Kelvin

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My local one is happy to take stuff even if I’ve opened it which surprised me. They also make me a cup if tea if I there when they open 😂

I am a professional complainer and rarely give up largely because I have plenty of time on my hands, it takes very little effort, and I hate the way big companies treat their customers

Either accept the cash and move on or raise a complaint to the Ombudsman. That will take some time but not much effort on your part. I’d also contact the HSE and see what they say.

He isn’t any kind of decision maker. Here’s the board. It won’t be hard to find their email addresses. Email the CEO and copy the customer services guy and the health and safety guy in your email. https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/our-company/meet-our-executive-management-team Here’s a link to their safety advice https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/safety-equipment/advice/living-next-to-electrical-equipment You need to lay it on thick about the health and safety concerns, mention the grand kids etc. Use their words against them (my favourite tactic) by that I mean read their website and all the horse shit companies write and reference this in your email.

Who was the most senior person you spoke with?

Absolutely do not accept their goodwill gesture. If you do, they will breathe a sigh of relief. If it’s compensation you’re after you need to play hardball. After all their mistake could have killed you or someone else in your family. You need to get the email address of the most senior person you can find but I’d aim for the CEO and write to them. By way of comparison. I complained to Greg Jackson of Octopus after their utter shambles of a meter install that dragged on for months. Their total compensation ended up at £250 and I didn’t need to push that hard to get it.

What do you want to happen?

Osmo oil. Are you leaving it exposed? If so don’t make the mistake I did and wait until it’s boarded out 😂

You need a minimum of 25mm above the UFH pipes with Cemfloor which means a minimum depth of 45mm assuming the pipes are stapled to the insulation rather than tracked. It also assumes a flat level slab so 45mm is probably still a bit tight. When I had my mild panic about how much depth I had available for screed I briefly considered anhydride but we ended up at an average depth of 55mm so it was fine.

You can pour a shallower depth of screed using it.

All the advice I got from the supplier, installer, and tiler was it needs to be sanded off. The only reason I was considering it was to do with screed depth but in the end we had 55mm screed depth so went with Cemfloor.

The ideal time is between 7-14 days. A sander will be a lot less effort than scraping it off. Why make the build harder for yourself. Saying that I’ve just sealed our exposed beam using a wobbly ladder that is two rungs too short really

This was why I didn’t go for this type of screed. I thought the recommended method was to use a sander to abrade the surface? When I researched it you keep going until the loose broken up surface becomes stable. The doesn’t isn’t the kind of stuff you want to be breathing in either.

If they have a website check that to see of mentions any warranty terms. Do you know what the rubber roof membrane is? If so, go to the manufacturer’s website as they’ll have a recommended roof build up.

Have you had any quotes yet? There wasn’t difference in cost between zinc and Greencoat plx due to the rise in energy costs. There are loads of houses on the Scottish islands with corrugated steel roofs that look to be weathering fine. It took me more than 3 weeks to get quotes let alone get the roof fitted. I don’t know where you are but the two roofers I used are completely booked up until next year for example.

Which specific product is it.? How do they fit it without walking on it? The guys that fitted ours made a big point that you can walk on it as I’d covered up to allow us access to the other roof. I was more worried about something sharp being dropped onto it. They’re taking piss frankly. They might never have heard the term delaminate before but they can tell if the glue has failed and the membrane has detached from the deck. Was there any warranty provision for it? It’s concerning that the plywood is moving do you have more information about that?

I have to say, it’s a stunning house. Beautifully executed, despite the cost. But the monthly finance costs now given where interest rates are must be horrendous.

I’ve had my own stresses this week. Started fitting the gutters to discover I’ve been supplied with too many of the wrong brackets and too few of the right brackets. Frantic phone calls, 4 hour round trip to Highland Industrial Supplies in Inverness and problem solved. Not sure I could cope with being 100s of thousands in debt and over budget. 😂

Just watching it. Land for next to nothing. Got bequeathed a house. Already budget blown. A death. A pregnancy. No actual obvious source of income to service the loans other than selling sweets on-line. Award winning architects. Contractors that don’t like it. Great start. 😂 The architect sounds like my wife’s departed architect father. He also quoted is the Frank Lloyd Wright line that a home should be off the hill not on the hill. Ours is on the hill although we cut some of it out!

Demolishing is a big hammer to crack a nut. Fine the them the same cost.

That manhole cover isn’t great when installed like this. I know this because I have exactly the same one only a bit bigger for my headwork chamber for my borehole. The frame is too flimsy for the heavy lid so any cement they batter around the frame to secure will always break. The frame needs to be secured in place then cemented. In my case I had a cover and frame made and resorted to doing it myself.

The garage is a good suggestion. We built ours first and it’s been a great storage area and place to work when the weather has been shit.

On the PMing yourself and bringing trades in point. Here’s my experience of that. Nearly every trade overlaps with another so a job gets 90% done. Getting some of them back is hard work so make sure you don’t get talked into paying all of it until they come back. There are three jobs I’ve ended up finishing myself because I couldn’t get them back fortunately I hadn’t paid them. Also try and use local trades and guys that all know each other. All the issues I’ve had about getting folk back have been with the trades that were furthest away and unknown in the area. When it comes to material choice I rather wish we’d gone with slates for the pitched roof and Sarnifil for the flat roof. The reason is one of maintenance. Tilers and Sarnifil are both common in my area so if we have any problems it’s easy to get local trades to fix it. Instead we went standing seam for pitched roof and Alwitra for the flat roof. There’s no local knowledge of either in my area. Both are lovely materials and both roofs look great. My point is research which skills are common where you live and consider sticking to those materials. This is more of an issue if you live rurally.

I was just saying yesterday I wonder how all the self-builders were getting on in this rain. I was paranoid about the insulation getting wet so waited until we were weathertight before fitting it. Take a wet piece and put it somewhere dry and see how long it takes to dry. I had roll that got wet on one end. I put it in the garage at home which is dry with a lot of air blowing through it. The insulation was still wet weeks later. Personally I’d be removing it but my house is a closed panel timber kit.