Russell griffiths

I’ve always done clay soil, geo textile over the top of the gravel to prevent topsoil from migrating into the gravel other soils, geo textile around pipe and gravel to keep trench free draining.

Has anybody got any cost comparison between a steel web joist or a jji I beam type joist these will be used for roof rafters rather than flooring just trying to get a feel for it before I ask a few local companies. Cheers russ.

So I’m starting to sort out details and every answer creates another question so talking to a truss manufactures he’s leading me towards a truss rather than a metal web joist so question is how can I create a warm roof setup with trusses, I want to avoid insulation on top of the trusses and just have it below the level of the 18mm osb that will form the roof covering. Hope that makes sense.

True. ?

I have done a series of trenches before laid in a herringbone pattern the trenches have a perforated land drain pipe in them the trenches are filled with gravel you can cover the top of the trenches with a geotextile material if you want to keep the top soil from migrating down into the gravel. This is all works better if you have a natural fall in the ground the way you want the water to go. Would only require a mini mini digger for a day or two.

So I think hire one of the battery ones for a day and see what difference it makes, and if it’s considerably then buy one and sell on afterwards.

Any thoughts on this, apart from how much is the wire. I don’t mind spending good money on a good tool, but I hate feeling shafted buying the consumable bits when you have no choice.

Thanks everyone to clarify, I have the handled tool that twists the pre looped wire and this is what I am fairly quick at, what I was more thinking of was the battery powered ones hadnt thought of hiring.

If you have a go camping store near you they have a rock climbing section and nearly always have offers on you can get a very lightweight climbing helmet with vent holes for the summer after 10 mins you will forget you have it on. or just wear the bump cap for on the scaffold, but put the good one on if lifting things on site with the crane or telehandler.

Yes used them in the last place we built. Imho they are easy to lay as they are accurate, so space very nicely 1mm tile spacers I think, could be wrong.

Has anybody used one of the auto type tie tools i used to do a fair bit of re bar but always tied by hand i have a large amount going in my footings and wanted to speed things up looked at the manual long handled version, or thinking of a battery one. Any thoughts.

As construction channel said I would use powder coated aluminium. I have built a couple of black ally structures and they looked very classy i did a cover over a patio and it was powder coated galv steel, not as heavy as it sounds and you couldn’t tell the difference from the ally, but a third of the price. A quick wipe with a wet cloth is all it took to make it look brand new again.

So after talking to 3 piling company’s and 2 structural engineers it looks like we’re having beam and block floors against my better judgment I may add. So the question is what is the minimum void height under the beams. Got to have a re design. Thanks russ.

What is this fractured drain you talk of. Your not not making it out of China. Plastic pipe in 3-6m lengths bedded in pea shingle, or concrete covered if close to vehicle traffic rarely leak, and if you get a weep it will only be very minor and would soak into the underlying soil. They dont tend to fracture sending Richard the third. Cascading around under your floor void. Panic not my good man.

I have no idea where this 10 m comes from, meeting structural engineer tomorrow so will ask some questions he has done a house just down the road from ours so he knows the local ground makeup. The problem is I think we are on fill, as our site is a former gravel pit I think all the good gear was removed and the site spoil pushed back in. My neighbour excavated a big hole to dig a pond and he gave up with all the bits of World War Two aeroplanes that he pulled out. It seems in the late forty’s early fifties anything you didn’t want you just buried.

All the prices quoted by everyone are what I had in mind i had estimated between £1200 to £1500 plus vat going with the thought that they may need to poke down a bit more you could say a couple of grand. But where the bloody hell did they get £3500 plus vat. Obviously very busy and can be choosing what they do as they also said 3-4 week lead time with another 3 weeks to get the report back.

As cpd said, not wanting to tell you how to suck eggs, but After you get stuck into that shell you will wonder why you didn’t knock it down and start a fresh. Got anymore pics.

No site stripping needed house is raised 450mm above existing ground level to account for flood risk. We think we are sitting on a couple of metres of fill as I’ve done a test hole with the digger and didn’t like what I found. This is our site the lake sits at about 700mm below the grass level, so digging down any more than that normally leaves you with wet feet, the house is to be raised 450above the grass level in the pic, so above the 1 in 100 year flood risk even though if that lake was to rise more than 300mm half of the south of England would have long disappeared. Who are we to argue.

In there e mail it just states that having consulted local geological mapping we propose two test holes to 10-12 m. I would be very surprised if the percussion rig will hammer down past 6 but what do I know

So the first quote I have had is for two test holes down to a depth of ten metres £2200 soil testing at lab. £350 final analysing and report. £1000 all prices plus vat. OMFGG. If @vivienz or @willbish could give me some details I would appreciate it. Do you think your bloke has the equipment to go to a depth of 10m.

Oh how I laughed today when I opened the e mail from a geotechnical company with an estimate to carry out a soil investigation has anybody got any info on what sort of money they paid for one. The spec in their quote was for two percussion driven holes to a depth of 10m soil sample analysed at their lab and and findings detailed we have a seperate structural engineer doing the design of the foundations so this is just to analyse the soil makeup when ive stopped laughing I will post up the cost. Thanks for any help pi##ed off from Cirencester.

Bit thick here as well have you not paid a deposit and agreed on a sale price.

If you go mid week there will be no staff on any stand, it is a brilliant place, but if you are going to the nec one then,there is not a lot of point as you would have seen it all there. I live about half an hour away and pop in regularly, but normally to pick up a brochure, not to talk to anybody as most of the stands are unmanned.

I think plastic is something to look into. Try to imagine how you get a 3m length of copper through the middle of those posi joists ?

I discovered ours after I had finished and the vacuum was sitting in the kitchen and started to smell a bit. Could have been nasty.