epsilonGreedy

Is this on the first floor above wooden joists embedded within the blockwork??

After a year delay I finally got around to the submission, the flowery planning application prose won the day. For your amusement...

Indeed, I suspect market manipulation by rumour. A simultaneous shortage of a commodity and consumers of a commodity is a bit suss.

I did not know cement bags had a best before date until you posted. A trip to the garage reveals a best before date of 31/1/21. Hmm its only for the inner block wall of a single story garage holding up a natural slate roof, think I will chance it. The footings went in 2 years ago and should have settled by now so I will mix at 4:1 given the cement's age. Sound like a plan? Next you will be advising me to look at the best before date of the 400 fibolite blocks that are just as old. Edit to say I found the life expectancy of white cement in grease proof type paper bags to be very limited even when kept under cover.

Good news I just shifted 10 bags of OPC from the garden to the garage, thought I was down to 4 bags. They had over wintered in the garden on a wooden pallet under an additional tarp. After reading this thread I hope they are appreciating in value faster than BitCoin. My NMA for the garage revision was approved last week so now I can build the workshop half of the garage.

Nothing until you have nearly finished the build, so plenty of time to consider your options. Don't choose a rounded decorative gravel it just squelches outwards under load. Waiting a year before finishing the drive will allow you to refill any dips that develop. My digger man went down 200mm on the softer parts of the drive and 150mm elsewhere. The first delivery of stone was larger 3" to 4" stuff which went into the dips. The rest was 2" clean limestone. 7 to 10 deliveries of limestone to a self build over a couple of days it quite routine for the industry. With a competent digger operative driving a medium size digger you will be surprised how quickly the drive can be formed to a rural standard with rough edges, Home Counties gated executive estate calibre drives take longer. The mountain of soil created will amaze you. Do you have any SUDS drainage stipulations that mandate a certain driveway permeability? The interface with the public road requires extra thought to prevent gravel being carried out onto the main road which creates a risk of skidding.

I would want to build onto that existing wall to create an internal feature facing brick wall. In @NCXo82ike's position I would ditch the plan for a heat pump and put the money into replicating the roof design of the extension next door.

Oooo err I just looked at my diminishing stock a OPC bags that survived the winter in plastic bags. How many bags of cement do I need for 37 m2 of internal block wall at a 5:1 mix?

Nope. This is a global thing caused by all the Covid money printing by Governments. You ain't seen nothing yet, what is the calorific value of a plastic bank note?

Defo some posh roofing and lead work there. Nice bricks too, I am thinking Yorkshire or North Lincolnshire, we call those bricks Langworth Yellows where I live.

Putting your numbers into the online trig calculator at http://www.carbidedepot.com/formulas-trigright.asp Using SideA = 65 SideB = 275 I make the pitch of your pyramid to be 13.3 degrees which is good aesthetically speaking because too steep would look a bit toytown. Of more interest the calculated SideC is 282.6mm which is one side of your right angled moulding triangle. The gutter side of your moulding triagle is 275mm i.e. half the length of one side of your plan view. Going back to the online trig page and calculating a new triangle. Using SideA = 275 SideB = 282.6 Which gives us a calculated SideC of 394.3mm (*) which on a hipped roof would be the length of the hip rafter and also the 3rd side of your moulding triangle. Hence 4 triangles measuring 275 x 282.6 x 394.3 should fit together to create your 13.3 degree pitched pyramid. However never trust what you read on the internet so let's test my numbers with a different calculation. The plan view length of one of those hip lengths is derived from an isosceles triangle with two sides measuring 275 which gives a SideC = 388.9mm (**) Viewing the same hip rafter triangle from the side we calculate a new triangle with Using SideA = 65 SideB = 388.9 (**) we get... SideC = 394.3 (*) which matches the original calculated SideC ? The pitch of the hip is 9.5 degrees taken from AngleA in this new triangle. That set off an alarm bell in my head then I realised a hip rafter pitch is always significantly lower than the principal roof pitch.

Would I be correct in thinking that the typical art stone window cill is not finished with recon stone and a coloured cement is used instead?

I sometimes wonder if the Grand Designs production team arrange soft loans to help get properties completed rather than having to write off a few years of filming. We know from another thread here that they ship in loaned designer interior decor furnishings on occasions for the final happy-clappy grand reveal.

Just a hipped roof without a ridge mathematically speaking. I can do hipped roof maths, so let's do the trigonometry in this thread @onoff How many bricks wide is this pillar?

Travel more around the UK to help you decide where you would be most happy to build. Shift your holiday focus to holiday rentals to sample more properties to pick up ideas. Visit other self builders to hear their war stories first hand. Go to the big NEC self build show once a year and book into the seminars. Learn Epsilon's first law of SelfBuild "Build the house that you will need for the next 20 years of your life and not the house you dreamed about 5 years ago.", basically this means don't fall into the the downsizer's upsizing trap.

@Construction Channel's photo of the cill moulding is very instructive. I assume the metal reinforcement grid is stainless. If I copied that I think I would raise the grid 20mm above the bricks below for increased strength. I like the rear overhang detail, I now reckon I should form the rear of the mould using PIR that will permanently sandwiched by the finished cill. I notice @Construction Channel solved the potential for leakage down the facing bricks by squashing some foam between the brickface and front moulding. He well and truly cramps the front moulding to the inner block wall with long cramps, not sure of their correct name. The taper at each end will look good in the final cill and also helps the release I assume. And he used cable to form the drip channel.

I see. I assumed I would need to replicate the spec of the factory cills I was thinking of buying. The factory cills were 100mm high, 1400mm wide and had a 70mm rear cavity overhang, these had 3 stainless steep rebar rods embedded. I suppose the manufacturer has a dual concern of preventing a stress crack during transport as well as incorporating strength to handle movement in a masonry wall. If I mould my own cills I would reduce the rear cavity overhang to 45mm, something similar worked for @joe90. I think the depth of a sash window frame is about 150mm so, given a full brick reveal, then a 40mm seat on the moulded cill rear overhang along the front of the sash frame and a 55mm rear seat on the inner wall blocks should be enough support.

Is this because the material was cheap or does a smooth laminate mould release neatly? Does the mesh inlay stop the decorative outer layer mixing with the concrete core? And perhaps 1/4 the price of factory fabricated artstone cill?

I was thinking of using a rubber or plastic strip to form the drip gully and leaving it there for a week after the mould has been released, before pulling the strip out.

Another thought... If the cill is moulded in-situ and the cill's concrete core flows into the facing brick frogs, that will result in a nice structural bonding & reinforcement of the base of the window aperture.

Rookie Question: You don't mean you used butter as a releasing agent? I assume you troweled a fairly stiff mix of fine yellow sand/white cement on the external facing sides at say 10mm to 15mm thick. Buttering the front vertical face of the cill could be interesting, if I used a laminate faced mould because I imagine the facing yellow mix slumping off before it has the weight of the concrete core to brace it.

@joe90 Is this your mobility spec entrance? If so I am reassured that a bit of a bump can get past BC.

This is encouraging to hear. If I read correctly, casting insitu is viable for downstairs window cills? Very interested about your sand colouring idea, I assume a fine grade sand is preferred for a decent stone-like finish. My default local sand is mid way between soft sand and sharp sand. When you say "a few bits of reinforcement" I assume this means strengthening the shuttering or did you place stainless rebar inside the cast cill? The more I think about this the main challenge would be preventing concrete leakage down the face of the facing bricks at the junction between the shuttering that forms the external cill overhang.

Just musing the practicalities of this... On a long walk around the village I noticed that most properties built over a 100 year time span have rough cast concrete window cills and this includes new heritage houses that were build around 10 years ago under the regime of a very strict conservation officer. The rough cast cills are typically 1 brick high with a shallow gradient for water run off and are painted in the same colour as the window frame. Would this type of window cill be cast in-situ in the window aperture or on the ground and then fitted like a normal art stone window cill? Part of the motivation for doing this is to avoid the modern estate look with 2 brick high bathstone coloured cills and I also assume it would be cheaper.

I discovered this when trying to level my static by jacking up corners with a 12ton bottle jack. They are floppy things that groan a bit when a gust hits during a storm. It is easy to overlook the extra siting costs: Armoured electric supply cable. Pro electrician to connect up the supply. A set of gas bottles, a change over switch, new gas pipe to route from where best to site the bottles, a new gas safe cert. Front door steps. An assortment of 110mm drainage pipe bends. A digger for a foul drain extension trench.