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I just expanded for a bit of fun. The building industry is not full of nice folk. I'm representing a Building Contractor and Client in Scotland at the moment that has been pretty much been ripped off by a small bunch of very well known designers and one " SE?Engineer". This bunch have been on my radar for a while with designs that I've checked and found them wanting as they are incompetent and downright dangerous. The Engineer is puporting to run a limited consultancy company..but there is no record on companies house? The "Architect" is moonlighting it appears.. I'l find out in due course if he and any of the others involved are insured or not. So yes my suspicion is at the moment that my poor Client is a victim of a bunch of chancers puporting to be Engineers and Designers. The Engineer in question is well known in Scotland, big playerer.. seems he may be a chancer and a fradulant actor! I'l catch the fu.ker and have his house off him if I can to get some of my young Clients money back. This could be one of your kids, excuse my lack of mercy.

spirit level accuracy not required but obvs the fall must be in the correct direction.

Be interesting to see the as-built version of the drawings. That is a lot of different products being applied at the substructure level. The insulation could be held in place with wall ties, although you could just use blown beads.

Just wondered are the tops of drainage chambers supposed to sit level if you put a spirit level on them in both directions - I mean across the chamber itself rather than the cover ? Just thinking presumably they are made with slight angles/falls on the outlets/inlets. so designed to sit square at the top ?

Given the craziness around AI it wouldn't surprise me if someone bought this, especially if the new M5 models are delayed/limited availability.

I sorted the typo, sorry, so now you look loopy. Lol.

At that price, two!!

Don't worry, all is well, I don't have a canal boat. 🙄🤔

@Gus Potter i was only considering building inspectors

He is one from the old days. A still operating scrape merchant, now a legitimised huge conglomerate business, originally based in Edinburgh. I rented a unit from them when I was just starting out as a young builder. They threw a party for the local councillers, 40 years ago now, loads of booze and prostitutes.. took photos.. That type of corruption is less prominent, but some dafties still fall for it. The corruption now is much more subtle. It's still there and actually worse as it political and at a much higher level, they defend it using lawfare for example. This destroys our public life and will continue to do so if we don't recognise this cancer. It's disgusts me as an Engineer who has a feeling of Civil Duty, my primary qualification is in Civil Engineering, but went on to learn about Strutural Engineering. It's just a different part of the art and craft of being an Engineer. It's nice to know you work for the public, just like a Nurse. This means something to me and it's a great job where you get to create stuff that will outlast your own lifetime. Most of the moral deviance I'm experiencing at the moment is with warranty providers. Hopefully this will change. The boots on the ground BC folk seem to be sound. Some Scotland SE's have been chancing their arm (minority.. but they have been undercutting the folk that want to do a good job) .. story that I can't report on at the moment.

Bet @Nickfromwales bought it !

Messrs Bing and Hornby will be turning in their respective graves! ☺️

To be fair, last week with the easterly flow DPs were very low across the board despite the solar warmth. I have just bought a bunch of computer case fans and and going to see how they work with our double rads and flow temp controlled to be above dew point; we will probably run the dehumidifiers in the summer when we have excess PV so minimal cost which should also help with this issue - at the expense of some additonal heat input from the dehumidifiers.

Maybe yes or maybe no. Ok things happen. The first thing to ask is how big is the stair and how big is the load bearing on the floor and to check the beams are ok.. this is important in terms of safety. Next is to recognise that with beam and block floors the bit under the stair may not be subject.. just can't be practically be often subject to the design load that the rest of the floor is designed for.. so you have potential spare capacity. Ok next we want to check the screed.. normally this is ok in direct compression. The screed depth sheds load..sideways so the bearing area of insulation is increased. Next we want to check the next layer down which is the insulation. This is likely the weak spot. Post some details on what you have.. like good details so we can quantify the loads , base plate sizes, insulation type and so on. Don't dig out the screed at this stage until you have a handle on what might not be a problem. If you dig out the screed at this stage it could make things worse. Sometimes I design domestic stairs to deliberately be more vibrant, slender and thus more bouncy! So long as it safe then sometimes it's good for them to be a bit more "lively". An example would be if leading up to a slender (but still safe) gallery, it a deliberate Architectural technique where the user feels they are going into a different type of space and you lead them on that journey.. up the lively stair!

From experience this wouldn’t actually be hanging like that below the tray. That bit isn’t really their bag so they won’t pay much credence to it. I used Kingspan green guard full fill below DPC and PIR full fill above. The thermal bridge in the blockwork was dealt with by marmox blocks. The detail on the left, is that a tanking product running up to/under the tray? Assume so as EGL is above IGL

Our approach: We had crush which got muddy / sticky with clay over the course of the build. When we were ready to do the drive we scraped back the top, put mot3 and ragstone on top. It’s slightly elevated from the house, there’s a 1.5-3m planting bed between it and the house. It often puddled during the build. Now there’s no issues with drainage on the drive, even after Storm Dave. If it did need to run off there’s the plants first and then an aco drain round the house which collects to a rainwater tank 5000litres. This needs to be able to flow out somewhere else - we have a pond - so if there’s a deluge and it’s already full it can flow into that. So far it hasn’t needed to…

I think that all stove / flue / chimney work, inc refurb, needs either a Hetas-qualified person (who can self-certify) or alternatively BC sign-off.

Did you solve your paint panic @Spinnywe're having issues with F&B dead flat, 56m2........latest attempt with floetrol added. Really reluctant to try another paint on ceiling as going for "drench" and walls already painted

there's the 4 in question, you know they are there because the staircase is due to have a wind at the base, and I left a nice big gap for a standard timber staircase to bear down away from pipework....

crikey, good job, well done you! I've got a very rough idea where my pipes are... and they are encased in conduit. So if it comes to it I could cut and excavate, but only really as a last resort.

Large plate as a load spreader to minimise point loads? The bottom tread is going/was planned to be an large oak box type affair, so depending on if the plate is recommended by the SE then its likely to be covered... We'll see

I was given the following schematic diagram by St Goblain in relation to their suggested approach for a Radon membrane. Just wondering whether anyone know how you go about suspending insulation in the cavity with using wall ties? Visqueen are also showing a similar detail of insulation just suspended in thin air directly below the cavity tray.

Yeah I realise the only real answer is an SE, but sometimes it's good to talk and get stuff out there even if it means admitting to not thinking something through... Anyhoo where there is a problem, there is often a solution and maybe, just maybe somebody on t'internet may have just come across a problem similar to this in the past. Appreciate the comments nonetheless and I don't take anything to heart. Am big enough and ugly enough to meet problems head on. And yeah a bungalow would solve the problem 🤣.

You'll have a job the canal still has a great big hole in it!

Good questions actually, you got me thinking. We are ready to ask for help when needed indeed. Like asking here for other people's experiences with Building Regs and others that will probably come up. Or hiring consultants for the things that we find our knowledge / time to handle lacking. We have hired a PD CDM, we have had a QS price things out; we have a friendly architect technician who we reach out to for questions (on a consulting basis). Someone from this forum is lending a hand with Windows/doors. We have a project Structural Engineer. We will be hiring a project manager that will be on site as needed when we cannot be. We decided we'd make the time to handle all the design, diligently - including detailed plans, simulation, modelling, etc. The fact that we are both engineers in different fields means that, for example, the PH light/overheating problem, an optimization problem, is something that we are naturally attracted to and want to solve. Analysis skills, yep. Decision making, sure. Risk management, we both do that at work with projects regularly. Pragmatic choices, also check, and we have a very clear non negotiables that we will uphold through the project. Since we became homeowners, I can say that I have developed the skills to manage the different trades and assess quality - as every other homeowner can probably attest to. And also when to ask someone to stop working if the quality of their work isn't up to scratch and they aren't minded to improve. Mind you, being a woman, this has taken a few by surprise over the years. At work, well, projects derail and need practical decisions all the time. So all good there too. Are we biting off more than we can chew? Maybe - but it's a challenge we are willing to face head-on. We'll get help as and when needed - including from this forum! Y'all are already helping. PS: my forum skills are still a work in progress, I was trying to split your questions in different quotes when I accidentally submitted ! PS2: @ToughButterCup... that moonlight comment has me wanting the house to be finished even more! Thank you!!!