Big Jimbo

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.

This is my dumb question of the day. Why do the cages, steelwork etc, have to be tied together with bits of wire, when they are all going to be encased in concrete ? Would plastic cable ties not do the same job ? There you go, told you it was a dumb question.

Don't disappear anytime soon NICKFROMWALES. I can see me having a fair few questions for you when the time comes. Great advice above.

Nothing. Do it.

Not wanting to hijack, but my daughters is the other way around. Pair of semi's and my daughters has the incoming. This comes into the understairs cupboard to a 60amp fuse, and exits from the fuse out through a hole, up the wall, and is clipped to the underside of the soffit, running around the back of the house, and around to the property next door. If my daughter was away, and the neighbour managed to blow the main fuse, how would access be gained to my daughters property to fix it ? If my daughters fridge was off for any time, the drugs that she has to inject herself with weekly would be distroyed. (They cost the NHS a fair few bob) Would anybody now if i can insist that the supply be removed, and that a new supply is fitted to the next door property ? Thanks.

I now always use manifolds for heating. I run from the manifolds to the rads in plastic. The whole point for me, is that i won't have any joints below floors, or above ceilings, or anywhere where i can't get to them in the future.

Cut out a section of the floor near the doors, and fit some walk on glazing ?

Run all your garden stuff, car washing etc, before it goes through the meter, and just put one w.c. handbasin through the meter. Very small water bills.

No offence. I just think that holes, and underground stuff is in the blood of an Irishman. It certainly is in my family

Good idea. Trust the Irish.

Yep. I see it now. After your in house leaking stoptap. What a bloody nightmare. So the risk is Water pi$$ing out in your house, and nowhere outside to shut if off. That's crap,. I would defo be clamping that blue pipe off, within your land and fitting a stop tap of some sort. Should'nt be that hard.

Steamy Tea. You always make me laugh, so thank you. Most of us say, i did this, and its brill, or my house is great because of x. You however, are always having a dig at your poor house. Lucky for you it it can't talk back. please don't stop though, It always makes me smile, and we need more things in the world to help us do that. Your posts and the other one about "walk on glazing" are priceless.

Believe me, nobody will even notice. You can grind your screed, but £10 it still wont allow you tiles to be set level. Nothing worse than seeing tiles that sombody has obviously tried to ramp down to a door. It looks sh17e, especially if they distort a reflection.

No i get that. So when your doors are open, and you are outside looking in, all you can see is a little stainless upstand rather that the cut edges of tiles.

Sealing up like above is good, as it stops the ants finding a route into your kitchen. Once the buggers get in, it is a right pain to try and seal up afterwards. My daughter has a huge fear of ants, so as i was doing her property, every single little gap that i found, was filled with silicon