Big Jimbo

AAAAARGH. When is this rain going to stop. Trying to build in this rain is very, very hard work. I'm soaked, my wood is soaked, and my chopsaw is under a tarp. Doing my head in. I'm getting to thinking, i should be building a bloody swimming pool.

I have 3 phases coming into my 500sq ft bungalow !!!. Only 1 is in use by me at the moment. I hav'nt looked into it yet, but i want them moved to the other side of the new house into the extension. The distance will be about 20mt. I bet it will cost to get all three phases moved. I believe the cable costs a fortune. Good luck with your garage top up build.

I know nothing, but that sounds like a fortune.

Only by cutting into a bit of there kit i'm afraid. It's a bit like laminate worktops. Years ago when i did laminate tops (ended up only doing granite) people used to moan about the price i was charging them for laminate worktops. "I can buy a lenght in B n Q for 30quid" Yes you could, but it was crap. Low grade chipboard, with photo paper on the top. Nothing like proper laminate tops that i used to pay £160 quid TRADE per lenght. The shed stuff is all made cheaply i'm afraid. If you are going to look around try and find who is using either Blum or Hettich hinges, and runners etc. Both made in Germany. All the rest are usually made in UAE and are crap. As i said, buy your appliances yourself. There is no money in small kitchen companies selling appliances anymore. I would not bother selling you 6 or 7 appliances for a gross profit on £100.

Low grade chipboard, Poor quality hinges, and runners, and dont even go near the high gloss doors. You get what you pay for with Wren, cheap, built to a price. All of the manufacturers that i used to deal with do not supply to the public im afraid. There is no longer any money in appliances, so you might be advised to just buy those from somebody like A.O. The only one who held out, atleast untill a couple of years ago was Miele. You had to have an account with them, and were not allowed to be a re-seller. If a kitchen co appear to be giving you a deal on appliances, it is only because they are overcharging you for cabinets, and making you think you are getting a great deal on the appliances. I've not looked recently at the sheds etc, so could'nt tell you who is good at the moment,

I was in the bespoke kitchen biz for 20 years. Don't be fooled Wren kitchens are crap.

or just put some glass in the Wendy house.....

I have just started my posh shed, and i have got loads of bloody trees. I have kept it to under 30sq mt because i wanted to steer clear of BC. I have done 12 piers at about a meter deep, and once i got about 600mm deep i was at the bottom of the clay, and into bloody hard ground. What about building 2 and then when they are finished, and your house is all passed out, doing a sexy link (glass etc) to join the 2 ? The gap would only need to be about a meter, and a link between the 2 would then not cost a lot.

The main door is going to be a pair of double glazed upvc french doors. The other 4 windows will all be double glazed. So it will not end up a workshop. Chances are it will be a gym etc, when i have finished with it. Just dont want it to be too cold, when i have to live in it for a few months, or longer. Should be easy enough to heat, with a small panel heater i hope. Perhaps i should do electric underfloor heating ?

We actually, my house renovation will for a time be unenhabitable, so my posh shed, is going to have a shower, and toilet in the corner, hence the reason for turning it into a gym, office , etc once the house is finished. Hence my question re insulation. I don't want to go over the top, but i don't want to freeze either. At the moment it wont have any power, etc, but the drainage will be in place to add power, toilet etc, once i need to

I have finally made a start on my new shed. Its all timber, sitting on 12 piers which are on concrete pads. With regards insulation, the floor will be 100mm pir between 600mm spaced joists. The roof will be a warm roof, with 100mm pir, and the walls will be 100mm timber at 600 centres. I was going to put something like frametherm 32 batts in the walls. Overall, would you think that this would be a good level of insulation ? It's about 26 sq mt floor area. To be honest, once the house is finished, i intend turning it into a gym, or a teenage hang out etc, and i will clad it to match the house.

I have only ever had them done once for a loft extension. As soon as i popped my head up through the loft hatch, i found that the existing ceiling joists were running in a different direction to the drawings that had been passed by building control. At that point they went in the bin, and i have always done my own since. I have always found building reg people fine. At my daughters last year, i had re-done the bathroom upstairs and fitted a new downstairs toilet. This involved moving the stack from the back of the house to the side, and doing some new drainage. When i started the rear extension, and bc came to look at the rear extension footings, he asked about the new soil pipe at the side. I told him with a bit of a smile that it had been done before we bought the house. He said, with a smile, stick it on the back of an envelope and he will include it with the extension, so we won't get any hassle when we come to sell. Top fella. Most of br drawings are cut and paste imho

I would agree with Jeremy above. Although slightly different, i bought a run down bungalow on a large plot, just outside a villiage boundary, in the Green belt. I fought hard with the planner to get permission to extend to 6 times the original size, so 500sq ft to 3000sq ft. I then thought about if it would be better to build 2 houses at about 1500sq ft instead of 1 large house. You could fit both of the new houses inside the footprint and volume of the 1 large house. It eventually got refused by the council for over devl in the GB. I stuck it in for appeal, with various case law etc, that stated that my extant permission should be taken into account, and that building 2 new houses that would fit inside the 1 big house, to a much higher standard, would be better for everybody. I got a straight refusal from the inspector, that simply said "Extant permission, was no reason to override GB rules" As you are not going to be paying for the land, i would think that you might be best to have a specialist planning consultant handle the whole thing. Good luck.

My mother and father came over from Ireland in the late 1950's and settled in Cricklewood, North West London. They did the same as all the other irish settlers in the area. Painted all the brickwork bright Red, and then painted all the morter lines in black. ? There were lots of houses in the area done the same.?? The days before York stone cladding.

Evening all. I have spent a few hours on the Labc foundation depth calculator today, and if i want to do strip founds, i range from about 2mt deep to 1.5mt . I am told by a builder who has just built 3 houses very near me that i am on good ground. He went 1mt deep, but i have trees, hence why mine need to be deeper. I know that going deeper than 1.5mt will mean that i will need heave protection to the inside of the trenches. Because i have a fair few old buildings to take down, i wanted my floor to be a ground bearing slab, ie; old building rubble 150mm min. 50mm sand, dpm, cast concrete 150mm. insulation and screed. I think i have read somewhere ? that if my founds are deeper than 1.5mt, than i cant have a ground bearing slab as my floor. Anybody have any idea if that is right ? If it's to do with heave, could i not compensate by having a layer of heave protection on top of my sand ? and if necessary putting some re-enforcing in my 150mm layer of concrete ? Still waiting for my engineer to come back to me. Thanks in advance.

Welcome fella. I am going to have a few questions for you, so make sure you stick around for a while.

You should have tied him to one of the trees, and thrown rotten apples at him. Jumped up twat. (Him not you)

Goody Two Shoes.?

The very same thing worried me, and the fear of the old, non standard construction, coming up. For that reason i am going to go masonary ground floor, and timber first floor, with my 10 dormers.

I am a huge fan of either the metal web, or jji joists. Less bounce.... Is he taking the p1$$. Will be far better than solid timber without question. The timber you can buy these days is shite.

It looks poor in my opinion.

I have a bungalow, solid 9" brick, render, and plaster. My new extension will wrap around the rear, and one side of the existing bungalow. The new ground floor will be Block, cavity, block. There will then be an aprox 1600mm high, timber frame, sitting on top of the new, and existing walls. Then some roof trusses, (gable ends) and some dormers front and back. The ground floor is going to be rendered, and the first floor is going to be cement board cladding. 1. My cladding will be vented, with an insect mesh at the bottom, but doe's it also need to be vented at the top ? 2. What about around any windows ? Do i need to close off the gap formed by the battens on which the cladding is hung, for fire etc . 3. Would you run strips of DPM down the battens before hanging the cladding ? 4. As the cladding is rot proof, would it not be ok to just to have the vent at the bottom edge, to allow for any condensation formed to get out ? 5. The battens would be treated, so would the DPM strips be considered over the top ? Thanks for your help.

I fitted a good few posh one's of these over the years. They take up most of the cab space below them, and i used to have to duct them out under the floor with 150mm ducting. They were a pita to fit them. Seemed to work ok. The posh one's used to cost several thousand. Basically, they are a downdraft extractor.

So many posh new houses that i have been involved with have first floor laundry rooms. Such a good idea, if you have the space.

Sorry fella, i can't help, but i once built a free standing studio in a garden. I did it all out of twin wall timber, floor, wall, roof the lot. Everything was about 300mm thick. As i built it, i filled it all with dry fine sand. I put 2 double glazed windows in. The one on the outside normal. The one on the inside, i tilted it back at the top. This was to ensure that the 2 inner panes of glass were not parallel to the outside panes. I'd read somewhere about the angle breaking up the soundwave. I used a heavy fire door, and added insulation on the inside, and again did a second door, (One opening in, and One out) The outside door was a quality commercial one with good seals. The whole thing sat on brick piers built out of the ground, with thick rubber pads on the top of the piers. If i say so myself it was bloody fantastic, and a few hits were recorded in that place back in the day.