Russell griffiths

Push the metal bit in the live side of a socket and then stick your tongue on it you know how you used to with those 9volt square batteries.

1. Yes 2. You can change to whatever you like above dpc, but is it worth it for 1 course. 3. Below dpc bricks need to be frost proof, so maybe a class b engineering brick in red then swap to face brick above dpc. 4. You really need a section drawing of your wall build up as you don’t want a cold bridge at floor level or a cold sole plate, so it needs to be designed to have an insulation layer in the cavity to prevent this, also a tray dpc to prevent water inside the cavity reaching the inner frame. You need to get this design right before you lay to many blocks.

Omg as im sitting here bored I thought I would google RESTRAINT STRAPS well that turned up a few images I hadn’t thought I would see at 7.30 in the morning. ??

What you need to consider is where you live, the timber frame house I built in Australia was held down by large threaded rods that went from the roof to the foundation, these are known as cyclone straps. Over in good ol sunny England cyclones are a rare thing so wind uplift is not really required, so a simply system like the two listed is all that is required. You should check with building control though though to see what they like.

I thought he said he was up to damp, when his friend said why you using dense blocks. Will re read.

Are you not using 100mm for outer skin or have I misread something.

I have used the same membrane and not found any problems, in fact I was surprised how good it was. I personaly wouldn’t be happy with the bit that has separated. I had seen an e bay seller with this but decided to buy from the merchants as it was reasonable priced. If you need some I think I have half a roll knocking about if it will get you out of trouble over Christmas.

Don’t use aircrete they are proper shit, use a concrete block but light weight, they are sometimes called ag-lights, look very similar to dense concrete but have a proportion of lighter materials incorporated. Go to your merchants and see what is available.

I brought mine direct from the manufacturer, they normally come in 50 mm increments so might be 25-30 mm long but that just allows for a bit of wiggle room, didn’t cut any of mine. Builders merchants prices where a good £6-800 dearer.

Gas is completely different and you need to all to a gas safe engineer to see what you are ALLOWED to do with it.

Well done. Enjoy it, don’t turn it in to a nightmare, be realistic with timescale and cost and it will be fun.

This depends on a few things. Do you feel that you have a job this contractor wants or do you Need this contractor theres no harm in asking but it depends if you feel you are in the driving seat or not. I personally wouldn’t be offended, but my price wouldn’t change. You dont go in the butchers and say I like your sausages but will you take £2.20 kg instead of £2.50.

My cost will probably be irrelevant but might give a very rough idea. 70m moled £700. Included pipe. Connection both ends extra. I would doubt anybody would come out for less than £350-400. As it would be two lads and the kit.

I have just had a new main put in. They dug a couple of small holes and moled it surprisingly easy and cheap. If you go across the roof will you not also have to run it vertically up the wall before you get to the roof. My previous house had the main in the roof, so really you can do what you want.

You will need to change it when you sell as the purchasers survey will pick it up. Might as well do it now and make the mess all at the same time. It shouldn’t be that expensive.

Nope I don’t think so, I have just had a big steel beam welded off site and then supply only, vat was included and I will need to claim it back at the end.

Do not cut into the PIR @wozza can you elaborate on why you don’t like this idea. I was thinking 70mm pir with a 20mm deep recess covered in the foil tape to bring it back to a fully sealed surface, cut the recess 100mm wider than the light fitting, LED light so low temperature. Tell me why this is stupid @Onoff @ProDave

Evening all. I know this was covered recently, but I’m buggered if I can find it. I will be fitting pir insulation to my ceiling with a batten fitted underneath for cables and to fix the plasterboard to, so the question is how deep should this batten be. There is a very good chance I will fit downlights so need a batten to cope with shallow lights, how shallow do some of these new led lights go down to. If the lights are deeper than the batten can I do a recess into the pir insulation? does that make sense, if a light needed 50mm depth but I had a 25mm batten could I cut a nice neat 30mm deep recess in the pir and line it with foil tape, obviously using a cool running led lamp. I think mr @Onoff was talking about some shallow lamps.

When I started looking at timber frames, the cheapest version was a standard 140mm stud with pir. Very basic in my opinion and can be improved on massively.

Are you @Moonshine comparing apples with apples, a 140mm wide stud with some pir in it is very different to a double stud wall with 300mm of insulation installed.

No need to apologise, we all have our own opinions.

Why not stand there and count them. If you take one off it should have a makers name on the back.

Garden walls around new house, raised flower beds why not knock it all down and see how many come out whole and how easy they clean up, if it takes 10 minutes a brick to clean then it’s hardcore, if it’s lime mortar that falls off if you bang two bricks together, then there keepers.

The way you are proposing looks better to me, you are taping all the joints then covering and going to tape and joint or skim the plasterboard. I can never understand how they think insulated plasterboard is any good, how do you join all the foil faces together.?

Concrete slabs might be slow to warm up....... but you only do this once, once it’s up to temperature it stays on until spring when you turn it off.