Russell griffiths

I wonder if I can get my own insulated floor beam system signed of by our engineer why can I not use 100mm xps inbetween the beams where the blocks would go and cover with 50mm xps all over and then 75mm concrete topping with mesh and ufh. ?

Ok, here are they problems I’ve got to over come. If you look at the pic you will see the big wet thing, that’s our lake just to the back of our plot. The closest part of the house is 2.4m from the wet bit we had a flood risk assessment which said the floor level needed to be set up in the air, which is fine, but it is a fair bit above the original ground level, so lifting it any higher I would like to avoid but will if necessary. Floor build up from top down. 20mm tiles and adhesive 75mm structural concrete topping ufh fixed to eps 200mm eps insulation 175mm floor beams 175mm void top of ring beam piles. So with this makeup it puts the top of the ringbeam 650mm below finish floor level, which puts it just above the wet bit i have excavated down to this level and I’m still dry but I’m really not wanting to dig down any further, as no amount of pumping will keep the gazillions of litres of water at bay. What i need to achieve is get the floor makeup thinner so I can keep from excavating down.

http://www.beamshield.co.uk/ could anybody look at the block n beam product in the link and pick out any faults or problems they can spot. We have some height issues and need to find a solution that doesn’t involve adding height on top of the beam and block, so including the insulation in the block height will help me tremendously. Anybody used a system similar to this and what’s your thoughts on the amount of insulation around the beam. Cheers russ.

If you chuck a scaffold board on the floor and screw your props to it, they won’t twist as you tighten them. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Couple of things, can you not just improve on the insulation in the cavity ? EPS beads, you need to be very careful with cavity insulation and bricklayers it rarely gets fitted well if you enlarge the cavity you will need a cavity closer at the window reveal so your window can sit anywhere you want, how about just cover 10mm of brick with the frame and the rest over the closer regarding the air tightness just look for a topic recovering academic put up and you will see the replies about parge coats and hopper guns that you can spray render with. Or just use a broom head simple, would take 1 bloke a couple of days to do a whole house regarding insulation costs, just think how quick the brickwork will go up without faffing with all that sodding insulation, been there done that, won’t do it again.

If you where to build a single skin block garage (As an example) stand outside with a hose spraying on the wall and see how quick the water penetrates to the inside, couple of minutes if your lucky, I presume this would demonstrate how porous a concrete block actually is.

You can remove this mods please as I seem to have asked this question already told you my my head was spinning. ?

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.