ToughButterCup

Nail gun ? Screws ?

I was hoping you would join in @SteamyTea. In terms of GRP walkways, what does .... Done properly ... mean in practice ? I ask because I'm not aware of any GRP walkways - or perhaps I just don't notice them when I walk on them ? @LnP was your GRP roof also used as a walkway ?

@Seasider raises an interesting question: How can you make a leaky concreted flat roof waterproof ? Is a triple layer of felt adequate for the job? My feeling is that in this case (because the the roof doubles as a footpath) it isn't - Or if felt is OK for a while - it soon won't be : shoe, stone, heel, puncture, leak, frost, thaw, bigger leak, peed off @Seasider. Somehow, shoes need to be kept off that roof. Marine ply walkway on 4 by 4 bearers?

In our case, I asked the same question. No - was the answer. But since we built on a gentle slope, we just shoved the top layer (made ground) downhill.

With the very best will in the world, @DuncanAndrews, our collective genius and experience can never ever be cited as reasoned evidence to counter a qualified SE's opinion. All we can do is to advise you to do some Due Diligence among qualified and experienced SEs. All SEs aren't the same. Some experienced, some not. Some specialised, others not. Some go by the book, others engage deeply with the topic because of a special interest. Get 10 SEs in room and I bet there will be a wide range of opinion. Our SE ( a foundation raft expert) was asked to specifiy for some ICF rebar for us. Once that spec was submitted to a specialist ICF SE, well, his laughter from the Home Counties could be heard here in Lancashire. And saved us about £3k. Ask two more SEs for a specification - and make sure one of them is experienced in working with Velux products: a truss design firm might be useful. Do Velux have specialist SEs? Time to get on the phone.....

@joe90 forgot to say .... Get a pest Control guy to remove the mice, rats , bats and GCNs. When that's done replace the inevitably rotten(ing) wood , and when you've done that replace the lintel(s) and then the frame. Or - keeping it brief - knock the house down and start again. 😑

One stone (a local flint will do) picked up on a shoe heel and traipsed over some felt ..... even 3 layers hmmmmm......

It is common to get three quotes for any build project - part of the Due Diligence process. If you don't go through that process (need not be as complex as implied in the link given) you increase the risk of coming back to us with a (commonly heard) tale of woe. In short ; ask, talk, look. Lets speculate about the costs involved - this is PURE speculation Ancillary works: 2 days £400 Felt 3 rolls (3* 275) £825 Skip 8 yards £280 Torch-on felt kit £300 2 guys 2 days (4 man days) £800 Equipment hire £100 Incidental costs (fuel , phonecalls , consumables) £100 Profit ( roughly the sum of the above) ~ £ 2000+ That coffee house fag-packet calculation makes the quote above about right. Yes, you'll get it done for less. But consider that he might do a good job - in which case you've started to build trust. And thats valuable. Network hard: has yer man worked in the area long? Who has had work done by that firm before? Go and look (or sneak a look) . Talk to as many as you can about the builder - ask at local estate agents for anyone who knows him . Mind you in Devon the Jungle Telegraph works particularly well if my experience is anything to go by. Other members will have a view about whether 3 layers of felt is enough straight on to concrete where the surface will be walked on every day. My instinct is that it isn't .... We aren't experts. Just nosey, hard-bitten (often nosey) self builders with long memories. There is no substitute for doing your own research: it builds confidence and decreases risk. Photos please. PS, I had no idea how acidic ( alkaline? ) seagull shooshoo is.....

I don't think its possible to generalise. Would that we could. It'd all be a lot easier. There might be a local agenda: one particular Planning Officer might have a bee in the belfry about [...] , the Planning department might be badly organised - high staff turnover, got any precious wildlife locally .? .. Planners are more than up to neighbours being the opposite, Local Councillors sometimes kickstart their broomsticks. All the above is out of your control. But you can control the way you handle the politics and micropolitics. Here, have a read

Can I suggest you ask the provider of the relevant product. Or perhaps, one of their agents?

So, @DaveAF is the arbour still up - gales haven't dropped it for them ..... ? Locally there's a WW2 relic (coast-guard lookout) that looks much the same as the image you posted, is really Jerry-built, walls thinner, (single brick walls) concrete roof thinner and open to the full force of the winds in the bay (Morecambe). Over 70 years old. Both that concrete roof - and the one next to yours - will take some shifting.

A few photos would help us help you ....

Thats an interesting thing to say. Tell us why you think it's broken - as opposed to simply expensive ?

In haste .....There's a brick matching app - and a couple of websites and a quick search on this site shows the same question has been answered before.

Yes they are. Scolmore's website is ( was when i used it) just dreadful. They sell all sorts of interesting switches, but you have (had maybe) to hunt for them. I've one switch which sometimes 'sticks' bewtween ON and OFF. Never happens to me but (why oh God why ?) it often happens to Debbie. Male designed that's why innit ... 🙄

Reading between the lines I felt that might be the case. OK.... how about this aproach (the one I came to think was the only thorough repair)

I've looked at this issue for myself (old cottage , full time job so too busy to 'fix it') : I'd like to be proved wrong - but there is no product that deals with the problem. Your problem statement hints this is just one problem in a chain of related things. We had rotten wood, loose putty, worn this that and the other. And yes, I tried a couple of 'solutions' (that much abused word) to the problem. While I have no criticism of the various 'products' , the original problem merely replicates itself at the join (not joint) between the wood and the repair product. Water gets in freezes, expands and out pops the covering paint, more water gets in and the process repeats until the owner decides he can't stand the delay any more (after she has been as patient as she can). How about this. secondary glaze until spring 2024 Spring that year : window out; Support the lintel replace window frame and opener or repair (frames) properly with wood replace repaint Idea?

Ah not to worry: if your experience is anything like mine, most of the sockets will be in roughly the right place, but in-the-wrong-place in SWMBO's opinion. and you'll need at least six multiple socket extensions to placate her but the dog(s) will object and chew those sockets . then the grandchildren will be inserting pens in the unprotected sockets and you'll be glad you fitted RCBOs

In a nutshell: the argument for finding an excellent - not necessarily expensive - PM. Key 'interview ' question for a potential manager : Have you any suggestions about local builders and trades folk that you would like to make? Who's a reputable plumber round here? How long have you known him / her? Do you know of any local chippie / brickie partnerships (team) Do you know any concrete dispatchers? : ( listen to the answer) what's the chance of getting a part load from that company? - and where do they do their slump tests? What are the local window fitters like here: do they deal with imported window companies like Velfac of Gaulhofer ? How much is concrete a cube yard from company [...x...] ? Ring to check. How long has [ company x ] been trading ? Which is the best pub for local tradies ( Local to us its The Patten Arms) Go and waste time there. Then triangulate the answers.

One of the key issues on a build is the hidden local networks which operate: often in the pub, the cricket pitch, the building sites and elsewhere. The networks started at school : friends grew up together, chose different trades and over a few years came to know and trust -or mistrust - their school mates practical work on sites and jobs in the locality. They talk to one another, dig one-another out of holes, help out with job xyz. But they form firm bonds. Those bonds are - unless you're in the network - hidden. A good PM will know those networks well. A PM will know who and who not to employ, who hates whom and why - because they all 'go-back-a-long-way' together. And how on earth can you choose a good PM - as opposed to someone you pick from Yellow Pages? One answer to that question is that you won't be able to get a good local one for a few months or maybe a year or so. You might just get an excellent builder who's large enough to be able to call on lots of mates (likely to be old school friends or mates of old school friends) See where this is going ...........? To answer the question, you now need to network like mad - with the emphasis on work. Got the time?

In relation to size, I'd go and have a look at similar windows (mates houses - catalogues - NHBC guidelines - YooChube - don't pass a skip with scrap window frames in them) . Feels kind of strange offering you advice Clive ........

Price of milk has just dropped 16p per litre ( to the farmer )

Play the video at double speed.... Settings>playback>choose speed

Thanks very much for the link to Booglehead's videos. YT isn't to my taste: but that said I spend some time on it every single day, and hours on it when - as normal- I have no clue about to do [....] The issue of shared bad-practice does rear its head now and then. But often that's as instructive as the opposite.

Lets ask the NHBC to add a section to their Building Standards 2024 shall we: Effective Communication : Customers and then a similar section on How not to answer the phone politely