he paid me a compliment : and that made me listen harder than normal. Not that I was fishing or anything ...

 

He was very complimentary about the windows and doors ( @craig ! ) and he politely winced at the cost, looked harder still at the front door and muttered quietly about the cost of high quality kit. He looked round the house and was very complimentary about how neat and tidy we kept it. What he didn't know was that I had spent about two days preparing for his visit.

Two whole bloody days: clutter around the site, picking up nameless waste bits of this and nameless bits of that. Scraping smuts of mortar, screed, parge coat off the floor, cleaning the windows, door thresholds, blocks of timber in one pile, tools all away in boxes, and the boxes in one corner. It took for ever. If we'd had internal doors, the tops of the doors would have been cleaned.

 

A few years in the army gets you like that. Bullshooshoo baffles brains. This time it might have worked but.... what worried me was the 'Next Visit'  part of the conversation.

 

"I can see you're well organised : I'll see you next at completion."

 

Really? I mean Really? I was pleased enough not to check at the time. Just glad to get the inspection over.

 

My finger-tips are telling me that there's lots of room for error here. Maybe the only thing I can do is document what we do with a bit of care - and make sure I know the relevant bits of the Regs. 

1 hour ago, AnonymousBosch said:

he paid me a compliment : and that made me listen harder than normal. Not that I was fishing or anything ...

 

He was very complimentary about the windows and doors ( @craig ! ) and he politely winced at the cost, looked harder still at the front door and muttered quietly about the cost of high quality kit. He looked round the house and was very complimentary about how neat and tidy we kept it. What he didn't know was that I had spent about two days preparing for his visit.

Two whole bloody days: clutter around the site, picking up nameless waste bits of this and nameless bits of that. Scraping smuts of mortar, screed, parge coat off the floor, cleaning the windows, door thresholds, blocks of timber in one pile, tools all away in boxes, and the boxes in one corner. It took for ever. If we'd had internal doors, the tops of the doors would have been cleaned.

 

A few years in the army gets you like that. Bullshooshoo baffles brains. This time it might have worked but.... what worried me was the 'Next Visit'  part of the conversation.

 

"I can see you're well organised : I'll see you next at completion."

 

Really? I mean Really? I was pleased enough not to check at the time. Just glad to get the inspection over.

 

My finger-tips are telling me that there's lots of room for error here. Maybe the only thing I can do is document what we do with a bit of care - and make sure I know the relevant bits of the Regs. 

 

We had a similar experience with our BCO - arrived to check the basement rebar ahead of pour - 5 mins confirmed that that it was a quality job and he left saying 'I'll next see you when the frame is erected'.

 

Photos are good practice anyway...

 

I find with BCO,s that if they see you doing a good job they are not to worried, knowing you want it done properly (or I may have been lucky as a builder). I only had a problem with one BCO that wanted something done not in the regs, I politely/kindly proved him wrong (by confirming it wrong with another BCO)  and he was fine afterwards.

Once the superstructure is up a lot of the work is self certifiable, elecs and gas anyway. Doesn't make it right but they are a bit uninterested nowadays. I have noticed how hard they try to sell their services to you now (even LA). Must be on commission/bonus?

I had much the same.  BCO was interested in the foundations, drainage and checking the insulation was pumped in, and at that stage said he'd not come again until completion.  Turned out that another inspector was brought in from retirement for that, and he gave me a hard time about the foundations (already signed off) and the plumbing (he wanted certificates for all the outlets to show they didn't exceed the maximum flow rates allowed, despite us having a private water supply, which meant those regs didn't apply).  Luckily the head of the local building control stepped in and did the completion inspection in about half an hour, ignoring all the piles of paperwork I'd prepared.

2 hours ago, AnonymousBosch said:

My finger-tips are telling me that there's lots of room for error here. 

 

In the nicest possible way, do you have enough fingertips remaining for them to be reliable advisors?

Well, @jack, I take much more notice of the remaining eight than I ever did with ten. 

@JSHarris Jeremy where is the exemption from the water efficiency calculation if you have a private water supply? 

19 minutes ago, ADLIan said:

@JSHarris Jeremy where is the exemption from the water efficiency calculation if you have a private water supply? 

 

There's a clause in Part G that refers to alternative sources of water being taken into consideration when looking at water efficiency.  Our BCO (the final one) agreed that, as our whole water supply was considered to be an "alternative source" (i.e. not mains water) that exempted us from the efficiency requirements.  Makes sense, as in terms of the water cycle we draw water from under our plot and drain it back to the ground around 20m away, so there's no significant environmental impact from our water use.

Thanks Jeremy. Not sure if I agree with BCOs interpretation but as long as he/she is happy that's another hurdle crossed.