scottishjohn

I guess we are not going to agree ,but even the picture you show above shows the centre web is biggest giving the strength the other picture with holes in the beam is to decrease weight as at its hieght it is big enogh to take the load as for victroisn bridges etc that was their only choice as no rolling mills or fancy steels and no welding Im sorry you are just wrong if load is vertical then a tall centre web will take the load in a thinner section tha huge flat plates at top and bottom of beams you dont believe me then do the steel rule test i suggested above and see how weight it will support if truly vertical and not allowed to bend sideways or look at a truck chassis the main beams are always about twice the height of the top and bottom plates and usally a C section again to save weight for load required even better look at a 100ton low loader chassis and see how that is made and they get serius loading with all the transient loads of roads or look at aircraft wing main spars plenty examples of what i am saying is true

I remember reading somewhere that for every 1 degree you over heat your house it can be 7% more cost but you stated the obvious --up the insulation as first job choice then type of heating system next

I would respectfully disagree it is the centre web that gives the rigidity ,so height and thickness of that gives the strength ,top and bottom are to give it sideways rigidiity to keep centre web vertical even a plastic 12" ruler is stiff wehn on its edge try hitting your knuckles with it edge on ,then do same with it flat

question why RHS and not RSJ of larger thickness material what is the attraction of a box beam? are the flat roof joists hanging on this as well? 8mm seems thin to me and not suprised at deflection in that length plus easy to to weld or bolt in extra thickness to centre of RSJ if still worried about deflection when all said and done it is the vertical part that gives the strength and flat plate is cheap and easy to fill with insulation

to use a local pgrase "seems along way for a short cut" arough surface will make good bonding for the render or parge coat what ever you want to call it you did not say if outside of wall is lime mortar or cement

1in 50 slope ? how long is you garden that means 1ft rise the ramp will need to be 50ft long!! how much height do you need to go?

well getting time to sort a network etc I am not a computer nerd so have little idea of what i need my intial thoughts are a 24way prewired hub theniwil need oconnect to aphone line or router of some sort the house has been wired for this already ,but the sparky has said its not his job and that he knows little of these things I have about 20 wires all terminating in the plant room a point in the loft with mains supply for a router so tom ysimple mind iam assuming they all go into the box and at the wall sockets ijust connect what ever i want to them last time i got involved with this sort of thing it was the 80,s for the computer system in my garage with multiple terminals etc so tell me boys what i need simply please

how will you accomplish this the weight of even small stones like i did my firepond will be large and i do not think they will stay on if you intend to stick them to the straw bales then there is the problem of finding enough stones of suitable thick ness for a large area i used approx 2 tons of granite pieces + 2tons of sand + 12 bags cement to fix them and that is not to a full wall height as you will have with a house and it is very time consuming and can only be done when it is dry and need covering for at least 2days to make sure the mortar does not get washed by rain so for full nouse you will be taking 4 times that amount I used them as i have a very large volume of them on site from previous quarrying and granite set making in the past the only way i see it wroking is if you clad outside first with exterior ply and attch a mesh to it to give something for the mortar to stick to yes you could buy stone cladding panels ,but not cheap and they would require a solid frame work to fix them to I have no problem with straw as insulation where you are it will be good if thick enough ,but not as the outer wall which will still need wood for window and door openings .

so are you saying that to get total drop from one side of house to other you add all those dinensions together? which would be 115mm drop ? have you measured the other way as well?

but twice the protection

I maybe read it wrong I thought you wanted to make the wall solid and water proof 6-1 will not make it water proof you either want it to stop dampness or let it breath make your mind up if you do as you say you are then relying on your slurry -to be the water proof barrier the3-1 mix with water proof addative will make your wal lstrong and water proof basically same mix as you would cement rendr the outside is the outside lime mortar ,if so it will let the water out that way and not get to inside

like most surveys the questions are loaded to get the answers they want when common sense will give anybody with a half a brain the answers

yep I have had a cheap chineese generator for years and if we get a power cut just turn off at mains and plug it into a 13amp socket fine to run everything but the cooker will maybe up grade it for new house with a bigger one so it can run ASHP easily ,but to be honest Ihave akready seen how long it takes the house to cool down when ASHP is turned off ,and that is a couple of days amd that was from 22c to 16c it was on to dry out the subfloor for the floor fitters to start work

from watching my floor fitters doing my LVT floors they would not consider it without a self leveling layer to start with and then lots of time spent checking it for actual level and cleaning every spec of dust then and only then did they start laying tiles and use a heavy garden roller type thing to make sure they are down flat after laying no UFH for 2 days at least ,then very low heat for a week to make sure everything is happy OHH and a humdity reading of less than 3,7% in subfloor before self levelling applied more than that could cause lifting of tiles over time with trapped moisture trying to get out

and it will be a cold roof system?

my advice --for what its worth don,t be stingy bugger and rake out any loose mortar then redner it with aproper mix like 3 -1 with waterproofer and only pva or SBR what you are going to do that day after severe dedusting and washing -stone is not very pourous like blocks yes let it just dry but not dry for days before rendering as it will not really bond as welland might just skin I have bo knoeledge of use of "tanking slurry" but can confirrm two coats of ehat isay is good enough to make above ground fish ponds and in my case a firepond

that is fine if you do not have sarking board or plywood sheeting --but not with it and certainlt not in high wind areas like scotland and cetrainly not if you are using a warm roof shit and moisture gathers up the back of them over time and causes rot Iwould worry using modern flimsey trusses without plywood sheeting to give wind bracing

are you really sure on your measurements if it was 10mm in600mm length it would be a 1 degree slope ,but you are saying maybe nearly twice that thiis is from the simple inflfight avaition navigation correction rule-- 1in60rule 1mile of track after 60miles =1degree off track borrow a laser level and check on outside of house to measure exact drop from one side to other or buy a cheap water level kit and check it about £10 for one make sure you get all air bubbles out of piping before use it was good enough for the egytpians to lay foundations for the pyramids i used one to level my wall heads when rebuiling them for the fixing of wall head plates and when the builders arrived to put the roof trusses on they checked with laser and it was spot on to 1mm over 25m length and 8m width of building

and should be used as animal bedding ,not to build houses in a very wet and windy part of the world there is a reason why they built crofters cottages from stone when they did not have the mechanical means of moving heavy objects easily 2-300 years ago and it is why alot of them are still standing us it to build an insulating inner wall by all means but not as an outer weather shield

because they are lazy, tight fisted idiots there are no technical advantaghes to use single batons ,only disadvantages

must be plenty of derilict stone buildings to get stone from build with that maybe like a drystone wall but with mortar and then coat it with render in and out and an insulted internal structure how ever you like ,with a cavity stone lasts forever I am presuming this will be a self build ,so buidling instone you can stop and start as you like and build as time allows

500mm that would be very thick 300-350 is more like it in most builds yuo do not actually need a brick outer skin if you want you could do it all in wood as in sips construction I f you areself build and can lay blocks ,block construction in and out will be cheapest and can get you want ever you want I would say.my own opinion that wood cladding outside is more likley to be a problem over time if attention to detail and quality of the cladding is not as good as promised yes itis very much in fashion at this time but there are not many 200year pld wood houses around in our climate scandinacia has cold but dry winters nad hot summers ,we have wet ones annd that includes the summers sometimes having lived in s/w scotland for 40 years nowI have seen even the rendering and stone walls can go green on the sides of the house not facing south ,so hence my dislike for wood cladding forestry commsion used to build all their office and workshop structures from wood ,but not anymore as they have found the problems

at least 10years ago this is why resurfacing of roads does not last as it used to older type it was semi melted on hot days and healed up ,but not so with new type add to that the fact that they only lay it in 35mm thickness and even on wet days when it never gets a chance to bond to the lower layers and we have a recipe to keep the pot hole repaiirers in biz for ever it amazes me how they think it can work laying a much cooler tarmac than they ysed to on to wet foads and expect it too last you used see flames coming out from under the tarmac laying mchine as they dried out and heated the road as the tarmac was laid ,you never see that now as they don,t heat the road , with flames andwhich used to heat and blow the water away how could anyone think laying tarmac on a cold wet day is going to make it bond to the layer below, hence why you see patchs of it coming off down to the layer below and then along comes the patching crew and a year later the patches peel off the reason a tarmac man gve me for the 35mm layer is that if they laid it at 50mm - and it came off it would then be classed as a pot hole and would have to be repaired much sooner under EU regs one of my pet hates --I have been watching sections of road where the old surface has been replaced more than once in the past few years and yet th eold sections which were ok are still ok proof it it were needed that the new product is not as good as the old type all in the name of polution control to cut down the petrolium based tarmac emmisions add to that the change some years ago of not allowing use of granite chips in tarmac because it was said they made the surface less gripper cos they were hard and noisier again EU regs yes granite chips in tarmac were and are harder and made the surface last longer I know this is fact because that was the main reason that the quarry I am on was shut in 1992 althoug the quarry had superb stone for building and monumental work ,that produced lots of waste which went into tarmac production and super white gravle chips for drives and pathways along with granite sand for use in concrete for sewers and harbour constuction flod defences as it does not wear away the same as it was and still is the best for constant contact with water granite sand is now well over £120 per ton as opposed to normal building sand at less than half the price and instead of granite they turned to whinstone for tarmac when all said and done you drive to grip on the road and modern tyres are much gripper than they used to be anyway

at least 10years ago

how long ago was it you did this as newer type of tarmac is a chemical setting type-doyou cannot haet it like old tarmac and use it again that is my worry that newer types of plannings will not bond together as older type which came from an old road made with real tarmac thanks for the replies boys as for cost, quite cheap here £15 a ton if you collect or £100 a truck load ,so I am told