As a building surveyor who spends 90% of their working life getting people back into their houses, offices, shops, pubs, churches after floods, fires etc, most of the problems described above are more often than not simply down to the volumes of claims that arise after big flood events.

For flood victims, as a general rule, I would expect the best case timeline to be something like;

[from date of first notification to insurer]
1-2 days – loss adjuster appointed
3-4 days – loss adjuster visits property. Appoints drying company
1 week – surveyor appointed on larger jobs. Surveyor attends, arranges strip out work, coordinates drying company
2-6 weeks, drying largely complete, surveyor prepares spec for reinstatement, tenders issued to contractors
7-10 weeks, tenders back, contractors appointed, contractors lead time (nobody can start immediately…)
8-11 weeks – reinstatement starts
14-20+ weeks, most people should be choosing their carpets and ordering their new sofas by now.

If you are out for much more than 6 months then either something’s gone wrong with the process, or the house throws a curved ball at you (changes in water table / new rising damp problems etc),

By the way, the old fashioned view of loss adjusters trying to help the insurers wriggle out of claims or cut costs doesn’t ring true with me. All of the ones I have worked with go out of their way to help the insured and get their houses back to normal and genuinely work with them.

PS every flood victim asks me about ‘flood proofing’ their properties. The harsh reality is that if you’ve flooded once you’ll probably flood again inside 5 years, and no amount of self closing air bricks or sump pumps will help. Save the money and spend it on a new bike to cheer yourself up.

PPS when you are considering moving house, if the new house is on a road called Riverside View, Flood Lane, Watermeadow Drive etc etc just stop and think about that for a minute.

No it doesn’t sound like a party wall scenario, but it would still be a good idea to take a schedule of condition of your neighbours place to protect your interests.

It’s the Bogtrotters annual Xmas weekend at the Elterwater hostel, and Facebook reports suggest that all roads (yes, both of them) are blocked & gettng worse by the hour.

Fortunately the Britannia Inn has over a weeks worth of beer in the cellar, so they’ll be ok until at least lunchtime tomorrow 😮

What Stoner said.

And don’t forget, if the L.A. BCO insists on basing it on value of work, it is only works covered by building regs that should be considered. If you are spending £100k, knock off all non building regs work such as decorations, kitchen, bathrooms etc to get down to the building regs figure.

I always use approved inspectors for work projects, and it was a no-brainer to use them for my own extension / rebuild at home.

If they’re removing whatever insulation you have there already, there won’t be many solutions that don’t involve 100mm Celotex / Kingspan PIR board, unless they were planning on using the fancy Kingspan foil wrapped Quantum board, but in a domestic scenario that’s highly unlikely.

BTW, if you are increasing the finished height of the roof through additional insulation, get them to check that there aren’t any cavity trays that are now below your up stands, as otherwise you’ll get water discharging to the interior rather than exterior.

That is your best approach. IIRC, you can haven windows less than 1700 above the floor level if they are obscured / frosted. If it doesn’t get retrospective planning, you could apply an opaque film on the windows. (Which may stay on for a while, then start to peel off, say over the summer. Ahem.)

If the old use could was classified as ‘office’ then you can now convert to residential under permitted development (assuming not listed or in a conservation area) hence no need to apply. Although, if PP had been granted in the past, it’d be unusual not to be granted it again if needed.

The partition walls separating the customer areas from staff areas in banks are made from a ply – mesh – ply sandwich. I would imagine something like that but with a weathering external layer would be suitably tricky to get through.

A month ago I would have thought £950 was a lot, but after moaning to our IT bods that we never seem to have enough licences across our company, I found out that our firm is paying nearly £25,000 a year PER LICENCE just for the privelage of running Autocad 2015….

Not exactly money well spent IMO considering most people only use about 10% of its functionality…

Not really crippling the IPad, just locking out Safari. Pain in the arse.

I had the pleasure of knowing Neil for quite a few years as we both rode with the same club from around 07/08. Sadly I only saw him once in the last couple of years after I moved away, but Neil was one of the funniest, friendly people you could ever hope to meet. He was an extremely talented rider, and one of my fondest memories was trying to keep up with him on a geared bike at Drumlanrig as he sped round on his single speed.

You will be deeply missed. Thoughts are with his wife and young son.

I do slightly more miles than the OP using a company car, and I really wouldn’t want to be using a petrol. I’ve used a few of the VW ‘small petrol tfsi engine / Big engine feel’ golfs etc as courtesy cars, and they’d be fine around town but at motorway speed it was running at about 4500 revs and getting nowhere near the claimed mpg. It also sounded like it was being thrashed (when it wasn’t) too. Much as I despise weasly diesels, for me it’s a no brainier.

My brother was in a queue behind John Thomson (Fat Bob / Cold Feet) buying a porn mag in a newsagents in Didsbury.

Tony Blair officially opened a police station in Whitefield after a refurbishment that I’d been managing.

Tenuous I know…

Building Surveying CPD’s often have bacon butties or a decent sandwich spread 😀

Stoner / Camster – do you do any form of mentoring, APC assessing or mock panel interviews etc? If so, you can put that down as formal CPD. I managed to get my hours this year by attending the Wessex Briefing (8 hours of tedium) and the APC Assessor training.

There is also the free ethics module available on the RICS website.

Just after I graduated, a colleague received a formal reply from the RICS answering his question, along the lines of “we agree that watching Grand Designs can provide some limited useful elements of CPD, although we don’t feel that Changing Rooms and DIY SOS offer any tangible learning opportunities”. 😆

B&Q Value spade. Snapped on the very first dig.

We’ve been running a 330d Msport touring for the last 3 years (55 plate) and it’s been a pleasure to own. Reasonable mpg, bags of torque. Heavy steering and gear change can take a while to get used to, but a great car overall.

Only issue we’ve had is a headlight self levelling motor failed and a loose heat shield on the exhaust.

If you buy one that’s already levelled out depreciation wise, you get a hell of a lot of car for the money.

I watched one of them flying this evening over Ferndown. Amazing sight. Thanks for the PSA.

OP, whereabouts in the country are you?

Do you have Formula brakes? Has the metal brake pad retaining clip worn and bent back on itself, trapping it between the pad & rotor?

No big deal if it has, it will soon shear off.

‘Bikefax Morzine’ fitted the bill a few years ago. Probably been updated since I used it in 2009.

I’ve used a company at work called Helipics (I think) to do roof inspections of tall buildings with good results. Never asked them to use it internally though.

Our site was in Dorset but I think they would work nationally.

Do yourself a favour and leave an hour earlier. Try and get on the A34 by 8am, cruise for an hour to the M40 then rush hours nearly over and you should be ok. M6 toll every time. Average speed cameras for 8 miles on the M6 after the toll Rd, home & dry after that.

On the final day of a week with Riviera Bike we were joined by a group of French downhillers. Intent on preserving British honour, I set off from the top of the first run like a bat out of hell, and on approaching a tree that had fallen diagonally across the trail, I thought that I could easily fit beneath it if I crouched down over the bars, which I did manage to do. Unfortunately the elastocated mesh on my camelback didn’t, and as it snagged on the stump of a branch everything went into slow motion, as I initially parted company with the bike, only to be shot backwards through the air, rotating helplessly before slamming back into the tree.

I gave up trying to pretend to be a riding god after that incident. 😳

Cavity trays
Weep holes
Right angles
Plumb brickwork

Best of luck 🙄

I work in Colden Common, and there’s no sign of any flooding. Can’t help with route advice I’m afraid as I live to far away to bike to work now 🙁

Boroscope.

Should be fine. Drop me a line and I can out you in touch with a friend who guides there. I think he’s going next week and gets good rates with local uplift companies.

Hmm, my money was on it being Dave Hinde right up until you said they sell refurbed / second hand gear. Would have resulted in some epic STW pitchforkery had it been Mr Hinde. 😆

For a minute then I thought somebody had stolen my Zesty and taken it for a ride, as mine has exactly the same problem.

Mine seems to be due to worn bearings in the front wheel (Mavic), however I would have thought it would be fairly obvious if this was the problem on your bike, as there is a huge amount of play evident.

I think theres one in my shed at our old place in Sale you can have, except we’re living 240 miles away now. We’ve got house-sitters in who would be fine to let you in, as long as I let them know to expect a Benny Hill-alike 😀

This kind of scenario really boils my piss…. I’m a chartered building surveyor who has spent a fair amount of time grubbing around supposedly damp houses.

Any house that was built without an effective dpc can be expected to draw moisture up via capillary action, which will pass through the surface of the wall and evaporate. If you smother the wall with gypsum plaster and vinyl, non breathable paints, you will get visible signs of damp, flaking plaster, salts etc. if you let the wall breath, it will reach an equilibrium where it shouldn’t cause you any serious problems, with the only drawback being a requirement for periodic redecoration.

9 times out of 10, the occupiers contribute to ‘dampness’ (read ‘condensation’) through sealing their houses up with UPVC windows, cement renders etc, plus producing huge amounts of moisture vapour though drying clothes on rads etc, then wondering why they are getting mould on their ceilings, window reveals etc.

In my experience, the vast majority of specialist damp treatments are not necessary, and will ultimately lead to premature failure of brickwork as the silicone causes water to be held in low level brickwork, causing frost spalling etc.

Oh, one final thing, anybody using a damp meter should make it clear that the readings are the ‘wood moisture equivalent’, so sticking a probe in a wall and showing a moisture content reading of 80% doesn’t mean the plaster has a moisture content of 80%….. Doubt Timberwise or Peter Cox would explain that to you though…

Artisans of Devizes.

That is all.

Amongst others;

Sprinkling a handful of iron filings in the hair of the albino kid in chemistry class, then watching him wonder why his hair was turning orange at break time when he went out in the rain.

We bought a 55 reg 330d Msport tourer two years ago that only had 29k on the clock as my wife’s commuter / family car, and I borrow it at every opportunity 🙂

The Msport spec is pretty good, and with full leather, Xenons, Idrive (ok once you get used to it!), built in sat nav etc, its a very comfortable car to cover long distances in.

It hasn’t put a foot wrong, has sailed through its MOT’s, returns 40mpg and was perfect for long bike trips to Italy, Scotland etc, comfortably carrying 3 bikes on the roof.

The only downside is the boot isn’t massive, and of course the usual caveats about snow. I made the decision that I’d prefer to have a car that drove well for 364 days a year, and was left at home the day we get snow…

I know that remapping the 2.0 4 cylinder diesel engines can provide great performance, but IMO nothing can compare to the torque of the 6 cylinder engines. Shame you can’t get a 335d in manual as I’d get one tomorrow!

As it happens, ours may be for sale in a month if my wife’s gets a new job that comes with a car. Drop me a line if you are interested even though its not an auto.

One point that doesnt seem to have made it through all the usual BS above is that the woman in question abandoned the ride, made it safely back to the digs, and then chose to go out for a pootle later in the day during which she had the mechanical.

Truly STW at its worst.

Yep thats the one 😀

I test rode a 301 last week in the lakes for a day (quite probably the actual bike you are referring too)

I normally ride an Alpine, but I also liked the 301’s handling and light weight. It was set up in 160mm mode and coped pretty well at everything I could find to mince down.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the fact the bikes are ex-demo, they are in pretty good nick and don’t look like they’ve been thrashed.

Ive got a ti spring (550lb) off my Alpine’s CCDB that I could sell if you were interersted.

Emails in profile.

I visited Simon this afternoon and was pleased to see that he’s clearly making good progress physically, although he was clearly frustrated at still being nil by mouth (tried eating several times but causes him to cough severely).

He’s hoping to be moved to Lancaster tomorrow, after a camera procedure to check on his vocal chords as he’s finding it painful to talk loudly at present. He referred to the nurse who operates the throat camera as ‘the evil camera wielding woman’! The irony of SFB being harassed by a woman with a camera wasn’t lost on any of us 😀

Simon is aware of this thread, although he’s not in a position to read it at present, and showed great gratitude for all the get well soon wishes etc. He even had a typical cheeky grin at the mention of the ‘we never saw eye to eye but I wish you well’ type comments!

Where are you badllama?

I see plenty of people around here who I often think must be STW’ers….. (You know, a Skoda Octavia for the week and a T5 for the weekends! )