Del-inquent

I'm trying to get an extension to our dormer sorted. 2 SE's I've spoken to so far have said it can only be done by inserting a steel. This is despite several neighbours having done the same thing with no steels involved. One SE has said we'll have to put all new joists in because we're converting a bungalow to living space in the roof. He couldn't seem to grasp that as a chalet the house was built to have living space up there and it already has joists large enough for the span. Question is - how would steels totalling 9m long be fitted inside a chalet bunglaow roof, without taking the entire roof off? Can't put in in from the sides outside as we have neighbours either side, and I don't think either would be too happy about me punching a hole through their house so I could stick a steel in mine... Both SE's have just said "your builder will know how to do it". Well I was planning on doing the whole thing myself when I thought it could be done in timber. Now I've been told it has to have a steel I've asked a couple of roofers. Both have said "how does the SE propose we get a steel in without taking the roof off". With an explanation that they can't take out the collars and ties because they are linked to the existing dormers, so they can't "angle it up in there". Am I just talking to the wrong people? Is there a way to do it?

A mate has just told me that I have to seal / prime the easifill we've used to patch up chases. I've never once done this, I have had a few issues painting over it if being impatient though. So, do I really have to seal / prime it, if so, what with?

Apparently due to Wind Load. I wouldn't mind so much but the whole point of the site visit he did was to discuss the fact that steels aren't really viable due to access without taking the whole roof off and starting again. Waiting 8 weeks for a reply that states the one thing that our initial conversations showed were not viable... and to add the fact that the main supporting steel post for those steels would be hanging in mid air, and to fit would mean removing the staircase, a major supporting joist and once finished would mean the lounge doorway would have a post obstructing it, when neighbours have had the same basic thing done with no steels at all... Not a happy bunny.

Not a million miles away, if they're good I don't mind paying a bit for them to travel down if that's needed. I am just desperate now for someone that will actually listen and look at what I'm saying, rather than just "slap steels in". One of the people who came highly recommended couldn't even grasp that as it was built as a chalet bungalow the current "roof space" is already built as living accommodation - they wanted to add steels on top of the joists and run 200mm joists in... on top of the 200mm joists that have been there the last 80 years!

I've been waiting 8 weeks (after being quoted 4-6) for a structural engineer to come back to me with the calculations and thoughts on our dormer extension. Finally get a response to a chase up and clearly he's not even started working on it, drawn a few red lines on top of my plans and suggested a combination of 4 steels be installed which during the site inspection we'd already covered the fact that they can't be fitted, and to top it all off the steels indicated transmit the load down onto... thin air. Because there is nothing below the steel post. More than one neighbour has achieved exactly what I want to do with zero steels being used, but unfortunately their places have since sold and the new owners don't know the SE used. So I'm in search of recommendations for a structural engineer preferably in the South of Hampshire that is reliable and doesn't just answer every question with "stick steels in there". Especially not steels that hang in mid air to transmit load...

My wife could find opportunity to do planting in the middle of a concrete car park, so quite probably yes! Me, I could kill a plant before I got it back from the shop.

I need to find a few dozen bricks to match our existing. I've taken one out the wall and it's marked "Marston". Every supplier I've asked locally has said they're a perfect match for LBC Heather, but having got a few samples they're really nothing like! LBC heather are nowhere near as textured, nor the right colour. We want to block up a doorway so really, needs to be a pretty damn good match or it's going to stick out like a sore thumb. Alternatively if anyone has any great ideas on how to block it up and have it look half decent without matching bricks, I'm all ears. Whilst we're here - the house had full fill insulation pumped in some years back, before we bought it. What would be the best way to insulate the cavity on the door I'm blocking in? It's only a 60mm cavity. Debating if it's worth opening up the cavity either side of the doorway before blocking up or not as well

Probably the most accurate description of our property going 🤣 Whoever designed the place should have their pencils and rulers taken away. If I had the funds I'd bulldoze it and start again. The current header tank is tiny and has actually had the sides cut to get it to fit in the tiny eaves, and the overflow tank is screwed to the wall of the bedroom, which is obviously a delight in itself. A combi really would solve a whole lot of problems, even if it introduced other, hopefully less frustrating ones.

How far from the boiler can the super flow be? Boiler position in a corner of the kitchen (less than ideal but making best use of space available and it’s where the current one is)

When I say it’s small… already looked at them, the only place one will fit will be permanently inaccessible once the works are finished.

Compared to the system in place, a candle with a saucepan of water held over it would be an upgrade... We currently bathe using a bucket and a yoghurt pot as a ladle (not joking) 😅 It's a small chalet bungalow, effectively has a head height of 18 inches, we need to move the bathroom upstairs which will mean not possible to have header tank (no access to the tiny loft space) and there is no space to put an unvented cylinder without losing one of the habitable rooms. At the moment there is a tiny HWC in a cupboard. It needs replacing, the pipework goes through the kitchen because of the design of the place... overall a combi solves so many problems and after months with a bucket and yoghurt pot... I don't mind paying for a decent combi. I looked into the superflow, got many mixed reviews on them. I'm all ears on recommendations for a decent combi.

No decisions made yet on which one, that's another question I was going to pose a little later down the line!

Are there any requirements on where the filling loop is fitted? I'm looking at having our standard boiler replaced with a combi. The current pipe layout has the pipes exit the top of the boiler. Water inlet is immediately below the boiler, Ideally I'd like the loop to be fitted from immediately below, going up the left hand side of the boiler and going into the pipes above. Are there any other peripheral elements I need to consider that will have to be fitted in the change from standard to combi? I'll be getting it fitted by a gas certified plumber but need to plan the layout of the kitchen in the meantime and no plumber seems to want to come and discuss it, been bad enough trying to get quotes!

Cheers for all the advice, especially the tip about Facebook market place. Managed to find a bloke a few miles down the road with "a little bit" left over for £20... went to pick it up, 45 odd meters left over in fact, so I'll cut my bits off and then sell the rest!

They don't list it cut to size on their website, I'm going there tomorrow for a few other bits so will ask, cheers

Problem I'm having is finding anything that I don't have to spend a fortune on massive lengths of - I only need 5m of the stuff! The conduit I have is twin wall and apparently waterproof. Given the SWA provides the mechanical protection needed (and I've already got sand / pea shingle / tape to to bed it in) is it really necessary to use such ducting just to prevent it sitting in water?

Any other views on this? I can't see why it should be a bad idea to run the SWA in conduit, but then I've been wrong before, so my wife tells me.

Would get in the way of mowing the grass between the house and workshop a little if I surface run it 😁

I seem to be asking a lot of questions on conduits recently, so here's another. I'm prepping for an electrician to come and run power to the garden workshop - nothing major just for a couple of sockets and lights. He has specced 6mm2 SWA to give redundancy in case I want to add more later. I knew we had a high water table here, but didn't realise just how high. I dug the first 6ft of trench down to 500mm, stopped for dinner, went back out and it's half full of water, it's not rained in a few days and been very sunny! I happen to have some 32mm flexi conduit sat here from when Virgin installed their cable to the house. Would it be wise to throw some of it in the trench to run the SWA through, and bring it up either end to above the water level, so the cable is not permanently sat in water? Any bright ideas on plugging the ends of it? Any downsides to doing this, or any other issues I've not considered?

I'll be making them myself, I'm debating just hacking up some MDF and PVA gluing to the walls as a test to see if I notice or not lol

that’s what I’m doing in one of the rooms, but this difference is huge and making it up either makes the panels much larger or much smaller. I guess unless I make the other side a lot smaller, so I can have less to make up. I was aiming for a panel size around 500mm but will have a play and see what happens if I stick another panel in on the longer wall.

Wife wants half wall panelling throughout most of the house. Happy wife happy life n all that sooo... I'm sure this is just a "whatever you want" type question, but I'm struggling to visualise it so thought I'd see if anyone else had any ideas. Wall down left side of the hall is 3820mm long then goes around a corner. Wall down right side of the hall is 1485mm long then hits a series of doors. If I do 6 panels with 100mm stiles on the left wall, each panel will be 430mm long. 430mm isn't divisible into 1485 with 100mm stiles... So is it normal to either go with next full panel size up / down (2 panels on right wall, each panel will be 592mm long, or 3 panels on right wall, each will be 363mm long, neither close to 430mm long panels of other side) or do you start at the beginning and just have a fractional panel when it gets to the door or...?

Clever, I like that!

When you say buried… the insulation (190mm thick!) will have to have a chase cut out of the underside, as the conduit would lay on the concrete slab and the insulation going over the top. With my cutting skills probably end up with the chase in the insulation being twice the size of the conduit 😂 but as it’s 190mm thick that doesn’t worry me, does that count as “buried”?

Okay so just to throw a curveball in, we went with flexi conduit option for a few reasons, however after getting a load done another problem arose which means we are now looking at ripping up the whole ground floor and insulating / screeding (which I’ve got lots of very helpful advice on here about) is there any reason that the conduit can’t just sit under the insulation and screed? Sparky scratched his head on that one.