ToughButterCup

Hook, Cat5 and sinker @pocster, hook Cat5 and sinker mate.

Thats really very interesting indeed. Would you be kind enough to get me started on how to do a calculation like that for myself? Just a hyperlink or reference will do fine.

@vivienz, can I suggest that - no matter which vent you eventually use - you will eventually ignore it. Part of the furniture, not worthy of note. At the moment it's all new, stark, the focus of a good deal of effort and not a little money. That little nook is empty. Draw the piddler's eye by putting something fun in there. For example (Image stolen fair and square without permission from here ) Camouflage really does work. I know - I need it at Salamander Cottage. Big time.

That was mean @Temp, really mean . Poor old @Onoff All those gratuitous gender signals ...It wont be long before before his insulation melts now will it?

Ahhhh, yes, I can see how that would work ... Pro Clima Solitex Fronta Quattro, then battens then Siberian Larch cladding : it should cover the lead flashing almost completely (all bar 100mm of the lead). Thinking about it, me telling the roofing membrane (Evalon V) installer that the lead flashing would be almost fully covered ...... was maybe ermmm, unwise. .

Welcome. Here's an idea, pop up the M6, J33 and show me how to do it, please. Ta! Ian

I can hardly believe that I'm writing this post in such a matter of fact mood. I should be furious. But I'm not. This job needs doing fairly pronto and as usual, I have never done anything like it before. So, please give these images a coat of looking at. Then tell me what you think. There was I, wondering why a bit of water was trickling through my flat roof - didn't pay it much heed to it for a while until this recent set of soaking wet, dense, rain-filled Easterly winds. Some of you will know, thats my favourite wind direction here ( Got a strong stomach? Read this). I strongly suspected that it was my poor rendering skills that allowed water to trickle through into the Durisol, and down into the house. So I toddled up on the flat roof, sucked my teeth, prayed that @nod wouldn't drop by - my workmanship's not that brilliant. Filled in the odd crater here and there. Lots more to fettle, forgot about it. Next morning, the hall floor looked like we'd had visit from an incontinent Hefalump. Bugger. (Not quite a @Russell griffiths 'bugger', but not far off it.) Well now, lets have another little look. Hmm, what about the flashing? Heres a piccy the flashing on bottom of the the east facing wall. Part of the capping strip (blue batten) has been removed. (Now, you have to realise, that I know nothing - nothing about flashings, or how to install them. Or best practice, or anything like that.) I bloody well do now. Never mind who or how it got into that state (but ' Aaahm an it honey, aaaahm an it ') Naughty man. When I see him, I'm going to wee in his fuel tank. My current understanding of the ways of the Flasher is that he shouldn't have installed it like he did. Because when the water trickles down the superbly efficient parge coat ?, its going to whizz straight past the lead and .... end up on my hall floor. With me so far? (This is nowhere near as long as a @Nickfromwales post) Several YooChube videos, and trips to the BM later ... zooming in a bit .... and then some sealant (CT1) I left half of the wall un-clad. Because its going to widdle down tonight and if I've got the 'fix' wrong, I dont want to have to undo all of my handiwork. Buckets are already in the correct place for tonight's drips. If the new flashing works, do I back-fill the rest of the groove with mortar (over the CT1)? I'd be so grateful for any advice. Thanks. Ian

I find your brief difficult to read: it's hard to get a feel the 'whole' brief. The level of detail is a little daunting. A key part of understanding a text comes from the way the ideas (not merely the sentences) link with one another. Understanding is also helped by readablity. In terms of readability, the spreadsheet format - while useful for things like matching performance against criteria - doesn't help the general reader. Maybe a simple narrative text would help people like me?

Three years ago, I bought mine on Nick's recommendation. As described by Nick above, it has been very valuable.I bought the receiver that goes with it, and a staff. A while a go, @nod came round to my place with his Hilti. Its painted bright red - and I painted myself green with envy. Difference is, he uses his every day, and I use mine - say - two or three times a week on average.

There's something genuinely tragic about having so much money that you think you dont need to think for yourself.

Watch them every time. Someone I know who has cause to know talks about the way some scaffolders are paid. And it's not entirely in cash

Thanks for the replies folks. Too tired / tipsy to reply sensibly. Wife is away and I'm in the pub. ? Tomorrow / Morgen / Domani / Crastino/

The key question.....

I held back £9000 from my ICF 'builders' for similar issues. I also gave him a clear, evidenced (videos, time lapse images, and plain images) reason for doing so. No request for payment of the outstanding balance, no Letter Before Action, silence in fact. For the last fortnight, and many weeks to come, I will be dealing with the effects of both my naivety and the company's unprofessional behaviour. Just search for my content relsating to Durisol (and nightmares) , its all there. 20mm over 8m is a lot. @PeterW will know whether this is an acceptable level of error. Maybe I'm showing my 'soreness' about the issue. I used to be a nice guy. 'm a nasty bastard now.

... and a request for a BH poll. In terms relevant to your discipline, might this not be one of those Multi-Arm Bandit problems? Or do I stretch Epsilon's Greed a bit far? ?

You are exactly correct. Self builders choose to self-build. This is not an attempt to draw wider conclusions from an limited population of people mad enough to build their own house(s) All statistics are produced with an end-in-mind. Here, I think all thats required is a general indication - among ourselves - of which build system is in use. The poll will be a precisely accurate reflection of the group of people who chose to ; search for and find Build Hub become members, read the post and take part in the survey Every participant in the poll will understand that - non members may not. We are not trying to Lie with Satistics .

I'll set the ball rolling and see what the Mod team thinks..... Ian

Dont chase this bodge ... What you cant see (because I haven't shown you) is the context. The photograph shows the flat roof area in front of the house - effectively a flat roof extension in front of a 'normal' house with a 'normal' roof. What is abnormal - is the quality of the block work (vertical misalignment mainly) - almost everywhere. So, as usual you are bang on correct, I need to think about the effect of any remedial work on the cladding for the whole house. At the moment, I'm thinking of continuing the 'window cill' remediation around the rest of the house. What happens at the corners? Exactly. The thinking (and thats as far as its got) we are planning to 'frame' the cladding with a bit of vertical 2 by 2 (chestnut maybe?) such that the chestnut protects the end grain of the cladding boards. The window cill will need to cap the vertical off too. (Diagram of the corner detail to follow) details correct at ground level ? Thats what keeps me awake (a bit - getting used to the stress levels now). As @Ferdinand says in his signature line, Cod is in the Details . Doing a quick sketch is my way of getting my head round the issue. Thanks very much for your support. Much appreciated. Ian

I was thinking that a Tupperware flashing would be cheaper, lighter and less hassle. Thanks @SteamyTea

Thanks for your post .Extremely helpful, lots to think about.

Be there. Watch.

If only, @Sue B. That would be have been so much easier.

Do you mean block out the battens to (say) 50mm anyway? So, with an 18mm cladding board, that would mean 68mm from the front of (some of) the wall.....

We will have to do that anyway. I'm saying that to get the battens perfectly level and straight up and down, I'm going to have to notch some battens to get past a few individual blocks. The blocks might well have been laid by a drunken gorilla. But, there's no point whatsoever in fussing about that now.

Thanks for the link (here). Exactly what I was looking for. CAD package: Mark 1 eyeball and remaining fingers. Vertical cockup : 35mm (at least) - an error of merely 10mm would be wonderful - we could manage that. The green stuff - (Evalon V) rests on an overhang of about 47mm or so. Since the battens are 25mm, and the cladding is 18mm (43mm) and the error is 35mm we are looking at a 75mm difference at the top. Oh dear, never mind what a shame. Know what? I'm learning reeeeally fast, like reallly reeeaaallyy fast.