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bulboy

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About bulboy

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    uk
  • About Me
    Civil engineer&DIYer cause they work together
  1. Just as an idea: THIS house is about £100K in cost at 233 square meters. Which is slightly less than your 3000 sq feet. But I think it will fit right into your rural setting. This is just an example and result of a quick search for holz blockhouse (or timber log house) Apart from that, a typical side extension to a three bedroom 1930s style house to a friend has cost him £50K. About 2.5m wide and about 8 m long. Another neighbour is extending so may poke my nose around. Bulk part of the cost will be labour cost. typically 150-300 a day per trade person. Materials: get a self build account with one of the building stores like Keyline, Jewson, Travis or better some locals. Prices are very VARIABLE and noone will give you a straaight answer straight away. I hate the whole thing about having to phone everytime I need a nail to make sure the price is fair. Plenty of good folks on mytrader site. This is where I got my electrician after all locals quoted twice as much. All done to the regs and certificate issued.
  2. I just returned from a weeks holiday in Poolgooth (close to St Austell). I told my boss I am staying in UK. It turns I was abroad? Never noticed anything in cornish apart from settlement names along the road which were strange to the eye. And all these St this, St that. Apart form that it was a nice area to switch off the daily grind. For first time I was off the grid in years from day one. Total relaxation. BTW, if you need a peacefull accomodation, google St Margarets holiday park (ST again). I was surprised in the good sense, expected less.
  3. You may wish to check the insulated structural panels as well. Quick to build. Don't know about the cost though. Its a matter of calling companies as most will not publish price which I find frustrating.
  4. Recently my neighbours' (about 70 retiree, living alone in a council 3 bed detached house) fence got two posts broken by the wind. Fence is 1.2m high with 3m horizontal rails and vertical planks. As its on our south side it keeps a narrow band in constant shade. I spoke to her and offered to take down the fence panels, repair the posts and reinstate the fence with green chainlink. That would dry the land and stop the rot. Both benefiting. Initially she said yes, then I moved to buy the chainlink and hardware plus two posts. On the next weekend I went to give a customary call that I will be starting. She replied: Oh, I want my fence. I paid 2k in 2000 to put it up. You can build your chainlink on your side. Obviously they value their values. P.S. I have 20m roll of chainlink, coated in green PVC with cable and hundreds of staples. Will sell at just under cost
  5. Sometimes its worth looking beyond the constrains of own media pool. a bit of tosh Some more tosh Even more I will refrain from providing links in bulgarian and macedonian because of the language barrier...
  6. Not necessarily illegal. A lot of Macedonians could claim bulgarian citizenship based on links to Bulgaria, where ones grandparents were Bulgarians. That effectively gives them Bulgarian passport and with it EU rights.
  7. saw this on rightmove following a facebook thread
  8. Go to the house, switch off the juice a the main unit, then unscrew one of the sockets and look inside. You should be able to see if its new or not, or ask a spark to come and confirm. Some houses had conduits built in the walls, so a rewire is to tie the new cable and pull it with the old one from the other end. No need to chase walls. Still remember rewiring a school with me dad, where someone drove a nail through the conduit luckily missing the wires. And I was curious why the flipping wire does not want to pull.
  9. The chefs will buy one of those robots, stick it in a van and sell direct to you. Like fish and chips. Why going to McRobots when it can come to you. Can it be adopted to have a fish and chips attachment?
  10. A year ago I had to go on long commute. 100+ miles one way, took minimum 2 hours one way in good traffic, most of the returns I would hit the traffic jam at northmapton which appears to be a permanent feature on the southbound at evenings. It was a transition between projects. My current one finished, next phase of M25 was not due in the next two months, so I was offered a temporary place on the A46 Newark road scheme. It was supposed to be for a month. Ended 6 months commuting and putting 0900-17-1800 ish. To be fair the company offered temporary accommodation. I preferred to get home and see me kids. Even just to put them to bed we still had some quality time. And I enjoy driving. You get used to it. Almost sure I spotted some regulars too on the M1 northbound Could not chat though. Now I am back to M25, 30 miles commute takes a bloody hour with a quarter sitting on the approach to M25 on A41. This should have been transformed with direct access onto M25 but hey, land price too expensive
  11. Years of watching, my thoughts as follows: - cost is from initial depositing of the IDEA to build something; - Pre design costs: =Public consultation. This alone involves many experts to collate all the information about the area where something is to be built. Relative or not. Studies to calculate (Guess) the impact of the something to various other things: the air quality, land contamination, sound contamination, impact on newts and other species, the taste of the tea within 5 miles. you get my drift. And this takes place years before estimated start date. = Initial surveys (the cost may be taken by the bidders, they need surveys to plan and make their bids = initial design concept. more experts on what shade of grey the something should be - Main design. more experts, more consultations, changes to initial design - Construction phase: = more surveys to check if design is buildable = more changes to unbuildable or unsuitable design = land price for land taken. At market price. = Supply chain costs: most construction workers want between 150 and 200£ a day. Try to book a builder. Distributing risk along the chain leads to sub; sub; sub; subcontractors...each wants a living on top of the initial wage and each prices in the risk. = materials: sometimes I wonder why Wickes is cheaper than Travis Perkins even with trade discount for the same bag of sand = HEALTH AND SAFETY: big cost to comply, introduce safe techniques, materials and tools. Cost to police the rules. You cannot climb up the ladder to drive that nut . It will be either a bespoke premanufactured unit or hire an aluminium tower. No shortcuts. (And I do agree with most of the H&S arrangements, the sensible ones). = overheads: training, office, staff, CPDs, work lunches, etc. = rectification of defects or outstanding works, cause we need to beat the program. then we will polish it off. = agencies: its cheaper to have agents at twice the cost than having an employee. and at the end of the project you wave the agent good bye. And even if the migrants are paid cheap, the agency still bills the next in chain a normal wage. - post construciton: feasibility studies, impact verification, remedials, restorations etc. More experts. and probably all the above already mentioned by other members.
  12. This whole issue about bulgaria and romania is so politically driven. Knowing Bulgarians (Roma excluded) if they come they are coming to work. It will be young, and healthy people so pressure on NHS will be minimal. Not to mention you get better health care back in bulgaria by getting a proper specialist to look at you, rather than a gp (paracetamol for a week is cure of all aches). Instead of waiting to be seen by dentist in six months one would go back for holiday and get sorted for fraction of the cost. And most bulgarians are too proud to claim benefits. It does not look good with the family and neighbours. Rather they want to earn big bucks (relative to income there) to buy a flashy iphone, a BMW or mercedes to show wealth. A lot of the young bulgarians are either college or university graduates and usually work hard. The other aspect which is a national characteristic is that bulgarians do not get very well together. Its very like keeping up with Joneses, And a bit suspicious of each other. Quite opposite as to the Poles who stick together and gather in clusters. Now, bulgarians like freebies. And if it was not for the huge media advertisement not many would know about the benefits in UK. At the same time the possibility of earning good wage is more tempting as this gives opportunity for much better life. And life in bulgaria was not great in the past 20 years. And as we talk about benefits. How much you would be getting should you be able to claim. Will this sustain a lifestyle or you will just get by? This is not aspiring prospect. Just the other day I did some calcs and my expenses for a month are inching towards 1700 a month all in (mortgage, car, fuel, services, food, school, entertainment). I doubt anyone in their right mind would like to come and live off benefits. Going back to a small proportion of the bulgarian and romanian population. The Roma. This is where a certain amount of doubt as to the purpose and lifestyle may come to light. The history in bulgaria shows that most of them live on social security without job (or lowest paid jobs), their children drop off early from school, forced marriage at early age as low as 11, nomadic lifestyle, unable to integrate in the host country of residence, high proportion of crime, mainly theft and pickpocketing. Greatly persecuted in each country of residence, especially the former eastern block. references for your read and making your own assumptions: "Wiki and look very careful a the map. My view is that from next year the circles will start to equalize around europe. map Please, note the last paragraph in the wiki about a democratic country, who was a fierce defender of the Roma in bulgaria, with many recomendations issued to the bulgarian government to integrate this part of the population in the past. To finish off, there are decent roma who want to work, earn, study. But just too few and not enough. There was that table of number of immigrants form various countries since 1950s. I think UK has a much bigger problem with migration form the common wealth than A2 but time will show
  13. I would rather agree to stick to your guns, rather than put the additional 5k. It may be perfect house for you but that's probably a bit influenced by your eagerness to get it. You will find faults laters down the line. try to think how much 5k would change in the house after you get it for 115. For me that's for example (circumstances may not be right) a brand new boiler and central heating throughout with spare change for partial rewire. Or it may pay for some clever storage under the stairs and some insulation here and there, it will be enough to kit out LED bulbs, new lick of paint. My kitchen (without appliances) came to 2200 and my labour to fit it, so...decision time. On other hand not so perfect house in a bit of need of repair may be a better option as you can modify and adjust it to your needs, rather than getting to live with silly small deficiencies. There is plenty of things that can be done without going structural to change small bits, like reversing doors, or removing a larder, putting some comms cables in the wall if you are into it, or new sofa...throw away the carpets and install tiles in the bathroom...decision time.
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