The House Projects Thread

[Jobbo]

175 homes would typically result in about 90 two-way movements during rush hour, usually split around 1/5 inbound in the AM and 4/5 outbound, and vice versa in the evening. Hard to say whether that's going to create any difficulty without knowing just how busy the main road it, but I know of similar sites where it isn't.

It will have been assessed so as Simon suggests, might be worth a read of the planning docs.

That’s interesting - I’d have expected way more than one car movement for every two houses. A new estate is generally going to be populated by working families so I’d have expected more like two per house. But it’s absolutely not my area and it’s very much yours, Mike, so I’m not disagreeing at all - just somewhat surprised at the average.

[240PP]

I’m surprised too. Lots of people commuting plus school runs. But I have zero knowledge on this and it’s Merv’s business so thanks for the info!

Having pondered it I don’t think it’s a big problem for us due to WFH and travelling outside of rush hour if we do go into work. The school is actually walking distance too.

The location is good. I’d walk to Bath Rd and the centre, I very rarely use a car around town and I’d probably cycle if time was limited. It’s a bit further out than I am now but not by too much and anything 4 bed with parking for one car let alone two in town is daft money, if you can find somewhere.

[jamcg]

Ingleby Barwick near me is a huge estate- was biggest in Europe at one point, not sure of that still stands

It has 3 ways out of it, 2 of which eventually merge into the same roadway

One of the ways you pass the secondary school- at school times that way is a no go so look at any planned schools of there is any

The other problem is the knock on to main roads. The a174 nearby is horrendous at rush hour as it feeds a large amount of Middlesbrough, all of Redcar/saltburn and ultimately Ingleby and Thornaby, eventually ending up at traffic light roundabouts at either end

Inglby is massively bigger than your development, but I guess what I’m trying to say is instead of focusing on the estate, look at the wider picture, if there’s lots of smaller developments around, plus existing towns, you may find you get out of the estate ok, but drive straight into a traffic jam once you’re out

[Swervin_Mervin]

175 homes would typically result in about 90 two-way movements during rush hour, usually split around 1/5 inbound in the AM and 4/5 outbound, and vice versa in the evening. Hard to say whether that's going to create any difficulty without knowing just how busy the main road it, but I know of similar sites where it isn't.

It will have been assessed so as Simon suggests, might be worth a read of the planning docs.

That’s interesting - I’d have expected way more than one car movement for every two houses. A new estate is generally going to be populated by working families so I’d have expected more like two per house. But it’s absolutely not my area and it’s very much yours, Mike, so I’m not disagreeing at all - just somewhat surprised at the average.

It's everyone's first assumption - usually the first comment we get if doing a public consultation event. "Every house has at least 2 cars so 150 houses means 300 cars all trying to get out in the morning!" And usually the starting point of a "discussion" about how I'm obviously wrong Typically finished with a remark about how "it's different around here though".

It's actually falling as well. I've calculated some rates recently where the average has now dipped below 0.5/dwelling in the peak hours. And that's two-way movements i.e. arrivals + departures. It seems odd at first, but if you walk around an estate at that time you quickly see just how many cars are parked on the drive still.

[Jobbo]

It's actually falling as well. I've calculated some rates recently where the average has now dipped below 0.5/dwelling in the peak hours. And that's two-way movements i.e. arrivals + departures. It seems odd at first, but if you walk around an estate at that time you quickly see just how many cars are parked on the drive still.

The problem with these people is that they don't want to work

Good insight into how people live these days though. There will be a proportion of retired people, and some WFHers, and some who don't work a traditional 9-5. Fascinating to see the proportion which drive during rush hour is as low as that.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I've been doing this job for nearly 25years now and rates haven't dropped as much as you'd think. Averages used to be around 0.6-0.7/dwelling when I started out, held at just over 0.55 for most of the last decade, but now low 0.5 to high 0.4. It does make you wonder what everyone's doing - there can't be that many retirees/working from homers.

Another oddity (honest I'll stop after this! ) is that a recent look at rates in more isolated villages shows an even lower rate - high 0.3/low 0.4. We assume that in areas with fewer facilities and public transport perhaps trips are more efficient i.e. people will wrap multiple trip purposes into 1.

[integrale_evo]

Seems sensible, I’d also suggest more older people live in smaller villages and either don’t drive or don’t drive regularly and also don’t commute or do the school run.

I know a lot of people who live in town as they have children and want to be close to school, their friends, playgrounds etc but long term would like to move somewhere more rural.

I’m in a village approx 4 miles from a supermarket and a lot of the time that’s enough to stop me just popping to the shop for something unless it’s urgent.

[Beany]

A quick google got me this:
https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/busin ... tatistics/

Which suggests some interesting changes.

UK remote and hybrid work ONS overview

In 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic, just 4.7% of UK employees worked from home (WISERD)
By April 2020, 46.6% of employees did at least part of their job from home (ONS)
86% of those did so specifically because of the pandemic (ONS)
In 2022, a quarter (25%) of UK employees worked from home at least some of the time (ONS)
13% were working from home all of the time in 2022 (ONS)
More than one quarter of working adults (28%) were hybrid working in the Autumn of 2024 (ONS).

and

Fully remote vs office vs hybrid working in the UK

Between 6 November and 1 December 2024 (lastest government data), working arrangements among UK workers were as follows (ONS):
Only worked from home: 13% (no change from the previous month)
Travelled to work and worked from home (hybrid): 27% (down from 28% in the previous month)

Distribution of days worked from home over a week (ONS):
Monday: 58%
Tuesday: 67%
Wednesday: 64%
Thursday: 63%
Friday: 65%
Saturday: 6%
Sunday: 7%

I expect the likes of @Swervin_Mervin and his professional cohort find this nothing new (because it affects their plans), but even with the number of people I've spoken to more recently (since COVID) who have started mentioning that they're not in the office that day I thought partial WFH might be 10%, not ~25% (assuming I'm reading that right)

Fulll time WFH being more like 13% is a surprise too - apparently I'm not that special

[Mito Man]

A small project to fix the garage roof. It had open rafters, was not insulated and bits of sand/grit kept falling from the underside of the roof. Just annoying in general.


Started off boarding it up and left 2 slots for access. This alone made a huge temperature difference.


Then put up acoustic panels. They’re the easiest and quickest method I could think of.

Overall a worthwhile improvement.

[Simon]

Looks excellent but doesn't the sand/grit now just collect on the back of those panels? So you get a face full if you take them down to access the void?

[Delphi]

My old driveway gates had seen better days (mainly because the idiot that installed them hung them the wrong way round ).


I looked at replacing them but they were coming in at well over £500 which I thought was a tad steep considering. I sketched out a simple design and order some wood from my local Travis Perkins - total cost £130. Used my sliding mitre saw to cut it to length and fashion the half lap joints.



I re-used the existing gate posts and hinges as they were still in really good shape. Test mounted the frames



Then took them down and clad them in feather edge fence board





I've got some stain coming tomorrow and a locking long throw latch, so I reckon another day's work tops to get everything boxed off. Overall I'm pretty happy with the result.

[Rich B]

lol - yep - they were very upside down! who was the idiot?

[integrale_evo]

I used to have to cut everything by hand and hated the thought of any woodwork, still did an ok job making some garage doors but wasn’t fun.

Recently knocked up and extension for the side of my shed and with a mitre saw ( just a battery one, nothing big and fancy ) only took 30mins to knock up the frame for a door. Bit of a revelation being able to just cut 5 pieces and have them screw together nice and square, then just drop the diagonal risers in with no adjustments or swearing

Like a lot of tools, one of those ‘why didn’t I buy this sooner’ moments

[Delphi]

lol - yep - they were very upside down! who was the idiot?

Previous owner of the house, I assume.

[Delphi]

I used to have to cut everything by hand and hated the thought of any woodwork, still did an ok job making some garage doors but wasn’t fun.

Recently knocked up and extension for the side of my shed and with a mitre saw ( just a battery one, nothing big and fancy ) only took 30mins to knock up the frame for a door. Bit of a revelation being able to just cut 5 pieces and have them screw together nice and square, then just drop the diagonal risers in with no adjustments or swearing

Like a lot of tools, one of those ‘why didn’t I buy this sooner’ moments

The saw was an essential part of the build. Depth stop made half lap joints a piece of piss. I also remembered that so long as the frame was square, cutting the angles for the brace pieces was a piece of piss as the angles had to add up to 90 degrees, so cut one angle, then put the piece against the fence with the angle I'd just cut and set the saw back to 0 degrees and it'll be bob on.

[dinny_g]

Whenever I need to do work like that, I think about getting a chop saw...

Then I remember I'm a fucking idiot and need all of my fingers...

So I measure everything out, pop over to my mate and he makes all the cuts for me.

Know your limitations gents.

(Sterling work though Delphi - very nice little job)

[jamcg]

Yes kids, chop saws are indeed dangerous!

IMG_6208.jpeg (200.31 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

Used all my luck up once, after a cut the guard didn’t return and grabbed my workpiece and the still spinning blade caught my arm quite lightly, still left a cracker of a scar but thankfully didn’t do much

[Mito Man]

Wet wood is a fvcker for that. You cut it, it releases tension and can grab the blade quite frequently.

[dinny_g]

You’re not convincing me to get one here lads…

[Mito Man]

Honestly I've had more injuries using a handsaw because your other hand is so much closer to the blade. I imagine if you use the clamps that come with a mitre saw you can't possibly hurt yourself unless you really try. I think the chainsaw is the only tool which has made me believe in god/angels/higher beings