epsilonGreedy

My self build neighbour lived in his onsite static caravan for 9 months before the real build started and two months into those 9 months enforcement challenged his residential status due to the absence of visible work. In the end the council relented and said they would view his mains electric service trench to the static as evidence of building commencement. This then allowed the static caravan to be designated as workers accommodation.

I can now see how a wider belt sander would help produce a squarer flat finish. Back to the Screwfix catalogue! I hope to do most of the cutting and trimming in the loadingbay built into the scaffolding.

Think you have convinced me. I have never used a multi tool before. So now after starting this thread I am wondering if I could touch-drag the end of a square multi-tool sanding blade across a 5" x 2" rafter seat end just to scrape off 0.5mm? Readers might think I am becoming obsessive about this but over the next month I will need to fit about 70 jack rafters on my hip ends plus about 22 intermediate regular rafters. While doing this I will be trying to maintain a flat plane for the battens. Given the scale of the job then any power tool assistance to tweak and fine-tune the depth of a cut or notch will be welcome.

I was planning to offer up each rafter each extra rafter in situ and then adjust the seat until a long 1.8m level lays flat and wobble free across the top of the rafters. Given the natural slate covering I am trying to avoid undulations in the roof battens that will in turn kick up the corner of some slates. With my low 30 degree pitch any irregularity in the flat lay of the slates will be plain for all to see. I will try that, my fine control of an electric jig saw would be better than using a circular saw to take small notches out of a rafter. I was watching a pro carpenter doing a roof on YouTube the other day and noticed he routinely lifts the blade guard to observe the progress of the whole cut. I must do that in future.

Ok interesting. Before ruling out a power filer I should clarify that I will use conventional cutting to get a rafter to within 2mm of alignment, so I am just looking to trim 1 or 2 mill off the wall plate seat end of the rafter and the area of such a seat will be probably 5" x 2". Given this clarification would you still rule out such a power tool?

I am going to be cutting a lot of roof-rafter seats and birds-mouths over the next week and my classic carpentry skills with a circular saw or manual chisel are mediocre. I envisage doing lots of trial fits until the extra rafters align with the pitched plane of the existing roof structure, this will involve repeated trimming of 0.5mm off the rafter end seat until I get a snug aligned fit. Would a finger filer be useful in this scenario? Looking at something like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/mac-allister-msmbs400-electric-belt-sander-220-240v/183gf

This would be my concern because the neighbour's new drainage scheme might disinherit the OP from the rights gained in the 2011 change of legislation. However would any 3rd party be motivated to intercede on behalf of @ashthekid?

That is an interesting subtlety I was unaware of. I thought the public sewer began at the most upstream connection point of private soil pipes, but your post and the @temp diagram indicate the public sewer starts at the upstream boundary of the plot where the connection is made. I wonder what financial hit the bean counters at the big water co's calculated when the new 2011 legislation came into effect since they are now responsible for a much larger drainage network.

Have you verified the overall viability of the design by cross checking how the market would value of the final result? A six bedroom bungalow with an odd proportion of bedroom to public room area is a bit of a niche. I would follow @Mr Punterand get the shell up through a main builder or delay until market sanity returns.

Hmm. Two thoughts: It is a trussed roof with one hipped end. The main rafter and jack rafter ends do not have a consistent size so that could look a little odd. I assume I would have to shape some wood above the facing bricks to stop the wind, birds and insects getting into the attic space.

I am going to fit some wooden eaves and have decided on the following design. There are three constraints: The house design requires a Georgian look with a wide soffit overhang plus minimal fascia height. The soffit timber is 220mm wide and fascia is 120mm high. I did not have the eave design sorted out when the walls were built so the brickie added a couple of extra courses hence I cannot rest the soffit on the top course of facing bricks. I would prefer not to drill into the facing bricks. Both the fascia and soffit timber are redwood planed down to 20mm thick. As seen in the photo I have routed a 5mm deep groove in the fascia that the soffit will slot into, the intention of this is to prevent the soffit from warping over time. The chunky weathered 175mm wide hangers are meant to be a single piece of wood and the angled wood next to my arm is meant to represent a rafter at a 30 degree pitch. I might reduce the hanger width to 5". I will be painting the eaves with white linseed paint and so I will be able to drive two screws upwards through the soffit and into chunky hangers then scrape some putty over the counter sunk hole before covering up. 600mm rafter centers BTW.

Ok. A low pitched roof (below 30 degrees) is more prone to lift but vorticies can form in unexpected locations due to aerodynamic lift. It would be wrong to think that the only danger of a roof lifting off is the wind catching effect of a soffit.

What pitch is the roof? I ask because lift can occur at the ridge, hips and other parts of the roof due to aerodynamic lift.

Is this an old property? I ask because the wood frame to the right looks as though it might be a feature of an old cottage.

Your complaint about their work is subjective, why not upload some photos into this thread to illustrate the state of your walls before they started and then another showing the job in progress. Is it possible the walls are in a bad state of repair and your expectation about what decoration can cover up is unrealistic? Your request for advice would be helped if you used less emotive English, if they turned up on time and worked a full day then I do not how their work ethic could be described as "absolutely disgusting".

Starlink deserves a mention in this thread but one thing that might irk the Passiv House self build enthusiasts is the 100 watt consumption of the control box + dish even when the system is idle.

I cannot answer the main question but I wonder if conventional chimney design thinking needs to be amended for the extra moisture content of gas combustion?

Err. Gas powered generation !!!

NASA (which specialises in climate change alarmism these days) found the evidence. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/human-activity-in-china-and-india-dominates-the-greening-of-earth-nasa-study-shows

Our politicians just want power and so they are a reflection of us. Beyond a highly selective community like BuildHub most humans cannot afford to indulge in your imagined reality. The only incineration I see is in the brain cells of the worried western rich, it is like watching a privileged Victorian Duchess have a "touch of the vapours". Climate Change hysteria is just another chapter in the saga of the willful self destruction of western society. It started with Effete Christianity in the late Victorian period, then we adopted big state socialism, followed by a nationalized academia and now climate change hysteria, this is just societal self immolation on a national scale. The answer is very simple, turn off the BBC, don't read the Guardian and relax in the knowledge that the historical and geological record demonstrate we have 100's or 1000's of years to devise a solution to rising CO2. The next 50 years are going to be rather nice with rising food production, deserts will turn green and there will be more sunny UK staycations.

Yes fair point, as I mentioned in the opening post "Code 3 is 1.32mm thick and Code 4 is 36% thicker at 1.8mm. Some say code 4 might kick the slate up a bit more.". 1.32mm does sound paper thin to me but I have not actually handled lead flashing before. The fact that the industry equally approves of materials with a 36% difference is something I cannot reconcile in my head. Neither would be a mistake it seems. There is always the breather membrane if the soaker fails!

Definitely advice I will take seriously for the chimney flashing on the main 2 storey roof. However this particular abutment which is the first challenge will be just above the principal house entrance.

I was only thinking of a few mm of movement and was concerned this might tear paper thin code-3 soakers that would be constrained a little by the code-4 stepped cover flashing. During in the Boxing Day storm of 2020 I was working on the ridge of the main roof tying down the temporary tarps, as the storm built up I was surprised to feel the (incomplete) hipped truss structure moving a bit. I plan to use home-made lead roll clips but I need to point up in a light sandy colour mortar to match the rest of the brickwork. That leadmate seems like a simpler material to use but think it only comes in a mid grey colour.

I assume the slates will be cut to within 5 or 10mm of the abutment facing brick wall and the stepped cover flashing will protect some of this joint, so there will be very little of the soakers exposed.

A 6m x 210mm roll of code-4 lead flashing about be 26kg according to this page. https://www.roofgiant.com/code-4-lead-flashing/midland-lead-code-4-roofing-lead-flashing-roll-6m/ And in my case a 6m x 450mm wide roll for the ridges & hips in code 5 is 68kg. That is 2.5 bags of cement in a small package.