teepeeat

Sadly its going to be a long time before this sort of thing moves out of the canals & onto the high seas. As for the big box boats - until the demand to ship 'stuff' around the world drops significantly these will continue to ply their trade. Most of the crap they have on board is only there because people have been persuaded by some marketing types hired by someone who wants to make loadsa money that we absolutely must have it, when we really need very little of it at all and what we do need is probably as easily provided locally.

Think you will be requested for some pictures of the situation before anyone will venture any advice

Istambul

might be wrong, but am under the impression the Husqvarna stuff is re-branded Aspen. Can anybody confirm. Out of curiosity, how do prices compare?

You must be a nutter - so you'll fit right in with the rest of em. ?? Hope the boots are comfy !! Will sling a few quid your way when I get home

Perhaps they read these pages and thought they had better sort it ..........

And why steel beams are often clad in timber to extend survivability of the building to the required time.

Another one who has been doing the house for too many years ? Best advice I can give is take a bit of time to come up with a plan - think again and make sure you are happy with the plan then look into how you are going to achieve the plan. Factor in future plans - even if you cant afford them now, you can at least put in the prep work while things are in pieces. If you plan to sell on eventually, keep that in mind - not everybody will agree with your ideas Once that is done, head down and crack on, dont change the plan endlessly - it gets expensive and life gets complicated ? Push through and get it done and then put your feet up & enjoy. Yes you will always find something that was probably better done differently, but does it really matter that much. Life is too short. Guess you can tell I would now like to get it finished now ? On the up side, it is satisfying and you get what you want in the end and costs are spread out over a few years so makes it more affordable compared to shelling out a big wad of cash up front for the finished product - baring in mind that this is dependant on not changing your mind all the time ......... ? Fair play to all the plasterers - amateur & pro - didnt even bother trying and much prefer the carpentry side anyway ?

And therein lies the modern problem of internet comments - people are happy to have and publish their opinions regardless of how removed they are from the actual issue or their level of knowledge of the situation and related events or the fall out from them. Put them in the front line and they will probably have a completely different opinion. It is just too easy to sprout a lot of ignorant bull crap online. If we all were stood in the same room I suspect a lot of what has been posted on this thread would have not been said or said differently - and this applies to pretty much any thread anywhere on the internet. Easy to be brave behind the anonymity of the screen. The old saying about having two ears and one mouth and using them in that proportion is turned on its head on the internet. We could all do with a bit of humility, a healthy dose of education and a lot of careful thought before assaulting the keyboard with a lot self righteous crap that gets posted everyday. Maybe they should introduce an hours delay between us pressing the submit button and it actually appearing or an hour between reading something & being able to respond - giving some time to think & reconsider the knee jerk reactions that pop into our heads and generally get posted. This certainly would have saved me from some minor embarrassment in the past had I engaged brain a bit more before the fingers ? nowt as strange as folk is another apt saying.

Steady there forestboy - while there is a significant amount of stone work, there is also a significant amount of wood work in the roof and steeples as well as internally. I would say easily measured in many hundreds of tons in the likes of Notre Dame or any one of the big historic cathedrals around Europe. Not going to bother going into the conspiracy theories - whatever the cause there was more than enough fuel available for a significant fire!

what he said - main thrust of the Nuremberg trials

Afternoon all Had a search on the forums re the Vandaele chippers. Consensus seems to be good machines but expensive. Anybody care to add any updated comments from their experience? Also, are they still supported in the UK - Votex no longer seem to deal in them. A friend is looking at a used one and wondering about replacement blades etc.

Appreciate liking a warm house, but do find that the more I work outside, the lower I prefer the temperature indoors - each to his own I guess :-) similarly quite happy to have a jumper on in doors. I do think that the target temperature needs to be carefully assessed, based on your future heating delivery system as modern UFH or other systems are very different to traditional radiator set-ups as far as even distribution etc go. Its partly why I did up my own place as my experience of UK housing has been very frustrating when it comes to heating systems - ie radiators. Cant understand why they even still exist :-) Agreed re going full passive house route - the expense & paperwork hastle is partly why I didnt bother. I did however do what I could practically re insulation & sealing to gain the benefits. Its been a while since I did my place and no doubt the building industry has moved on a fair bit, but my biggest problem was making sure I was labouring for the tradesmen I used to ensure the detailing was right as they were not particularly interested or fussed. It does not cost a huge amount extra to do this, but I think it will pay off long term. We have had the heating pump pack up at one point and the internal temp dropped to 10 over 10 days (I was away and missus wanted me to deal with it) but went no lower with sub zero outside. Re the filters for MVHR, they are available, so that should not hold you back. I used a modular system from europe where I can buy the filter material in a bulk roll if I want to and just replace as & when. Would have thought the market would have moved on by now to make this a non-issue ....

Big J, as you have already identified, reducing heating demand is the first step. Not too sure why you think there is an issue with whole house ventilation system filters? Air-conditioning is a fact of daily life for most workers and a lot of city dwellers with big & small systems requiring filtering so filter materials are well understood & widely available. Apart from filtering, what are the problems with passive house air quality?? Many people cant seem to get past the initial thought of living in a sealed box. Passive houses always include some sort of ventilation system to move the air around and distribute the heating more evenly. there is also nothing to stop you opening a window - particularly for the bulk of the year (in the UK) where temperatures dont preclude this. Not sure what heating distribution you have used before, but UFH would give a significant improvement over radiators - studies have shown that people 'feel' the temp to be at least 2 deg C above the actual temp with UFH due partly to the more even spread of the heat. I do heat and provide hot water exclusively with wood, but having reduced demand I find that I use on average 2 small builders buckets of wood a day (200m2 house with average 3 people) beginning Nov to early March which is not overly taxing physically or mentally to collect, process & move around and indeed with a more managerial job I find it to be a healthy activity. Using an efficient stove coupled to a thermal store means I burn hard & fast over a short period of time - normally in the evening. Getting up in the morning, the house is still plenty warm enough from the night before. None of this trying to keep a fire in all day. If you are in the fortunate position of planning a new build there is a lot to be taken from advances in knowledge/understanding of how buildings function, improvements in tech and building materials to get you most of the way that wont cost a fortune (need to dodge all the bullshit salesmen jumping on the bandwagon) I suspect your biggest problem is the 22-23 deg temperature requirement. Not too sure why it needs to be that high, but each to their own I guess. I would find that very uncomfortable even having been born & raised in Africa. There is however no simple way to provide that temperature that is not going to cost a lot in monetary terms let alone ecologically. What is this 22-23deg based on - previous boiler settings or a careful measurement of the actual average temperature in the house?????

Here's an oak that came down a few weeks ago. What would be the consensus on what to do with the remaining half - it is on our boundry and weighted toward our side so only potential target is our powerlines although not certain it will reach them. Guess it would be the power company's call.

in that neck of the woods it would be called a typhoon, but otherwise yes - as long as it meets the criteria - ie more than a tropical storm.

Not that bike, but thoroughly recommend buying used from the hire centre - our local one always service very well and means the kids can have a suitable size regardless of growing like weeds :-) Sadly they dont do my size :-(

Interesting re the ticks - have had thousands on me (growing up in Africa) with only one that ever caused a minor problem - a swelling that went a bit septic probably cos I scratched it, but cleared up after a few weeks and left a scar which I still have. My old man used to come in and get a daily once over from my mum - best count was 170 off his legs in a day and probably shook a few more off his clothing. None of us ever had any symptoms of tick bite fever or lymes or anything else that we could attribute to ticks. Also knew someone who swore by the suffocation theory for removal - used any cream, vaseline etc. Seemed to work for him but cant recall if I ever tried it myself. Just used to check regularly and wipe them off as you spot them. Those that bit used to get scraped off with a knife - no doubt left a few amputated legs and heads in :-)

better to get rid of a few of them managers - that'll free up plenty more cash to sustain a proper management strategy run by someone who knows what they are talking about:wink:

mmm, sadly I think that this can be expanded to the broad sheets as well. And while we are at it, TV and internet. It is increasingly hard to get to the facts. High profile television presenters also seem more interested in making a name for themselves than being journalists. It is no wonder that fake news proliferates - the news industry has been overun by self serving ***** who are more interested in self promotion or profit - whether political or financial. As the saying goes - why let facts get in the way of a good story........

Probably the same as with a lot of these bugs - some are affected worse than others. Have had loads of bites, but no serious reaction - except to try and swat the barstewards when they actually bite

Just wondering what the smallest digger you would need to run a sensible flail?

if it was me - in the ground that is - I'd be happy for some different company. Probably a bit bored of the locals either side by now. That said, 18stoner could have shown the other cheek instead...

watching this one with interest as thinking of doing similar at some point in the next few years. Ferry to Spain is pricy, so hows about the shorter crossing to France, then through Normandy/Brittany down the west coast. Never been attracted to the south so would skip across to Verdon gorge then Italy then Croatia (dalmatian coast and Istria highly recommended by a Croatian doctor I worked with for a few years. Had to do a 2 day course in Zagreb last year found the people very friendly and relaxed. Everyone is really proud of their local foods and very keen for visitors to have a good experience) then into Slovenia and Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and back via Black forest. Would personally base myself in a few places and explore those areas well with limited time in the car then move onto the next with biggish jumps, perhaps broken up with specific things to do or see along the route. Most of us dont have the time to see it all in one go so a big loop with specific things/areas to do this time and get a feel for other places in between that you can come back to in a few years. Get the children involved in deciding what they want to do on this trip - mine loved the virtual exploring. Wanted to do everything of course so started with a long list which we whittled down to something sensible and do-able. This was not Europe - that will be the next trip. Take stuff to do in the car - games etc as they will get bored, but also try to knock off some millage when they can get some sleep perhaps. Say into the evening or early morning - 3 or 4 hours shared between you and the missus can knock off a fair few miles quickly on the motorways. Not been on the chunnel for a long time but they used to be very flexible about departures - if you pitched up early at the terminal and there was space they would just put you on. Think it is a bit more controlled now - ie cheaper deals are on fixed departures etc.