduced to a monkey dancing for the organ grinder. It needs to be a continuous collaboration, and it will not come down like a spaceship from the sky. - Cost control is probably best as much by adjusting scope and time taken plus looking for synergy, not by *excessive* arguing about rate. It is a rather different ballgame if your role is as a developer, when you are looking for perceived value, rather than personal value. In my case I was approached by my (excellent) lettings agent with a proposal to update, using an ID that they had used for previous projects which I could see. The PM was handled by the agent managing the ID who did all the purchasing and nitty gritty, and me giving detailed input in response to a detailed proposal which involved a certain amount of re-scoping then touch-bases throughout. ID was looking after all the purchasing and implementation. Project was a big success. I'm not talking about numbers online, but you could PM me. My comments. HTH. F

For less than £1295 you can get a top notch scaffold tower that should do the job. Unless perhaps you have a requirement for very long single piece runs. Edit - I see that the 1295 is the strip / replace cost. A scaff tower should be under £1000. Peter's £30 x 20m is in the same ballpark (ish!). ATB. F

Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/90c22b17-7f0c-4dfa-b582-419b8ef93d7d

Hi. I'm just up near J28. F

That probably illustrates the difference between very well insulated and well-but-not-brilliant houses - my walls are about 0.2 u-value, and floor a perhaps 0.18. Joe's is better I think. I use my plumbed in towel rail for basic heat in the downstairs bathroom (all upstairs Rads are off), but also with downstairs ufh on (really its a bit light on deliver-ability for very cold weather due to lower insulation than passive). All on timers. I open the bathroom for a boost after a morning 10 minute blow-through. Were I building it I would do it with more insulation, but it was already done. What you need is an appropriate setup for your chosen specification, plus a suitable strategy that will cope if you got your calculations a bit off. Ferdinand

The purpose of electric towel rails is, I think, for most people in near-PH houses or better, to provide a boost when needed, or even as an insurance policy if the upstairs turns out to need a bit of heat from time to time and they decided to have just that. If you were more sure that it would be necessary then you could plumb it in to the general system, just as happens for normal installation. Even as its own zone. Mine are on my main gas circuit (have ufh downstairs and rads upstairs with a boiler) but for both bathrooms are plumbed into the upstairs circuit - perhaps they thought plumbing in to the ufh was not acceptable. F

Perhaps lack of crud. (I'm the stereo speaker.)

A note on doors @zoothorn. If it turns out you are going to need to trim it top or bottom, then each type of door has a number in the specification telling you how much you can trim top and bottom. Some of them are just a few mm, whilst others go up to about 60mm in total, and potentially more if the door is a single slab of wood or a uniform board. The ones which can be trimmed more will be rather more money than your cheap doors, but be aware that that can be done if you need. F

I'm trying to understand the 12 month interruption on this thread. Does @joe90 not have any advice to offer from the experience of having now built the planned Tractor Shed he mentioned in the first half?

My Friday evening post-G&T-when-I -could-only-find-a-really-big-glass answer is that you could install a row of them like engines on an ecranoplan: Somebody will be along in a minute who has drink-taken less generously, and met the same issue. Reaching through the Mother's Ruin, and assuming no MVHR, I wonder whether the cooker hood (if you have one) can count as intermittent ventilation to meet the other standard, or whether the "whole house" calculation may offer a remedy. That 13 l/s continuous number in the Approved Doc looks suspiciously like a number which is designed to be just bigger than the kit normally used at some point. Another answer would be a 125 or 150mm fan or HR fan. With a backdraft shutter that would control your air leakage, and could be switched between different options later without doing further violence to your wall if you find that meets your personal requirements. (Though 2 100mm fans could be a realistic option.) I am sure that this challenge has occurred before, so I would not be worried (yet ?). A conversation with BC may help, or perhaps just not mentioning it and they may not either.

Won't both showers date to when it was built? A decade or more ago?

I had 2.5p per kWh as a normal average figure for the unit rate on a decent tariff, but standing charge adds to that depending on usage. It is my current rule of thumb for comparisons in my head. eg for one list (example not recommendation) https://www.theenergyshop.com/guides/energy-prices-per-kwh F

So, last update on this. My machine - Makita XUD363V (= 36 vault and can also Vacuum) looks a of a bruiser, and it is not small. I would not give it to my 7st 5'0" mum, as she may have vanished without trace, anymore than I would give a 9" angle-grinder to an office-wallah without at least some manual work history, because s/he would vanish behind the nearest bush the first time it jammed. As a blower it is very powerful. Air delivery is up to 800 cubic m / hour, which is a lot. Airspeed is apparently just about 100mph. In practice that means it blows and sucks OK including damp leaves. It also has the sensitivity not to pick up gravel in my limited experience. Weight is about 4kg as a blower, and 6kg as a vacuum plus the contents of the 50 litre bag. The first time getting to grips with it as a vacuum is a bit of an octopus-wrestle - 2 ends of the shoulder strap go on on a thing that is now the other way round and has 2 big pipes attached, and an extra strap on the bag, but after that it is fine. And there is a set of chopping blades in the intake which gets more in the bag and does cut up the leaves to an extent. Two sets of decent sized Makita batteries (eg 4 x 5Ah or 6Ah in total) should give I think around an hour of work, so continuous should be possible with a dual fast charger. Overall I like it. But the price still hurts. The naked thing without batteries is £250-300, and that is perhaps a little overdoing if you need a dust-out-of-van blower. Random thought: I think the thing to distinguish between gravel and leaves is a lot of air but also a wide vacuum nozzle. This is 125mm which generates a lot of force relative but relatively lower pressure, reducing the force generated on small objects such as gravel. (Update: the machine does wet leaves fine, but not if they have started to deteriorate. The collecting bag is not waterproof, so doing wet leaves gives a wet leg - so wear your gardening trousers.) F

I don't see why a solar water heater can't be made from this walk-on glazing. Obvs it is waterproof. All you need is water plumbed to be inside not outside. The rest is simples.

That's a good call if they exist and you prefer to do that. There should normally be a supply shutoff mechanism for each shower. Mine didn't have these installed by the self-builder, so we added them when we redid the showers. It could look like a tap handle on the supply pipes somewhere, or a little valve you turn through 90 degrees with a screwdriver. Mine on one shower look like this: F

I don't know how they did it, but 1930s semis often have oriel windows in the bathroom. Anything to learn?

Glad to see. AIUI ancient woodland is legally defined in Scotland as continuously existing since before 1750. Hmm. Is there an opportunity for a Green Burial site, or a Scottish version of the long-barrow-columbarium that that Salisbury Farmer Tim Daw build on an unused corner. There's a different company now run by different people developing a chain of them with very nice burial prices thank-you-very-much; they have even been puffed by Countryfile. Are they looking for opportunities? What is appropriate for West Scotland? F

So, took it outside to try blowing the damp leaves in the lane, and it shifts them, quite happily. Then realised it was still on low... Vacuum to be tried a bit later. (Update: Tried it outside on wet leaves for a couple of minutes. Handled wet, but not decomposed, leaves fine on a low setting. Mine is the 36V vacuum / blower from Makita.) What about you @Adam2? F

Mine also just arrived, and it is a vacuum blower one which has a plastic shredding disk on the vacuum intake. Will also report back. F

Never take risks with shelves if they may have different loads on them later, just cos it looks cool. Eg books or tins. especially if dealing with interior designers or other non-engineering types. And only count that bit of the screw that is in the structural bit, not the plaster or whatever ?.

I have 8000+ Opinions myself ?. What about the others? And welcome.