Russell griffiths

Morning, my floor buildup, consists of block and beam with 200 mm of eps on top with a concrete cover, if I want to lower my floor height, what can I change the 200mm of eps for that will give a good insulation value. Dont ask me what type of u value I’m after as my head is spinning, dealing with an architect who is stuck in 1960,s im looking to build a good house above any current regs but not trying to be passive by any means. Cheers russ.

The last vent, a traditional svp is on the exterior of the house and exits under the floor so no cold bridge in the wall or cold vent through the roof, Its the other 3 he has said can exit straight into the pipe with no AAV needed, do they not need to draw air as they wooosh away.

Hi. We have 4 toilets all on the ground floor, the furthest toilet on the drain run has a soil vent pipe in the traditional manor exiting the rear of the toilet and venting up and out like a traditional svp, now the other 3 toilets have been drawn up by our hydrological engineer as having NO venting at all, i personally was going to fit air admittance valves on each stub stack, hidden in cupboards to the rear of all the toilets. Our baths, showers, basins exit the building in separate pipe work to the toilets. Any thoughts.

That looks spot on, very well thought out and brilliant sketching. What i would add is you are supporting under both the purlins, just check that there are some fixings between the rafters and the purlins, if you can’t get in to add some fixings you could cut some of the flat steel strapping, the stuff that comes on a roll and strap over a rafter and into the face of the purlin, just to be sure they don’t twist or slide.

Evening, can anybody point me in the right direction what is the minimum soil coverage over the top of a drain run, 1. If it was running parallel with the house and going to have a concrete foot path over it, no vehicle access. Thanks. Russ.

I like kwickstage as I’m bloody short, I find the standard lift height for me is too high, so I like that I can customise it myself.

I would specify (independent scaffold) this is basically a scaffold that has two rows of standards so can stand on its own, so independently from the building.

I would also use a foam type strip on top of the dpc, no matter how level your blockwork there will be gaps, so some type of sealing must be needed somehow. I know you will seal it with your airtight layer but having the sole plate sealed wouldn’t hurt.

Already got a tracked excavator, and it helps me do all those jobs that are too heavy for one bloke, im thinking the handyness of being able to lift all the pallets of blocks for the block n beam floor and drop them all in position will be a godsend, I’ve also got 3 glue lam beams in the roof that could do with lifting up im good on the spanner’s I think the drama is the vat as I would lose possibly £1800 in vat. I can hire one no problem as I have accounts with a couple of plant companies, it’s just never having it there when I actually need it. Ho hum, more thinking.

What happened to them being deemed a bit dangerous? have they re,designed the system and added some more tie ins. I haven’t seen them used since the early 90,s

I didn’t think they used it any more. How do you get a 30mm putlock in a 10 mm brick joint, unless it is not face work.

Aimed mainly at those that have completed their build how many times would a telehandler have been useful if you had of had one would you have done things that you put off i have a 100m driveway that I can’t get an artic down, I’m wondering how many trucks are going to come without an HIAB my build is going to be icf with a beam and block floor trying to work out the depreciation as I won’t be able to sell it with vat so will take a hit on that at the very least.

Ours wants £575 for approval of all plans and all site inspections. Will be the cheapest part of our build so far.

I think unless I am wrong that this type of scaffold was outlawed many moons ago, i have not seen a putlock type set up in years, if your scaffolding company suggests this method I would tell them to jog on. It messes up the face brickwork with fat joins, and was prone to not being very safe. Are they still using it where you are ?

Sorry, we will be using the local Authority, I can’t see any reason why someone would use a private company when our local council are so cheap I had to ask if the price was correct.

So we are in the middle of compiling our building regs stuff, on talking to my architect he stated that we can submit our drawings and then after 48hours start work, im confused as I thought they had to be approved first. Im not talking about a building notice which I know about, this is a full plans submission. Anybody ?

Yea but not nearly as much fun as the Hilti, kabooom,

Just my two cents worth. The last place I built I did it just like a job i was on site at 8am and stopped for lunch every day without fail and went home at 4.30, I never stay late, if somebody wanted a meeting at 5 I would say no, I’m going home for a beer come tomorrow i never worked on it at the weekend except for going and picking finishes and fittings. I intend doing exactly the same with this one, although I live 2 minutes walk from the new plot I never stepped foot on it all weekend, I don’t think you can let it consume you, you need to look forward to getting on site on Monday, first thing I do when I turn up is make a coffee and lean on the shed and make a rough order of things that need doing that day, any phone calls get written on a white board in the site office and are made in a half hour period after lunch, if you were closer I would come up and give you a hand, is there any way to set up a forum labour exchange.

My friend did it, when he fenced it hr used rusty angle iron as posts and put them in all wonky then put rusty chain link on it to pretend it had been there for years.

It’s funny the stupid things you think about, but it is bothering me the fact of having a stupid coloured house for a year before I clad it.

Ooh get you f####g show off.

Well one things for certain, its a pretty colour ??

Just trying to work out a way to sit the beams in without having to concrete just a small portion, as trying to avoid a dry joint in the concrete. I want to be able to concrete all the way up to ffl in one pour with the beams in place. C mon give us a pic, then I can work out if it’s worth the two hour drive.

How’s it going any pics im just trying to work out the best way to get this beam and block tied in to an icf wall.

You really have missed you vocation in life if NASA ever need another shuttle fixing type guy I would nominate you. I would have hacked it out with a blunt chisel and a club hammer ?⚒