dnb

At a guess grey and black.

The self same SMP maths existed in the 1980s too. But I think you missed a step in the working and didn't deduct the length of the soil pipe that the ghastly pink toilet outlet fits in. Therefore the answer is 2:50 pm.

Do you have all your scripts and stuff stored away in a version control archive too? (SVN or GIT?)

You could borrow mine for a couple of weeks. It would help me with procrastination points on the house not finished thread... I will need it back because the house is really bad for co2 and heat build up when we work in there and there isn't a good through draft.

Some of it is nicely done. Other bits are the dreaded end of UI design that I have called "user mendacious" in the past - the buttons don't always lead to the same thing when the context appears to be identical. For instance I can specify a wall build-up with all the parts of my build and it calculates the U value quite accurately. But if I try to do the same for the floor I get a box where I can enter my own U value and the software tells me that it won't be "valid" any more because the floor is treated as a material whereas the walls appear to be treated as a collection of materials. All I want to do is tell it there's more insulation than average over the beam and block... The heat loss numbers were similar to my own 1st principle calculations. It predicts more loss for the ground floor but very slightly less for the 1st. I guess that's a result of not being able to have "my" floor specified correctly and maybe some modelling of heat loss from ground to 1st I didn't bother to do. I would say it's a very good start but it's beta release standard.

Yes, glued and held with dowels (or screws if the sides are inaccessible). In case it is important to your decision, Stairbox don't supply half landings. I had to make this myself (I used some left-over timbers from other bits of the build)

Mine is solid too, but the whole teenager thing does mean I need to take additional precautions! The glue idea sounds the easiest - no drilling and no need to lift the stairs too far out of place. The newels won't take much holding in place.

It's a "simply in place" requirement. Gravity is being really useful at holding it down. I've walked up and down the stairs a few times while everything is held in place with strategicly placed clamps and nothing moves. I thought about using two of the smaller zipbolts intended for handrails per newel. These are (in theory) short enough to miss the pipes - they were well clipped when all said and done.

I know that these are not the same joists as yours, but it might give a few ideas. Plenty of example diagrams of how to use I joists. https://www.steico.com/en/solutions/new-construction/roof-construction

I've got my Stairbox staircase assembled and in place. It all seems good so far and is very solid. I need to attach the newel posts to the screed now. I'm not worried about any large movements because of the way the half landing ties everything together but I want the posts to remain square and upright now that I've spent a day gently tapping them all back and forth to be so! My first thought was to use zipbolts. Then I read the datasheet and found them to be so long they will go half way through the floor insulation doesn't sound ideal. (65 to 75mm of screed and 130mm of zip bolt. Cutting the ends off might work but seems wrong?) - And then I thought about the under floor heating pipes and started to get worried about drilling a hole neatly through one of the pipes. I have a dimensioned picture of the pipe locations and I get awfully close on one of the 3 posts. Sufficiently close for measurement errrors to bite me. Are there any shorter newel fixings out there? A quick google search suggests zipbolt have it all sewn up and there aren't short options. Thanks

Yes, socket sets do take screwdriver bits. A 1/4" drive to hex adaptor is the piece you need. My bigger screwdrivers have a hexagon integral to the shaft. It is designed such that a ring spanner can be used to give increased leverage. I thought this was a standard feature of half-reasonable screwdrivers. Failing that, my trusty Li-Ion Erbauer imact driver usually wins. But it chews the bits up in short order so have plenty of spares.

Interesting times ahead. Last year the lead time for floor screed for my build was just over 12 weeks. (Outlying location contributes much to this)

I'm far from a roofer (but did batten and slate much of my own house roof). I agree with Gus Potter with the source of leaks likely to be the detailing around the valley. There appears from the photos like there is no easy way for water to drain down the roof on membrane past the battens so it is making its way in to the house. Breathable membrane is a good thing, but it only works right if the details are implemented correctly. Based on advice (from people here) this was an area where I paid a lot of attention and put in a lot of time. I too am surprised by the lack of counter-battens. I was told (because I have a SIPS roof) that it was required to allow the roof structure to be properly drained and vented.

Thanks. I've strayed away from Trend in the past and regretted it with router equipment so I had better not do that again! Many of the others look to be adjustable to the point of absurdity. Of course. My OCD demands that all doors are fitted dimensionally identically.... 😉 Nice that Amazon have them (just found the two sets I think I need) so I can use my stash of Barclaycard points on them. Sell my tools? What is this madness? 😉

I am about to fit a few (15 I think) doors so it makes sense to me to have some form of jigs so I get them all done the same. I don't live near any specialist woodworking shops to go and look so all I get are website descriptions and pictures which don't really help explain how easy the jigs are to use or what other tools/equipment make them work better. I have a decent enough Trend router plenty of new (and old) cutters, a lot of G clamps and workbenches etc but could do with a steer as to which jigs are worth having for fitting the door hinges and handles. I'm not usually worried about buying new tools either if a special tool would do a significantly better/quicker/easier job than a general purpose router. All help greatly appreciated!

Decent splitting maul and a sledge hammer, followed by a cancelled gym membership (if you are in to that sort of thing). Just working my way through some of my excess firewood in a site tidyness bid. Could use the chainsaw but it's far too hot when I'm wearing all the safety gear. I believe in H&S a lot more when chainsaws are involved.

I've had a request to amend the design for the cupboard space under the stairs. (Apparently my original plan drawing was not understood or I asked for approval when the boss was distracted, so I am therefore wrong and should have known not to do things the easy way... 😉 ) The stairs are in a corner of our hallway. The first half flight runs next to an internal structural wall to a half landing that goes out to an external wall. The return flight up to the 1st floor is only suported at each end and is to all intents and purposes in free space both sides. It's probably clearer with a picture - will try to dig one out from us assembling the stair kit. I had planned to build a half-landing height timber stud framework to support the trimmer plate behind the two half flights of stairs. It won't do much supporting of the upper flight because it has newels that reach the floor, but will support one side of the top of the lower half flight (the other side again has a newel that reaches the floor). This is actually next to an internal structural timber stud wall so again not a lot of load will be presented since the stairs are supported by said wall. The half landing would be supported by a simple set of posts where it's easy to demonstrate that there's next to no deflection of the trimmer plate and no issue with any form of loading because there are 4 evenly spaced vertical 4x2 posts at nominal 600 centres to take the load to the floor. The half landing joists would be approx 950mm and attached with Simpsons joist hangers to the trimmer plate at one end and an outer SIPS wall at the other. The trimmer plate and joists will be 2" x 8" C16 timber because I happen to have some handy lengths in the spares pile. Calculations (assisted by timberbeamcalculator.co.uk) suggest it will support much more load than it will ever see and all is easy and good. Now comes the design change... There is a desire to not have the timber studwork wall to support the half landing at the lower flight (or indeed any structure to support the half landing - I was essentially asked why can't it just hover there??). So I am considering if a 2" x 8" ledger board attached to the internal timber stud wall (4x2 studs at least doubled up to support some significant point loads in the house structure at nominal 400mm centres) for one side of the half landing so that I can use a joist hanger on to the ledger board for one end of the trimmer plate (again 2" x 8" timber), and if I am using a ledger plate there, then why can't the trimmer plate be fitted as a ledger plate to the three long newel posts as well in order to achieve the hovering like effect. (The half landing would then use the same joist structure from SIPS wall to timmer plate.) We then had a discussion about who was being unreasonable... Turns out my argument involving numbers and maths wasn't totally convincing (probably valid given I have a bit of a history of overkill)... So, I need either convinving that a ledger board is a sound idea that won't cost me a load of structural engineering time for both cost and delays and require a load of special BS stamped fixings that need shiny certificates for my new and very keen BCO to examine, or a cunning argument as to why it's not a good idea to do mind changing after the parts arrive on site and it turns out that they're not what the boss believed the plan said that won't get me in too much more trouble... All this is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I am interested in the answer since I do have a possibly unreasonable distrust of ledger boards, and understanding a bit more about how they work might simplify some other (not BCO controlled) projects on my list even if it doesn't help get the boss her floating half landing. 😉

True! I just about remember those days (wasn't very old back then). But having a requirement specification document set that is so full of contradictions and needless complications (and apparently no requirement prescidence or hierachy) you can't make headway is just about as useless because it allows industries of charlatans to spring up that just add cost without providing value. As another colleage often said (of some of our more talkative staff) BS will baffle brains all day long.

I feel more and more that one of the wise old folk (now retired) at my work had exactly the right idea. When he was presented with any form to fill in or technical submission he would make absolutely sure that EVERY box was completed. Even if the answer in it were total junk. He would submit said paperwork and then continue with life safe in the knowledge that nobody else would dare send anything back in case he demonstrated that they didn't understand his answer... Turns out this works 9 times out of 10. 😉

Agreed. 5 ton is the one to have. I did mine with a 3 ton digger and there were one or two moments in the job where things felt a bit too close to the limit.

It depends on the earthing scheme to a point as well. I'm on a TT earth so ended up with SWA and a 100mA RCD + 80A switch fuse box. (But my tails were a slightly silly 20 metres...) Suspect you are on TNCS earth so you'll only need SWA or RCD. I do have a blue book, but I left it on site - @Marvin happy to let you have a read of it and the on-site guide if you want since you're local to me. I might even have a spare length of 25mm2 SWA getting in the way, although it might be a fraction too short.

FD30 doors don't appear to be in the sale But the "normal" ones are OK.

Our current house (not the new build) has exactly this. It's 2m x 1.5m with 3 standard 600mm units (one is a washing machine) down one wall with an inset stainless sink and the toilet on the other wall at the back. I'm not keen on it but it makes reasonably efficient use of the space.

I understand that one. I regret not buying a Cosworth when I had the chance in 2005. And the Ferrari in 2008. And the E-type in 2001. And the other TVR in 2007... (I can see a pattern here, but 4 should be enough for anyone) Although the house build wouldn't be happening if I had bought any of them. I don't really regret much with the build except maybe I could have done more at the time to mitigate some of the covid and Brexit issues that are still being an ongoing background nuiscence problem for me.

Not convinced mine can be considered new with the amount of time I've been at it. 😉