Gus Potter

What is at the back of the house? Is there another easy way of achieving the access requirements?

I find this kind of feedback / comment really disappointing as an SE /. designer. It's embarrasing to read these kind of comments from the public and folk on BH. At the end of the day myself and others are providing a service, yes we are good at maths, detailing Architectural things, being creative but that does not make us special! I've been in the construction industry for over 40 years, run, most of the time my own business, larger and now smaller. If someone asks me what is the secret to good business I would say.. communication with your customers. It's no big secret! One facet in the self build or extending market. Engage with your Client's.. listen to what they want and use you expert knowledge to guide them on their path, but make sure they don't lose their shirt on the way! Then quietly go about your technical design, tell your Client what you are doing and why, encourage them to get into the "bit behind the curtain" stuff. This is very important as an informed Client leads to the best relationships, it builds trust which we later need when the building work gets under way.

Is what you are doing subject to building regs? If so have you checked you are compliant? The thing I wonder is if you have the maneuvering space: A distinct area for moving around must be provided. Best to find out now! Nice looking kitchen but I can see it's fraught with problems, the galley is too tight for two folk. "Wheel chair access is restricted.. BC issues as per the activity space. Check with BC before you go any further!

Seriuosly. I know @saveasteading and he has really done tens of thousands of column bases and has vast expecrience. To delve a little deeper into grouts, but not too far! Traditionally, before these "non shrink" grouts came into being we used to ram in a dry mix of 3 part sand and to 1 cement mix. This would be done with a stick and hammer. Now that takes time and skill to get it right. This skill is now lost mostly in the building trade. But what is a dry mix? Well, you take 1 part cement and 3 parts sand and put just enough water in it so it just makes a ball in your hand and no more. The reduced water content stops is shrinking too much. You'll often see on Architects and SE spec this for packing over lintels and steel beams. A Sika or similar non shrink grout has a chemical in it that expands a bit so it makes it non shrink. You can achieve the same effect pretty much doing the old way.. but the labour cost is less, the material cost more.

Your starting point here is to look at the building regs in terms of kitchen activity spaces. Some regs seem nuts but the activity spaces are really well thought out. I've designed loads of stuff like this and they are a great guide. If you can mark things out with tape on the floor. Be aware.. kitchen designers are not always familiar with the building regs.

Very good point. An SE's job is also to specify things that can be practically built! Fixings into existing masonry need to be detailed so as to maintain edge distances for example. That is the Se's job! There is an SE duty of care to make sure you are not specifying steel to masonry connections for example that will not incurr excessive cost to the Client. If so you should highlight this, to not do so risks folk cutting corners. This is an expected skill of an SE. There is a duty of care by the SE to make reasonable enquiry as to the expected competancy and extent of say a local builders expected knowledge. This enquiry, if not made, is a breach of the regulations and the SE regulations. The SE has an over arching responsibility to review the project, make reasonable enquiry as to who may be involved in the construction and make sure they design accordingly. They must make the Client aware if there is something in their design that is "bespoke" or requires say a level of specialist work. They need to buck up, smell the coffee and provide the information you require to execute the poroject safely. I say that as an SE myself.

Ok. A few points. You'll see lots of stuff on BH that looks easy until you try and meet all your requirements. Below is a bespoke detail of mine, your detail is more simple on the face of it and I can see you are asking why there is so much timber. I have posted this to let folk see how hard and how much thought and experience you need to have to navigate your way round this and then produce something that is buildable. The screen shot is just that, the drawings are more defined and the colour easier to understand. The key points for you are that I'm using the top sheet and bottom of OSB to cantilever out to support the roof edge. I can prove this works as an SE. But you have to cut your Architect a bit of slack as they can't really be expected to know that you can cantilever OSB for example. I do this stuff a lot and work with informed Clients such as youself. Often we disagree at the outset, then we work our way towards a solution. Disagreement is healthy if managed. You have had a hard time with your roof, I've seen a lot of your posts and know it's not been fun for you. But the Architect in the round should have been more proactive, lifted the phone.. and you could have talked through the detailing and design difficulties. A site visit would have helped? As an aside it astounds me how many folk under the age of say 40 are so poor at communicating, this is prevalent in the SE and Architect profession. Anyway. @Mulberry View keep your head up. At the end of the day you are a domestic Client. If your Architect has not kept you informed and excercised reasonable skill and care then you have a good case not to make any payment to them. I do a lot of bespoke design. That means that lot's of stuff I do I've not done before. I use first principle design, that applies to SE stuff and also Architectural detailing. Now it looks you are going to have to have another go at this? I would try and see if you can mend the bridges with your Architect. If that fails then at least you can show you have made every attempt to resovle the issues you have. This is the thing I love about BH is that folk are innovating and I love chipping in to make it work technically at sensible cost. I hope someone can get something out of my detail that they can use / adapt.

I've certainly "stimulated you" You seem to struggle with the macro politics of all of this.

Good photo. The localised wind vortices at the ridge and just behind the cylindrical flue pipe are going to be brutal. I would look to see if the water is getting forced up under the ridge and it's nothing to do with the mastic.

I grew up in Africa, travelled widely in the middle east, probably long before you were born. Of course it's not a compliment! Grow up and read more widely. If you do it will add weight to comments you make.

What depth are your house foundations sitting at? You don't want to compromise them if you essentially undermine them?

There was a recent article in the IStructE magazine just about this and promoting the use of C16 timber. It's pretty well available in Scotland (in EU metric sizes, CLS Canadian lumber standards are slightly diferent in dimensions for example) and for years I've used it where I can. The U value regs in Scotalnd quite often drive the timber external wall stud thickness on a basic timber frame house, call that a major developer type house. You can use C16 at a deeper depth so you can fit a decent thickness of insulation between the studs. The deeper stud in C16 still delivers the strength and deflection limits you need. The problem can be that C16 significantly reduces timber connection performance one you get into transfer beams and anything (say goal posts around openings) that needs to resist sideways wind loading. There is a practical side to this. What you don't want to happen is that the builder mixes up the timber grades on site. When I'm designing I try and make sure that the deep timbers are C24 if I have to use that grade, the shallower ones C16. You never mix grades of timber of the same size. The same applies to steel buildings in terms of bolt grades., you make sure it's not possible to fit the wrong grade of bolt into same sized holes. You can't make it totally idiot proof as a designer but you can try your best.

The practical reasoning behinds this is that shower area in dormers are a big source of water gas. You have to execute the work "perfectly" and it takes a lot of time to design and detail stuff like this. Few are willing to pay a designer to get it right. BC and I know that few builders do this properly, hence my caution. But if you are doing it yourself, are confident, dilligent in your workmanship and understand the theory, marry that up with your particular house (it needs to be detailed specifically, not generically) then it's doable.

It may be that the percentage of Olivine in good Scottish Bassalt is around 5%. Us up in Scotland would welcome the investment. But we might get a bit naffed off if you destroy the environment and wreak our tourist industry.

Fixing insulated platerboard directly to stone walls is likely to give you a pile of problems further down the line. Fixing to concrete blocks has similar risks. Best thing you can do it to post more info. Just draw a sketch on A4 paper, photograph it and post. You won't get tested on your drawing skills.