epsilonGreedy

I got close to buying an awning for my previous house 6 years ago. After the usual internet research I visited a local specialist showroom and had to revise my ideas. Before buying it is worth inspecting some examples up close to appreciate the range in quality.

It is a cultural thing though not logical. The climate in Paris or Normandy is not that different to ours. I also suspect Buildhub members are not as out doorsy as the general UK population hence little discussion of awnings here. An awning is an essential element of our self build and has nothing to do with solar gain control, we just want a veranda with FFL height decking, awning, infrared heater and lighting. The OP asked about colours. Stripes are very 1980's, solid colour = trendy. Having sat out under canvas on many boats I suggest avoiding colours that turn people's skin into alien looking coloured skin, so choose a neutral like buff or grey, though orange is in vogue at the moment.

My Building Control Inspector has confirmed your advice. He recommend leaving DPC where it is i.e. 150mm higher than standard NHBC standards and having two courses of regular facing bricks (F2s) below DPC, this will leave 2 rather 4 blues exposed and hence of less interest to the conversation officer. I mixed up a test mortar batch last night at a 3 to1 sand/mortar ratio but with the mortar component the same 5 to 1 white/grey cement ratio and it produced the same nice sandy/caramel colour once dry.

This is a summer concern when bone dry absorbent bricks or blocks suck water out of the mortar too quickly before the brickie can level up a run of just laid bricks. My case is different, (1) engineering brick do not suck up water so much by design, (2) a this time of year bricks are unlikely to be bone dry and (3) wet engineering brick faces are prone mortar smears which are highlighted by the dark face.

I have considered this and followed @Brickie's comments in a thread on that subject however it just sounds like a proposal at the moment. The other concern I have is that references to Lineseed mention it being used as a type of varnish. I don't want to amplify the visual intensity of my engineering bricks with a long term varnish type finish, is the boiled linseed usually washed off at the end of a build?

Is it important not to get the cleaning agent on the regular mortar joints?

Fussy amateurs strive for better than pro! When I look at examples of laid blues I often think, "I hope my house will be better than that". I have been drying the bricks systematically over the past two weeks as I am told will help the brickies deliver a better finish.

A pro brickie team will no doubt leave a few mortar splashes on my blue/grey engineering bricks as they work at speed. If I undertake to clean up the brick faces later with some brick cleaning acid plus seriously long rubber gauntlets, how long should I wait? I assume anything less than 6 hours in the current cold weather could make things worse by smearing still unset mortar? My hunch would be 24 to 48 hours after the bricks are laid and that 2 weeks would be far too long.

Yes a very tidy standard of finish and everything blends into the window frame sealing so well.

Our inspiration is this property in the Yorkhandmade brochure though in our case there is no parapet formed in the blues, our FFL is about 250mm higher and at most the top blue course will be level with the door step. This post discusses the option for the top blue course sitting under the doorstep plinth instead. https://www.yorkhandmade.co.uk/kilburn-handmade-bricks

Yes I am trying to reduce the total m2 of blues showing above ground. The above DPC bricks are F2 rated so good for below DPC though I suspect their hand moulded origins means they are at the lower end of an F2 rating. A few months back I suggested one course of regular facing bricks below DPC and someone more experienced did not approve. I might till consider this however it causes an additional mortar colouring challenge. I have settled on a 50-white/50-grey mortar mix at 1 to 3 sand for the blues because I do not like a pure white mortar showing between the blues. The above DPC 5 to 1 sand/cement mix colour is now settled at 5 parts white cement to 1 part grey. A course of buff bricks below DPC will require a mortar that still looks sandy at a stronger 3 to 1 mix. I suppose we are only talking about the perps mortar colour in this below DPC course.

The planning office is making noises of discontent about too many blue engineering bricks possibly showing above ground level. The average would be 5 courses because the site slopes and a minor flash flood risk necessitates DPC should be 150mm higher i.e. 4 bricks rather than 2 above ground level. I could reduce the number of exterior blue courses above ground by lowering the DPC by one brick which would be one brick below FFL. Is a door step threshold complicated to finish when the external cavity wall DPC is one brick lower than FFL and the floor membrane that laps up to the DPC running across the top of the first inner block? More Info: I have a standard block and beam suspended floor with 100mm thick blocks. Above the floor blocks I will have 150mm of insulation plus 65mm of screed with a few mm spare for a tiled floor finish.

As a fellow OCD sufferer you may comprehend that I do not want the inner face wandering in and out when some bricks split 90mm/125mm. Thanks for the tip about turning half bricks at window apertures, my approved mortar pointing detail is for a flush finish so not as significant as your case. Did the builder have to adjust perp thickness to compensate for the 7mm undersize of a turned brick? I currently have the final mortar colour mix drying in the sun, the answer after many experiment is 5 parts white cement to 1 part standard grey cement plus a local sand with a strong orange tint = nice sandy buff colour mortar near the buff brick colour.

Not until I finish off the fire places in the finished house years from now. The current challenge is to split 2500 bricks cleanly in half for the pseudo header courses in an English Bond.

The mess from 2500 full cuts would be an issue. Following comments here I am now thinking about a hybrid solution, where a very simple jig would hold 10 bricks in a row, then with a 5mm shallow cut on each side, the bricks should split cleanly with a less forceful bolster tap. A full header course around the house elevations would require 400 half bricks.

Solid with a small shallow frog, they came from Belgium via Tilbury though branded by Weinerbeger. https://www.wienerberger.co.uk/product-range/bricks/hathersage-blend.html though mine look better than the brochure photos. They are at the soft end of an F2 category brick I think as they do not have that "ting" sound when tapped like a highly baked brick. The brickie team knows about the brick bond planning condition and have quoted accordingly. However I would like to do the cutting to help deliver a better end result and keep the job moving along.

Over the next 3 months my house will need 2500 bricks cut in half in order to meet a planning condition for a brick bond finish. On nearby builds the brickie team just whacked the bricks with a trowel to cut them in half but that led to undersized half bricks giving an irregular finish on the inner face of the exterior wall. So I am investigating cutting my bricks to provide a better end result and also let the brickies focus on laying. There is a fancy Sthl brick cutting jig on the market for £320 that allows for different angled cuts which seems overkill for simple square cuts. https://www.gustharts.com/machinery-c123/construction-machinery-c243/cut-off-machine-concrete-cutter-accessories-c261/stihl-large-brick-jig-p1313 So now I am thinking I could fabricate a cutting plinth with thick sheets of wood plus some fixed end stops that would keep 10 bricks aligned and square to the cutting blade of a large handheld cutter. I could steer the cutter by eye down the row of 10 bricks and achieve a more regular cut finish than the trowel whack method. The aspect of the design of a DIY cutting jig that I am puzzling over how to quickly apply a clamp across the top of the 10 bricks lined up for cutting?

The present static caravan for our self build has been my first experience of a combi boiler for hotwater. The initial wait for the first delivery of hotwater does not bother me and that is from a 21Kw model with very high water pressure. However when showering the option of leaving the water running feels wasteful at near a powershower flow rate due to our good mains pressure but the alternative yo-yo temperature cycle of hot/lukewarm/cold/hot-again is a problem. The hybrid Vaillant combi boiler mentioned by @Nickfromwalessounds like a solution. I would not need such a hybrid "storage" boiler to maintain its small internal tank at a hot temp over 24 hours, however I wonder if it could be reprogrammed to maintain the tank at a hot temperature for 15 minutes then if there is no further demand let the tank cool down.

Try a horse & pony or farming online forum if you do not get a response here. I recall previous references to land owners insurance on this forum but not a specific named insurer. A quick Google search for "land owners 3rd party liability insurance" produces many links to follow.

For a year of zero build activity then self builder site insurance, costing typically £400 to £600, would be throwing money away. Self builder insurance can include personal tools, plant hire theft, onsite storage, static carvans, worker & public liability, personal accident plus of course the big one = property rebuild cost including taking away the remnants of your part built fire gutted home. From an insurer's point of view a green field with 3rd party liability cover is a small fraction the risk.

Many here report that their site insurance renewals increase at a punitive rate that reflects a captive market rather than true insurance risk. I think it makes sense to delay the date an expensive site insurance policy starts and when you are ready then buy a lengthy policy that covers the whole duration of your build. I recall that other forum members have insured their idle green field plot with cheaper general land owner insurance. In my case I found that Protek's self builder renewal quote was a little cheaper than the first policy, maybe there was some undisclosed no claims bonus applied.

Ok full story. I was going to order 4 standard length (3.9m) boards and 4 shorter boards for laying internal wall courses in smaller rooms. Delivery costs from a national supplier seemed to negate the price discount compared to a local BM with free delivery. However local BMs only supply standard 3.9m boards hence the proposal to order 6 standard boards and cut two in half. I hope the cut ends will not fragment prematurely particularly if I buy some board end metal bands and nail them in.

If I take delivery of some new scaffolding boards, cut them in half and fit some metal end bands to the just cut ends will they be as good as new?

I assume this is a delivered price and ex VAT? How fancy are your facing plinth bricks? The blocks look expensive, I purchased really heavy blocks (20kg) well under a £1 a year back so call it £9 per meter. More recently mid range blocks (15kg) were around £1.15 a block. I will ping my favourite BM in Boston and ask if he delivers as far out as you.

Oh I forgot and this is a little embarrassing to confess. Even though I utterly loath and despise the general design of the Philmac connectors I retained the two Philmac stopcocks supplied by Pipestock. So with a hint of Orwellian u-turn, the new mantra is: Philmac stopcock to plasson everything else = happiness. Plasson stopcock to Philmac connectors = dribbling hell.