Leaderboard

I was first contacted by the rates department in March, before everything went pear shaped, and said I hoped to move in in the summer and she just asked me to let her know. I had a call again this morning from a different person asking (nicely) for an update and had I moved in. I (very briefly) explained the situation, told him that I had services but no internal doors yet and that I hoped to move in before Christmas. 'OK' he said cheerfully, 'shall I put it down for the last Friday before Christmas, that's errrrrr the 21st Dec.' Yes that's fine I said. I then told him that I had sold this house but that the sale was unlikely to go through before Christmas. He told me I have a months grace and will only be charged rates on both premises if the sale hadn't gone through by 21 Jan. He said it's unlikely the valuer will actually visit the property and that they have 90. days to do the valuation but that whenever it is done rates will be charged from the official moving in day. I said that as it was in the garden I would be moving in gradually but wouldn't actually live there until 21st December and he said 'no problem'. He then gave me his direct line number in case I needed it. The building inspector for my insurance company (CRL) came round for his final inspection this week. So somehow they are still trading. He was happy with the house, also (as many have) he praised the brickwork, so at least something good came out of my original builder. He has just asked me to send pictures when the final details are completed (mainly the driveway) so all is well there.

I really don't understand why they are saying the filler block (particularly at bottom) isn't necessary, given its so easy to achieve and surely good practice at least even if not critical at an engineering level. Their drawing shows a single block reaching from back of joist hanger to joist vertical. Might they baulk at splitting that into two blocks...suggesting a shear line is introduced as per pink on drawing below left. In which case does drawing right mitigate.

Sure, no worries. I might even put a small blog together about the build.

Not here it won't!

Hi @Mr Punter if you have a quick look at my first post you will see It has all been given to a local timber engineering company and they have done all the calcs and design. The problem is me being me I asked if it could be improved upon, this was deemed to be a strange request and both designers thought I was silly wanting to spend more money than was needed. They both said it met all design requirements and deflection criteria so why would I want it any stronger. Now if this was a floor I would without doubt be insisting that joist spacing be tightened up to 400 instead of 600 centres as I would want a bounce free floor, however being a roof is there any point in over engineering it, I can’t see me ever up there with 20 mates dancing to the latest chart topper. Confused as usual. I might send it to my structural engineer to look at, it’s just another £100 to add to his bill I would like to avoid.

Do you definitely want to use joining plates? We've got a 140x450mm 14.9m glulam ridge beam that came in 3 pieces, one join supported by a wall the other a 140x140mm glulam post. The main beam is half lap jointed. No steel other than the threaded bar. Our post is a mortice and tenon join all pre cut. I can attach the engineering markups if it helps?

I have 10.5m steel spliced together with cover plate as the drawing enclosed. Unrelated to Glulam but might be helpful.

Funny story about the local engineered timber company i walk in and talk to a bloke for half an hour, total tit didn’t like him at all so I thank him and move on thinking I won’t ever go back there. A month passes and I go to have a chat with a company a little bit further afield, as I walk in their office, guess who’s grinning at me from over his computer screen, yep mr arse hole. So it just dawned on me I can now go back to the first company as he doesn’t work there any more. ??

Hope this isn't you then. An unapologetic diversion, 'cos you probably need one. (Mentioning Brexit again ... this is complete bollards imo, but funny and very good). I love Mr Cameron's "Brits don't quit!". Guess who quitted the next day...

I think you need to just give this to an engineer as Building Control will want the structure signed off by an engineer in any case. Why not just supply BC with a full set of drawings and spec then you can be sure that as long as you do what is on there it will be 100%.

Don’t worry it’s all in my head in a big jumbled heap, I have designed these connectors a dozen times at 2.30 in the morning as I lay awake wondering how mad I must be to be doing this again, and thinking of my next project before this one even has a roof on.

I found this site to be a big help This was also a help...

.

I used these http://www.glulamte.co.uk/ when I lived in Bristol, they were very helpful. I must admit I only like working to full plans so I know before I start exactly what is required, but that’s just me.

Can’t use facing bricks in driveways as they aren’t rated for it and will break and crumble very quickly.

No experience, but it looks like a toy to me. Tiny surface area and small fan dumping 1kW is likely to be noisy in a quiet bedroom. One of the reviews mentions that.

Not in my case. I suspect they rely on someone complaining and then comparing it to the PP conditions by exception. Just don't upset your neighbours - they may not have seen the conditions but might complain if your hardcore spills into the road. Cheapest is likely to be tarmac or waste concrete (e.g. surplus from a pour elsewhere) over the appropriate solid core. 'Half-decent' is tricky, your hell could be my heaven. Blockwork tends to be most expensive, though I am sure others will chip in with more expensive options - like gold-plated taps, I did not believe they could exist when I first heard of them!

I would not worry. If you are parking off road that is all they want. In our case it was stipulated that only the first 3 metres from the highway be surfaced in a sold material, we used just the base layer of tarmac for that. And we moved in with no doors, skirtings etc. We have a cardboard door on the bathroom.

That strikes me as an extremely good solution. Hadn't thought of the extra loop idea. More generally, as I have read, one of the risks relying on duct heating alone is the risk that true duct-heating systems require larger ducts for greater volumes of air. At the coldest extremes and with usual MVHR size ducting designed for slow air flows, forcing heated air around the house through those ducts at the volumes needed can lead to unpleasant noise and whistling in the ducting. It could work for the most highly insulated homes but would need to be carefully judged. Plus the extra cost and implication of insulating the ducting puts me off although others have said elsewhere that it may not always be needed. @jack's solution, on the other hand, is the best of both worlds. I favour it.

So that was removed from the Building Regs last revision for some reason ....! I’ve added intumescent strips to frames more recently at the request of the BCO. In the big scheme of things they aren’t expensive.

I've decided to go stick build TF, and have Cullen Timber Design design the frame for me.

I am truly grateful for your suggestions & support guys. I was too upset last night to get my head around it. The work done so far is really good. It is the total lack of communication & plain courtesy that is missing. He has clearly taken on too much work & has put himself under pressure. That doesn't mean it is acceptable to shout at me on the telephone. He was supposed to be back next week. He now tells me that he has moved onto another job & will not leave that until it is finished at Christmas. He has suggested he may come back on 7/1/19. It was only when I called him yesterday he informed me of this. If I hadn't called he wouldn't have let me know. I have been overcharged for the work done so far & that is still not sorted out although it has been acknowledged and agreed it is the case. @Roundtuit your post is a huge relief. I had misunderstood & thought I had to have BC sign off before registering for FiT. My main problem is time. Because I work full time & days off are often taken up by hospital appointments for Henry my time on the build is limited. I work in the house most evenings after work until about 9.30pm. It is more difficult now with only task lighting. I was desperate to get the plastering finished for Christmas so I would have time to assemble & fit the utility room on days off during the holidays. It is only the hallway, d/s W/C & utility room that is not plastered, but these are the spaces I now need to work on & are at a standstill. At most there is probably 1 days work for a plumber & 1 days work for the electrician to get me to this stage. The rest can be done in the New Year. Our joiner, who is also a personal friend is back tonight. I will ask him if he can help with the ducting to the outside for the MVHR & a couple of cables ducts for the security cameras. I will call the electrician/plumbers again today to see if he is prepared to just come back for 1 day. If not I will be exploring the alternatives suggested. I was almost starting to get excited again about the house. Not felt that since the ground works were done nearly 2 years ago. Seems now back to the same old dismal slog. If it wasn't for this forum I'd have put a match to the bloody thing by now.

Buy an electric blanket. Peanuts to run and much more pleasant in the conditions you note. You will wonder why you didn’t buy one before.

for my flat green roof posijoist co' states the following; top chord live 1.5 kn/m2 top chord dead 1.42 bottom chord dead 0.25 They were asked to design them by my SE who would have given them his calcs as below;

Dead load is the weight of the roof which given this is probably sarking and steel sheet is fine. Live load is normally the snow load which used to be 0.75 or 1.0 depending on location, so 0.8 seems to be a variation on this.

If you doing it yourself i suggest you watch this video this guy is real professional joiner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Qy3uyaLmY

I wonder if the council will do any thing about it? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46380554 It's not like it is a small tree to be missed off / mistaken on a plan

Yes but I worry about peeing meself. & its all a bit some mothers do 'av em 70's isn't it?