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The signal wire definitely doesn't need to be that thick. But I'd be cautious about running the power from centre (test it first on a spare length of strip). If you can feed power from centre then you could easily get a thinner strand of wire for the signal. Having said that, be careful about the overall length of the signal wire. These signals are prone to interference and don't like long cables. Controller needs to be fairly close by. I wouldn't call it a known limitation as such. It's not going to get fixed, it's a fundamental part of the design of how the signalling works. If you feed two strips from a single signal the strips will be an exact copy of each other. ie. if you fed from a central position then a traditional chaser would result in the chase being from centre outward. There would be no physical way of having a chase from one end to the other.

Skirtings, architrave, flooring, plumbing, wiring, heating, ventilation. It is a huge house and a massive amount of work. Make sure you have not missed anything and you are not wishful thinking. How long do you think it will take you?

Yes that thought has occurred to me now. Discussed it with ChatGPT who thinks it will work but some running patterns etc would still not work properly and this is a known limitation of WLED at present. So it seems it would be best to still feed the data wire to the Data Input end of the strip. ChatGPT suggests using a fine wire for the data feed which would still need to pass down the profile in front of the LED strip to get soldered onto the connector on the front of the strip. Pic shows my cable, so either run a wire (or all wires) down the profile in front of the strip to solder onto the front. But not obscure the COB light itself.

Hope this helps lift your spirits a bit. The following is a bit of "chat", but also serious at times. Firstly. Well done you for looking up some span tables, what you are doing is carrying out a "sense check", you've clocked that the joist span looks out with normal expectation. I agree you are right to question. Also @Roger440, no dafty is asking.. and I'm pretty sure @saveasteading, @JpManning et al may bring professional opinion to the table. The thing that disappoints me most is this radio silence you are experiencing. There is generally no excuse for this. This is a common complaint on BH, Engineers not communicating or just being downright arrogant. But on the other hand your Engineer may have fallen unwell, this happens more often than you think. I have a long standing Contractor on my books who is mentally unwell, I'm supporting him. His business is suffering, he is a sole company director and employs folk that rely on him for their income. It may be your Engineer is unwell? That said SE's in particular seem to be very poor when communicating with Clients. It's actually a core objective of the IStructE, ICE to communicate with your Clients. I would try and determine if this lack of communication is due to say ill health. You'll maybe feel bad if you give them pelters and then find out they are on their death bed. Ok your joist span looks.. questionable. But your Engineer may have taken the view that it's a garage thus, no brittle finishes on the inside, thus we can tolerate extra deflection, so long as the deflections are not too big we can handle that. If deflections get too big then they can introduce what we call significant second order effects. Us folk with knowledge of structural design get wary about second order effects when we relax standard deflection limits. What your Engineer may have done is to just to design the timbers for strength alone, relaxed the deflection limits, as it's a garage. But if I adopt this approach I'll always tell the Client I've done, why I've done it, get their approval and check to see if these second order effects are significant or not. Now if you have a flat roof on a garage and you can push the spans. Yes, the timbers may be strong enough (just to not break and fall down) , but if they deflect in the middle too much then we have to be very careful the fall is still enough so we don't get ponding of water or snow melt on the roof as this can be dangerous. I would try as best you can to establish communication with your Engineer. Then you can ask what they were thinking was when they designed your garage roof. The may say, I relaxed the deflexion limits to save you money, but neglected to seek your approval for this.

I doubt you will find longer than 6.0m. Can you break the span with a steel or flitch beam?

No problem getting 6M lengths from Jewson, and they are local if there is a problem with the material supplied. If you are present when it is delivered and it is c*** then refuse the delivery and send it back.

https://www.buildingcontrol-ni.com/assets/pdf/TechnicalBookletD2012.pdf

Sorry it was ****, but 7.2m lengths? Wow! Never managed to find timber so long at general timber merchants.

Hey all, I'm currently planning the refurb of a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom property with around 4,446 sq ft of internal space and have put together the attached budget. I'd be interested to get people's thoughts on whether I'm in roughly the right ballpark with this, or whether I've seriously underestimated anything. I'm planning to do a lot of the work myself, so most of the figures are materials only. Anything marked as "subcontractor" is work I'm planning to outsource. The total is currently coming out at £188,490 with no contingency included. I'm particularly interested in how other people approach budgeting for larger refurb projects. Would appreciate any thoughts, especially from anyone who's recently done something similar. Thanks! Hayden

I'm at the end of my knowledge. Hopefully one of the professionals on here will speak up with more details. Everything I've put above can help you verify Chartered engineers but don't think you need to be chartered to practice so long as qualified and that might be an area that's a little harder to check.

Ah, so not exactly as it sounds then, interesting.

I full bed PVAd the ply, no chance that would ever come up!

Thanks. I've been very stupid here. I've just gone over the T&C's and there is no mention of her active registration. But I'm assuming that just like an individual cannot call themselves a Solicitor or Architect unless there are registered with the associated body. The same applies for an SE.

Dry ice I think, CO2 not H2O

In that case the reg body is: https://www.ice.org.uk/ This is all very clearly stated on the government website. All I'm doing is googling it for you. All these orgs will likely do is be able to confirm that this person is qualified/has active registration. You really need to check the insurance of the professionals use because if something goes wrong that's what you will be relying on. Mortgage companies, buyers will care about the qualifications.

Rightly or wrongly before tiling I've always over-boarded chipboard floors with 5 or 6mm ply and then stapled it down (rather than glue or screw) then tiled over the top of the ply. My logic was if I ever need to replace the tiles it was easier to get the tiles off then the 5 or 6mm ply up with the adhesive to get back to a nice clean and level surface - re-board and again and re-tile. I get to test my plan shortly as both Utility and Kitchen floors need re-tiling!!! The Kitchen floor needs replacing fully replacing due to a water leak that got under the floor tiles 😞

I guess that’s just what it sounds like it is? Never heard of it before.

No I did not. Agreed. Naive and stupid.

I'm concerned. Said SE hasn't replied to my emails. Not even the one regarding her issuing the invoice. She was originally tasked with designing a suspended staircase, but after two months of continually asking, I eventually stopped. The cut roof / garage was another job I asked her to do. Her site states she's a civil engineer, but I am thinking I need to validate that is the case. I've just reached out to a local firm for i-joists as I think these are cheaper and I don't need to run lots of ducting.

Before engaging her you asked for a copy of her credentials and insurance right? What does she claim to be on her communications/advertising? If she claims to be a Chartered Structural Engineer then this is the professional body that you can check with: https://www.istructe.org/

Maybe use posi joists - ours are 256mm our kitchen span is about 7m (12 Deg angle) and at 600mm centres

We just sold our 1830s house and built a new house, way easier and didn't take much longer.

Yeh I'd probably pause before putting these on. I have a similar issue with 6m garage flat roof. When I eventually found a span table I think it ended up being something like 70x250 or 225 c24 at 450 centres for 6m garage roof span. I'd want to speak to said SE and query it.

Ive already screwed down the flow temps as far as i can and still keep the house warm at -10 and reduce cycling as far as i can. It might even be condensing, though that seems really hard to achieve on an oil boiler, even if, in theory it will do it. Boiler not clever enough for differing flow temps. Currently consuming 1600 litres a year. Most of the windows are knackered so i will be doing those anyway. Im all for doing everything, my wife rather less so. Particuarly the moving out of the house and into the barn for 9 months to do it all in one hit.

First step is really optimisation of what you have. Get the flow temps as low as practical with long run times. If practical for boiler move away from S and Y plan to priory demand hot water with 2 flow temperatures (W or X plan). in most part little or no plumbing changes just efficiency improving, and some simplification by having more system open for longer.