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Have you been in touch with the tilers, or was this DIY? I have not used fix-a-floor but there should not be problems with the tiles over such a large area. If it were me I would do a small area and monitor before taking on the whole floor.
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How to build a stud wall around a small window
SimonD replied to cowboy25's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Is this timber frame wall a load bearing wall or is it just internal framing? If it's load bearing then you really want to follow standard timber framing methods. I would almost always use the 3rd option from left, but sometimes use option 1 if short of cls. -
Slow progress towards a new home
Mr Punter commented on BotusBuild's blog entry in South East Cornwall Low Energy build
You did well to ditch the green roof. Unless the planners included a condition that the house could not be occupied until you have written approval for the roof as built there should not be an issue. -
anything is on the table, im only in the early stages here but choices are limited in such a room, anything considered though. The only constants are the soil location and the window. Ive made those changes, i did have the tap in the stud wall, the renderer took liberties and changed it for some reason. I didnt consider the condensation on the brick, cheers for that. I have a section of exposed brick in all the rooms ive worked on so far, bit of a call-out to the original house which i have essentially carved up. I would like to keep that, maybe an insulated board and then original bricks cut into slips...
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Slow progress towards a new home
BotusBuild posted a blog entry in South East Cornwall Low Energy build
Well, it's been nearly 9 months since we moved in, and I didn't leave a list last time, so here are the parts of the last list that still needed work. As you will see there still remains a lot of stuff to do. You'll soon learn why they're still here 😞 more stone work - still on the list but much reduced rainwater soakaways - still on the list rainwater collection system - decided after deliberating a lot to leave this out for now as it's not a condition backfilling - partly done, still on the list concrete lego brick retaining wall - delivered, to be fitted Flooring - en-suite and "attic" room left to do Wood cladding - still on the list Fit internal doors - one last door to do Fit en suite - basin and bog outstanding Build MY garage - still on the list A green roof system, because its on the planning application, and may be required for certificate of completion (unless someone can enlighten me as to how to avoid this, and be able to delay the installation) - still on the list, but good news on the completion element for this below. Back in August 2025 we moved into a building site, and worked hard to get the remaining bedrooms completed before our first Christmas for which SWMBO had invited MY family. Not sure whether to label this action as bullying, blackmail, fraud, spousal abuse or whether another specific crime was committed. But, we got there, and a fantastic Christmas was had. Also during this time, we managed to secure a buyer for our old house. We had decided to stop calling it home to start the process of removing 29 years of emotional attachment to the place in which we brought up our two children, and in December we removed pretty much all the remaining furniture in readiness for Christmas and what we thought would be a completion on the sale in January/February of 2026. You may recall me asking questions about a retaining wall which was holding up the new buyers getting a mortgage. Now, this wall was not a part of the house but on our boundary about 2 feet or so away from the side wall of the house. It has a crack in it and the lender wanted it repaired. We had requested an SE to come give us a report, hopefully to tell the lender to stop being a d1ck, and we had arranged to meet them on the 6th January. We arrived the day before to find it difficult to open the front door because there was some plasterboard behind it which had come from the landing ceiling at the top of the stairs. This had been caused by a leaking water pipe in the loft. Subsequent water bills showed that 28m3 of water had come through the ceiling - we now had a major water leak insurance claim repair to deal with. And the upshot of the SE visit the following day was they said it did need fixing. B0110cks!! So, now instead of a completion in Jan/Feb, we were looking at a completion in 3-6 months. We then found out that the retaining wall was our liability, and not the people who owned the land behind it. This put a huge dent in our plans. Everything we had planned to do in the first half of 2026 (work on the house and a ski trip) went on hold as we got someone in to repair the wall (in March, once the rain had stopped) and to deal with the insurance company who thought it was a great idea to appoint two separate companies to complete the drying out/repair work - WHAT COULD GO WRONG? We sat down, and reworked our plans for work on the house. This has been limited to work that we could carry out with little spend because either it was something outside in the "garden" (read mud bath), we already had the materials on site, or the materials required were not hugely expensive. What have we been up to in between complaining to the insurance company about the lack of co-ordination and progress (WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?) We bought parts to start finishing off the rainwater drainage pipework, which also allowed us to do our first bit of hard landscaping, some steps down to one side of the house, and starting off the path as well. We still had a lot of stone cladding to complete, so once the weather improved, I set to completing most of this. There are still a few odd bits and pieces to do once the balcony and connecting bridge have been completed (one of the large ticket items that is on hold). The other main area of work has been the en-suite bathroom, where we spent a little bit of savings and created a service wall on two sides, got it plastered and painted, and also installed the walk-in shower. After a bit of back and forth, SWMBO agreed to a wall hung toilet pan (thank you to those who responded to my cry for help). So, the en-suite requires said bog, a basin and vanity, tiling behind the basin, flooring and a door to be completed. All materials on site or on order, and the plan is to get on with that over the next few weeks. So, where does all this leave us? Well, the bits of good news we've had:- - our BCO visited just before Christmas and gave us a list of things he'd like to see before he issued a completion certificate, and on that list found that the green roof was not required to be fitted, but just some documentation about what we proposed to put up there. I know what many will think, but we will probably still install one at some point, but it does mean we can delay installing it until after completion. - I mentioned we secured a buyer for the old house. Well, they have stuck around through all our tribulations and we will be completing on June 5th. Come mid June we should have the following major items to complete, and the funds to do them: Balcony including balustrade Connecting bridge to balcony Balustrade by internal stairwell Exterior porch floor rainwater soakaways - still on the list concrete lego brick retaining wall and backfilling Flooring - "attic" room left to do Wood cladding Finish the en suite - as outlined above Build MY garage - still on the list A green roof system Once all that is done we might also be ready to clear the site of the touring caravan we used for the first four years of weekends and holiday time we spent building the house and a lot of left over building materials. I'm glad to say there is very little of that as I resisted the "order 10% more than you need" rule, and am pleased to say it only bit me twice in extra delivery charges. This has meant we have incurred zero cost for skips/clearaway etc. and, no, we have not buried it all in a very big hole in the 3 acre field we bought. There's still a lot to do, but as we approach June 5th with lightened hearts, we have a much clearer view of some form of end game, with may hours to be spent creating a new garden around our NEW HOME!! -
Migration was relatively simple . But now I’ve got more ram want to be like a sad YouTube video and compare gpt120b against mlx 120b for speed . In theory looking for 20%+ as a pessimistic hope !
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I know this topic is mostly talking about waste but you did mention design as well. I have a some thoughts with the above if you don't mind: 1. Overall I like it. The window cill/shelf aligning is great. Maybe could carry that line through the nooks as well? 2. Medicine cabinet seems wrong. Maybe a thinner one mounted a bit higher to allow the wood to extend along to the edge of the bump out would be better? 3. Have you considered that the nooks (especially the one with exposed brick) may be a condensation issue? (depends how well insulated those bricks are). Condensation there + wood won't go well. 4. If you are having a bump out to cover the plumbing, consider a wall mounted tap for the sink. Looks great and easier to clean. More expensive though and need to consider how to access the connections. 5. Maybe a different sink? Seems like a horrible dirt trap between the back of sink and the wall.
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My mate (screeder) and his boys lay dry screed as good as liquid, often better. You can almost paint the floor after he’s done his bit. Benefit of dry screed is placement, as it stays where you ‘put’ it, whereas leveller or liquids want to equalise across the area. If you have multiple different openings this can be of benefit if they're not all matching perfectly.
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You’ll actually need less room than you think. Would be a simpler solution too. I’ll now say anything to avoid me having to do an ‘emergency callout’…..
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Best breather membrane- air and vapour permeable
ab12 replied to ab12's topic in Roofing, Tiling & Slating
Which type of tape please? -
Best breather membrane- air and vapour permeable
ab12 replied to ab12's topic in Roofing, Tiling & Slating
Thank you everyone. Had a look at the prices and SD values Permavent £160 SD value 0.01 Roofshield £150 SD Value 0.013 and Klober £259 SD value 0.009 On paper Kolbre wins in terms of breathability but is there a bif difference between 0.009 and 0.1 SD value? If not then i think either Permavent or Roofshield Also I dont quite understand do thes emembranes to be taped or can they be used untaped. Look at the brochure if taped for example Permavent require 100mm overlap and if untaped then 150 mm overlap. In terms of tape- any specific type of tape ? or standard waterproof duck tape? -
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All together 3 areas to cover: Area 1 approx 18m2 Area 2 approx 10m2 Area 3 approx 13m2 I was think of laying dry screed with help of about 2 or 3 labourers who will muck in do the screeding. Idea was to order ready made dry screed and levels it off. Off course liquid screed will be much quicker fix but I'm pretty sure there will be a cost differential but I dont know exactly how much. UFH installer recommended WET screed mainly because he feels it is slef levelling and you can get a more level finsih. Personally I think you should be able to get a decent finish with Dry screed aswell
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Yes. No choice at that length / width. Used a guy who flies through these jobs, with better knees than me.
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There are a lot of useless people doing this, and good too of course. the test is whether they ask questions and/or give suggestions. interested or its just a job. have some questions. some are just random guys that have been given the task by their employer. I recall a family purchase and upgrade, of traditional brick walls and somebody came to assess for the gas or electric company for some reason. He spent 5 minutes making assumptions for 'this sort of building'. didn't check in the loft. wouldn't listen that we had upgraded the party wall. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought this was a cushy job and would start his own assessment business.
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This is for a small window for a bathroom in a shepherds hut which I'm building from scratch. The bathroom is very small so will just have one small window. The size of the wall space is w 121.6 cm by h 195.2 cm and the window is w 48.5cm x h 91cm. Obviously the wall space is quite small so I was wondering if I can just have two vertical studs with the window,window header and window sill contained within as in diagram B. Would this be structurally sound? Or do I need 4 vertical studs as in diagram A? The first photo is the window and the second photo is the bathroom wall space in question between the existing vertical studs.
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using wedges?
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75mm of screed. Presumably this was pumped, and was hard in a few hours. this is mixed very precisely and should not have excess water (if it did, it would be utter slops). the majority of the water enters the new chemistry of the screed, and is not wetness. the remainder evaporates over a week or so.... Unless it got wet again of course. The free water would be the equivalent of about a 5mm puddle, and we know that doesn't stay there for long. double that for seeping upwards I've had floor fitters claim excess dampness then I've had others test it and it has been well in tolerance. I suspect the fitters wanted to remove any warranty responsibility. BUT if it really is wet then that is an issue. I suggest you get an independent measurement. It has to be somebody who knows what they are doing as I misunderstood one machine: it was reading a high figure but the expert explained something or other that I can't recall, that it was well within. The diy probes are quite possibly fine for timber when you an push probes in, but less reliable for other materials.
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UFH all okay so no leaks
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75mm with insulation and wet UFH pipes
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The above was 140m2 L-shape raft, no mat used and no expansion cuts / joints at thresholds. Zero movement at these low temps.
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A pic of some we laid on a job, entire ground floor done, bar the lobby / hallway, to harmonise with the oak we used throughout. Not the best pic but one where light is on it. Darker grout may have been better, but that's the clients shout not mine. 1200x200mm iirc.
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Prob best to add that eBay have upped their game these days; stuff I’ve sold recently has had to have been received by the buyer before they released the funds (~48-72hrs later!!), giving the buyer time to check that what they received matches the sellers description etc etc. If you buy tools then get them tested in this grace period, or don’t moan that you didn’t
