Gone West

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.

I'm sorry to hear your application was refused. The planning morons who tried to stop our build used similar words and phrases, planners have a limited vocabulary. We changed from a gabled roof to a half hip to try to placate them. Good luck and don't let the buggers grind you down.

We have an Isoquick insulated slab which has 300mm Peripor under the 200mm thick concrete slab and a peripor upstand which is 200mm thick.

I installed a WPL Diamond DMS2 electrically aerated system nearly eight years ago. There wasn't room on the site for a leachfield so I installed Kingspan Klargester reed bed system. I soon found out just how fast and tall (2.5m) the reeds grow. After two years I replaced the reeds with iris plants which do the same job but are much more manageable. The reeds take a lot of maintenance as they need thinning out every couple of years.

That looks spot on. You must get some brownie points for that. Just got to do it now!

IMHO it looks odd. I think it would look better if the shower were mounted on the mitred corner as in Nick's picture. Could just be that I like everything symmetrical though.

Hi and welcome to the forum. With one build under your belt at least you have some experience and know what to expect to a degree. Good luck with the new project.

We bought a no filter Dyson just over two years ago and it has been faultless so far. We have a Vax for cleaning up in the new build which is okay.

Our triple glazed units have a ten year warranty.