Site facilities - where to buy/hire

[vivienz]

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I'm assuming that the bat licence will come through in April and things will get going on site around that time.  I will need a site office, toilet and security fencing.  I've never bought or hired any of these before - does anyone have any pointers of where to start looking?

 

Ta very much!

[Bitpipe]

I bought a converted shipping container (25ft) on eBay for £1500 that had one half storage and other half site office, £250 to have it collected with HIAB & positioned on site. No wet services so was easy to hook up to site power and was incredibly useful during build (hooked up to BT etc).

 

Sold it on eBay again for a small profit! Was on site for over 2 years.

 

Hired a toilet for £25 ish a week including servicing.

 

Some here have bought a small touring caravan near end of life and hooked up to water, sewage and power and used as site office / toilet. 

 

I bought some Heras new and some solid panels 2nd hand - all were wrecked by the end of the build so I took to scrapper for pennies.

[ToughButterCup]

Licence

Don't assume that NE work to the timetable published:  they should, but they don't. Uniquely, they are  (when I applied ) up front about the delay in processing  applications. Ask your ecologist for an update on the application process.  (Ecologists all know one another; they are a small tight-knit group and every single one I have known hisses and spits about their professional colleagues - and will publicly deny they do. )

 

Office

I built one. Out of stillage cages. Trades folk use their van from a brew. If we need to meet under cover, we meet standing up under the tin roof of the stillage cages. Makes meetings short and sweet.

 

Toilet

Everyone uses our house loo. 

 

HERAS

Locally sourced, £15 for one panel and one foot (99th hand I suspect). No need for clips: heavy zip ties just as good and twice as fast to open and do up. Cost  - irrelevant difference between zips and clips. 

 

[newhome]

5 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

Toilet

Everyone uses our house loo. 

 

 

We only had the cassette loo in the caravan as it was a new build so bought a cheap loo (called a “toilet to go” hence the sign) from Homebase which was about £50 and plumbed it into the drain temporarily. We already had a Khyam shelter (essentially a tent without windows) and erected that round it. Threw in loo rolls and hand wipes and it was good to go. We binned it once the downstairs loo was installed. 

 

Photo before the tent went up. 

 

 

 

[vivienz]

I should clarify that we aren't living on site and the existing bungalow will be demolished.  There's no mains drainage, either, so I think that a portaloo is the easier option for the site.

[lizzie]

When I was looking I saw some fab welfare units for hire circa £125 a week...toilet, hand wash, drying room, seating and kitchen area with fridge microwave etc..... Lovely...... I wanted to get one installed just like playing house...... I was told no it will be there a long time and is too expensive so we have a loo at £25 a week inc servicing ( I have never dared go into it) and when the garage went up (before house) and we got power I put a cheap fridge and kettle in there and of course a big first aid kit....

I also wanted to put in garden table and chairs for rest area but was talked out of that so if they need to sit they sit in their vans or on stacks of materials. They seem happy enough.

 

All has worked well for nigh on 2 years.  One of the most important things other than the loo was the power supply for tools and for charging their mobile phones and plugging in those huge makita radios!

 

As far as I am aware you cant claim vat back on loo hire either.

 

Initially I hired Heras fencing supposedly cheaply from the groundworker who had acquired it somehow....but it was working out to be very expensive after a while so we bought our own.  No idea if is worth  anything at the end.  I will need mine for circa 6 -8 weeks more and then it will be redundant if anyone is looking.

Edited March 21, 2018 by lizzie

[ProDave]

We are a bit more down to earth up here.

 

When we started we were living 2 doors away. I offered our loo at that house for the builders. They just "made their own arrangements " (went behind a tree to have a pee).  Their vans were all the shelter they needed.

 

I have worked on many individual builds and this seems to be the norm here.

[Bitpipe]

12 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We are a bit more down to earth up here.

 

When we started we were living 2 doors away. I offered our loo at that house for the builders. They just "made their own arrangements " (went behind a tree to have a pee).  Their vans were all the shelter they needed.

 

I have worked on many individual builds and this seems to be the norm here.

 

Our landscaper warned me to *never* open the closed used tubs of easy joint that were stacked up by the end of the week.

[newhome]

15 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We are a bit more down to earth up here.

 

When we started we were living 2 doors away. I offered our loo at that house for the builders. They just "made their own arrangements " (went behind a tree to have a pee).  Their vans were all the shelter they needed.

 

I have worked on many individual builds and this seems to be the norm here.

 

I find it's a bit different up here too. No builders in Scotland ever seem to want tea / coffee. They all either sit in their vans or outside and smoke during their breaks. Never seen so many smokers as in the Scottish building trade. Down in Kent builders wanted tea / coffee on permanent supply, and biscuits too.