PeterW

So you’ve got about 0.25 cubic metres, which if that was sand would be about 350kg of sand (it’s about 1.6 tonnes to the cube) so I would get 14 bags of sand and 2 bags of cement to be on the safe side.

what area are you trying to level ..? Room dimensions and how far out of level is it ..??

Welcome ..! Where are you in the UK..? Got any pictures ..??

Depends on the conversion. What are you converting ..??

Beads don’t do much better - seriously change the cavity now whilst you can.

Hmm.. bit of a gimmick tbh as it just gets the plaster on the wall quicker, they still need to know how to flat it and work it up. Yes I’ve skimmed a few walls in my time, but can’t do ceilings and for what I pay a day (£160) I don’t even bother. You can get the training in a few days, the experience takes years. Add on decent tools and you’re upward of £8-900 and then you start to ask the question how much can you do in a week vs a skilled plasterer ..? So £200/day for a spreads is not bad, £120 for Labourer is a bit steep - depending on what they are doing I would be looking at £80-100 tops.

So we are arguing over a day..? He said 4 but has invoices for 5..?? Whats that worth..? Market has picked up here and I’m 4-6 weeks minimum if I wanted anyone for a week, 3-4 months out for a full job. How much will that delay cost you..? I would let him carry on but if he’s cut and laid 80m to falls then he’s at least starting it right.

I wouldn’t worry - this is a garage and you won’t get damp through there as long as there is place for water to flow downward. Cable in, squash some foam insulation round it about 4” down then top it with concrete and you’re done.

That is your SAP issue - that’s barely inside regs. Wall is 0.27 based on that build up, limiting factor is 0.30. You can get to 0.18 just by using a 50mm additional cavity which is far more cost effective than adding insulated plasterboard. Reducing the cavity really doesn’t affect all of your structural calcs as 100mm is negligible in terms of spans etc. Lintels are £5-10 more expensive for the wider cavity so that adds nothing. I would speak to Building Control and ask their advice if they want it completely redrawn - standard founds can cope with a 50mm variation as can most other structural elements. Floors and roof components should always be as built measurements anyway as you will find the brickies will adjust your layouts to meet the standard block and brick sizings so they aren’t cutting slips to make sizes work.

It’s a natural product - it will have variations. No two slates will be alike. If you don’t want that then you will need to use a man made product and change any PP to have that agreed.

150mm of what ..?? PIR would give you 0.12, EPS is about 0.18 Don’t agree with the SAP guy about adding wall insulation - you will reap the benefits of living in a house with decent insulation through lower bills so why not do it ..? It’s definitely cheaper to do it now.

150mm of what ..?? PIR would give you 0.12, EPS is about 0.18 Don’t agree with the SAP guy about adding wall insulation - you will reap the benefits of living in a house with decent insulation through lower bills so why not do it ..? It’s definitely cheaper to do it now.

Probably 0.75 or 1mm

That’s a straight push in. Just needs solid twin & earth cable.

So without knowing the invert level it’s difficult to say but not sure why he’s quoting to put back drops in ..? If your invert at the house is say 600mm, start at 1.2m at the back and you’ve got about a 1:20 fall across the drains. Nothing too dramatic. Needs an IC half way down but that’s all. That’s a very big gym..!!! What is the construction method planned and whats the access to the back garden ...?

Set of plans would be useful to see what they are suggesting ..?

Sounds about right. Chamber will be £150, benching and backfill, excavation etc will be about right. If they have to do external backdrops then these take a lot more effort and bits to make them work.

Can you post the build up as to fail SAP you must be barely over Building Regs. make the following changes and see how it comes out. Add on 25mm of PIR to your floor, up the insulation in the attic to 500mm, neither of which cost much. Next option is to (if it’s trad build) expand the cavity to 150mm and use blown beads. Finally go to a 3G window (even basic uPVC) and you’ll exceed BRegs and get a decent SAP score.

Thermal is a one trick pony. Spend £4.5k on PV and you’ll get a better solution.

Was the ply primed correctly ..? And was it a flexible latex based adhesive ..? I can’t see how a 40mm laminated floor would flex over a 2.8m span to cause tile popping. Was the marine ply properly glued and screwed to the chipboard and joists below ..??

I have a plasterer who did such a fantastic job of the curved ceiling of a 5.4m cathedral roof we nicknamed it the Chapel of St Andrew the Plasterer ..! And he’s never out of work ...!

Shower and bath water can both contain fecal coliform amongst other things. It is a grey area (pardon the pun) where unless you can provide full isolation and effective treatment of the waste water then it should not be classed as grey due to bacterial contamination.

You’ll need an STP to deal with the shower and bath water (classed as black water not grey water) so by the time you have finished you may as well have a full system installed. @PeterStarck has a post treatment reed bed if you want some first hand experience.

Depends ..! Yes it should but it’s sometimes not. And it needs more than the 9mm poly crap some plumbers use. Joints should be taped too.

I’ve hidden a waste pipe in a wall - 50mm insulation on an external wall was chased to accept a 40mm waste and then just wedged and foamed. Then boarded over and you wouldn’t know it was there (until the sink runs though it..!!)