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cheers - well over budget - natch

Contract Administrator
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Contract_administrator_for_construction_contracts

Luckily Quad-Lock do a wildly overpriced brom specific mount ;-)

Yes I do CA a lot now (current office culture) and I would mostly rather not too but I can't lie that I don't find doing the official paperwork a lil' bit satisfying from a ... I am an actual grown up doing a thing...point of view - which is not usually how I feel.

If you are cranking out back extensions and lofts and you run multiple jobs a year and complete them regularly - fine you should roughly know.

But for design led stuff or Architects who do a range of things and complete maybe only a one resi job every 2 yrs - not so straight forward.

Fun fact - Their goo eats through stuff like plasterboard -like alien - I know this because I walked into my kids room one day to find 10 buzzy fuckers circling the hole they had come through 😱

Sounds like you’re doing it right.

The most painful jobs I’ve run have been where a contractor has turned out to have underpriced and is then doing everything then can to claw back - getting contractural and inflating claims. It becomes adversarial and toxic.

It’s a very good reason to find a niche sector and stick to a group of contractors you have worked with successfully in the past.

EC are a rare beast of a design led architecture firm who actually also build what they design via their contracting wing. So in theory they are a step ahead of a regular firm who will either have a QS do a cost review or make a broad guess. Or not - and wait till tender returns come back high er.

Even so I gather on this project the initial design needed to be revised to meet budget.

My point is that until you resolve any design to a reasonably high level of detail - you’ll never get a real idea of costs. And bearing in mind the design and planning process may take 6-12 months + it’s no surprise that often tenders come in more than expected at the outset.

Some clients will weather this because they want what they want - others can’t and have to compromise.

Within reason - If you start a conversation with a client by being negative about what they want to achieve given the budget - the risk is they go elsewhere to someone else who tells them what they want to hear.

I think it’s unrealistic to expect architects to also be cost consultants (and yet the RIBA domestic schedule of services seems to suggest we should be)Architects are not trained in this at any point.

Ta - yeah - wife has said it would be a shame not to have a clear window. There is a local place and seems like will only cost 20£ or so. tube strike next week may mean I can skip the commute and ‘work’ from home to get this pretty much finished fairly soon. Phew.

Legit best brom on here still !

Its a bit harder because the chain tensioner is in the mix. And the brakes don't have quick release so invariably you forget and have to deflate tire to get back in.

Ever come across needing to remove the spacer on these ? Had one fitted and noticed play couple week later. Shop have removed spacer to make it work and say the stack height must be wrong.

Edit - literally says this in the SJS product notes ! hah

Thanks - I think i'll keep it for the moment - avoids spending more money and uses up the scrap poly. Got a bit o wind back in my sails now the 'hard bits' are largely done.

Turns out cutting glass is not easy - maybe it was toughened or something but anyway - fucked it. Put some leftover poly in. Hinges work okay. Need to do an internal stop to make a seal and get a handle. Big effort today. Vibes are Peroni

Thanks 🙏 window in progress -basic tools bodge system like the door. So far so good.

Door works and handles on order. Window in progress. Vibes - Fred

Erm not specifically - plenty of fabricators/fitters will be able to do that. But I guess it’s down to finding one with a window system that can do bifold operation. It’s quite an unusual size I guess - in between door and window.

Door hung today.

I love my dewalt brushless drill and planned to stick with them for all new tools but recently needed a jigsaw and made the snap decision to switch to ryobi - cheaper and they have a big range. Now running a circular saw, jigsaw and cordless hoover. Totally fine for diy use.

Door fiasco update. I trimmed the door lining I had on hand to suit my framing without really thinking it would mean building a bespoke door to fit. I don’t have the tools or skill to do proper mortise and tenon joints etc so I decided to make a frame in two parts - softwood inside and hardwood out and glue and pin them together. I would then rebate the internal frame to hold a 16mm sheet of polycarbonate and add a glazing bead on the outside. So far so good until I fucked up routing the rebate. Rethinking things I pivoted to a thinner sheet of polycarbonate and bought some 2x1 hardwood to act as a chunky bead. Hard to explain really but anyway - I now have a door of sorts - needs some filling, sanding , finishing and then hinges handle and latch.

Nice 👍

Yo - M Bar silver over here if you want it DM.

Yeah a brush seal of some kind - you use them with regular zero thresholds

Bi fold window

Pivot door.