Grand Designs

[Jeremy Harris]

9 hours ago, ProDave said:

Just watched this one. (I rarely watch commercial tv live)

 

That "ravine"  I'll bet that was not mentioned on the sales particulars, and I wonder if any of the locals have mentioned it to them?

 

However was that solid rock that collapsed?  I think not.  Looking at the picture that bit of coast looks different.  It looks very much like one I know in Wales, where it is a choked glacial valley. Basically a valley carved in the ice age, subsequently filled with (relatively) loose rocks and rubble.  The one I know in Wales, from above you would barely know, apart from a depression in the grass, but viewed from the sea you can see the very different material.

 

What did your survey say about it?

 

From what I remember the rock up there is solid granite, but quite deeply fissured and cracked.  It's the edge of a large volcanic dyke (the Beaufort Dyke) that is around 1100ft below sea level just a few miles offshore.  The survey suggested that further erosion was likely following the collapse of the ravine, due to wave action being funnelled up it.  All along this coast there are examples of similar erosion patterns, where cracks have opened up and caused narrow inlets to form, followed by small bays.

[recoveringbuilder]

http://bit.ly/2UFKVpp

so the Victorian water tower that featured in Kevin’s grandest design a few weeks ago is now on the market for a cool 2 million!

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, Christine Walker said:

http://bit.ly/2UFKVpp

so the Victorian water tower that featured in Kevin’s grandest design a few weeks ago is now on the market for a cool 2 million!

 

I think this is another one that is in Shooters Hill And has been an Airbnb for a few years. They paid 960k for it plus the conversion, for which I cannot quickly find the budget.

 

The one that has K in palpitations was in Southwark by a hospital and cost £360k plus £2m spent on it. They tried to sell for £6.5m but the last I saw it was priced at £3.6m.

 

F

[Jeremy Harris]

Going back to the Portpatrick build from the week before, I've just dug out a couple of other old photos from the 1990s, showing the site of the house.  They aren't great, but they do show how the place sits out on a pretty exposed bit of cliff.

 

I'm actually in this one, although you can't see me (right hand seat of the Jetstream T2).  The GMS is at the extreme centre left, if you look closely you can just make out a group of my staff standing at the fence in front of it, to the left of the Doppler wave radar antenna array (the vertical things near the cliff edge).  This photo shows the ravine I mentioned earlier, that cuts deeply into the cliff to the South of the building.  This photo was taken after the rock fall, the previous one was before.  If you look closely you can see where the cliff is still falling in, with the soil sliding downwards, just underneath the Jetstream:

 

 

This photo was taken on a fairly typical wet day, and shows the GMS building, the Portacabin we had in the parking area to the left and the main antenna mast (for scale, that mast is 100ft high):

 

 

 

[ProDave]

If I had bought the site, I would have retained the aerial mast.

 

I was once offered a 160ft mast for free. The catch was I had to dismantle and remove it, which would have been no cheap job if you wanted it to be re erected elsewhere, but getting PP to do so would have been near impossible.  

 

It looked as though this one just got dragged down in a mangled heap by a big rope from the top and pulled down by a digger.

[Jeremy Harris]

3 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If I had bought the site, I would have retained the aerial mast.

 

I was once offered a 160ft mast for free. The catch was I had to dismantle and remove it, which would have been no cheap job if you wanted it to be re erected elsewhere, but getting PP to do so would have been near impossible.  

 

It looked as though this one just got dragged down in a mangled heap by a big rope from the top and pulled down by a digger.

 

 

I've been trying to find another photo of that mast, taken when the aerial chap was up there checking the cables etc.  The mast has a flat steel plate on the top, about a foot square, and the aerial rigger's party trick was to stand on the plate, balancing on one leg.  One of the guys that worked at the GMS took a photo of him doing this, imitating Eros (the statue at Piccadilly Circus).  I had the photo on my office wall, just to wind up the H,S & E chap when he popped around...

[ProDave]

24 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

 

I've been trying to find another photo of that mast, taken when the aerial chap was up there checking the cables etc.  The mast has a flat steel plate on the top, about a foot square, and the aerial rigger's party trick was to stand on the plate, balancing on one leg.  One of the guys that worked at the GMS took a photo of him doing this, imitating Eros (the statue at Piccadilly Circus).  I had the photo on my office wall, just to wind up the H,S & E chap when he popped around...

I climbed the aforementioned 160ft mast before it's demise.  I was happy enough inside the tower frame, with my harness clipped on, but no way would I have stood on top like that, even with a decent fall arrest rig (it would still bloody well hurt if you fell off and crashed against the side of the tower hanging from your fall arrest)

[SteamyTea]

 

[LA3222]

That GMS building was looking in pretty rough shape when I ran past it - looked like it ain't been used for years.  I did see a couple having a wander round, looked like potential buyers - maybe to renovate or knock down/rebuild.  Very exposed position. 

[Jeremy Harris]

6 minutes ago, LA3222 said:

That GMS building was looking in pretty rough shape when I ran past it - looked like it ain't been used for years.  I did see a couple having a wander round, looked like potential buyers - maybe to renovate or knock down/rebuild.  Very exposed position. 

 

 

We closed it down in 1999, so it's been disused since then.  It wasn't a very robust building, anyway.  Originally it was temporary, when it was first built in 1969,so was just a glorified timber shed, then it was clad with blocks on the outside to extend it's life (the blocks covered up several of the windows, so from inside you looked out at the back of the cavity!).  The roof was originally just felt, but also got replaced with something a bit more durable.  The weather's rough up there, and the building needed constant maintenance when it was in use.  I'd imagine that it must have deteriorated badly in the couple of decades it's been sat empty.

[epsilonGreedy]

On 11/09/2019 at 18:36, JSHarris said:

We closed it down in 1999, so it's been disused since then.

 

 

In a debate on a yachting forum I read that the French have contiguous maritime radar coverage for the whole country whereas in the UK the Russian fleet can pitch up off the Scottish shore and the first the MOD hears about it is via UK fishing trawlers. Was your station closure related?

[Jeremy Harris]

8 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

In a debate on a yachting forum I read that the French have contiguous maritime radar coverage for the whole country whereas in the UK the Russian fleet can pitch up off the Scottish shore and the first the MOD hears about it is via UK fishing trawlers. Was your station closure related?

 

 

No, not related to maritime surveillance, it was an OP for Portpatrick Range, an air/sea weapons range that extended out over the Beaufort Dyke.  Most stuff done there was underwater, as the water a few miles offshore goes down to about 1100ft, making it an ideal place to test stuff that needs to work in deep water.  Some old charts may still have the Danger Area marked, D411:

 

[DundeeDancer]

GD series 20 episode 4 Hull - underground water reservoir.

 

Inspiring in many ways but at the same time totally bonkers.

Volume of living area about 9 times the size of normal family homes.

Would love to know what the heating bills would be like to bring that mosnter accommodation up to 22c.

Cold bridges galore along with mega concrete heat sinks for walls with no insulation behind or in front.

 

Ideal I guess if you enjoy your environment to be a cool 11c all year around ?

 

Need more details, program should be called Grand Hidden Designs ☺️

[Jeremy Harris]

I thought the idea of removing the lid and building a courtyard style house inside was brilliant, but I'm not sure how they got through SAP without (AFAICS) any insulation behind the concrete walls.  It may be that they excavated around the earth bund, fitted external insulation and then covered it over again, though, as there were some pretty big gaps that weren't filmed, it seemed.

 

It may be that the building was so large that the fabric heat loss was relatively small, with ventilation loss dominating, but there didn't seem to be MVHR either.  They were working to a relatively old set of building regs though, due to the length of time that the build took, so the requirements would have been a fair bit more relaxed.  I'm not sure if it was classed as a new build or a conversion, either; I'm not sure (without checking) if a conversion has to meet the same requirements as a new build (I've a feeling it may not).

[Ferdinand]

2 hours ago, DundeeDancer said:

GD series 20 episode 4 Hull - underground water reservoir.

 

Inspiring in many ways but at the same time totally bonkers.

Volume of living area about 9 times the size of normal family homes.

Would love to know what the heating bills would be like to bring that mosnter accommodation up to 22c.

Cold bridges galore along with mega concrete heat sinks for walls with no insulation behind or in front.

 

Ideal I guess if you enjoy your environment to be a cool 11c all year around ?

 

Need more details, program should be called Grand Hidden Designs ☺️

 

There is someone on BH who has of those, albeit the in-a-mound version, near Melbourne iirc.

 

But smaller, mind.

 

F

[Jilly]

22 hours ago, JSHarris said:

I'm not sure (without checking) if a conversion has to meet the same requirements as a new build (I've a feeling it may not).

Any idea how I find out this? It might be pertinent to my project.

[epsilonGreedy]

22 hours ago, JSHarris said:

but I'm not sure how they got through SAP without (AFAICS) any insulation behind the concrete walls.  It may be that they excavated around the earth bund, fitted external insulation and then covered it over again, though, as there were some pretty big gaps that weren't filmed, it seemed.

 

 

I heard a phrase "warmed by soil/earth insulation" or something similar which made me chuckle. The cameras did not show what insulation if anything went under the large suspended floor void.

 

[ADLIan]

Conversion work comes under Appr Doc L1B (E&W) with a much more relaxed standard compared to new build. No need for SAP calculation to show compliance as simple elemental U-values are provided. (SAP is needed however to produce the EPC on completion).

 

In basement walls and floors the U-value is dependent upon the basement depth as well as insulation type & thickness, if too difficult to insulate BCO can relax the L1B standard.

[ProDave]

6 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

I heard a phrase "warmed by soil/earth insulation" or something similar which made me chuckle. The cameras did not show what insulation if anything went under the large suspended floor void.

 

Yes that old chestnut "soaks up heat in the summer and releases it in the winter"

 

Anyone with any understanding of basic physics would soon work out just how much heat it would have to store and just how impossible that was.

 

There was no insulation put behind the earth banked walls, and they made no mention of what if any insulation was put under the raised timber floor.  The few views underneath showed none, and the time to fit it would be as you built it. Bery inlikely anyone crawled under later to insulate it from below.

[Thedreamer]

On 24/09/2019 at 15:01, epsilonGreedy said:

 

In a debate on a yachting forum I read that the French have contiguous maritime radar coverage for the whole country whereas in the UK the Russian fleet can pitch up off the Scottish shore and the first the MOD hears about it is via UK fishing trawlers. Was your station closure related?

 

Not just trawlers, but also ferry operators. Last time I was over for business in Uist, in the Lochmaddy ferry terminal they have a cabinet with information about identifying/procedure for russian vessels.

[epsilonGreedy]

4 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

Not just trawlers, but also ferry operators. Last time I was over for business in Uist, in the Lochmaddy ferry terminal they have a cabinet with information about identifying/procedure for russian vessels.

 

 

Since the elimination of the airborne maritime surveillance section of our armed forces we are effectively blind to such incursions. Even when a concerned fisherman phones Captain Mainwearing the MOD and says "The Ruskies are here, they don't like it up-em" it takes the mighty Royal Navy two days to organised a response which involves dispatching the UK guard ship from Portsmouth, usually a 20 year old dinky Type 21 frigate, which then huffs & puffs its away to Scotland.

[Jeremy Harris]

16 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

Since the elimination of the airborne maritime surveillance section of our armed forces we are effectively blind to such incursions. Even when a concerned fisherman phones Captain Mainwearing the MOD and says "The Ruskies are here, they don't like it up-em" it takes the mighty Royal Navy two days to organised a response which involves dispatching the UK guard ship from Portsmouth, usually a 20 year old dinky Type 21 frigate, which then huffs & puffs its away to Scotland.

 

 

Not really.  When the Nimrod fleet was still active they didn't really provide any significant maritime surveillance coverage around UK waters.  99% of the time patrols were either up around the Iceland-Faroes gap or in the North Atlantic.  We still have all the shore stations, with some giving coverage across the most congested areas, but a great deal of reliance is now placed on secondary surveillance, using AIS.  Not much use if AIS is tampered with, but the picture AIS gives is pretty good, and anyone can use it: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:25.0/zoom:4

 

If you want a UK-centric view then this site may be better: http://www.shipais.co.uk/

 

I was thinking of buying a Tesla recently, and joined a UK Tesla forum, and one section was pretty much dedicated to purchasers tracking "their" car as it came across the Atlantic to one of the ports where it would be shipped to a distribution centre.  Tesla had a tie up with the ship ident data, so you could go onto the Tesla website and track the VIN of your new car as it made it's way around the globe, in near-real time.

[Ralph]

14 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

Not really.  When the Nimrod fleet was still active they didn't really provide any significant maritime surveillance coverage around UK waters.  99% of the time patrols were either up around the Iceland-Faroes gap or in the North Atlantic.

I can remember them flying out from Kinloss on search and rescue and fisheries patrols. At sea they would come roaring in to take a look at the boat then off they would go, quite a welcome site.

[Jeremy Harris]

12 minutes ago, Ralph said:

I can remember them flying out from Kinloss on search and rescue and fisheries patrols. At sea they would come roaring in to take a look at the boat then off they would go, quite a welcome site.

 

 

SAR was only ever a secondary role, though, their primary role was sub-hunting up near the Arctic, tracking Soviet boats coming out on patrol from their Northern  bases.  The idea was that if the bombers could be picked up as they came through the fairly narrow area between Iceland and the Faroes, either by SOSUS or by the Nimrod patrols, there would be a reasonable chance of being able to keep tabs on them as they went out into the open Atlantic.  Knowing where the bombers were was a key part of maintaining the balance of power, as they would know that we knew where they were (often because they got actively pinged) and that then rendered them less useful as a part of the deterrent.

[Ralph]

Just now, JSHarris said:

SAR was only ever a secondary role, though, their primary role was sub-hunting up near the Arctic, tracking Soviet boats coming out on patrol from their Northern  bases. 

I may be remembering this incorrectly but I'm sure we also used to see Shackletons in the 80s doing this then the Boeing AWACS. All flying from Lossiemouth.