Crofter

Hmm I might pop round for a look, if that's alright!

Blimey we'll make a teuchter of you yet!

Planwell have been recommended to me by various people but I found them quite expensive. The salesmen from BMs who invited themselves onto my site both claimed they could easily undercut Planwell. Any thoughts on the anti-con lining? It was suggested to me by a builder who was up on holiday and nosying around my site, but he did seem to know what he was talking about.

I've been using http://www.steelroofsheets.co.uk for quick quotes and info. In my case I'm going for corrugated, which has a profile thickness of 19mm and a cover width of 990mm. They have info for the box sections too, and these things appear to be pretty much standard (box profiles being either 32/1000 or 34/1000, IIRC). I'm not going for insulated sheets (no point, as they have a ventilated/drained space under them) but I am thinking of getting the anticondensation flocking. Edit- used wrong url, oops.

If I could just hijack this thread for a second... How much standoff distance should I allow for between fascia and gutter? I'm hoping to order my steel roof sheeting next week and really want to avoid cutting it on site, so need to get the length bang on. Obviously I don't have the guttering ordered yet as it would just be lying around getting in the way.

Presumably roof pitch plays a part- hard to imagine water running 50mm uphill on the reverse side of slates on a 45 degree roof?

I'm no expert but in the absence of other replies... I believe tape provides a superior airtight seal compared to a bead of silicone, which despite the manufacturers' claims can slump, sag, shrink, etc. The contact area for the adhesive is much smaller than with tape. I think there are benefits to keeping insulation within the airtight envelope as it would prevent wind scrubbing. Can't answer your other two questions but hopefully someone with more direct experience will have some ideas...

I looked into this in some detail, although for larch rather than cedar. I ended up going with a fairly cheap conventional preserver and oil system, which should prevent mould growth etc, although I don't know how effective it will prove at retaining the colour of the fresh wood. The first coat is going on at a rate of 4m2 per litre as the wood is quite rough- I suspected this might happen which is why I didn't feel I could afford a more expensive system.

I just used normal 20mm ballast, obviously all you see once the forms are stripped is the smooth face (complete with knots and woodgrain from the plywood). My mix was 4:1. The poker looks identical to the one I bought. I would sell you mine but I'm thinking of using it to make a concrete kitchen worktop, just cos it seems like a fun way to spend an afternoon (other people may have different ideas on 'fun')...

I'm not a joiner either but have built, from scratch, the house pictured in my profile pic. A properly sheathed timber frame built using ordinary framing timber will stay straight enough- just be careful not to assume things are problematic when 99% of people get on absolutely fine with timber as a material. Off the top of my head I would see the disadvantages of steel framing as being: - cost: surely this is going to cost more than timber - fixings: nail guns and metal aren't a good combo. Which leads to... - speed: welding and/or drilling and bolting are a lot slower than using a nail gun or an impact driver and woodscrews - stiffness: timber is considerably stronger than steel, weight for weight, and with a greater cross sectional area the framing members will end up much stiffer than steel, unless the steel framing is massively overbuilt - thermal performance: wood is not an insulator, but it's way ahead of steel. To stand any chance of meeting building regs for heat loss the entire steel structure will need to be isolated from the inner and outer walls, and the foundation. Even if you don't mind the thought of higher heating bills, there is also the issue of... - condensation: in particular I would worry about anywhere than the steel frame is likely to get cold, e.g. If it sits on the foundation. Houses are potentially quite humid things and vapour will pass through the walls to some extent, condensing on the first cold thing it meets. This could have an adverse effect on... - Durability: you mention galvanising, which I know can last many decades, but steel framed prefab houses were built in quite large numbers just after the war and these have had serious issues- you certainly can't get a mortgage on one as they are deemed to have too short a lifespan. I may be completely wrong about all of the above of course! Will be interesting to see what other people think of the idea.

Hi and welcome to the forum! I'm just going to ask... why?? Have you got heaps of cheap steel lying around?

Wouldn't be a million miles away from the pillars I cast for my house to sit on. These are 400mm each side and the tallest one is about 900mm. I made these in stages: - footings poured to ground level, with rebar inserted to tie into the pillar - 'kicker' made up using timber slats, I could probably have filled these at the same time as the footings were poured, as they were only 150mm high. But I only thought about them afterwards. - once footing and kicker had cured, built formers from ply with timber stiffening. The former was built around the 150mm upstand, and ratchet strapped around it - poured the pillar and vibrated it with my £35 poker off Amazon The poker was good, only downside was having searched for vibrating pokers online my Google history went a bit funny and started showing me some 'interesting' adverts for a few days after!

Maybe to let the glue set in peace?

Haven't had a chance to watch yet, but I have a feeling that I read somewhere that building regs themselves are not legally enforceable, they are merely an exemplar. The actual legal requirement for different aspects of a building will derive directly from legislation and be pretty vague. So it's possible that the build in question was able to satisfy a broader/higher definition but Iwould imagine it would require a lot of string pulling and friends in high places.

Solvent weld is the way to go, dead easy to use and pretty bombproof.

Another possibility is a UV-blocking film that can be applied to the windows.

It's not legally required, certainly on the size and type of property most self builders are dealing with. Fire regulations are generally there to preserve lives, not buildings. So attention is paid to means-of-escape windows, and the use of temporary fire barriers (the most common being plasterboard, which can provide c.30min protection to the timber frame). On three storey buildings doors may need to have intumescent strips. There are also regulations concerned with the spread of fire within cavities, and between properties.

@Alex C I do like the method you describe and it is pretty much what I had in mind myself. The Wigluv stuff is pricey though- I'd want to do it in black, in case any ends up being visible, so that would be about £55 a roll- ouch. I could do it using 'flashband' for less than half the cost, and it seems to be fairly tough stuff, much more easily available. Soudal do a version and I've had good experience with their products in the past.

Have finally decided on a treatment system- a solvent based preserver followed by an oil based protective layer. Was medium priced but, crucially, a low cost per litre. My rough sawn boards are now stored indoors and I reckon they will drink up as much treatment as I can be bothered brushing on. I reckon that some of the more expensive options could have gone nowhere near far enough and I'd have ended up buying additional tins, so I got a bit scared of the potential cost. Anyway, next question: I'm currently sorting through all the boards to grade them. Some are perfectly good but have sizeable resin pockets which detract from their appearance. I expect that these will eventually melt away in hot weather, but how are the boards going to take to their preserver and oil when they have so much resin in them?

Thanks, I'm inclined to go this route as even though it might look a bit rough, I would expect the larch to last longer than e.g. dressed pine or cheapish ply. To do it in marine ply would be a couple of hundred quid which I have not budgetted for.

Is there anything wrong with just using a polythene vapour barrier?

Revisiting this as I need to make a decision soon. I was mulling over the idea of just doing the fascias in rough sawn larch, the same stuff that I am cladding the building in, and will likely also use for the barge boards (well, the little bit of board that will visible beyond the steel L-profile that finishes off the roof ends). The rough sawn larch will also be used around the windows as reveals and header. I'm treating everything with a two stage system comprising clear preserver and oil top coat. I'd have to join two of my cladding boards together to get the required width- I have a rather underused router that I could maybe use, or maybe I should just buy a biscuit joiner thingy? Or of course just tack a joining plate onto the hidden side of the fascia but that's not so neat really. Or maybe it will look a little bit too rough n ready and I should use something else?

If you take it to its logical conclusion, consider how well a heating system would work if all the water in the pipes was replaced by air. In theory energy in is energy out, but we all know that is would simply not work well at all. Efficiency matters.

Does it improve the heat capacity of the water, therefore boosting efficiency?

Planners are not interested in enforcing building regulations- that's the job of building control, who are a completely separate entity! Hence as you say the requirements pull in two different directions. 'Modified' timber means an almost semi-synthetic material, which started life as some form of wood but has been treated either through application of heat or via a chemical process (e.g. naturally occurring oils, acids etc). These are a fairly new invention and could be a big thing in the future, but they are expensive. Engineered and cross laminated timber are a completely different beast, being normal wood that is shaped and glued together to create something stronger and more dimensionally stable than a single piece of wood.