epsilonGreedy

I still wonder how the roofing crew who did my neighbour's selfbuild managed to fire nails 30 meters over to my plot. I found two nails embedded in a garden cushion at a ballistic angle which implicated the neighbour's roof.

Probably not. I expect so. I have 8 hip corners and the raw wood in the truss package to cut all the jack rafters. Got quite a few hangers where the trusses meet at right angles at the L-shape part of the house. Think these are fixed with square twisted nails. Yes I have 4 boxes of rooftruss mechano and plan to start another thread to understand the various mysterious metal parts. The large hangers usefully have the recommended nail sizes, types and quantity. "With top wrap" it specifies: 3.75 x 30mm square twist 3.75 x 70mm round wire nails Qty Face 8, Top 4, Joist 6 I assume engineering stresses at the truss foot metal clips are low and so these won't require a frame nailer to attach to the wallplate.

My roofing carpenter has bailed on my roof truss installation job due to ill health and so I am now looking into purchasing a nail gun and tackling the smaller parts of the roof myself. If I buy a nailer for the roof, what other tasks later in the self build will a 1st nail be useful for? I get the impression these nailers are designed to fire bix ring shank nails into large chunks of wood. Can they be dialed back much for more delicate work e.g. fixing on a 1" thick fascia board or the thinner bracing timbers that run across rafters? My favourite tool of choice at the moment is my Makita impulse screwdriver which I tend to use for everything when perhaps a manual hammer would be better.

Is it still on a caravan park site or is that a photo of your building plot? As Joe says location is vital information to attract buyers. I am not sure you will get your money back, £15K is a bit high for a narrow 10ft model unless it is a park managed sale where the static stays on site.

I just want to check I understand this advice. Looking at the photos the diagonal is cut just beyond the truss fixing point so the nail is not running through the bitter end of the wood where it is prone to splintering?

The more I get into self build I appreciate how much mutual support there is between each section of a house. In my case the upper storey is not a gable, it is the main two storey part of the house, so perhaps the house wall braces the the small section of roof on the 3.8m x 2.6m single storey roof. The hip end should help as well. My conclusion from this thread is that there is little wood to masonry connection or support at the roof abutment apart from a few 3x2 jams mentioned in the first reply. The bracing across the trusses particularly the diagonals provides the lateral truss stability plus the hip end. The metal straps in my case will be screwed into the main wall and probably won't add much unless some fancy technique is used to attach the strap end to the blockwork.

@nod The picture helps a lot. Is that a metal strap spanning across the first two trusses then fixed to the blocks?

To answer my recent question about what is a tool mode. This product review gives an answer. The workshop vacuum has its own 240v power socket, When switched to tool mode it senses when the power tool is drawing current and this auto switches the vacuum on and off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgtq_ioYwp8

You mention the “tool function“, how does this differ from other modes? I am looking to buy a general knockabout wet dry vacuum for the build and hooking this up to my track and mitre saws would be useful.

The solution was a local man with a telehandler. He had an ingenious solution which involved attaching a large crate to the forks. The crate was about 1m square and plus some extra battens tied on. This allowed my 6m wide trusses to be balanced on top and then slid off at the loading bay once lifted. Two hours to lift 18 trusses. The telehandler has a 9m arm and it was about 5.0m to the top rail of the scaffolding.

I have a small single story roof that abuts to the main two storey part of the house. The ridge runs out at a right angle. I assume it would be bad practice to position the final truss tight and side-on to the two storey wall? What sort of gap is recommended? The roof cover is slate hence the finishing of the abutment will be traditional lead soakers and flashing.

The same machine has a scent option.

From the SkillBuilder episode I got the impression the probiotic is meant to be drip fed into the MVHR and then circulate through to the air of the house. They are getting a poor response in the YouTube comments section.

Owners of aluminium hull boats are paranoid about galvanic and stray current corrosion. It might we worth testing to see if there is an electrical potential difference driving this corrosion. Is the roof earthed together with some other metalwork in the house? In yachting lore there are stories about a metal penny being dropped in the bilges and then burning its way through an aluminium hull. http://www.pcmarinesurveys.com/AC DC electrolysis.htm

My truss supplier quoted an example of one uncovered roof that was assessed as OK by building control after 2 years of exposure. I think 3 months is routine.

I thought this was a joke and have not seen the subject covered here. A recent edition of SkillBuilder shows a probiotic dispenser being plumbed into the supply duct of an MVHR system in a regular home. The unit is filled with a suspicious looking brown liquid. No not an early April fool prank. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Nlea9TJV8

One more question for the roofing connoisseurs here. Looking at the latest photo detail from @canalsiderenovation, is there any concern about thermal movement at that flat/pitched roof junction? I know the OP does not need any negativity at this point but now would be the right time to consider this issue before everything is closed up.

This issue weighs heavily in my mind. The simplistic question is "why not 70mm or 80mm of flow screed". No one seems to go down this route, is the reason cost or would 80mm of flowscreed overcook as it cures?

Phew, nightmare over. You might recall I questioned how they could introduce the gradient given the original minimal drop from the tiled roof to the flat roof. Looking at the photos they seem to have cut back the lower row of tiles to accommodate the new gradient. Hopefully someone who knows more about roofs can comment on any extra flashing detail now required at the new tightly coupled pitched/flat roof junction.

My build will be a variation of @PeterW's suggestion with 100mm cavity, woven cavity batt insulation plus 40mm PIR. If starting again I would opt of 150mm cavity. Hopefully @joe90will be along here to comment. He is very happy with his build, 200mm cavity plus traditional wet plaster finish direct on the inner block wall. I like the idea of the extra intermediate PIR insulation layer because I hope the reduced room facing thermal mass, comprised of just 12mm of plasterboard, will result in a responsive house with a more tunable internal temperature.

My new build has a 30 degree slate roof specified, it must be legit otherwise my experienced building control inspector would have flagged this from the outset. You need to research how your location is rated for weather exposure. Depending on the degree of exposure the slate overlap can be increased to compensate. There are reference tables online that provide a simple formulaic answer to how much overlap is needed.

Over the next week I plan to fit some window blanks to keep the weather out for the winter. These will be created using 11mm OSB sheet. As my house is located in a sensitive central village location I don't want to leave the window apertures presenting wood that will slowly turn into the brown/grey of weathered OSB. From 20 meters away what paint colour would fool the casual observer into thinking proper glazed windows are fitted? I am thinking a light silver/grey.

Yuesss!! I have been searching for those on and off for weeks, never thought to look under window latches. I was hoping for a cheapee version of those but I can recycle this chrome example when building storage in the finished house. Odd that the brass version is a £1 cheaper.

I am looking for a cheap door latch design that I think exists but I cannot find an example on ScrewFix. The knob of this imagined latch rotates, gets thicker the further it is turned and eventually jams up against a metal shim on the door frame. From memory it would not be larger than 2" x 2" and probably finished in a cheap electroplate. The "door" is just a section of 11mm OSB3 sheet, 600mm x 600mm and is an access section of my static caravan skirt that I want to secure rattle free.

Good to hear this. My concern was that the solvent type characteristics of the anti freeze might weaken the plastic ufh pipes.