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@flanagaj I’ve made myself up a simple pulley system (effectively block & tackle but only two single pulleys in my case as I’m only lifting a couple of packs of shingle at a time). 2 x pulley: https://amzn.eu/d/05AWFkQ0

Thank you for reading some of my posts, much appreciated, some are lengthy not least and a bit ranty! Ok to be a bit pedantic, you say this was an earlier photo. The use of one bolt at the rafter ceiling joist connection is not common practice, I would look for two. Looking at your roof, it's of modest size, the loads are relatively small, cuts you a fair bit of slack. The thing that made me wonder is this. Looking at your photo it all looks over engineered for CF. Now while EcoTrus and their SE's may not have the depth of knowledge and industry experience that I might have, My Masters thesis was testing top hat CF purlins for example, I kind of know a bit about this. I wonder why does this look over Engineered, is there another part of the roof that we can't see from the photos that would explain why I'm seeing what I'm seeing? But in the round, I really like what you are doing here!

Nah, dry fit. The ply, yes, glued. Going to do the walls first but while I wait for the tiles to arrive made sense to get these cut and ready. Onwards and upwards!

The top plates raise a structural analytical question. The structural behaviour explanation is lengthy, I've kind of given up on trying to explain a lot of this to you. You just cart on and react after the fact, get ahead of the game! If you still have concerns then go back to the posi joist designer and ask if their design accounts for full load on the adjacent long span and minimum load on the short span. When you analyse this the forces change. It may be your posi joist designer has not taken into account this load case, or that their software has an error in it! Or you may have moved the supporting walls below without asking anyone! You don't have to move them much to invalidate the design. Next time you chat with your SE ask them about my comments.

Hi @Gus Potter, thanks for reading - I've taken a lot from your previous posts on here. Interested to know which bits concern you about the technical connections? I'll post some proper detail on how the whole system goes together next; worth saying that some of those photos were taken before all the required fixings were in. But in short, it's 16mm bolts at all connections between the main members and then a lot of 5.5mm Tek screws at 600mm centres. And I mean a lot!

Post a drawing of what you intend to get best feedback.

Difference is I think you've stuck yours down

Slightly different floor build than yours, but we used offcuts of insulation cut to the size I needed and a few very long nails to hold it all in place and the some concrete blocks on top to stop it floating off during the concrete pour. When I was ready broke out the insulation, did the drainage conections and back filled with concrete as needed.

Great to see folk embracing light gauge steel (LGS). I have a background in this. When doing my training I wrote many structural calculations that underpins the likes of the software that one of the biggest CF building suppliers in the UK and Australia may use and / or their Engineers. There is a place and time for using LGS. If you hit the sweet spot it can be a very elegant and cost effective solution. I've had a glance at your photos. Some elements such as the connections look technically ropey, could be improved! It looks a bit over engineered but lacking on and understanding of connection design behaviour. The thing that strikes me most is the cost of fabrication, lots of cutting back flanges and so on. In the round though I think what you have done is great!

Hi everyone, we are now slowly making our way out of the ground, Isoquick insulated raft is now down, what a speedy process that was - 1 day for 190m2 with the steelwork completed the following day. Just thinking ahead to UFH next week and the concrete pour. The UFH will be within the 250mm concrete slab. The slab will not be visible but will take the floor finish. For the shower, I'm thinking of having it arranged as a wet room, which leads me to the first question. Has anyone had UFH under the wetroom shower part to help dry things out? Secondly, I need to recess the shower area in this part - what have people used for formwork? I will need to recess the whole area of the 'shower tray' and then further from the waste below. I have an idea of how to construct but cannot think of how to keep this off the Isoquick and at the right height, etc. Any pointers? Thank you Jonny

Something to keep your hands busy tonight. It is like reading, you start from the left.

Well done you! Now you can march on. They do look good!

Thank you for updating my knowledge base, much appreciated. I stand corrected. Every day is a school day at my end.

Looking forward to this - thanks for sharing

What type of hoist would you suggest as I’m keen to get the remaining first floor blockwork up to plate asap?

It’s difficult. I said to the bricklayers that now scaffolding has gone up, I must insist on them wearing hard hats. They just laughed at me and said they never wear them on domestic jobs. Another time I was using a stone saw to cut rebar. I obviously had safety goggles and ear defenders on. They looked at me and said “oh, you wear safety goggles. Then chuckled and said they use the squint technique” I fear it’s a losing battle in trying to educate them. They are doing a great job, but I’ll actually be glad when they are finished on site, scaffolding is dismantled and I’m left with the remaining tasks.

Snap. A decent way to spend a Sunday. Now I'm off to drink some tile primer before I open the prosecco.

Afterthought - might they benefit from hiring a lift or a hoist to get stuff up - not just in saved back muscles, but maybe in time too ? Dunno.

Nah, I think there is some kind of certification scheme for scaffolders which renders them competent people, and I guess most builders would probably count as a competent person (maybe ?). I believe there are rules around how scaffold is put together etc to minimise risks. I guess we all see lots of questionable HSE things happen in small scale building. I remember watching a really big commercial construction site working - everybody was checked at the gate - if they didn't have yellow vest, safety boots, hard hat they didn't get on site - no exceptions. There is always a balance between just getting things done and safety. I sometimes said to one or two of our builders people - shouldn't you be wearing goggles for that ? Do you want to borrow my ear defenders ? Etc. My builder himself said he had a bad back because as a young lad they used to race across building sites with barrows and hods seeing who could move the most blocks/bricks the fastest. I wasn't trying to be a jobsworth, you are clearly doing a great job there. It is just, if, if something happened, the insurers are always looking for someone else to finger.

Just to chuck my 2 bobs worth in.... I've used the "presto" board from pimoroni for standalone monitoring - particularly remote monitoring. It has a nice screen (touch enabled) WiFi, blue tooth and a SW/QT connector for connection to a LORA board for really good long range data links. At the sensor/actuator end I have fooled around with a few systems but the raspberry pi Pico 2 microcontroller based ones are really good. You can use C++ for all of you're a masochist (my remote water monitor uses it - originally on an Arduino board - and it's been rock solid for over a decade) but they both now use micro python/circuit python for a slightly easier experience I use stainless steel Honeywell pressure sensors similar to the one you showed. They aren't wras approved but the water comes out of a rusty pipe in the ground so I figure that ship has sailed... I did use some of the cheaper Chinese knock offs but they drifted like crazy and one rusted out...(So much for stainless steel) I currently use pressure differential as a proxy for flow rate though it is pretty poor

Well I think he just doesn't want to be going in and out of the same switch back box multiple times. Once to wire 2 switches, then again later to wire another switch, then a third time to wire the fourth switch. He would normally connect all the earths together etc in the back box using wagos, etc etc so in once done. I understand that. However if he went in once now, wired it all including the cables running outside, then tested and capped off the outside wires, I can't see a problem provided it meets code, Presumably it does or else Wiska wouldn't make these things ? I can't see a lot of difference between a Wiska Mini Gel box and the probably less safe case on some cheap outside lights. They will all be switched lives anyway. In fact I will be putting smart home relay modules onto them all too (inside the back box), so if using modules with a 'detach' mode, I could simply turn the relay permanently off in detached mode, and the outside wire would not even be live unless (a) that setting was changed and (b) the switch was turned on.

I love models ….

Ok. I put them in, just for me to use. As we are having full height windows upstairs, the brickies will keep using the ladders installed by the scaffolding company. I am curious though. Who the **** do I get to come an inspect a set of stairs? Do they bring an X-ray machine with them to check the welds are all good?

I would have thought with the impetus you’ve got putting your temp osb deck down, it’ll not be too long before them stairs are inside? With all the trials and tribulations you’ve had to navigate it’s great to see your progress. Well done, keep ploughing on.

So bulk of the tiles are cut - couldn't find my paddle mixer for the adhesive so opted to cut as much as I could and get the bond right.