Big Jimbo

The uncut string against the wall will be rebated to take the risers, and the treads. The cut string on the left will not be deep enough to start altering the going or rise, and would need to be extended.This would reduce the headroom on the flight below. The treads and risers will currently be rebated into both strings and fitted with wedges and glue. The treads and risers will have triangular pieces of wood glued and nailed to hold them together. Prob Two or Three across the width. Believe me, they ain't coming out anytime soon. It would be cheaper to rip the stairs out and have them replaced. I have built about 7 staircases in my time. If you want to improve the look of the treads and risers, you could cut off the nosing, fit a thin, say 4mm Oak veneered ply to them, and have a new solid oak nosing fitted to each tread. You will still be left with the strings either side, but you could strip them back and re-paint. If you do take care. Ventilate well, and wear a mask. That old paint is going to be full of lead.

You have a cut string stairs. It does not make any difference, but is a nice feature, and makes a stairs, "less heavy". The short answer is no. Any alteration to the going or rise will affect the angle of the stairs. You might be able to make use of the Newel posts by grafting them onto a new post bottom. The only way to change the stairs is to rip them out, and replace with a new set. Be careful of head height if you want to change them. DO NOT underestimate how much work is involved...

I want @nod to do my dot n dab.

@MikeSharp01 stiff, feels very granular, i can form it in to a sausage with a fair bit of work, without it squeezing through my fingers. Flints are both small, and big. Thanks for the site. I will take a look.

It is obviously clay, but sandy clay with flints ?

To me it feels quite granular, and has the colour of red sand. Seem to contain a fair bit of flint in various sizes. I'll get it tested but was just wondering.

Any idea what type of soil this might be. The photos show a sample taken from 2.1 meters deep.

Except for solwelding. sorry bud.

I would be peed off if i were you. Ask him if he missed the Flemish bond when pricing up the job ? I would want him to admit this as a good faith gesture. Providing he admits his cock up, i would, in a friendly way, point out the fixed price contract, and offer to pay 33% of the 10k. I would have thought that that was fair. The most i would go to would be 50% of the 10K. You want to try and keep things friendly, but don't want to be bent over by your builder for his cock up.

@Dave Jones Nice extra points on your Saps

has anybody on here got any sort of waste water heat recovery ? according to the new building regs, new houses are going to need them for the saps calc.Part of the new part L. Is this a case of upping something else in order to compensate for not having them ? Seems like a proper faff. Cheapest ones i can find are £250 a pop, so with 4 showers thats another grand. That, and apparently they slow down the flow ? Top that off with more hidden pipe joints (which i hate) Lastly, i expect that the cheap one's probably are not on the excepted list with the sap bod. Any thoughs ?

I would have to obviously have to protect the eaves to allow for the airflow into the cold loft.

Any good ideas for insulating a trussed roof, It's not going to be very tall, and the idea of trying to get up there which will be a mass of timbers, and trying to get a good 3 or 4 layers of fluffy stuff will be a nightmare. any i've seen done have always looked a right mess.

That does look like a rough build.

@JohnMo.It looks like you are building on the edge of a cliff ?

Having been in many new builds with very large rooms i think i can say that from the photo, this does not look like rippling. In between the first and second light, to the left,i believe i can see where a circular hole was cut in the plasterboard,re fitted, filled,and painted. I'm not saying there are no ripples but, i think you can clearly see where the painting around each of the lights was done. That would leed me to the conclusion that it needs more paint, while trying to keep a wet edge.Plenty of paint on the roller, and dont over roll it.

I'd say that is poor painting, rather than plaster ripple. Nice missing house corner and lawn.

while @SteamyTea is reading this weeks scientific, i am sitting eating my toast wondering.... Wood when growing stores carbon. When we burn it, is all that released back into the air ? Don't all chuckle, i went to a good catholic school where very little science was taught, because god did it all.

Morning all. I've got 3 phase coming into my property. However, only One phase is in use. The other Two come into the head but are not in use. If i wanted this upgraded so i could make use of all 3 phases, ie, electric car charger etc, would it be a costly job ? Do you then end up paying 3 standing charges ? Finally, if i was to have some PV, would it be of any benefit to have the 3 phases ? Thanks in advance as usual.

Have a look at the cost difference between the Two. You will get some benefit from a warm roof. If you think that you might stay for several years, and you can afford it, go for the warm option. If you are planning on moving on soon, go for the cheapest option.

I doubt that an engineer is going to allow you to mix foundation types im afraid.

@Jenki hate to say, i'm with you. A socket tester plugged in is what he considers testing.

Before it was clad over in Hardi plank did you provide a vented cavity to carry the boards ?

Keep digging. Find the bottom of the concrete. I'm sure your structural engineer will want that to enable him to do his calculations.

Hello, and welcome. I can't answer any of your questions but, we do have some very smart people on here, who i'm sure will be along soon.