Gus Potter

I'll take you word for it that they turned up with some lose rebar and made it all good. That requires diagonal bars to transfer the shrinkage loads around the service penetrations and supplementary bars to compensate for the cut ones. My experience tells me other wise. I doubt this happened, forgive my old school sceptesism, rafts and so on are not my first "rodeo!"

But the photo shows you have happily cut the rebar without reinforcing not least diagonally to prevent cracking. You've dropped a bollock there!

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.

You make a strong argument at a 5:1 difference. One basic question I have at the moment is why are we in the UK trying to drive this at the expense of our economy and national security when China and the US are contributing to most of the emissions. Brits seem to have gone soft / woke.. they talk about carbon emissions, but our government are not investing in the research and building factories to make the stuff! Now to fund this we need to get rid of this woke fad. We need in my view to start drilling, exploring and selling our good sweet oil, to fund UK renewables. To make a point. The UK has never been bombed since the second world war. I was born in the 60's, my mum who is 95 remembers getting evacuated. We have been very lucky in the UK to have avoided that to date... so far. It's going to come as a major shock to the woke if Putin cuts our undersea internet cables!

I had a quick skim over, thanks for the post. To quote: "Acid can be used to leach elements like calcium out, then a chemical or energetic process precipitates that calcium as calcium hydroxide. Toss that in a kiln with additives of your choice, and with less heating than you need for limestone, you’ve got Portland cement, with only water vapor released." We are going to need a lot of acid? But what kind? Remind any of the raves for older members of BH? The music was great, some great Scottish bands like TTF came along at the end of that period just at the end of the 1980's (The time frequency). The acid (catalyst) is the key possibly, plenty Bassalt in Scotland.

Post a photo and you'll get loads of ideas.

Ok to keep the conversation light. I designed a lightweight cold formed steel building that went on top of one of the cooling ponds for the Bradwell decomissioning. You need to carry out all the due dilligence that is highly demanding in the nuclear sector. Below is a photo of the cooling ponds when they were getting built. When I went to uni at the age of 40 I worked for MacAlpine one summer so for me it's nostalgia. Check out the guys at the bottom left. When they were building this stuff they had no idea of the clean up costs. But at the time the UK needed energy. These cooling ponds are highly toxic. That said you have to be pretty miserable not to admire the skill the Engineers had, the photo is date 1959. @LnP Please forgive me if I don't take your figures at face value. I'm too old and experienced to take any figures at face value. I have been a developer, am aware of how accademia works and common funding mechanisms. On a macro level we in the UK need energy security. We are threatened by the Chinese on many fronts. Domestically our political system is changing rapidly (more polarised) , some may argue along religious lines and we have political actors who are not, let's just say "deep thinkers". As an Engineer (my primary quailification is in Civil Engineering, for the public) I tend to think strategically on a macro level. That said we can still go about our day jobs, have fun and appreciate Buildhub, even though at times we disagree. I can say that I learn loads from folk on BH. I'm not that old / entrenched that I'm not able to change my mind when folk put forward valid aguement.

Stop asking difficult questions! That's why I'm sitting on the far left trying to keep out of view while still trying to keep my job, I was still in my probationaly period at the time.

Sadly this is the case, you make a very good point. This statement in it's self demonstrates one the key aspects of competency. "only do what you do well" it shows risk awareness and competency from yourself, a key skill. This is also sadly true. The following are some of my thoughts on what you might want to ask of a builder, SE, Architect etc before entering into a contract. The easiest way is to you use myself as an example. There is a member on BH that has a large swimming pool project. Now for me there is not enough demand in Scotland say for these. Each year I have to renew my PI insurance and fill in huge amounts of questionnaires, provide financial data and so on. One of the forms is to do with swimming pools, they carry high risk for the underwriter. Swimming pools are excluded from my policy. Now if I had 10 swimming pools come along in a row then I can go back to my insurer and ask how much to bring this under cover. They are going to say.. no chance unless you can demonstrate competency. My insurer's are there to make money. But if put together a proposal to say.. well it's like a basement..(but filled with a corrosive solution, high humidity etc.. hazards abound!) here is what I'm good at.. can you cover the rest.. while I learn, as every one has to do, they would probably say Ok but it's going to cost you. That cost gets spread over the ten jobs. They would also look at my track record and say.. Gus seems to know what he is doing, has been a Client for a long time wqith n0o claims so let's take on a bit of extra risk and charge Gus accordingly. The point of the above is that unless you ask a builder, SE or Architect just what they are insured for and what the amount of cover is then if something goes wrong then what @saveasteading says.. is unfortunatley true. This is often a difficult / uncomfortable question for a Client to ask at the beginning of the project when everyone is getting along fine. I'm quite happy if a Client asks me for the details of my PI cover, exclusions and so on, transparency is healthy. What I can't do is disclose the financials (really detailed stuff) that are confidential between the insurer and my self. To do so would void the cover. In some ways yes, agree.. do not dabble, that's dangerous. That said. For me I'll often take on a design that is outwith the standard design codes. Here I go back to first principles.. that I'm competent in and build the design from there. There are lots of folk that are doing really innovative stuff on Build Hub. Often the only way to justify this is to go back to first principle design. In some ways all domestic Clients have a level of protection under the consumer protection act. There is a fundamental duty of care that applies to anyone that does work on your house or provides professional services. I think if the law as it stands was enforced properly it would discourage traders and professionals from hiding behind a limited liability company. To finish with a bit of a story. When I was a builder I had a sub contractor who was an elder in the Church of Scotland but also had made a lot of money when he was younger as an electrictian working on Gerald Ratner's shops. That was the guy that blew the buisiness when he stood up and said he had made his millions selling rubbish. From time to time he used to give me and the lads the benefit of his approach. He said "the truth will set you free". Now this is absolutely true to this day for people working in business. Being truthful will lose you some jobs.. but in the long run you'll win more, you will also win jobs even though your are not the cheepest!

Have a look here, they may have something that floats your boat. https://www.ejot.co.uk/ If not on their website use that old thing called the telephone and give them a call.

This is elegant at first glance. It might float your boat.. but I honestly despair at times. You write a lot of good stuff John but what about say a young couple that come to buy your house. Will you make them aware of any potential maintenance issues? Now you may have all your faculties at the moment and I'm sure you think this is your forever home, but when you get less "sharp" and need folk to maintain your house who may be less dilligent.. what then? I totally get that your house is your hobby.. but in my day job I need to give Clients best advice. That includes protecting their asset. I do love you technical grasp and hope you don't mind me taking a more general view.