New series of Grand Designs

[Lesgrandepotato]

9 minutes ago, ultramods said:

 

I was "screaming" at the TV get rid of the cantilever and don't build into the hill. You do need to question the original architects motives/mentality/intelligence/sanity.

 

 

And brief.... as an architect (albeit of software) you’d be surprised what people ask for...

[ultramods]

11 minutes ago, Lesgrandepotato said:

 

And brief.... as an architect (albeit of software) you’d be surprised what people ask for...

 

As a professional architect (software or house) they should know roughly how much it's going to cost or at least know which element s of the build are the most expensive and could be removed or changed.

[Lesgrandepotato]

1 hour ago, ultramods said:

 

As a professional architect (software or house) they should know roughly how much it's going to cost or at least know which element s of the build are the most expensive and could be removed or changed.

 

Agreed, but the point I’m making is that as much as you can try and guide, sometimes you get a brief that just doesn’t fit the customers pockets or they just don’t want to hear that they can’t afford it.

 

’... let’s get the design sorted, we’ll value engineer later...’ it’s wrong, but it does happen. 

[ultramods]

6 hours ago, Lesgrandepotato said:

 

Agreed, but the point I’m making is that as much as you can try and guide, sometimes you get a brief that just doesn’t fit the customers pockets or they just don’t want to hear that they can’t afford it.

 

’... let’s get the design sorted, we’ll value engineer later...’ it’s wrong, but it does happen. 

Certainly we didn't see how the whole story played out behind the camera. However it was edited to look like the original architect could only offer changes that would provide minimal savings.

Edited October 12, 2018 by ultramods

[Simplysimon]

and this weeks numpties, need a ceiling finish ventilated into the rafters, personally designed lighting, personally designed kitchens, (running out of money), ground concrete floors  (though they did grind these themselves), 9m ceilings with echoes. oh, and don't forget a lot of what looked like 2g glazing, a cool area to sit next to in the winter.

blockwork looks nice but too much concrete and steel for me, too industrial and not homely.

[AliG]

Just watching this, se18ep5. I quite like the outside of the houses, despite the unusual choice of corrugated steel. I also liked what they did with the setting.

 

But I hate the plywood interiors. I am surprised that Kevin didn't have much to say about it as he hated the house a few years ago when they did the same thing.

 

Wish I had been able to get my steel for that kind of price, that was a lot of steel for £42,000.

 

How did they start with a budget of £850 a square metre and end up at £1400-1600. They were a bit vague about it at the end. As ever, despite money supposedly being tight they ended up with what must have been scarily expensive bespoke kitchens.

 

The houses will be very very hard to sell.

[ProDave]

This weeks impossible build, the big log cabin in the "remote" Highlands, 12 miles from Inverness (did not feel very remote to me)

 

So a big log cabin made of big logs. Probably an average of 12" diameter?  That was it, that was the entire wall structure, exposed round logs on the outside and the inside.  anyone care to guess what the U value of those walls would be and how it passed building regs?

[ultramods]

On 20/10/2018 at 17:48, ProDave said:

This weeks impossible build, the big log cabin in the "remote" Highlands, 12 miles from Inverness (did not feel very remote to me)

 

So a big log cabin made of big logs. Probably an average of 12" diameter?  That was it, that was the entire wall structure, exposed round logs on the outside and the inside.  anyone care to guess what the U value of those walls would be and how it passed building regs?

 

Yes 12 east of Inverness must be only a few miles away from Inverness airport and quite close to Nairn, not my idea of remote. However I guess for a lot of the UK population the Highlands in general will be relatively remote.

 

I still watch Impossible Builds each week, however I do cringe at the name, "Pre-Fab builds" would have been more accurate.

 

Also I couldn't believe that they were letting their 12 year old son drive the dumper truck by himself, surely a serious accident waiting to happen.

[Ian]

On 20/10/2018 at 17:48, ProDave said:

This weeks impossible build, the big log cabin in the "remote" Highlands, 12 miles from Inverness (did not feel very remote to me)

 

So a big log cabin made of big logs. Probably an average of 12" diameter?  That was it, that was the entire wall structure, exposed round logs on the outside and the inside.  anyone care to guess what the U value of those walls would be and how it passed building regs?

thats exactly what I thought. I'm guessing 300mm of larch would be a wall U value of about 0.4 which is nowhere near enough for building regs compliance

[Thedreamer]

I watched an old grand designs last night, the one built with dolphins near a river (Thames?) .To me that is the sort of standard I would expect for an impossible build, they had to have there own ferry on site to haul everything across.

 

They should have one on a small island in the Hebrides or Northern Isles.  

 

My own experience of building in a remote location is that the only aspect that has been difficult for me is typically having to deal with multiple parties when ordering materials. I.e. two set of hauliers. You have no control over where the materials are and when they will arrive on site. E.g. I ordered cast iron affect guttering in August and have received brackets, outlets etc but the actual guttering went missing when leaving the factory.

 

 

[Hecateh]

7 hours ago, ultramods said:

 

Also I couldn't believe that they were letting their 12 year old son drive the dumper truck by himself, surely a serious accident waiting to happen.

My neighbour has just built a large extension, his 11 year old has used the mini digger and was instrumental in the roofing as the neighbour decided the lad was safer up there, than he was as son is light, fearless and had great balance.  

He also uses all the power tools.

 

This was all done with great supervision and builds the kid's confidence and respect.  I was very impressed.  This kid won't be a snowflake. He has skills, is confident and I am sure will be successful.  

Too many kids today are wrapped in cotton wool until the day they are given the keys to a car at 17 without ever learning that their actions have consequences and that, unlike their screen games, they don't get another life.

I think, at 12, a kid is old enough to be responsible and not yet at an age where he thinks he knows everything and is invincible.

[newhome]

17 minutes ago, Hecateh said:

I think, at 12, a kid is old enough to be responsible and not yet at an age where he thinks he knows everything and is invincible.

 

I was jumping ponies at 12 and into my teenage years. Mostly cross country with a hard hat perched on for effect as no one used the stupid neck strap they came with. Fearless at that age. These days they have hats strapped on securely and wear back protectors. I’m not saying that’s wrong because no doubt it is safer and I wouldn’t be nearly so reckless now as I was then, but it highlights a change in attitude to risk / safety. 

 

 

[Hecateh]

14 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

I was jumping ponies at 12 and into my teenage years. Mostly cross country with a hard hat perched on for effect as no one used the stupid neck strap they came with. Fearless at that age. These days they have hats strapped on securely and wear back protectors. I’m not saying that’s wrong because no doubt it is safer and I wouldn’t be nearly so reckless now as I was then, but it highlights a change in attitude to risk / safety. 

 

At that age I was playing with friends in a derelict house with rafters and joists but no floors.  We would play tig, jumping from joist to joist but, we had a friend who didn't have the blance.  Without discussion or teasing, we played different games when that particular friend was with us.  We knew we would get stopped from going there should there be an accident (read - should anyone find out what we were doing,) and we were smart enough to know this friend would try, quite probably unsuccessfully, to do what the rest of us did without thinking.  

[jamieled]

I once had a job somewhere in the wild west of Scotland driving a dumper to shift aggregate. On one trip back to load up I was faced with a 10 year old at the controls of the 20 ton excavator loading it up. Did the job perfectly though.

[ultramods]

@newhome @Hecateh anecdotes of doing dangerous things without being hurt is one thing, however I think our more risk aware/adverse society is progression and certainly doesn't make people snowflakes.

 

Did you see in the news today that 18 people died making the new bridge in China, I suspect the death toll wouldn't be that much in the UK.

 

When I was in my early teens I did a lot of dangerous things, looking back now i'm lucky not to have been severely injured or killed.

 

This is the 12 year old driving the dumper truck

 

 

[Guest Alphonsox]

2 minutes ago, jamieled said:

I once had a job somewhere in the wild west of Scotland driving a dumper to shift aggregate. On one trip back to load up I was faced with a 10 year old at the controls of the 20 ton excavator loading it up. Did the job perfectly though.

My 11 year old nephew was the same - far better at the controls of the digger than I was at the time. I think its due to the hours of hand to eye co-ordination training he got in front of a games console.

[jack]

1 hour ago, ultramods said:

This is the 12 year old driving the dumper truck

 

I have a 12 year old - sorry, but the potential benefits are swamped by the risks imo. It may be that the risk of accident isn't that high, but the outcome of such an accident is likely to be very poor.

[Jeremy Harris]

I learned to drive on the farm, first driving the small MF tractor doing simple stuff, like taking hay out in the link box, then by the age of around 12 to 13 I was driving the bigger tractor and trailer alongside the combine during harvest, driving the baler around (pre-round bale era) and driving the topper out to cut weeds down in the pasture fields.

 

No roll over protection back then, no guards over PTO shafts, and as often as not sod all in the way of effective brakes on the tractor.  The lessons learned were key to staying safe, that everything on the farm was potentially lethal and to be treated with respect. 

 

Pretty much everyone we knew had either had an accident on a farm, or knew someone that had.  Our cow man lost his finger when just lining up a trailer hitch.  He was struggling to drop the pin in and, like an idiot, put his finger in the hole to see how out of alignment the hitch was, and at that time the trailer just moved enough to cleanly slice his finger off.  A chap on a neighbouring farm lost part of an arm in a baler, when he tried to clear a jam.  Apparently he'd turned the tractor off and assumed that as there was no PTO power it'd be safe, forgetting that there are bloody great springs that drive the baler twine arms, and these had enough stored energy to take his arm off.

 

We learned a lot from other people's accidents, and I strongly suspect that the awareness of what can go wrong, and how easy it is to get complacent around machinery, was drummed into me from an early age.

[jack]

14 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

We learned a lot from other people's accidents, and I strongly suspect that the awareness of what can go wrong, and how easy it is to get complacent around machinery, was drummed into me from an early age.

 

The problem is that most 12 year olds just don't have the life experience to be able to predict outcomes. Mine certainly doesn't!

[ProDave]

When I had my digger, I tried to get my daughter interested to have a go at driving it. She was not interested, the most she would do is sit in the cab with me occasionally, but never touched the levers.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

6 minutes ago, jack said:

 

The problem is that most 12 year olds just don't have the life experience to be able to predict outcomes. Mine certainly doesn't!

 

I agree, but would add that growing up around really dangerous stuff was a very good way of learning, all the same.  The risks were openly discussed and rammed home all the time; and not just the obvious stuff like farm machinery, but also the everyday risks, like those associated with the slurry pit or grain silo.  Growing up in an environment where there were a lot of risks all around was a useful life lesson.  I think the only negative side is that I grew up with a higher risk acceptability factor than a lot of children my age, which then led to me doing things that many would consider too risky to contemplate.

[jack]

28 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

I agree, but would add that growing up around really dangerous stuff was a very good way of learning, 

 

Yes, a great way of learning, as long as you survive!

 

Personally, I know I have a very low tolerance for risk, especially if I don't perceive an adequate reward. For example, I'd love to get into hang gliding (genuinely), but the risk to reward ratio just doesn't work for me.

[Jeremy Harris]

1 minute ago, jack said:

 For example, I'd love to get into hang gliding (genuinely), but the risk to reward ratio just doesn't work for me.

 

I've flown hang gliders, paragliders and owned a paramotor that I flew until my knees and ankles told me to stop.  The risk from hang gliding or the other forms of foot-launched flying are pretty low, and limited by the fact that you need to be very fit and practice a lot just to get your feet off the ground for the first time.  Learning is a long cycle of walking up hills with your kit, then barely getting your feet off the ground before you have to de-rig and carry everything back up the hill.  By the time you've got the hang of it (no pun intended) then you've lost a lot of weight, gained a great deal of experience and so are at a pretty low risk of having an accident. 

 

Like all aviation, the most risky period, by far, is at the point where you have around 100 hours flying experience.  That's the point where self-confidence often exceeds ability, and when a high proportion of accidents occur.  Being aware of that, and consciously fighting the tendency to believe you're more competent than you really are, is the key to remaining accident free.

[newhome]

There are lots of activities that kids do that may have a higher risk associated with them than other things, eg horse riding in particular cross country events, skiing, cycling (BMX etc), climbing etc etc. Where do you draw the line? Are those activities less dangerous than say driving

a tractor (I drove one at 14, it was old and I only drove it slowly)? Depends on many things including the personality/maturity of the kid too. 

[Jeremy Harris]

Horse riding is pretty damned dangerous.  IIRC, it's more dangerous in terms of people injured or killed per hour spent riding than motorcycling.  I can believe it, too.  My first wife was a professional show jumper, who would occasionally do some eventing.  She persuaded me to do a cross country on her oldest and most experienced horse (a recently retired grade A show jumper) and all I can say is that it was, without a shadow of doubt, the most exhausting and terrifying thing I've ever done.  Show jumping I could just about manage (at a novice level), and I managed to get the hang of basic dressage, but there's no way that I was prepared for the 15 minute hell that was riding around the cross country course.