Kevan Marshall

Hi Nick, yes that makes sense to run some sort of tape then membrane over the top, I’ll speak to my timber frame manufacturer tomorrow!

Hi Nick, thank you, nearly all cabling or pipes shall be in behind the 50mm service baton behind the plasterboard, 50 + 100 was stated because it’s cheaper than 150mm, anything that was in the 50mm would be in a duct but we are trying to avoid going in there at all costs, my timber frame company suggested the DPM as per the blue line, my builder is used to building conventional brick/block built houses, at the rear of house we are about 350mm above ground level to FFL, I spoke to the block manufacturer and they said to render with Weber Pral D, we are up at bottom of thermal block level and this is where the question has come up about DPC at that point!

Hi, just about to pour the subfloor for timber frame house, builder is worried about damp issues and suggests placing dpc below thermal block, I would be looking for something that render can adhere to as thermal block is only one block high, I have attached a drawing of how we are, only difference is the block we have laid to concrete up to is a 150mm x 100mm “soap bar” to increase concrete thickness, for additional dpc between soap bar and thermal block would something like sika blackjack work or is there any other product that would work or is my builder overthinking this, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Furniture would be worth about 25k, vintage tractor would be worth about 20k, I might phone the NFU that I insure the tractor with to see what they say…

Hi, Insured my plot through Protek, everything is good apart from one issue, my garage shall be constructed before the house, I plan to use the garage for storing building materials, tools, plant. All this is covered by Protek with no issues, only issues I have is I intend to sell my current house and temporarily stay in my static caravan offsite and place some personal belongings such as furniture, vintage tractor in the new build garage until the house is ready, Protek can cover everything but personal belongings, does anyone know of any insurance companies that would cover personal items in a locked up garage, my idea was to store items in the garage to avoid putting stuff in storage and technically only doing one move, any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated…

It’s in the corner of their garden and away from their house, it is close to my house as my plot is of restrictive size, the front gable shall be clad with cement board and k-rend applied to match my house

unfortunately then it brigs the garage closer to the house or else I would…

Thanks Gus, We are going to submit everything to building control and see what happens, we’ll try and get away with 40mm insulated cladding, I’ll ask my architect to ask SE if we can beef up the bracing a little…

Nice work Mark!

Biggest problem is looking for cladding for the side nearest the boundary, the steel portal frame is fabricated and that’s not going to change, I served my time in a blacksmith’s that put hundreds of sheds up over the years and not one has fell down, last shed I fabricated was 80’ wide and 160’ long 25 years ago, I moved on to work offshore and am hopefully getting near retirement, engineers do calculations and that is ok but to put wind bracing pipes in the roof structure that are 48.4 x 4mm tube and cross bracing that is 50 x 5 flat bar does not cut it with me, also I was going to use wooden purlins but he wanted 9” x 4” timber for 4.5mtr bays also seems a bit strange, he then said we could use a 120mm Albion z-purlin at 1.2 mtr centres which seems a little light to replace a 9”x4” timber, z-purlins are not easy to come by in Northern Ireland so using a multi beam 140mm purlin as agreed with SE….

7 meter span, stanchions are 254 x 147 x 30, trusses are 203 x 133 x 31, haunches are nearly one meter long, SE goes crazy with some things and not with others, cross bracing on stanchions states 50mm x 5mm flat bar and roof bracing 48.3mm tube, it’s all about liability and everyone afraid to sign things off unless everything is over the top, steel frame was going to cost me £8800 plus vat plus delivery with this weight of portal frame, when I priced it before same as ag spec it was £3200 all in, I may have to move the garage so it’s one meter from boundary but then it is closer to my house..

I am in the process of fabricating my portal steel frame garage, architect has mentioned that due to being more than 30 mtrs square and being about 600mm from the neighbouring boundary it needs to have minimal fire rating of half an hour, I was planing to clad with 40mm PIR insulated sheeting but this just falls under the 30 minute rating, purlins are steel and UB’s are twice as heavy as they need to be but that’s engineers for you, does anyone know of anyone that can supply insulated cladding with rockwool instead of PIR or maybe have another solution such as a cement board between cladding and purlins, any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA.

Davy McComb, McComb Steel, near Ballymoney, very helpful, lots of beams sitting in his yard already shotblasted and primed…

Thank you Bonnie, I was told by my local MP’s office who spoke to the planning that if a bond is paid you can use your own contractor as long as it’s done to specification kind regards, kevan.

I need to apply for a road opening permit to install a storm drain below the single track public road, the roads department are wanting a cross section drawing of installing the pipe, would anyone have an approved drawing for installation of 225mm twin wall HDPE pipe to be buried 1.4mtrs below road level, any drawings received would be very much appreciated! Kind regards, Kevan.

Thanks Nick, I am going to just apply for a license for digging up the road as three companies never got back to me an the other quoted £6k and I had to supply the digger..

He is going to give me a price for 3G but he says there should not be a big difference in price, my two patio doors at the rear were aluminium lift and slide and I have changed them to PvC composite so he said the quote may be cheaper than original, the fully glazed gable needs to be aluminium lift and slide as it is nearly 6mtrs wide..

Price is for double glazed with u values 1.2, I can pay a little extra for triple glazed with u values down to 0.8, I think with being let down by the first crowd I spent about two hours going through things and asking hundreds of questions, he also taken me to a house to show me the standard of workmanship and I was impressed with the quality of the build

Hi, Was going down the route of Sips build with vaulted truss roof, contacted a few companies and picked a company for the kit that assured me they would build me a nearly passive house and build it in an efficient manor with no hidden extras, they told me in second week in January drawing for BC would take about one week, to cut a long story short nearly eight weeks later no drawings, very poor communication, I found another company and now going down total TF design with same U-values as SIP’s, price is 12k dearer but includes all windows and doors, all walls inside, fully plaster boarded inside, I phoned the first company to speak to the director who I could never get a hold of and spoke to the receptionist to say I had lost confidence in them, surprisingly he phoned me back in five minutes and totally understood my decision and apologised for lack of communication and said he was sorry for the delays and could not find an engineer that could do calculations for the steel work, I told him that I was sorry but if things are going wrong at this stage then I cannot let you continue with my build, I am now really glad I have swapped TF supplier…

I am going to phone several companies to discuss options of open cut and trenchless options, whatever I go for I feel like it is going to be expensive…🥲

I can dig a trench on my plot, the other side is 1.4 mtrs below my plot and drain below road would run into drain in farmers field..

Yes unfortunately in Northern Ireland everything involved with roads, environment and planning takes months and months, if I go down the open trench route this could be an issue as although it is a dead end small road there is a lot of farm traffic, traffic to houses, people going to the beach, who ever was opening up the road would need steel plates on standby to let traffic by, I have one mains water pipe running along the grass verge, no sewage electricity or anything else, is it possible you could PM your friends details please?

That would be an option but the two culverts are 10 meters left an right from the sides of my plot, when I looked at the stone culverts one was collapsed below the road and the other is really only suitable for septic tank run off, when my site floods it really floods, it never used to happen but now it floods badly two or three times in the winter

Unfortunately there is no easy solution, I need to ensure no storm water is running through over my site, I cannot put any form of bank or wall at rear of the site as this shall divert storm water through my neighbours garden, this was highlighted with objecections from both neighbours at planning stage, planning was granted as I said I would resolve this issue, no objections from the environmental agency as they said it was not on a flood plain, I need this resolved once and for all so I never have issues in the future, at the rear of plot I am installing a storm channel with flag stones on top with a 2cm gap between them and galvanised storm grating at lowest point, then run an 8”/10” drain through the sight and under the road to the field across the road, I could tie the drain to be installed through my site into two small 4” sewage pipes from both neighbours but during heavy rain this may create issues with sewage backing up, I also do not want to finish my house and landscaping then have to dig things up again due to trying to cut corners at this stage