jayc89

Unfortunately it's already there. It was once the external wall of the original part of the property, which is probably why the floor is stepped after that, but doesn't really explain it!

Ensuite #1 floor is solid joists, Ensuite #2 floor will likely be pozi joists. In both cases the joists will run the "right" way. I.e. left to right in the diagram. Neither have suspended ceilings below. I could probably box in within ensuite #2 to avoid anything in the rooms below.

We're going to have 2x ensuite's back-to-back, one stepped approx 200mm below the other. The lower void being the nearest to the SVP. I need to figure out the best way for the internal soil pipe to navigate this step down. 2x 90 degree bends might work (not sure if I have the clearance for that within the void), but are two bends and two changes of direction in quick succession suitable? Don't fancy any blockages! Any suggestions?

Our eaves are currently open to the world (1850's roof). Whilst re-insulating it, I'd like to fit something like a length of eaves comb to prevent birds nesting in it again next year. It looks like most combs are installed by lifting the first row of slates/tiles, which would be a problem for me as I can't get around the full roof from outside. Are there any that can be fitted from within the loft space, similar to refurbishment eaves vents?

My gas boiler will eventually move into the loft space. I want to run all the pipework in readiness for that (gas, water, flow, return), before I re-insulate the loft but leave it all disconnected ready for my gas engineer to connect to when I do move the boiler. I plan to run all 4x pipes under the loft insulation, so on the warm side, is there any problem with running gas pipes within wool roll insulation?

Can't help directly, but a couple of relevant points; In one of my previous houses, it was sold as a detached, but there was only about 1.5m between them. Our landing window overlooked the neighbours wall, they didn't have any windows on that elevation. When extending our currently property, the proposal some 8m away from the neighbours boundary (back garden) however our planning constant stipulates all first floor windows that look out that way needed to be frosted.

That was my thought too, unfortunately. I'll get him out to produce some calcs.

Just been speaking with an SE who suggested we "might" get away with gallows brackets, but wouldn't elaborate much more than that. The LABC guidelines suggest they should only be used on stacks that aren't fully vertical (ours is) although it does also seemed to be aimed at when they're being taken down below the loft space....) I've dropped our BCO an email to check what he'd accept. Given the stack is 15 courses high and the loft space is only 12 and we'd likely need to chop out the majority of them to fit the gallows brackets, I don't think it'll work... Anyone had joy using gallows brackets recently?

Travis Perkins, but the guy I deal with previously worked at Jewsons, so I think it's more about building a decent relationship with someone, rather than one BM being massively cheaper than any other.

Yep, I'll dig out an old invoice. Suppliers are having our pants down.

We have an old lime torched roof, where bits of mortar have fallen away over the years and as such you can see day light, results in more slipped slates, but (that part of the roof, at least) is bone dry.

I'm using HEP in our reno. Cheapest I found the pipe was from our Builders Merchant. 50m 22mm pipe @ 91.92 + VAT 50m 15mm pipe @ 49.67 + VAT 100mm 10mm pipe @ 82.79 + VAT

We finished off the pointing this morning. The old lime mortar was just wasting away, so raked a load of that out and put fresh in. There's a load of cement up there too which is causing some bricks to spall, so I need to tackle that at some point, but it was getting pretty windy by lunch time. We also have a wet verge, which was falling to bits, so replaced that at the same time. Still pretty frustrated we've had 4 roofers come take a look at this leak and none of them spotted these problems. The pot, and cement around it, literally lifted off in my hands without any "encouragement".

Poured it down overnight. Wardrobe area's looking bone dry this morning. Happy days. Bit of pointing left to finish today, just to tidy it up, hoping the rain holds off for a couple of hours so I can get back up there before I need to give the tele handler back this afternoon.

Managed to get my hands on a tele handler and cage today. The pot above the leak was loose, it just lifted off in my hands and the entire top course of bricks were also loose. All taken down and rebuilt; lime mortar for the brickwork, cement + sika proof mix for the flaunching and refitting the pots. Fingers crossed that stops the leak. Builder coming out to fit a steel beam in the loft to prop the stack up in a couple of weeks.

You should contact BCO before you start any work, but yes, fit yourself and they can sign it off (mine just asked for pictures of them being fitted. I.e. mechanical fixes at correct spacings, wind tight and airtight detail etc.) I'm sure there are plenty of decent fitters around. Most near me come with a can of expanding foam and bog standard mastic to gob around the frame, which isn't what I was looking for. I used Illbruck's i3 system when fitting mine.

BCO can sign off window installation. That's what I'm doing as I didn't trust any of the local fitters to pay enough attention to the airtight detail.

Why? I filled one of ours with EPS beads. Seems to have worked quite well from an insulation perspective, (beads up to just above the loft line and then an air vent in the stack from there upwards) and if the worst came to the worst I could essentially pull the plug at the bottom and they'd all come out (soot covered all over the living room, mind). With foam you're never getting it out again.

No amount of damp products will fix that, sorry. Please don't add insult to injury and get drawn in by their sales pitches, those products just don't work (not for long anyway). The source of the damp needs fixing, not the symptoms.

To be fair, I've probably hit lucky with the Branch Manager. He was at Jewsons, moved to Travis Perkins and every time he comes up trumps.

After a couple of days of haggling I managed to get my most recent order from my BM down from £4700 to £2800, that's over 40% off their initial quote. I had to ring around and barter them off against one another, but it goes to show how much markup there's to be had. Their initial quote was also massively discounted from their website prices too.

Not decided, otherwise I'd have JFDI and not asked for the advice at all We're all here to learn after all, aren't we?

Agreed. The tie beams are 8x8" or 200x200mm and span 7m, but my understanding is the king posts deflect most of the load to the external walls (hence not having an internal load bearing walls) meaning the tie beams I want to lay these new joists on are only currently working in tension.

UVC is still TBD, I need a larger one and could possibly go for a horizontal version, which would change the calcs again. Based on most joist span calcs going up to 1.5kN.m I'll at least double up on them and run cross members to spread that load across as many joists as possible.

I need to replace our 250L UVC for something larger, as the 4 of us regularly drain it when we shower/bath at similar times. We're currently on a gas system boiler, but will eventually switch to a heat pump. Is there any reason why I couldn't buy a replacement UVC that's "heat pump ready" now, whilst still running it off the system boiler? Presumably it would allow me to run the boiler at a slightly lower temp too, if I wanted to?