Summer house

[mailee]

For the past week I have been on site building this for a customer.

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I am happy to say it is almost finished as the neighbour had complained and we had to move it 1.5 mtrs away from his fence! He waited until we had the roof on to notify us of course. Well in the end the customer was very happy with it and we were only a little bit behind schedule. Returning tomorrow to fit the door trims and handles and clear the site. Oh and pick up the cheque.

[wine~o]

as the neighbour had complained and we had to move it 1.5 mtrs away from his fence

Why ?? What's the height ???

[mailee]

It is 3.02 mtrs to the apex, below the 4m rule but it had to be 1mtr away from the boundary. I rang the planning and building dep't to make sure.

[wine~o]

It is 3.02 mtrs to the apex, below the 4m rule but it had to be 1mtr away from the boundary. I rang the planning and building dep't to make sure.

Just checking.......

[Retired]

Hi,

Lovely neat job mailee and a credit to you. Did you also have to rearrange the foundations due to the neighbours complaint? We have some similar neighbours who complain about everything but do little themselves leading a sad life?

How is the inside finished; have you insulated it or added power points etc? Keep up the good work.

Kind regards, Col.

[Chop]

I would have put it on castors and slid it back towards the neighbours house everytime he went out. Small victories and all that.

Nice to see you enjoying the outdoors for a change Mailee.

[mailee]

Yes Col, We did have to add 6" to the foundations to allow enough clearance. This job set us back 1 day which seemed par for the course as the timber arrived almost a day late too! The inside has the usual vapour barrier, rockwool insulation and a breathable membrane. This is then covered with 6mm MDF. An electrician has fitted two double sockets and a light fitting to it. Unfortunately the light fitting she chose hung too low so will have to be exchanged, in the meantime he has fitted a standard pendant fitting. I like your thinking Chop.

[Retired]

Hi,

Top job both inside and out mailee; I wondered if you had sorted the inside out regarding insulation. It looks like you've just beaten the monsoon season. Isn't it strange these days that with modern transport and modern communications that little gets delivered on time? Our neighbour was telling me that he had booked a decorator to decorate three rooms in June and the decorator never arrived and hasn't even had the decency to offer an explanation. This same neighbour also booked a builder to sort out all the mastic to his window frames and to do some pointing arranging a date for the work to be carried out; it's a good job he's not holding his breath because no sign of the builder and no contact?

How does the modern tradesperson manage to do anything with cigarette in one and; mobile phone in the other whilst wandering around in the middle of the street; I see a lot of this on our street?

Kind regards, Col.

[The man with no aim]

Col. the modern tradesperson acheives the same amount of work in a day due to the advances in tools/fixings & knowledge, the anti-smoking lobby created the no-smoking issue, 60 years ago everyone smoked and didn't mind a tradesperson smoking whilst they worked, inside or out.

With regards to your neighbour, two separate subbies can't be wrong, I'd wage money he's a PITA to work for and hence why he has so many jobs not done, does he tell the tradesperson exactly how he wants the job done ? The other methodology is to tell a contractor what you want to acheive and WHY then ask them to tell you how they think its best to achieve it, this way you get the benefit of all the new tools/fixings & knowledge.

Col. I don't doubt your neighbour is a nice person but, considering his current issues with tradespersons a different approach maybe required.

[DIY_Johnny]

maliee, every time I see your posts I get jealous of all the nice well built things you have.

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks for your interesting reply The man with no aim. I of course fully agree about how tradespeople smoked years ago in fact they smoked a great deal more than now. Again I fully agree about modern tools and materials in general being superior.

One thing not available though years ago was a mobile phone. Bron and I live on a street where there are usually a few tradespeople working on our neighbours houses and it's amazing how many of these wander around in the middle of the street or on the pavement with their mobile phone welded to their ear; perhaps I've got it all wrong and these tradespeople are ordering goods and materials or arranging deliveries etc but discussions about nights out and football don't seem to fit in with work somehow? Just my take on what I see and hear and certainly no offence meant to anyone.

We have two very close neighbours who have had lots of broken promises regarding tradespeople not arriving as arranged or not arriving at all. Both neighbours are decent and fair with funds to pay the bills. It would be good to hear other views on this?

It's interesting though to watch work being done to the exterior of our neighbours houses and how its done? A few years ago our neighbour directly across the street from us decided to have his tarmaced over concrete drive ripped up and be replaced with blocks. A guy spent two full weeks with a jack hammer attacking the reinforced thick concrete; this guy really did graft and he had to load the skips manually; he was left on his own to do this work whilst his boss would visit now and again to look at progress. The drive is a good two cars in width and not much longer than a normal car so the drive isn't what I would call big by any means; this work was carried out in hot sunshine and we felt sorry for the guy grafting. Now to the point; given the size of the drive and it taking two weeks to remove the concrete manually wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to simply bring a "Bobcat" in? The same neighbour had a pitched new roof installed over his garage and was telling me that our houses and bungalows had inferior rafters to support the weight of modern tiles these rafters being the usual 4" x 2"; the same builder who did the drive did this job and I believe 8" x 2" rafters were installed; the new roofline over the garage is like an ocean wave; the picture below is looking down on the roof so doesn't do it justice. (click to enlarge for a better view). True stories I'm adding just for interest. Not all tradespeople are equal?

Kind regards, Col.

New garage roof and drive.

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[ayjay]

One thing not available though years ago was a mobile phone. Bron and I live on a street where there are usually a few tradespeople working on our neighbours houses and it's amazing how many of these wander around in the middle of the street or on the pavement with their mobile phone welded to their ear; perhaps I've got it all wrong and these tradespeople are ordering goods and materials or arranging deliveries etc

Some of them probably are ordering materials: mobile phones are just an excuse to be disorganised until you actually need something or someone, (and some of them just can't keep their mouth shut for more than two minutes).

[mailee]

Thanks guys. i returned to the job today to finish off the trim on the doors and make sure it was water tight. Took a couple more shots of the build although I have had to order the handles and will be fitting them next week.

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