Jawbkk

Yes, already cut-outs. (or notches) Personally I would have done it in copper.

Thanks Nod. Even though the legal cover is included in my insurance. I have already started the process through my insurancebased on the fact that I don;t have any legal fees to pay. Afterall, this is one of those occassions where I thought I am glad I took the extra legal cover premium.

I will put some timber on the joists about 30cm long 10 cm deep approx 25mm thick. The notch will be 20mm deep and 50mm wide so as close to the pipes as possible. I mark everything so make sure I clear the notch by 15mm. At least this to ensure the screw wont be too close to the edge.

Has anyone had to use their house ensurance which includes legal cover for poor workmanship issues? I would be grateful for any feedback.....

Thanks ProDave. I cut the wood blocks as over the years, plumbers had cut the notches excessively. Fortunately a structural engineer did some calcs to confirm given the span of the beams, the meat remaining in the joist was OK. I put the blocks in to give some land for the floorboards to be screwed into. Now I can;t do that through the metal!! Was thinking of putting some wood either side of the notches so I can have something to screw into. I don;t want the floorboards to creek and have to lift them up again.

I have recently re-tiled my bathroom as part of a bathroom makeover. My first time tiling so would be grateful for some feedback.

I have recently had some plumbing work done for central heating. The pipes shown are for three radiators, 2 upstairs and one routing to a downstairs radiator. I would be grateful for any thoughts on this installation.

Our old patio doors need replacing. Is it necessary to have Building Control involved? All the windows in our property have been changed and I have never notified anyone.

Thanks Mr Punter, my suspicions obviously correct. Seems like a wasted effort decking it out when I should not have been considering any kind of access in the first place. I will remove it all. Except for the Christmas decorations that is!! And remove the soundproof boards do you think?

We have roof trusses similar I think to the 'Fink' in 3 places within the 17' space between the party wall and gable end wall. I have shown a 47 x 200 timber whish is notched into diagonals where I have shown a blue rectangle. These are pocketed into both end walls and mortared. These 'Fink' ones are doubled. All other trusses inbetween are single members and just a triangle with no intermediate diagonal supports. I decked out the loft where shown (purple) which is 40mm x 16mm thick strips running across the truss, then I put tongue and groove panelling type boards on top. I also added soundproof plasterboard and soudproof lagging. Given that I have stored quite a lot of junk / tools, books, up there, have I overloaded the allowable design limit? Each storage box is quite heavy and some are stacked on eachother. We are about to have a major clearout, plus a bedroom makeover, so thought I need to address this issue. The soundproofing never worked so would go back to the lighter weight grey boards. It is worth noting that putting the boards up was a nightmare. The beams on the truss were either a bit twisted or just not in line. In my kitchen, similar scenario but as the kitchen area is only 1.9m x 3m, I ran furring strips which I levelled / packed using a laser. I have never put boards up so easily. I want to do the same in the bedroom but don't want to risk overloading the trusses. Any suggestions?

The joist span across the whole width of the house (17' or 5.18m) with an intermediate block wall 9'' from the party wall and 8' from the gable end wall in our semi.detached property. They are pocketed into the blockwork and grouted so I guess must have done this as they were raising the house. (1970 build) Over the years, plumbers have gone overboard with notching in the 8' section from the intermediate wall to the gable wall. As we are wanting to now convert our garage, which is in-built into the property and is the 9' wide section into a room, I was for peace of mind wanting to replace the joists with new. I have read in the Buidling Regs that nowadays, casting into the wall is not encouraged as it is bad for sound transmission. In that sense, we can install hangers by grinding out the mortar and the new joist dont enter the wall at all. The joists are 400mm centres. Is this something we have to formally notify the neighbour? I have spoken to him, we have an excellent relationship and he always comes to me when he is carrying out various projects in his house. My builder has done many types of these projects before and it is for this reason I selected him.

Great reply thanks JohnMo.

Our gas meter is located in the garage and a stell pipe (about 35mm dia) comes out vertically through the garage floor. The garage is built into the property and this is the main reason for wanting information as we want to convert the garage to an additional room. Most people are doing this in the area so I guess I could check with them what they did. But assuming they have left their gas pipe where it is, how do I go about having it moved? Obviously a job I'm not about to do, but need to consider this hen drawing up the conversion plans for building regs approval. The gas pipe is approx 3.6m from the garage entrance. Is it possible to locate the gas meter outside?

Didn't get this one Joe... Are you saying it isn't worth it??

Just wondering when working out the kN/m load...... All my floorboards are up and I stand in the middle of one joist. Is that almost as good as point loading rather than distributing the 900N load over 1m joist length? If there is any weakness in the beam, then this would be the maximum load?