epsilonGreedy

I have a noddy question about filling a chimney with vermiculite. The chimney reaches 7m high and will contain standard concrete/pumice flue section joined with fire cement. Should the vermiculite thermal insulation be be poured into the flue chimney cavity loose straight from the bag or should it be mixed with cement and water so that it sets in the chimney and helps brace the flue? I understand loose fill is correct for metal chimney liners but a very knowledgeable lady at Clearview stoves in Ludlow looked surprised when she discovered I was intending the fill my chimney with loose vermiculite.

The OP needs to either fight gravity or use gravity. In my experience rainfall prefers to wriggle horizontally over the surface of the ground by following a gradient. To solve the garage problem I would dig a drainage trench around the external perimeter of the garage and then channel the water off somewhere. Water will find its way through any untanked masonry defences.

A crypto coin backed by gold looks attractive right now. The Government can afford to splurge at the moment because with interest rates effectively below zero there is no longer a time penalty to maintaining or expanding debt.

The real fraud is £190 billion of new UK Government spending borrowed on the never-never thus advancing the date when the international system of FIAT currencies collapses and when the Chinese and Russians take over. I thought we were meant to fix roof tiles when the SSP sun shines?

If I subsequently get the real thing then my build stalls and I watch an excess of daytime TV. I cannot see the downside to pocketing £200 of SSP cash via the online self declaration process and then as a dutiful citizen spending it in the local economy, in the middle of a recession that would buy many extra hours of a pro roofer slating my roof.

Could I declare my hands-on self build to be a job, then self isolate with suspect Covid19 and pocket two weeks of statutory sick pay?

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Anti-viral India Pale Ale! Not heard of that before or is it a contingency for when your GP confirms a Covid-19 diagnosis?

The greatest risks for me are the card reader keypad at my local BM, the pen offered to me each time a BM delivery arrives and SWMBO who works at a hospital. My brickie team is young and incredibly hardy and fit, so I doubt a corona virus infection would knock more than 1000 bricks a week off their productivity. Supply chain interruption will be the greatest problem, I might get my roofing components onsite a month earlier than required.

600 sounds about right. We like this example from a Potton show home though without an external chimney breast we won't have anything like the same depth. And here is another example, which also features a mantle beam installed above a typical height. https://www.bookcottages.com/cottages/100-UKC1537-gorse-cottage.htm

I will do something similar to your photo, thanks. Just been out to measure, the external scaffolding pipe dimension is 48mm.

I am doing some room ceiling height fine tuning with my brickie team as the walls go up and can calculate wall-plate height very accurately. Above that the quote for the trusses gives the wall plate to peak height to the nearest mm. What I cannot judge is the thickness of the roof ridge tiling above the truss peak. Is there an industry standard or this? It will be a slate roof probably done in Nu-lok.

The brickies built up to 2m without scaffolding using simple plank trestles a few blocks high. Then the first lift was erected so that the staging was a few courses lower than the built wall hence no need to work under the staging except the path down one side of the house runs under the staging and then we have 3 access points to the internal ground floor. I have been quoted for 3 lifts: The first is just below ground floor lintel height. The second will be a few blocks above the first floor level. The third will be set to provide a convenient step up for the roofers. I am also paying the brickie team on a scaffolding lift schedule.

In the interest of personal site safety can anyone offer tips on how to protect head-height scaffold bar ends on the first lift staging? My thought is to buy a few meters of pipe insulation with a suitable internal diameter and wrap the pipe ends then add a cable tie to keep the insulation in place.

Room size is still best visualized in feet in my head, whereas anything technical is metric. Then there is ceiling height, I know my knuckles can touch a 2.2m ceiling whereas 2.4m is nicely out of reach.

My brick laying team is nearly ready to build the basic structural skeleton of the fireplace and chimney above. The chimney breast is internal i.e. the outside wall is flat so the depth of the fireplace is formed by its intrusion into the room. The room is 17ft x 19ft and the width of the fireplace is decent at 1.6m. The stoves I am looking at are around 400mm deep. We also like a higher than average mantle to give a hint of the inglenook fireplace style.

How many bricks, 10,000+? My local BM got me a good price on a similar fancy brick from the same brand name. Think you should aim for under 70p a brick. Although I ordered locally the shipment arrived on two HGVs direct from Tilbury docks. Where is your plot?

I would agree with that and with no implication of your early demise. I think simple market forces and technology evolution will persuade the young to tap their Uber or Waymo app in preference to learning to drive or buying a car. But there is also a deeper issue which is a loss of passion for motor car technology, they have just become manufactured consumer products. 35 years ago I could peel back the bonnet of my Triumph Spitfire on a Sunday morning, sit on the front wheel and balance my twin SU carbs by listening to the air intake. What is the Tesla equivalent to that, tapping the console screen and customizing the default Elon Musk fart to listen to?

Yes Uber points to what the future holds, the transition will occur first in large population centres. It is starting... BRITAIN MAY HAVE HIT ‘PEAK CAR’ AS YOUNG DRIVER NUMBERS FALL SHARPLY https://www.driving.co.uk/news/britain-may-hit-peak-car-young-driver-numbers-fall-sharply/

There are a few specialist heritage brick manufacturers who deal direct with self builders e.g. York Handmade but the big names will redirect you to a builders merchant. My fancy bricks were supplied by a BM at a good price.

Conversely what makes me laugh is the petrol head types who have transferred their passion to EVs but do not accept the continuation of these technical advances leads us to a world where full time ownership of a motor vehicle will be seen as a legacy concept. 20 years from now a car will just be a for-hire personal transport option that will arrive a few minutes after clicking a button on a mobile phone app, all driven by an autopilot.

That would be a welcome technical innovation, these days whenever the car ahead drives strangely I look to see if the driver is looking at a mobile phone. My hunch is that in-car technology distraction is as dangerous as alcohol and speeding. I suppose we are in a transition phase that will be self correcting as voice control and autopilots become more advanced.

He converted the heritage house artistry used to obtain planning permission into fully worked up technical drawings for building control, the cross section diagrams have been particularly valuable as these show every block and brick from foundation to gutter height. He is also accessible for subsequent technical chats.

We could replace them with more competent AI autopilots.

I am more concerned about the dangerous human drivers I encounter on the roads each day.