PeterW

Well it’s taken us 11 days with some real pigs of details such as dormers and curved ceilings ... and I’m now waiting for 3 weeks for him to come back as he’s maxed out so I reckon you can use me as a benchmark for a good 8-10 week timeframe ...

@StructuralEngineer had a quote for something similar but found that it barely hit building regs and due to it being a SIP type product the sound insulation wasn’t that great.

Check the duct size as that is the flow and capacity threshold.

Not sure if trestles are allowed on site these days ..? Or is that a rumour ..?? I am not keen on them as they rock when they are more than 2ft high - much prefer Kwikstage as it’s more stable.

Don’t forget if you are using a compressor with dust then safety specs are a must ... concrete dust in the eye hurts, high speed dust causes damage !!

I use a bottle brush - quick and simple and works well..!

@jamieled you have a PM..

Why.....?? Are you planning to do the place yourself ..? tbh you would be better saving on labouring and loading out to keep them moving - that’s the costly and time consuming bit. As soon as they stop laying they are costing you money - a bit like chickens ...

Breedon tell you how many bricks and blocks on average you get from a tub so you work it up from there. Mix was all 4N above ground and used everywhere - it lasted a good 3 days and if it was wrapped to keep the air out we had tubs from Thursday still good on Monday morning but it soon went off. Trick is to work what the brickies need and get it “just about there” as a delivery could be anywhere from 7am to 2pm. I ended up with weeks of 2 Monday and 1 Thursday, with the odd week with none or just the one when we got onto gables etc and working round the roof.

Possibly but it wouldn’t be heat resistant as they will use an epoxy and glass mix. Worth a call though unless you want a new one on your house insurance..??

Welcome ..! sounds an interesting project - happy to link your blog on here if it’s hosted elsewhere ..?

I’d lay blocks and leave the facings to a brickie but maybe that’s me .... Think it was £52 plus the Vat per tub, min 2 tubs on a drop and we only had 3 tubs total. £100 deposit on the tubs though and got that back at the end. Got to know the batching plant manager really well and the drivers who would sometimes drop before 7am so would ring to get the gate code - only had one driver who was an issue in 5 months and only had him once. We had a drop too that ended up being placed in what is like a half height bulk bag with the usual plastic liner and that was fab - bag is still being reused on site as it was very sturdy ! Batch plant was 30 miles from us but had no issues at all - I was flexible with them and they helped me including pulling in a couple of drops where I’d really missed the cutoff time. Plants do both types of mortar too - above and below ground 4N so you just ask for what you need.

Back to the original question though @recoveringacademic, what’s the purpose of this..? If it is for a wall plate then pretty much any of the standard Fischer ones are good enough, and for that sort of thing I love the glass capsule ones as you fix one at each end to hold the plate back and let it go off then drill at suitable intervals with a wood spur bit, follow with an SDS marked to the right depth, clean the hole and shove the glass vial in. 5 seconds with the setting tool in an impact hammer and the stud is fixed. Go for a cuppa, come back and nip them up and job done.

24m is the longest I’ve seen with a set of truss rails across a railway line ... 3m is the span of a normal pole so don’t worry unless your roofers are the sort who frequent McDonalds on the way to site every morning ...

The vibration of any refrigeration unit causes slight issues with any pipe work unless it’s flexible. I don’t think I’ve seen a single MI that doesn’t say use flexis, even if it’s only an isolation from the unit to the fixed element of a few hundred mm. BES do large bore flexis up to 1500mm for less than £20 which makes install a doddle so I can’t see why you would use anything else ..??

Can second that - used Melton too and they are very good, especially Jonathan at the Grantham branch.

And hide the kettle ..... you don’t want it looking lived in ..! I would get a copy of @JSHarris letter and edit it and print a copy of it and hand it to the person as they leave ... there is no right of access then without your agreement and they will know you mean business.... Oh, and don’t forget to enforce the legal boots/hard hat/PPE rules and follow it yourself too..!

So for everyday use I have Fischer and it’s brilliant - fits in an ordinary sealant gun too. With the chemset mortars or epoxy tube mixed products then it’s good to get a second nozzle and remove the first once you’ve done whatever job you want it for, or plan to use a whole tube in one go. It sets in the nozzle otherwise. For anything that is critical I use Hilti and scrounge the proper gun off my mate and it does the job properly and I know it’s right - but like @Onoff this is more about safety critical things rather than just load critical or where there are a number of redundant fixings.

You should be block scheduling tasks with amounts of slippage or slack in them. Start with a 7 hour working day and the tasks by hour and it will be closer to the actual. Start with 8 hour days and you are up against it already. Weather is something you cannot predict, or manage, unless you build a very expensive scaffold roof over your build and even then it’s only rain you protect from. I forecast losing 1.5d/mth to weather and we lost 3 days in total over 5 months. No-shows from a brickie is an issue for you to manage but I would get them to tell you when they will be there and what they need a week in advance. That way you are prepared and the stoppages are less. That’s a day to day plan rather than a block schedule so it’s about managing the site. On wastage, I lost a tub in total out of 18 so just shy of 5%. That’s a cost of £50 to me, which tbh is lost in rounding on a £100k project. Balance that against the fact that is less than 1 day labouring charge, and now tell me it’s not a win win ..? I had a labourer ill for a couple of days but the brickie laid nearly as many on his own with me labouring (just fetch and carry) which would have not been possible if I was having to hand mix everything. On your last point, if you have planned properly then there should never be a “construction gotcha” on a new build as you build to the plan. Get it ironed out on paper, and in writing, and then build to the spec - no exceptions. Change is your only big enemy on a build, and planning is the key to minimising change.

What load are you applying to it ..? Stud size ..?? Best tech support for this is Hilti who operate a technical line.

I use Breedon for mine - Tarmac do one too as do others. Tubs can be heavy and you need decent access for the wagon as it side loads the tubs or is like an oversize concrete mixer. https://www.breedongroup.com/products/ready-mixed-concrete/breedon-mortar

It’s down to experience as I’m not sure there is any practical way of measuring that in the field as it would require measurement of a state of change in a built wall..! Most brickies know when mortar is too wet or too dry, and when bricks need a wet or perhaps the mortar needs more liquid but it is down to experience and the mortar mix used. I’ve now got to the point of not allowing onsite mixing of mortar unless it’s for very small jobs and we use ready mix as I get a guarantee on consistency and mix. It’s also cleaner on site and - being considerate to neighbours - it’s also quieter than having a mixer running all day. Cost wise it is around 10% more than dry mixed including labour, but if you have to pay for mixer hire and fuel etc then it becomes about equal which for a standard product with less waste and mess it’s a significant saving in my book. I also think laying rates are better with ready mix as the labourer is only loading out so I’ve got no waiting for the mixer.

Plaster or board and plaster..? Plastering direct needs the "fluffy" tape that has the fibre backing. For boards we have just bonded the boards in the reveals to to the exposed inner block and screwed to the cavity closer with DryFix FR behind the boards and they are solid.

Gerband sticks to anything ... brick, block, timber, uPVC, EPS, fingers, hair.... I really rated it - used the split stuff for the windows and tbh you can’t get it off now ..!

What tape did you order..?? I had 10 rolls of tape at around 100mm or so and it was £12 delivery. Still the cheapest by a long way.