gc100

Mine is too hot if anything. I keep forgetting to turn it down on the controller

Hi, In my garage we made a small loft area above the garage floor and put a loft access hatch in to access. I remember the builders saying something about the access having to be fire rated to stop fire moving up into the roof rafters (my house is single story). My house is vaulted ceilings throughout except for one room - our en-suite. I've made this a flat ceiling and made a small loft space above which is accessible through the wall of the adjoining bedroom. The 'ceiling' of this loft area has not been plasterboarded and is currently showing the AVCL membrane. Do you know if I have to make the access door (which is an odd shape due to the sloped ceiling) firepoof? If so any ideas how I could do this? I was just going to make a plywood door on hinges as this area will be hidden from with a built in wardrobe. thanks

My roof is 19 degree pitch with zero roof space (ie its vaulted). We ended up with PIR inbetween the rafters, AVC, batterns for services/lights and then plaster. We had an Ok u-value and the house if anything is too hot so works well. Why not put PIR in between the rafters rather than 'fluffy' stuff?

I had to get a contamination Phase 1 and then a phase 2 as the site is ex RAF (also an unexploded ordinance survey as well ). The contamination surveys are money for old rope - most of my Phase 2 quotes came in around 3.5 to 5K. In the end I found a chap who did it for £750. As always pays to shop about.

You will need to get the asbestos removed anyhow. Expect to pay a ridiculous amount of money for 6 hours work. I was lucky as I found an 'old boy' who did ours for about 1.5K, all the other quotes was 5 to 9K !

It does depend on the wood. If its cedar for example then nails and hammer for me (the front of the house is that). I used the nailgun on the larch but as per @joe90 its painted black so you don't see the heads. The Dewalt nail gun doesn't leave any teeth/dent marks as it has a plastic guard to stop that. Here's a section using the nail gun. Honestly you can do it all by hand (with hammer) just slower going but gives the best result. My carpenter said a 2nd fix nails wouldnt be strong enough. This is area is using the 1st fix gun (50mm stainless nails) :

I’ve just about done mine. Yes you want it go in at an angle so it pushes the board up against the previous board. In areas that you will see a lot I’ve use a hammer and small stainless nails and then punched them deep into the wood so that you cannot see them. If you are not fussy then use a nail gun. I’ve used a nail gun for the rest of the house and you definitely want a first fix one. However I’ve got the dewalt battery powered one which is great as you can adjust how hard it punches which you kind of need depending on the wood type and thickness (my boards are 22mm but at the tongue it’s thinner). Only downside it’s fairly heavy but manageable. You need to pay attention to corners and windows reveals if you are doing vertical cladding to make sure you don’t end up with a silly thin cut. You need to slim down the boards so they work out right with a table saw and router

I’ve had one throughout my build . Very handy for me.

My build is class Q . I was always lead to believe we can only claim back 15% of the VAT and not the full 20% We’ve not done our claim yet

We only had 68mm as the chap and no did it advised it and it only cost a few hundred quid more. It was more due to the flints in the ground and farm traffic over the top and not wanting to get a leak I the future

68mm , 900m they still connected me to at the main with a 32mm join . pressure is just right. 50mm would of been fine as well tbh

That drawing is not actually how it ended up. The door/window is sitting on top of the wall flush, and and the frame has drain holes at the front. So I will need to have some form of soak away here (very little water) as well I just released thanks . The tiles will need to bridge this somehow. Any water that gets in between the door frame and the beginning of the tile will go down the edge of the wall its sitting on.

Good point about movement and yes the tiles are large format. Thanks

@Temp ah yes thanks - of course - didn't think of that. What about material buildup? What do you think?

Hi, We have 2 very large slider set of windows that are designed so the tiles run through the lower section of the window frame . We want to continue the tiles out to the patio area to the front and side where we have these windows. I need to get this sorted now, but have no idea of the build up or if I need to pay attention to the DPC etc. I was going to follow the plans here and have a very slight slope to a slot drain sitting 300mm out from the windows, and then the rest of the patio (1.75m x length ) again with a very slight slope. These will continue with the tiles (exterior version). I was just thinking to box/shutter the area in, then fill with rubble (as I have lots), fill in with some form of sand/cement mix or type 1. Then a thin layer of concrete on top to be able to lay the tiles. Ideally some self level would of been the best to get a good flat area for tile laying, but then not idea for run off. Though given the patio is not very wide do I really need to worry about this?. If the concrete layer needs to have a gentle say 5 degree slope then its going to take a skilled builder to get a good flat service with that sort of fall which I definitely could not manage myself. Any thoughts? Thanks

Thats the same as mind. Building control wanted the gap none the less...

I'm not sure. But at a guess they where not treated and left to 'silver'.

Hate to put a downer on what you have done but I put res bars and double layered acoustic plasterboard in my office/music room. Total waist of time - why ? Because of the stupid a*rs 10mm gap you have to under the door for building ventilation regs. I will be installing drop seals once signed off mind....

We initially wanted a wooden 'wet roof' setup. We decided against it after discussing with a cladding supply company owner, who knew of 2 projects that had done this, as the roof was a complete mess after 5 years and all wood needed replacing. We went with zinc in the end. Happy with it now and the hidden gutter, drainage is easy to clean and I sleep soundly knowing it is unlikely to fail.

Just as a point of comparison- mine worked out at £2800/m2 with me working on it part time with a builder and carpenter on daily rate. I would say there are a fair few interior details and we have to ‘fit into’ an existing attic which meant nothing was off the shelf . 185m2. That’s all in (professional fees, service’s , build) . For the build itself it worked out £2100/m2.

We’ve put Ac in for this very reason

this much like mine ans was planning pretty much the same. I have just fitted some automatic blinds in some rooms so might see how well they perform at keeping the heat out

https://www.eflltd.co.uk/ We haggled a good price.

You quotes seem very expensive for steel . My house was 27k for 220m zinc fitted. Steel should be a fraction of these and mine included hidden gutters which added a lot of cost/work as part of the cost.

The article is about the charing process and how much of a difference it makes to the longevity depending how its done. No matter what the sales guys tell you , you don;t really know how well they are doing the job. Either way is will weather and charcoal will come off over time. Think about how it will look in 15 years or so and make sure you're happy with the weathered look thats all. I spent ages researching it as I really wanted it but after seeing it 5-6 year weathered and already looking a bit tired we decided against it. Just trying to help, not put you off per se. Go see it for yourself and make your mind up if not too far. https://goo.gl/maps/DxhBAynTLegUJeDA8