NewToAllOfThis

Looking for a DeWalt Nail gun and found the cheapest supplier is Powertoolmate, some of the kits are around £50-£60 lower price than other suppliers so wondering why Any recommendations as to best place to buy DeWalt tools please

Thanks for the advise, ours will be Horizontal cladding, what size nails did you use. Also what size battening did you use, timber frame company has put 50mm x 50mm wood around the window and door openings as they said this is the fire barrier and has to be 50mm to meet building regs, is this correct as I have one small windows along one 14 metre run and no windows along the other side 14 metre run and was looking at using 25mm deep battening ? While I'm on about cladding, as it will be 3 boards per run, should I align the joints and maybe place strips of trim along the vertical to cover the joins or stagger the joins, what is the chance that the joins will not show either immediately or over time as the cladding moves over time.

Not a Forgery, but what have people done when they got a part refund for returning items, how did you show that !!!

Have around 1000 linear metres of T&G wood cladding to fix to external of the building so have been looking at nail guns. It seems that the best way to fix is to go into the tongue at an angle, where the problem starts is that some say first fix and others say second fix gun, both advise not to use one or the other type. Then I saw an article advising not to go through the tongue and to nail through the face. The wood will be painted so if nailed through the face of the cladding, would each nail hole need to be filled prior to painting. So is it a first or second fix gun, hopefully not by hand as I can imagine 1000 linear metres is a big task with a hammer.

Hi All, All the invoices I have received from Jewsons has the word COPY printed diagonally 6 times across each page of the invoice. Has anyone else had Copy printed on invoices and have been paid or queried when claiming the VAT back.

Hi All, Hopefully under the correct category, looking for views as to if breaks should be paid for if plumber is working on an hourly rate. He is charging £22.00 an hour and has charged for 8 hours a day so is charging £176.00 per day. He starts at 08:00 and has a 30 minute break around 10:30, lunch is an hour between 13:00 -14:00 and finish time varies between 15:45 and 16:00 So how many hours should I be paying him for. So what do you think

I've had two quotes so far for 6 metres across private road, dig approx 1 metre deep. £6k and £7k, how can they demand such amount. It seems an activity to almost print money. I thought it would be a £3k job with plenty of profit to go around.

Hi, I have a steel ring beam 203mm x 203mm x 46kg, I need to drill through the steel which is 11mm thick. The holes need to be 20 mm in diameter The problem is that it is very awkward to get to where the holes need to be drilled and a Mag Drill will not get it the correct position for the holes Has anyone used a standard or heavy duty drill to achieve something similar, if so what drill did you use and what drill bits were used. Thanks in advance Colin

Thanks to everyone who has commented. I have discovered that the builders have numerous roof rafters left over, bit worried that they have not put all required in the roof !! So I might try and build my own stairs, the video above method looks very robust. I also have some 22mm chipboard flooring left, would this be strong enough for the treads if they were around 850mm wide.

Hi All, Looking for temporary set of stairs, seen some on ebay but all need collecting and they are too long as a single staircase. Wondering if I cut them in half and then join them either with long strips of wood or metal plates. Is it a silly idea or has anyone else taken this approach.

Just had quote for Electric from UK power Networks £1425, they supply 13 metres of 32mm ducting and single phase cable, we dig the hole and lay the ducting (cable was £13 per metre). Gas, £492, this is a subsidised price, not sure why this is but trying to get this completed ASAP before subsidy is removed as this is obviously not a GREEN approach. 3 metres dig by Cadent, 8 metres by us and supply of 11 metres of 32mm pipe . Still waiting for Water and sewage costs.

We had a few quotes and ignoring the silly ones, one was £16000, for 21 piles at 11metres was £9500 for 6 metres it would have been £7600 so the prices you got look really good. We then had 203mm x 203mm x 46kg 75 metres galvanised steels £8300, labour, fixings, machinery hire, delivery etc was £3300, probably not cheapest but very local so they were very flexible. Beam and block was the best deal, 72 metres of Beam and Block, fully fitted, took 3 people 3 hours, faster than Usain Bolt, £1600 material, £900 labour, provided by FloorSpan, brilliant company.

Has anyone tried to bend plastic pipe with tight 90 degree angles with successful results, what is the tightest achieved and best way of achieving it and tools / method used

Looking at 160 - 170mm of insulation to put on top of Beam and Block and then finishing with 55 - 65mm of Screed, no underfloor heating. The SAP has quoted 0.022 W/m2K Looking for best value for money manufacturer / Supplier I see there are Foil or non Foil coverings, what is the rule / benefits of each What is the view of using seconds, does Building control usually visit between laying the insulation and having the Screed laid as looking at secondsandco.co.uk they state that insulation thickness can vary by 10mm. Also, are seconds acceptable on new builds, will there be any problems meeting building regs.

This is the problem, BC are not accepting fireproof board, currently looking at Multipro-XS. As from the replies here, there does seem to be various understanding of what the building regulations actually require and is the interpretation of the building regs by the BCO being applied correctly? One dominant question is: Can PIR board be used close to a boundary? Is there any make-up of a timber frame with PIR that would meet building regs without using a brick outer skin.

Thanks for the reply, we have found it impossible to get a straight answer from BC, they hide behind 'we can not design the solution', all we get is a constant this is not acceptable, no pointers as to the exact problem besides no test certificate exists for overall solution. Is this 1 metre boundary an exact measurement rule, we are 1.06 metres away from the boundary,? It is being assumed that it is the PIR in the timber frame and possibly on the inside of the frame that is the problem. MultiPro XS is being used in place of OSB on the outside. The BC wants a certificate showing a test being completed on the overall wall make-up from the outside and no one can find a test being done. There is one from the inside using plasterboard and this passes the fire test, common logic would therefore say the outside fireboard would perform better, but where is common sense these days. It is not clear why this test is needed, if the outer skin, MultiPro XS has 120 minute protection so I assume it meets the requirement then why does it matter about the PIR enclosed in this board? We can not replace the outer skin with brick, it has to be at present wood cladding, cement board cladding is not acceptable, we might be able to replace the wood cladding with render board, it would mean another planning application but even then no clue as to if this would solve the problem, but I assume not as the wood cladding if treated doesn't seem to be a problem. Is the building inspector correct or is he making a mistake as to what information and tests are required.

The PIR is in the timber frame and on the inside, external is wood cladding planning restriction. Looking at alternatives now as the PIR is just not going to be acceptable. Was interested as to if I have to pay again and start the whole process again.

The main outstanding is the use of PIR near a boundary, timber supplier has been trying to resolve but building control have been less than helpful

We have just had our Building regs rejected as we were unable to resolve all the actions raised within 2 months. So what happens next, have I lost my £720 that I have paid and do I need to start again. As they have been rejected, can I start again with a private company rather than the local district council

Hi All, Thank you for the replies, we are still having problems, Kingspan have not been able to supply the required documents that building control have requested as they say they do not exist. I am still wondering if there is mis-understanding between all parties as building control still don't seem to want to identify the individual problem and just rejecting information provided. Has anyone else built their property at 1 metre of closer to their boundary and not used brick as the outer skin and PIR rather than rockwool as an insulator. Although as said BCO isn't saying exactly what is wrong it does seem to be that PIR is not an A1 rated fire restistant material and even though the Multi-Pro XS is A1 rated and can withstand 60 minute fire test, this is not meeting building regs part B3 and B4. If we have to use rockwool then we will not be able to achieve a reasonable U value as the house is narrow and will make the rooms a lot smaller. Any ideas or solutions appreciated

We have steel ring beam sitting on piles, the top of the steel beam is around 600mm above ground level, we are having a Beam and Block floor, do we need a DPC to be laid on the steel beam for the Beam and Block to sit on.

Thanks for the replies, yes we are close to boundary so need a fire proof board. The contractor can supply BBA certs for the multi-pro and the kingspan insulation but BCO is requesting a combined test. I did ask if there was OSB in between the fireboard and insulation and both had been approved with OSB but not overall would this pass and although I didn't understand 100% what he said it did seem that this would be acceptable. Although I can not find tests of kingspan insulation or a fireboard product with OSB. How is this solvable

We have run into a problem with the BCO saying that he needs an overall test certificate for insulation and fireboard. We are having a timber frame, Kingspan insulation and using Multipro ProXS directly next to the insulation rather than OSB then Multi-Pro, the outside will be wood cladding. The building Inspector is asking for a certificate that proves that placing the Multi Pro next to the insulation has been tested for fire regulations. Has anyone else run into this situation and how have they resolved it. I just can't imagine that products are all tested together as the number of combinations would be massive. What happens if someone is installing their own insulation and fireboard with a stick build solution, how would they ever have it tested. Does anyone have a list of what insulation has been tested with what fireboard ? A few other sticking points to resolve but this is one that could put the whole project on hold.

We are building timber frame with wood cladding, the BCO has asked for all firestops to be shown on the drawings, is this normal or would they just come out and inspect the work once done ?

Thank you everyone for all your time and input, ordered some samples from SSQ and Cupa range