epsilonGreedy

I used some mesh on courses below the area where a corbled plinth will support the 250mm overhang of a false brick chimney. The idea was to counteract any tendency of the wall to buckle in the horizontal plane when the chimney is subject to gusts of wind. My building control inspector liked the proposal. The blocks are medium/light Plasmore fibolites. Like @nodI have also seen mesh sticking out of a main internal block wall as anchor pounts for another wall to be built later. My brickie preferred proper socket block bonding.

Ok so perhaps strong plastic sheeting is option. A few further questions if I may: What was the largest unsupported area of plastic sheeting within a window? How did you secure plastic sheeting to the wood at the perimeter? Someone has suggested staples. Anyhow entering "1000ga clear plastic sheeting" into Google led me to a Screwfix product at a reasonable price. Think I will install a trial plastic-sheet window and see how it holds up on the first gale. https://www.screwfix.com/p/capital-valley-plastics-ltd-plastic-sheeting-clear-1000ga-15-x-4m/2665p

The 1000 and 1200 grade DPM would cope with the weather exposure I expect. I can only find 250 grade clear plastic sheeting at a sensible price. Time to price up my total window area in OSB sheet or black 1000 grade DPM.

Oh ok, time for a Plan-B. It is a number of things: I am sitting on the fence watching another self builder nearby who is trying to persuade the planning office to allow plastic sash window frames. If he wins that would set a precedent for me and would lead to a £6k saving. Custom wood sash windows have a 3 month order lead time and I want to keep rain off the first floor 60-day boards until the proper windows are on site. I have a carpenter and an electrician lined up who are keen to do the stud wall framing upstairs and first fix electrics at an attractive price. I feel comfortable going ahead with this if I can make the structure 95% water tight. We are paying £100 a month for one 20ft storage container that is full of garage/shed calibre stuff that could be kept in the empty house for 6 months.

Nice to have this as a last resort. In the final stage of the build we are planning to seal/varnish the internal facing bricks so the PVA + brick dust disguise might blend in well.

An excellent suggestion as I now plan various experiments. Since posting I have not found any magic potion that will dissolve D4 glue. As per your link my plan is to start with heat to tease off the larger lumps of glue, then I will progress to manual slicing off with a scalple and finally (my idea) I will try extreme cold e.g. liquid CO2 and see of the glue can be scrapped off as frozen shards.

I am thinking ahead to August when my roof should be on and I will need to close up the build for possibly 6 months to keep the Autumn/Winter weather out. What grade polythene would stand up to 6 months of UV and the occasional gale in what is otherwise a sheltered location? p.s. I have a couple of 1.8m openings for french doors which will be boarded up with 9 or 11mm OSB and apart from these the largest window opening is 1.6m x 1.2m (H/W). p.s.2. I have a temporary CU in the house so I could be persuaded to board up all the windows and use LED work lights for some of the limited incremental 1st fix jobs that might be commissioned before the proper window frames seal up the house completely.

When laying the first floor recently I neglected to protect a decorative ground floor wall below finished with facing bricks. A few days later I noticed a couple of annoying dribbles had dried on the brick wall below. I tried to mechanically lift the glue a week later but its natural expanded foam set state means I just scrape the glue deeper into the irregular surface of the facing bricks. Is any solvent known to dissolve D4 glue? If I was nearer the coast I would visit a yacht chandlery and purchase a variety of International Paints thinners as they have a potion that can attack many forms of organic chemistry. https://www.international-yachtpaint.com/en/au/boat-paint-products/thinners

Does a south facing wall need an expansion joint more than north facing one?

Thanks, I went for Hardie Backer because that was available locally. It just happens that 5 minutes ago my brickie called me outside to look at the board sandwiched into the latest courses of the chimney breast. The 6mm board had plenty of rigidity for the small span between the main lintels. I had picked up some 12mm board as well to cover both options and will now use that for the vertical tiled lining of the 2nd fireplace.

My fireplace is wide and after allowing for the central flue supporting base plate I will need to close off the ceiling of the fireplace either side of the flu base plate with some form of sheet. My brickie suggested cement board but the BM has offered hardy backer board also known as tiling board which they claim is fire rated. The fireplace is being designed to accommodate a wood burning stove. Is hardy backer board suitable for the fire place ceiling board. It comes in a 6mm or 12mm thickess in small sheets.

So far I have discovered they do not like Covid era hand gel up their entrance. Not sure if this qualifies as conventional or nuclear insect warfare.

Some angry "Top Gun" bees nesting in my cavity wall got the better of my brickie and his mate. After multiple attacks and one sting they went home early. The bees are accessing the cavity via two slots left open for profiles clamps. What can I do to persuade the bees to relocate?

£200 for a 2 year interim option! Makes sense to me, was this a special eBay purchase?

I wonder if @Gary Daviescould obtain a copy of the technical floor design from the joist supplier shown in the photos?

@ProDaveis a yachtsman, so going backwards down a companionway ladder is natural to him.

Looks ideal though a bit pricey for a one-off self build at over £500. https://www.ladders-999.co.uk/stairs-spirals?limit=all Given the feedback so far I will delay ordering the metal metal ladder and will price up a semi steep wood diy staircase.

I thought so but anticipate you will now advise this is not such a good idea. I have 4 scaffold planks and mid size trestles that could be used for material lifting. In terms of materials, I assume plasterboard is the main headache? There might be a few feature victorian wrought iron radiators.

This is a more interesting! Routing and serious carpentry lies outside my present skillset but blocks under the treads sounds doable. Hmm an option to explore once the floor is up to screeded FFL... unless I dismount it for the screeding operation and then refit it trimmed to the new floor level.

Hmm. Lifting materials is a concern with a plain old ladder setup. If the remainder of the build is very slow this ladder will get a lot of use. We are not planning any fancy oak staircase so I might put in the final staircase earlier than the professionals recommend with an expectation it will need some polly filler in the dings before final painting.

I am thinking of ordering 4.5m of this ladder: https://www.laddersukdirect.co.uk/ladders/heavy-duty-single-section-ladders/h9ss They claim the D shaped runs are more comfortable.

I need to order a decent single section ladder for mid-build access to the upper floor. The ladder will be secured in place for +6 months and I am looking for tips on doing this properly. My plan is to tie the ladder to the metal web joists 2/3rd of the way up and my brickie suggested securing the ladder base with a block of wood screwed into the concrete floor. Prior to insulation and ground floor screeding the height to first floor is 3.0m. A bit of trigonometry leads me to think a 4.5m ladder is ideal because that will project 1.4m above the first floor which will be convenient to grab when transitioning on and off the ladder. A bit of reading suggests 75 degree incline is optimal for a ladder leaning against a wall but for six months of regular access I wonder if 70 or 65 degrees is better? p.s. I will be constructing a temporary safety stair well bannister this weekend.

Another variable is the cable quality. There is standard thin copper, fat (good) copper and old legacy aluminium cabling. My old problematic broadband property was cursed by aluminium telephone cables, a visiting engineer told me this stuff was put in back in the 1970's to save money. BTW: Your references to "the exchange" is dated thinking. These days Open Reach lay on fibre to neighbourhood roadside broadband cabinets and the ADSL signal quality fall off is measured as the distance from the cabinet.

Pulling up the D4 foam glued floorboards would damage the joists, don't do this. Glue plus nails is standard practice, a few nails that missed the joists is fairly typical providing 95% found their target. The absence of sound proofing material between the floors looks like a significant transgression of building standards. My advice would be to: Find a surveyor who is experienced at NHBC disputes. He will help clarify what build anomalies are acceptable and what you should pursue e.g. whinging about a few off target ring nails will undermine the credibility of your claim with NHBC. If the surveyor thinks the problems are substantial get a plasterer to quote for pulling down and reinstating the ceiling. With the ceiling down you can spend a week cataloging the noise sources and then the surveyor can produce a fix list.

+3 miles! Just go for GSM and save yourself years of grief, I wish I had. There are some technical antenna options sold for canal boats and yachts. Edit: Are you sure there isn't an intermediate broadband street cabinet closer to your house?