Blogtastic!

[jack]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Who does the mains drainage? Been having a look at our MBC quote and it mentions passive foundation drainage pipes are laid to approx 1 metre from house for others to connect to. I think this to ensure the stone base is kept adequately drained and is not referring to mains drainage? Any advice would be great as I am in the very early stages of dealing with MBC. 

 

Our groundworks team did all the drainage and left pipework sticking up in the right places (well, most of them!).  MBC just laid and levelled the blinding layer, installed the EPS and laid the concrete around them.

 

Edited to add: I don't, however, know whether the reference above is to mains drainage.  Sounds more like drainage for under the slab, presumably to be connected to a soakaway.  What kid of ground are you on?  Clay?

[Mikey_1980]

Hi Terry, yes our passive slab required a perimeter land drain which we ran into two 10ft deep soak a ways, this was all installed by our groundworkers, when MBC came they put in all the pipe runs for showers/toilets etc as per the services and ducts design that we had agreed and signed off with them.

[Pete]

Thanks for the responses on mains drainage concerning MBC 

[worldwidewebs]

Well, the latest instalment. Openreach 

 

Openreach have been great to deal with so far and have been as prompt as you could hope for with getting me set up. A quick recap...

We have a telegraph pole almost directly opposite the plot - probably about 8-10m from the plot boundary

• They can't go direct from the pole to the house due to an electric cable that runs across the front boundary - there needs to be a minimum clearance which this option doesn't provide
• They thought they may be able to put a pole on our side of the road, go from the existing pole to the new one and then from there go underground to the house. It turns out that for one reason or another this would have to be a) really tall and b) 4m inside our garden! Even Openreach have knocked this idea on the head. So this leaves the final option
• Go underground from the pole to the house. This is my preferred option as I hate seeing cables strung around the place

And yesterday we got the quote. Oh, how I laughed. Ready?..

Labour £6,417.31 +VAT
Materials £70.67 + VAT
Total £6,487.98 + VAT

On top of that is 'traffic management'  at about £1,000. This is to go underground, at most 10m, to the plot boundary. I'd love to see how they come up with the figure.

In the words of Peter Kay, at least Dick Turpin had the common decency to wear a mask.

So the big question is, am I '£7,500 interested' in having internet (not interested in a landline phone)? What other options are there? Apart from other suppliers working off the back of BT/Openreach there is only the Virgin Media route and they don't cover our address anyway. There's satellite and wireless broadband options but I don't know much about them - what I have read isn't particularly glowing.

Hmmm.. what to do? Answers on a postcard

[Ferdinand]

This is just for internet or phone as well?

 

Suspect you are going to have to evaluate your alternative bullets then bite the least nasty, as high speed internet is going to be a basic requirement for a modern house. Any obvious alternative method (eg WiFi repeater outside your plot with a dish, or a microwave link) is going to be painful to maintain over the years.

 

The only glimmer of hope I can see is if there is going to be some "right to internet" which may put the onus on Openreach or some govt funding package. That might argue for "wait and see".

 

Or can you piggyback on next door? 

Ferdinand

Edited September 8, 2016 by Ferdinand

[ProDave]

I have a friend using satellite broadband. The price goes up with the amount of data you use (no "unlimited" option.)  He moans with two teenage daughters with ipads surgically attached they are paying about £80 per month.  It would be a lot lower if you used less bandwidth.

 

Even at £80 per month, that install cost is nearly 8 years worth of satellite broadband.

 

Aren't Open Reach supposed to pay the first £3K of the install? so that should knock it down to £4.5K

 

Is any of this work contestable like with water and electricity connections.  Get a quote from an independent contractor to mole under the road and install a grey duct with a draw string (Open Reach should free issue the duct to you) and then get a quote from Open Reach to just come and pull a cable through that duct and connect it to the pole and your house.

 

[Mikey_1980]

Could you look at Trenchlees moling, I was quoted £900 to go under a 4 metre wide road and then open trench to run the cables to where they are needed.

[Ferdinand]

If you really want an alternative then one company doing Microwave are w3z.co.uk from my area, which is faster and less limited from satellite.

 

But the long term costs are likely to be more than the one off and you are into rural solutions of a vintage before ADSL was available in even slightly remote areas.

 

Ferdinand

 

[Mikey_1980]

There is Govt scheme for Satelite as well.

 

If you’re located in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and are suffering from slow connectivity below 2Mbps, you could be eligible for a subsidy of up to £800! The scheme is aimed at rural areas that will not receive a fibre connection and covers free hardware and installation of your satellite broadband package. For full details of BDUK subsidy schemes visit the Government website.

[TerryE]

13 hours ago, worldwidewebs said:

Labour £6,417.31 +VAT
Materials £70.67 + VAT
Total £6,487.98 + VAT

 

Oh f***, we are facing the same scenario, but I've haven't plucked up courage to apply.  You've just cheered me up -- not.

[worldwidewebs]

1 hour ago, TerryE said:

 

Oh f***, we are facing the same scenario, but I've haven't plucked up courage to apply.  You've just cheered me up -- not.

 

Well, don't lose heart just yet. I'm enquiring about moling and hope to have a price early next week

[ProDave]

When we had Open Reach survey our plot, they just gave me a drum of SWA phone cable and it was up to me to get it from our house across the road to where the telephone cable is. They will then connect it hen we want to go live.  Total cost £nill.  It worked out fine for us as we had the road up once  and put in water, electricit and telephone cables all in one go.
 

[Ferdinand]

Talk to vispa.net.

 

They do wireless broadband in Cheshire.

 

They may help or know someone who could.

 

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/04/vispa-extend-60mbps-wireless-broadband-homes-cheshire-uk.html

 

Ferdinand

Edited September 9, 2016 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

SOrry.

 

That is vispa.net.

 

Typo.

[Gone West]

16 hours ago, worldwidewebs said:

 

Well, don't lose heart just yet. I'm enquiring about moling and hope to have a price early next week

 

That will be interesting. I was told the first time by Openreach they would mole under the 4m wide lane to my property, then a few weeks ago I was told it's not their policy to mole. I've made a high level complaint which is being investigated at the moment so it will be interesting to hear the result of both of our cases.

Edited September 10, 2016 by PeterStarck

[worldwidewebs]

14 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

SOrry.

 

That is vispa.net.

 

Typo.

 

cheers, unfortunately they're not in our area at the moment

[Gone West]

I think Tooway satellite broadband are national and they do VoIP for telephone.

[worldwidewebs]

16 hours ago, PeterStarck said:

I think Tooway satellite broadband are national and they do VoIP for telephone.

 

Not a fan of satellite broadband unfortunately - it's well known for being laggy

[worldwidewebs]

On 9 September 2016 at 18:14, ProDave said:

When we had Open Reach survey our plot, they just gave me a drum of SWA phone cable and it was up to me to get it from our house across the road to where the telephone cable is. They will then connect it hen we want to go live.  Total cost £nill.  It worked out fine for us as we had the road up once  and put in water, electricit and telephone cables all in one go.
 

What size ducting did you put this through? This document https://www.london.gov.uk/moderngov/documents/s33921/Appendix 1 - BT developers_guide.pdf seems to suggest it should be 90mm but 50mm seems more appropriate

[worldwidewebs]

Ooh, first lot of groundworks finished!

 

More info on the blog https://selfbuildnoviceblog.wordpress.com

[PeterW]

On 9/9/2016 at 18:14, ProDave said:

When we had Open Reach survey our plot, they just gave me a drum of SWA phone cable and it was up to me to get it from our house across the road to where the telephone cable is. They will then connect it hen we want to go live.  Total cost £nill.  It worked out fine for us as we had the road up once  and put in water, electricit and telephone cables all in one go.
 

 

So does anyone know where a master box has to go...?? Is it in the house..?

 

Time for a new subject I think..!

 

Here.... 

 

 

 

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, worldwidewebs said:

What size ducting did you put this through? This document https://www.london.gov.uk/moderngov/documents/s33921/Appendix 1 - BT developers_guide.pdf seems to suggest it should be 90mm but 50mm seems more appropriate

The standard BT duct is "duct 56" which I guess means it's 56mm diameter. but I dodn't have any, the Open Reach surveyor only had small van so could not carry it. they told me I could make the 50 mile round trip to their depot to collect some free issue. Instead, I had a length of the identical but black ducting, that had been left outside for some considerable time and had gone grey, so I used that.  It is only the bit under the road in duct. Being SWA cable the rest of is is direct burried in the ground.
 

[ProDave]

4 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

So does anyone know where a master box has to go...?? Is it in the house..?

 

Time for a new subject I think..!

 

 

This seems to vary with both time and location. In our case they are happy with the SWA cable coming straight into the house to the BT master socket, which in our case will go under the stairs where things like routers will go out of site and nicely in the centre of the house. In other places they seem to demand a junction box on the outside wall of the house.
 

[ProDave]

20 minutes ago, worldwidewebs said:

Ooh, first lot of groundworks finished!

 

More info on the blog https://selfbuildnoviceblog.wordpress.com

 

Reading your blog and your "FFL" being 150mm lower than the ground level.

 

We have a similar situation, not regards to FFL but regards to DPC level (strip foundations) that are some way below FFL.

 

I have solved this by digging a trench around the front, making a little retaining wall out of railway sleepers, and filling the inside with rocks, to form a sort of French Drain that will go all along the front and down one side of the house.

 

I have to go out just now but when I get back I will take a photo and post it here
 

[ProDave]

Here's how I dealt with the ground level at the front of my house.

 

I dug a trench and made a retaining wall of railway sleepers, just 3 sleepers high, topped off with a 4" fence post on it's side so the top edge on show is not as clunky as a sleeper.(and I wouldn't have had enough sleepers)

 

The house side is then filled with stones to make a French Drain.  The DPC is level with where the rendered wood fibre board stops, the course of blocks immediately below the DPC has air bricks so the stones are built up to just below the level of the air bricks.  this French Drain will get continued along the side of the house where the ground is much lower.