Gone West

Hi Judith, welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I can't help with your question but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along soon.

Great news.

We're relying on the VAT refund to do the final finishing.

Hi VoH, welcome to the forum. If I were working in an environment with a lot of bird faeces I would definitely wear a good face mask. Some nasty diseases can be caught by breathing in the dust.

Have you looked with an endoscope to determine how large the void is? If you have been unlucky and struck a small cavity, is it possible to inject a resin into the cavity to fill it and also hold your metal stud?

This might help. http://www.pavingexpert.com/featur03.htm

I can't wait for the nice holiday!!

We bought a Natuzzi three seater recliner twelve years ago and it's still comfortable. The only gripe is that the surface of the leather is no longer smooth. The Stressless chair we bought at the same time is perfect with no wear. I think it must depend very much on the grade of leather.

I bought a Roughneck mortar gun from Wickes last summer and used it for pointing the slabs in the garden. Worked a treat, very easy to use without getting mortar on the slabs. It is important to wash it out after every three or four fills, or it will pack up.

The second picture in your first post shows the cam locks on the rear cross bar holding the cross bar tight to the side panels. In the third picture it doesn't look as though the cam locks are doing their job, it could just be the angle of the picture or smears of silicone, but it looks odd to me. Also if it's not sitting on the pipe boxing, as it should, how is it level front to back?

We used Scotts of Thrapston who designed our metal web joists. http://www.scottsofthrapston.co.uk/page.php?article=997&name

Congratulations and well done for sticking with it. We had a lot of hassle and it took a long time to get PP for a replacement dwelling. Planners seem to want to refuse unless they don't have an option.

I have a sewage treatment plant and have an external vent in the flower bed a short distance away. The vent is around 500mm above the ground and close to the tank. I have AAVs in the house and the BCO was quite happy with the arrangement.

That has been our experience as well. Our frame had been up for four years before it was plasterboarded. It was skimmed a couple of months later and we had virtually no cracks.

No need to worry, ours are hung by the top chord on a 50mm ledger plate both ends. The span is 5.9m and the chords are 122mm wide and are at just less than 400mm centres. They are tied with a 100 x 50mm strongback.

Hi Matt, welcome to the forum. Good luck with the project, sounds interesting and in a nice part of the country.

We don't have a chimney and yes the opening is for the stairwell. It does seem, for my case, that it is well (over?) engineered but it is rock solid. I can't understand why they would use only one metal strap in some places and narrow cords, but then I'm not a SE.

The joist sizes are in the second PDF file and the layout in the first PDF file.

The centres varies across the floor along with the cord width. Here's a copy of my plans, if it helps, if they are readable. Metal Web Joists Plan1.PDF Metal Web Joists Plan2.PDF

The span in my kitchen is 5.9m and there isn't any sag. I am surprised because the cords of your joists seem narrow for the span.

Our slider supplier/installers, not Internorm, were a real pain to get back for adjustments. In the end we threatened them with Trading Standards and they weren't interested, but they were registered with Checkatrade so we contacted them. They were amazingly helpful and wrote to the company telling them to sort out the problem or it would be listed on their website. It did the trick and they sorted the slider out, so no leaks and it slides smoothly. Our Internorm rear entrance door also got to the point where it was almost impossible to lock. We fitted the entrance doors ourselves so we did the adjustments ourselves using the attached document. IIRC page 55 onwards. Some Internorm door designs are much easier to adjust than others and we had to remove the door to adjust the hinges on ours which allowed the door to shut smoothly. Internorm_Adjustments.pdf

Hi Alasdair, welcome to the forum. You're right about it being a slog, but don't let it get you down. We're just finishing ours and it's taken nearly eight years, that's the result of doing most of it yourself.

We're lucky that there are three tips within a few miles of our place so we use them all to get around that problem.

I have used a water repellent on an old porous brick wall many years ago. IIRC it was silicon based and worked a treat. You could see the rain beading on it for years after. Being a repellent it allows the brickwork to breath and it stays dry.

Nothing like your scene, but this is what we gave our planners to satisfy them of what would be visible.