Professionally nosey

Hi We're doing a 2 storey side extension with a cross gable roof to match others in the area (side and rear). We have an existing side gable which we will match anglewise for the side and mirror for the rear gable as well. The architect has designed it with 2 purlins, and a ridge beam for the rear gable, which will tie into the purlin as per attached diagram. I understand purlins are often added once the rafters are in so no birdsmouth needed, but these will be structural and flat and function almost like an additional wall plate. My question is should the rafters for the Purlin 1 side then effectively have 2 birsdmouths, one for purlin 1 and one for the normal wall plate on the wall (like the second sketch which is in no way to scale, just very quick). Purlin 2 will have diminishing rafters so no need for 2 birdsmouths per se.

Yeah it doesn't look quite like that. I had one on another window and it's just the timber in the cavity, i don't really have any bricks spanning it other than one at each end of the timber to support the timber. I was going to fit an angle lintel to support the brick work just to be sure but the timber is up quite tight against the soldiers and can't really fit it without dismantling large parts of the wall. I'm tempted to leave it as is, it's done the job for over 60 years with no deflection or cracking and the timber is still in really great shape.

This might help as well, gives a bit more perspective. You can see there's no cracks or distortion in the soldiers and there was 2mm gap between the top of the window i took out and the soldiers so it hasn't settled at all.

Sorry you can't see it super clearly as the plaster is still in place but hopefully this gives an idea. It's taken from outside looking up at the soldier course

Hi I'm replacing an old pvc window as part of a self build extension and i can't work out if the old window has a lintel. It certainly doesn't have a conventional metal one as would now, but it has something. There's is a 100mm wide piece of timber that runs the length of the window (and beyond) that's in the cavity and at the height of the soldier course. It's not easy to see what it's supported on but the soldier course is completely level with no cracking so I'm assuming the timber is providing some sort of support. Any ideas what it is and how strong it is? Thanks

Great thanks very much both of you.

Hi I'm currently building a small side extension. Block outer leaf as it will be rendered. I'm going to cover the cavity during construction, but inevitably some rain water will get in. How does it escape? Are the blocks slightly porous or should i put in weep holes below DPC. Thanks Sorry to add, it's engineering bricks below DPC

Sorry yes I wasn't clear. 😀 350mm is total wall width (150mm cavity) Is timber frame a narrower wall? It would have to match the rest of the house and the street which is why we were going render. Thanks

Hi. We're planning a self build 2 storey side extension to our semi. The extension is about 3.6m wide and so we don't really want to go any smaller but that only leaves 800mm gap to the boundary. We're looking at a fully rendered wall so are planning on aircrete for the inner leaf and standard 7n blocks for the outer with a 350mm full full cavity to hit the required u value. The problem is at only 800mm wide it isn't going to be easy to get scaffolding into that gap. We could probably ask the neighbour if we could put some scaffolding on their side but their gap is also small and I'm worried that would make their side passage impassable. Other option would be overhand laying of the blocks from the inside, not ideal as they're heavy but pointing doesn't need to be perfect as we're rendering afterwards anyway. Any other suggestions/thoughts Thanks

Yes thanks all. I'll see if i can get a set from the BCO to see what they should look like. The examples online are all quite variable in quality

Hi, First post but been lurking a while and reading a lot. I’m wondering if there’s anyone here who has done their own building regs plans? We’re looking at doing a fairly straightforward rectangular side extension (3.3m x 10m) in place of an existing garage. Having been quoted several thousand pounds from several sources for the planning app drawings I decided to do them myself in Sketchup & Layout. Plans are now submitted so whilst I wait for that I thought I’d turn my attention to building regs. My initial plan was to pay someone to draw them up, but having seen a few examples, I’m wondering if anyone has ever done them themselves? I’m going to get a SE to do all the technical aspects, and I’m wondering how feasible it is to draw up my own Full Plans by using NHBC and possibly buildingregs4plans.co.uk? I’ve seen a few people that commented that their paid for and prepared building regs plans were basically a mix of their plans and lifts from that site (which has been updated to include the new regs from Oct 2023 so the site looks pretty up to date). I probably will end up paying someone to do them, but was just curious about other people’s experiences. Am I being grossly unfair to the people that draw up the plans and there’s a real skill in developing these, or is it achievable myself with some thorough research? I’ve spoken to the local BCO who was very helpful and said he would do what he could to help me along the way. I have a pretty good knowledge of building construction and as I’m planning on doing most of the building work myself, preparing my own plans should hopefully only help to improve that. The local BCO even commented that the last self build extension he supervised was one of the best extensions he’d seen built because the guy was not having to do it to make a profit and could spend the time to do a really thorough job. Thanks for any thoughts.