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Err... this looks to me like a timber footing/base with load-bearing bales built on it - i.e. no frame. Is that right, or do I just need to see more bits of the dwgs? Have you got any which show the frame? (an un-clad elevation, for example).

Plans are drawn, permission granted and we've laid the foundations, bit late to reconsider now! Yes the plot is narrow, but it's quite long so we have plenty of outside space. For us, our aims are not to have the biggest house we can afford; it's more about using natural, local materials with minimal impact and learning the skills together. We did consider cob, but straw bales made more sense with all the arable land around.

From the plans I would say the foamed glass ball -type insulation is designed to prevent thermal bridging around the timber ring beam structure. Thanks, enjoying it so far🙂

I think stop the skirting at the end of the plaster and cut a 45 back to the wall to account for any skirting profile. Finish the bit on the left of the kitchen unit with filler and paint and fit the plinth as normal. You already have the gap thing going on between units (I assume for handleless), so don't make it look more complicated.

Hi Nick, yes that makes sense to run some sort of tape then membrane over the top, I’ll speak to my timber frame manufacturer tomorrow!

I would think £35k extra would do it assume 300mm piles up to 6m. £20k piling £15k ground beams. You could get indicative quotes based on your ground investigation.

Yes. 16mm out. If he can get it out in one course, then the fat mortar joint will be hidden by the ACO drainage.

So its 16mm out of level? I wouldn't try to get that out in one course if its seen. Why don't you have him get it out over 3 or 4 courses

@craig What is the best way to make sure that the load is distributed equally when adjusting the hinges to raise the door. Thank you

It's a bath filler.

Thanks. I know I will need to talk to a piling contractor in due course. Just trying to get a feel of the cost risk for valuation purposes. From fairly recent experience I can estimate the cost from ground up, just go no idea if I need to add £10k, £30k, £100k for piling.

You should also install 150mm wide DPC across here too: This protects the sole plates from water ingress, should anything get in behind and sit on the horizontal counter batten. I got chatting with Darren from MBC when he was on site doing the pre-airtightness test, test, and offered up this great bit of info, which he says is often overlooked; I conveyed this to the client and it was agreed in an instant that this was a good idea and to run with it. As it’s horizontal I’d recommend a 100mm tape along the top edge of the DPC strip also. Sole plate is the first point of failure if details are overlooked, and are ‘fatal’.

If it is not visible slate will be fine. 26mm is otherwise a bit much.

This should all land firmly in the lap of your Principal Designer, usually your architect, as they are covered by PI insurance and are the ones who would underwrite the solution as robust (60 years service life is typical from most reputable TF providers).

'The Best Bricklayer in Britain' (Self proclaimed) left us one course of face brickwork to go before we are at FFL. He was useless as I've just been out with my laser level and to get said face brickwork course to FFL will require the new bricklayer to lay a mortar joint that starts at 10mm and goes to 26mm. That is obviously too thick and I'm wondering how the new bricklayer will be able to solve that issue. I really don't want home trying to make it up above ground. Can you use slate or something else if you have to have a fat mortar joint?

Any experience and suggestions on how this bit of my kitchen fit should get finished ? See pics. The bottom of the vertical kitchen end panel which is edge-on is 90mm above the floor. The adjacent kitchen horizontal panel at the bottom is a 'push-to-open' drawer. I am expecting to fit 100mm skirting to the adjacent wall and the skirting will be painted white. The kitchen fitter is returning shortly and will fit the kitchen plinth. 1/ Fitting the skirting to extend and run over the top of the edge-on kitchen panel seems wrong. It will not match the bottom of the drawer front in height, the kitchen panel is designed to edge the kitchen drawer - just as it edges cupboard doors higher up. 2/ Finishing the skirting at the corner of the wall seems best, but if so should it be finished square, or with a chamfer at 45 deg ? 3/ What should happen below the edge-on kitchen panel ? (a) Wrap white skirting around but cut the height down to fit under the kitchen panel with some weird joining detail ? (b) Fill/plaster the side wall just under the edge-on kitchen panel following the plaster line down, and paint white as far back as the kitchen plinth when fitted ? (c) Get the fitter to make a 'side return' to the kitchen plinth, so that there is a short piece of plinth between the bottom of the kitchen panel and the floor (effectively extending the bottom of the kitchen panel down to the floor with a join line. This type of join between wall and cabinetry seems like a common occurence - do you have one ? how is it finished ? Many thanks for any and all responses. (PS I am suspicious that the end panel should actually have been run right down to floor level ? Is this what other people have ? My kitchen had some missing panels when they came to fit and they repositioned some long vertical panels in order to get most of the fit done. So not sure if this has changed this detail without admitting it ?)

Youtube seems to default to s---ty subtitles for me lately. Some of them are as hilarious as this song.

Hi Nick, thank you, nearly all cabling or pipes shall be in behind the 50mm service baton behind the plasterboard, 50 + 100 was stated because it’s cheaper than 150mm, anything that was in the 50mm would be in a duct but we are trying to avoid going in there at all costs, my timber frame company suggested the DPM as per the blue line, my builder is used to building conventional brick/block built houses, at the rear of house we are about 350mm above ground level to FFL, I spoke to the block manufacturer and they said to render with Weber Pral D, we are up at bottom of thermal block level and this is where the question has come up about DPC at that point!

This might do the job but there is an ambiguous picture in the listing. The phone call is needed to clarify whether it will work before forking out a sh1t load of wonga https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/accesso-ic160-600mm-reduction-cap-350mm-circular-access.html

@Mike, either would do, as long as there is some reduced diameter riser before the cover goes on

Yes indeed. I could cite so many examples we have had where cocking something up has caused huge delay and rework and therefore cost. It is one of the reasons I have become a bit paranoid and am constantly trying to think 'what could go wrong with this job', and 'how can I get things prepared for that job' and 'have we got all the items needed' and 'what happens if it doesn't get finished'. When something is done wrong it often means: - You can't move on, the next task has to be put back or cannot be finished. - A trade needs to come back to do unplanned work and can't come back immediately. - undoing what has been done, before it can be done again correctly - items/materials being scrapped and having to be repurchased - Extra time being spent working out and agreeing how it can be put right - Some level of potential friction/frustration between the tradesman and the PM or customer Unfortunately without experience (and sometimes with) you cannot always cover all the bases and there are things that can come up that only arise as the task is underway. But that doesn't mean it makes sense to go into each task unprepared. Trades want to get on and get paid by the builder/customer. They may have been put under time and cost pressure and payment threats by the builder. If an issue arises or there is an ambiguity they normally just don't stop - they make their own decision, they carry on, they don't mention the issue. Good people will check, speak to or call someone - 'are you sure this drawing is right because it doesn't make sense?', 'these timbers are warped are you sure you want me to use them ?', 'I need to know where you want this socket ?'. Often times I have found it makes more sense to actually stop work and down tools. If we don't have certainty on the answer stop - take a day or even a week or two to get that certainty. You have different stakeholders with different self interests. The pig is committed, the chicken only involved - the customer wants his bacon and eggs please. And a cold half egg scraped off the floor with a bit of gristle on the side ain't going to do it.

Phone them first? They should state if this is post render or pre, pre being fundamental sealant and defo not silicone

You can’t run cables in insulation. You’d want a couple of rows of common bricks, up to the height of the insulation, and then Marmox thermal break blocks on top of those, or cut the thermal block down to suit.

Yup. iBox’s to date have mostly been 3/4”, which I fit a 3/4 x 1/2” bush into, then a 15mm x 1/2” male adaptor. Not used 22mm on a shower for a long time, and that was a Chinese monster shower / steam cubicle thing with 30 odd jets and a 16” rainfall head; fed from gravity and a 3bar 22mm Stuart Turner twin impeller pump. Shower internals and shower heads etc can only cope with so much lpm flow rate & pressure, done some where the rubber nozzles start popping out