Re: Huf Haus on last night's Grand Designs

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am sure they insualted what they could, but the best glass is three to

6 times as bad as regulation wall insulation.

[Andrew]

In article , IMM writes

All the high-tech stuff is going to India, China, Malaysia, Germany, US All the cars/trucks are made abroad (bar specialised low-volume) What are all those degree 'qualified' people going to do ?.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Again, a cultural

Old Jewsish joke

"Come in meet my family, this is my eldest sone Elias, He is such a boy. He is a concert pianist and travels all over the world..And this is mty second son, Noah. What a boy. He is a brain surgeon., I am the prodest momma in Golder Green..and this is my third son. What can I say - Thomas, he is a tailor. But he feeds the whole family!"

[The Natural Philosopher]

In germany, you don't do DIY much. Certainly no th electrcal or plumbing kind. Why should you? You can get a hghly skilled man in who can do it in one quarer the time you could to a proper standrad, for not very much. And you have adequate income as an intelligent professional, to pay him to do it.

Not that I like Germany much as a place to live.

[Michael McNeil]

Which is after all, all that a Tudor Timber frame was.

Glass does allow the price to drop considerably as it is cheaper than bricks and mortar. Modern glass manufacture and today's tech in other areas have put the old worries about glass well away.

The builders were far better organised than the TV crew too so, howzat for incompetence? I liked the attention to detail at the end. Washing their vans. To be clean makes the journey home so much nicer.

[Andrew]

In article , Owain writes

No, it was featured on great comedy sitcoms last weekend, they only made one series and the Germans took all *except* for the obvious one.

[Michael Mcneil]

What reputation since we gave the empire away and resolved to wipe our own arses we have never been right. My question is how long must we put up with your lazy posting? Running through all that trash to get to the next button is a pita.

(Bear that in mind next time you start throwing things.)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed. I employed a graduate from an Indian university in electronic engineering.

It ws patently obvious within a day that she had never used a soldering iron in her life.

She ended up more or less as a prodction line rework and test engineer. Nowhere near as qualified as the Hatfield polytechnic sandwich students we had, one of whom is now running a very successful wlectrical installation company.

I have emplyed three o four hatfield poly people. Very well trained practical intelligent people. Infinitely more useful than a comp sci grad.

Thats what we need - peple who know one end of a sldering iron from teh other, who are familiar with industrail standrds and practices, and who have been taught to do practically useful things. Not people burdened down with half understood theory, all of which can be acquired later if ever necessary - who have never done anything of practical use in their lives...

Its a simple matter of teh facts. Rynaiar has laid down te gauntlet vis a vis disabled people. Whaich is preferbale, a disabled guy has to pay

36 quid to use a wheelchair, or everyone pay an extra 50p on their fare?

Fare enuff, I say. It costs money to make special treatment for special people.

One has to balance that with the overall social desirability of having that happen.

We cold require every aircraft landing in teh UK be equpped with sufficient technology as to allow it to be flown by a mentally subnormal paraplegic. Ther are those in the disabled lobby who would contest that any other course is unfair discrimination.

From a certain perspective, they are right.

The COST of so doing tho would simply burden th erest of society with a huge and unacceptable taxaton regime.

I happen to think you are right. It is not POSSIBLE to NOT discriminate on many many grounds against people who for one reason or another are naturally less suited to do certain things than others. Legislation wshold confine itself to making sure thay have SOME opportuniy, not the SAME opprtunity.

In other words, you can't make it fair, so stop wasting money trying. Just concentate on making it better. Whe making it more fair makes it worse - i.e. down to the fantasy level of feeding all intelligent people drugs, and removing the limbs of the able bodied and crippling their spines....yup. That is now FAIR. Its also manifestly WORSE all round.

This current government is on that fantasy track.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed, to raise the standards of Britsh building would be to render huge quantitoes of shovel leaners and weheelbarrow pushres - not t mention temporary traffic signal operators - unemployable, and this rase the specter of mass unemployment again.

I mean, what chance would IMM have at a real job?

No wonder he is Laber to the core...

The real purpose of dumbing down the education system is to produce Votahs whose only chance of anything is as a public servant doing a make believe job and utterly beholden to the taxpayer to stay alive. :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Conversely, muy sister purchased some 'cheap units' in germany when we deicded to revamp my ageing mothers kitchen in 200. They are shabbier than the worts B & Q trash, the plumbing fitments were non standard to UK plumbing, and the worktops of inferior quality.

You CAN get good prices on decent stuff in teh UK, just not at the sheds mostly.

you CAN get utter crap in Germany and France, that is if anything worse than the UK.

My house, about twice the size of the Huf Haus, built by cowboys and some decent carpenters in a very inneficient manner, still cost about the same. It took nearly two years to do it, which is a disgrace and a total reflection on the so called builder who started it, and my own desire to finish it myself,prpoperly, slowly and carefully, after I fired him.

its not so trendy, its very traditional, but its worth somewhere between

700k and a million.

I would not expect to sell that huf haus for more than 600k on that plot. It probably does NOT represent value for money in resale terms, tho the couple in it are obviously pleased with it, and it went up fast.

Time and time agian I have looked at getting structures prefabricated elsewhere and installing them. In most cases it simply does not offer any savings except in overall project timescales, agains two skilled blokes chipping away and nailing.

The cost of the factory, saws, and the requirements to keep it loaded raise the price of pre-fabbing to equal the two fully occupied self employed blokes. I tried it with an ok prefab timber frame. Same price or slightly more. I tried it with an oak styaricase. Same price, or slightly more. Only winows and doors made sense. and the last time they made the doors as well. Costing it out including fitting, against the pre-fabbed ones - no ruddy difference again.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Is very simple. You give them a test, and watch what they do.

It's been done with monkeys, why not humans?

You put the banana under a flower pot, and see if they lift it up. This is taken as evidence of the ability to imagine the unseen banana under the flowerpot, and formulate a plan of action to get to it.

Applied to comp sci graduates from un snotty unis the usual response is 'thats not fair, you didn't tell us, and the government ought to tell us, that its possible to put bananas under a flower pot', followed by a claim for constructive dismissal and discrimination against the terminally stupid.

[IMM]

The in-fill insulted walls panels are most likely cheaper than glass, also vastly increasing the U values. There is no bricks and mortar used.

[IMM]

Yes, no blacks to do it eh.

[IMM]

Pilkington K are quicker., as St. Helens is quite near, and probably cheaper too.

[IMM]

You mean low grade programming.

We now have a massive service industry.

[Andrew]

In article , IMM writes

Pilkington don't make windows !, they just supply the glass. And St. Helens isn't near Croydon anyway. I did say tinted glass, so to replace with the same tint you have to go back to original maker (Belgium).

[Andrew]

In article , IMM writes

So all these graduates will need degrees in miss-selling (mortgages), spotting-shifty-characters (security guard), hygiene (fast food sales) or practical-stupidity (B&Q)

[IMM]

The moral of the story is buy local. Belgium is not local.

[Andy Hall]

Actually it is. From where I am, and I don't live in Kent, Belgium is about 140 miles. St Helens is 210 miles. In terms of time, it's about the same......

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[PoP]

Are you suggesting that IMM would be knowledgeable enough to lift the flowerpot?

I think you are more likely to get 3 hours worth of explanation about how he doesn't like bananas! ;)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.