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When I read the original post I thought it was a bit odd because I have not heard of sticking plasterboard to a ceiling. Seeing the photos, the original ceiling is cracked and appears weak and defective. To sort this out, they should have suggested either: 1. Skim the ceiling with a thin coat of plaster 2. Overboard the ceiling by screwing new plasterboard into the joist and laths, then skim 3. Rip down the ceiling and laths, screw new plasterboard to joists, then skim. What they have done is stick new plasterboard onto defective plaster, adding to the weight that may come crashing down. The first 2 options would have been far safer and easier. What a knob-end. At least it is only one room.

Just add in extra laths where you need then. It’s not rocket science.

@canalsiderenovation Joined BH about a couple of years ago, maybe a bit less and caught the end of your project. Enjoyed reading about your journey.. even though it's a day job for me! Oh.. and the walk in stuff looks great. Delighted for you.. Enjoy your new home and well done..

£500?....... I'd not offer a tenner. No need at all to be making any cash offers, as that only looks like admission of liability. Get it treated as above as a goodwill gesture at the very most.

Hello TryC. It's a shame you have to post about this. To cut to the chase. No matter what folk say about dot and dabbing to hold up ceilings the bottom line is that for it all to work each layer needs to be able to carry the weight and for a ceiling not to fail due to the added vibrational effects. It is possible to dot and dab ceilings but often the ceiling is a concrete slab. It's not that common now but you you used to see it a while back. In your case it looks like the dabs are stuck to a painted ceiling.. probably emulsion paint. This is the weak spot and no supplier.. say British Gypsom is going to warranty this. From an SE point of view.. it either needs to come down or be screwed to the joists. Unless the installer has access to load tables / test information that says it's ok to stick stuff to paint! It's not going to happen.. if it does I'll donate fifty quid to BH. Once screwed it will be safe but it is probably going to crack. To stop this you'll need a good quality scrim tape of a good width, a plasterer that knows their stuff.. they may say it has to come down as I'm not putting my name to that. Sorry to upset but best be safe.

Remove them before the nesting season. March is when they begin so have them out beforehand if you can.

RSPB advice seems to suggest clearing it in February.. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/plants-for-wildlife/garden-hedges/hedge-law/

Looks great, I see the basement did not make the final cut Only observation is that your wet services on ground and first floors looks to be on opposite sides of the house - i.e. your master ensuite is above the office, the fam bathroom and guest ensuite are above the living area and your kitchen utility have no wet services above them. While this is not an issue for supply it may make for some complicated foul runs and these have the biggest impact due to diameter, falls etc. We ended up with quite a bit of structural steel in our build and had some tricky problems as we did not plan for penetrations for MVHR or fouls - worked it out in the end but required some creative boxing out to get the fouls where they needed to be. Have you done a draft M&E design to plan where MVHR (large bore to outside and 75mm bore to inside, double runs for wet rooms) and fouls will run? Manifold for hot & cold supply, hot return path etc. to minimise runs & heat loss? Make sure you have that before you move to structural design as you may have to spec steel penetrations to get wider bore services through.

I would commission a building physics model to inform shading and danger of overheating, better fo find out first than after it is built. awnings only work when it is not windy how will you mitigate the thermal bridging introduced by the steelwork? Is the insulation barrier outside or inside the structure? beam and block floor can introduce draughts. looks like nice design,

no chance the boss has cracked away from the cylinder shell? Any and all of those techniques should have sealed the threads.

Very comprehensive. Not too many holes to pick really for me. Budget I'm spitballing will be about £500000 by the time you move in. I always like a shower + bedroom on the ground floor but I guess you've provisioned for a lift. Have you thought of solar PV? My mate put in 2 seperate dressing rooms from the master bed. I wish I'd thought of that. Especially with different waking times. Some of the details might be tricky to achieve passive levels of thermal bridging + airtightness as drawn. Run PHPP soon if you can. Your southern glazing looks like it might cause overheating despite the awning. I'm impressed with your "amateur" drawings. What did you use?

Worcester Bosch highflow550 storage combi for 2 showers and mira sport 10.8kW electric shower for the cheaper room?

Look up Canetis Superflow. It basically either a 25 or 50 litre vessel that sits upstream of a combi boiler, to improve the performance of a combi boiler. These vessels can sit below the boiler or be wall mounted. Image shows the large and small versions

As much as I hate suggesting it, how about 2 combi boilers?

Yes if memory serves me…….

I like to use a spade or my Big Mutt for this sort of thing. Wide strong blade and a long handle.

as it should be, unless you want it in boost mode all the time...

Acoustic tiles? I used to line the WC reveal and deaden the flush / fill noise: Or egg boxes... ?

Agreed, that’s why I said give it a knock and push/pull to see if they are stuck, and I have never heard of anyone being killed by a bit of plasterboard falling a couple of feet, I reckon at the very worst it could crack, become loose and look an ar#e but isn’t going to hurt anyone. but, knowing what it’s like to live with anxiety and worry, then get it all ripped down and start again if that’s what is needed to put your mind at rest.

that is true, but if it kills someone, or something, it is on me if I leave it up?

We had a air test prior to the plasterboard going on and had leak all around the building at the dpc. Used blower proof liquid to seal. May be worth a quick air test before you start fixing the skirtings etc, think it cost about £100.

thanks Super John. it is difficult when I think i have done my due diligence and read reviews and still select the bad egg. I have new fitted wardrobes coming in next week and now I am dreading that! hoping it won't be a shit show!

+1, ties not needed. Rafters are fixed to the wall plate which is fixed to studs, all skinned with ply ... it’s not going to blow away! ps, looks cosy already ?

Fire doors Do NOT fail to install the intumescent foam.

Lots of good advice here but definitely mull over beating yourself up too much @TryC it's difficult sometimes when you get a bad egg I'm and don't know till its too late, but we've all had one at some point don't worry too much you'll get it sorted and it'll be fine. It'll just take a little longer.

"I'm female so I think this increases chances of happening as I've read so many stories about this happening!" I my career I have met an awful lot of blokes that are brain dead. They can't multi task for example. I too have the odd brain dead moment, perfecting multi tasking is a struggle as I'm a bloke so speak from experience. It's not a so much gender thing these days.. it's just a lack of understanding and pride in the job. The trick is to write down on a bit of paper the things you want to ask. No matter what stick to your guns and don't let them side track you. Stick to the list. You can just copy and print off parts of the BH posts if you can and say.. can you answer these questions. If you feel vulnerable then ask a friend to attend. But make sure you hand over the list of questions. If they refuse to accept the list then that is their issue, offer but don't force.Then if you feel that the meeting has become aggressive ask them to leave immediatly. Say to them.. I feel uncomfortable as I feel you are being aggressive so get out of my house! But don't think I'm not going to chase you for your shoddy work..as a parting shot let them know they are far from being off the hook. Do not elaborate.. let them mull it over. Don't muck about. Sometimes getting chucked out of a meeting can crystalize a builders mind.. especially bullying builders as they realize that the Client may well be holding a bigger stick than they first thought. It gives them time to reflect and from time to time they come back with their tail between their legs. They may not of course but if so better to know this now. If they don't come back then you have the option of getting a new joiner to screw up the plasterboard, they will know a plasterer probably and you will get it finsihed for xmas.

I asked my wife if she knew hiw to find joist positions. She did. This is not just a bodge but dangerous. Screws into oists essential to revert to just a bodge. Really it should be removed along with the dots and start again. No payment!

If the room is empty, I would recommend pulling the lot down and starting over. Get a friend around, get suited up, and just beat the shit out of it until its all on the floor. A few rubble bags half-filled and sealed, then carried outside, and a couple of bottles of vino to celebrate thereafter. Would give some much needed therapy too .

Honest answer is I don't know how "safe" it would be to leave as-is, sorry. A temporary 'fix' would be to get a trade in who has a functioning brain, who could locate the joists and screw through these boards, through the original, and into the wooden joists, to get a mechanical fix. Then the risk of them falling would be mitigated.

Welsh joke, sorry!

Removing this abomination will likely result in the original boards needing coming off. Prepare yourself for this to get worse before it gets better. Offer this chap a resolve. Tell him ( not ask ) that the only way you will let him finish this job will be for him to remove both the new "stuck" bits of PB and the original ceiling and for him to remove the spoil at his cost. Once at a clear ceiling, void of any ceiling boards whatsoever, employ a new person to board and skim ( plaster ) as required. Do you have some available funds to do so?

Every build project has disasters no matter how diligent or experienced you are. We've all employed people who've let us down in one way or another. It happens unfortunately, don't beat yourself up. Impossible for us to tell I'm afraid. Of course please make sure you are safe when bringing it up with him, maybe a phonecall is best. Don't expect him to be delighted but give the man a chance to hold his hands up and admit he got it wrong. I suspect the most likely scenario is that he will answer your call, probably be defensive and after you hang up you'll never hear from him again but you never know.

Have someone with you when you confront him. Another woman will do fine ( as I'd rather fight 6 blokes than 1 woman!! ). Your demeanour will do the talking. If you are firm and factual he will just have to accept this. If he doesn't agree, just tell him to leave there and then. This is your house and he has been invited in. Do not get into an argument, or raise your voice, but if he does, then tell him to leave or you will call the police and have him removed. Having a friend there recording on their mobile phone, just laid on a sideboard with the camera facing nothing particular will gather sufficient evidence for the police to enforce and side with you. Let me be totally clear here. This work absolutely CANNOT remain. It is not safe. There are even building regs guidelines for vertical studwork, differentiating between bathrooms and other spaces, where the studs have to be no more than 400mm centres vs the normal spacings of 600mm centres. That is prescribed so the VERTICAL walls can take an assumed load per m2 of plasterboard / tiles / adhesive / grout etc. This is the chuffing CEILING ffs!! Stop this guy now, agree a departure plan, and get him gone.

Liability for the CIL only kicks in when you start implementing your planning permission. Until then the liability can be transferred to a new owner. So it's not really an issue. The important thing is to get planning permission and then formally apply for the self build exemption using the correct forms and get it granted BEFORE starting ANY work on site. Note that the planners may tell you either verbally or in writing that it will be exempt BUT you must still formally claim the exemption or you loose it. Is the land part of your mother's garden? If not then you should buy the land BEFORE applying for planning permission. Otherwise HMRC may go after your mother for Capital Gains Tax on the full value with planning permission. Her garden is exempt from CGT but other land such as a paddock would not be.

+1 i suggest you refer your neighbour (and her so called lawyer) to the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the Network Rail case, summarised here: https://www.walkermorris.co.uk/publications/knotweed-nuisance-court-of-appeal-confirms-liability-for-landowners/ whoever owns the land from which the knotweed emanated is liable for nuisance it causes to neighbouring properties. The legal analysis is simple. Of course, proving the facts is not always simple. Have you got a time stamped log of photos, correspondence, emails etc.? By time stamped, i mean meta data dating the photos, which hopefully show the knotweed developing over time and staying in your neighbour’s property.

Depends on how far from the back wall: small - no PP, bigger - 'prior approval' , biggest-full PP Read here https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/17/extensions/2

All boundaries are shared, otherwise they wouldn't be boundaries! If she's saying it's a shared fence, that's possible, albeit unlikely in the absence of specific evidence, but it's a complete red herring in any event. The boundary is a line. The plant is clearly on her side of that line (assuming the fence is in the right place), hence it's solely her responsibility to get rid of it. If she's spoken to a professional about this then presumably she knows this has to be (literally) nipped in the bud. If you won't contribute - and you shouldn't - then she'll need to handle it herself. She's already shown her hand with allegations about your distant topsoil being the potential source of the knotweed, and now trying to get you to pay for removing a noxious weed that's clearly not on your property. Given her behaviour so far, you shouldn't be helping her to treat it, other than perhaps advising her that she can do it herself for a lot less than the quote she's had. If she pushes back, I'd be tempted to say that if she doesn't take care of it and it moves to your side of the fence, you'll sue her for the cost of getting rid of it.

Aerogel is the only thing you can use, but it is very expensive

Much easier to start at the hip and work away, but as a solution, add a piece of lathe to side of hip rafter/batten to support the slate, odd angle to cut but it will cure your problem,or add intermediate short battens as required

Dot and dab ceilings … that’s a new one to me

You can either tape the final layer of insulation with foil tape or add polythene over the lot. The polythene is a bit more cumbersome and it is not so simple to hold in place with staples. Double sided tape may be better.

Morning! Here's chapter and verse.

If the walls are fixed down and the rafters are secure to wall then ties aren’t really needed. they are needed on masonry walls as uplift can be more than the weight of top course of brick or blocks. pain to let into ply or OSB so I would (if fitting them) plaster board over or make then a feature

You can try an insulated floor system such as hanson jetfloor etc, where essentially you replace the concrete block with EPS and then put your layer of Kingspan ontop if needed. There are numerous systems available https://www.bison.co.uk/products/jetfloor/

From the weight and area of glass, it should be two sheets of 10mm

I personally wouldn't want any roof lights that weren't laminated on the inner pane, having had a large pane of toughened glass shatter (from impact), while the risk of serious injury from toughened glass shards is very small, it is still highly unpleasant.. If you got one that is toughened on the inner pane, then as someone else suggested, I would get a clear film and stick it onto the inside surface - this will stop shards flying down if it does spontaneously shatter.

It isn’t … it’s water resistant.

The lovely joiner guy plus me and the wife! Who knew the joiner does a lot of weight training ??

Phew it's all in, had to come in through the window. Here's some pics of what it looked like before it was moved. We just need to try and sort through it all and get it hacked in. Odd couple of scratches we may need to get magicman to sort and then a worktop but we have a dressing room/walk in wardrobe!

I too have one of those as a plan B as I thought it would use less lecky than an immersion, plus the lower the DHW temp that’s stored the less the losses (although unlike @JSHarris I have found our tank looses very little heat, in fact er indoors complained that the airing cupboard was the same temp as the rest of the house?)