Gus Potter

Thanks Peter.. I think you have forgotten more than I know, as have many members on BH.

Great "old school" stuff from Onoff. It's amazing what you can do with a table saw with a bit of care, often no need to spend a fortune on tools you may only use once. @ProDave.. but the job is not finished.. I'm confident that Onoff will (eventually) find the correct imperial slotted screw to fit the countersink in the hinge, installed so that the slot is vertical so that externally the water won't lie in the slot (or for an internal door prevent paint drips) .. don't take my word for it, wait until you see the finshed result..

Hello WWilts. Sorry if I laid it on a bit thick there. You could look at timber frame. Design is an iterative process.. (I paraphrase - there are a number of better qualified members than I on BH) you start by listening to a Client's requirements, understand how they want to live now and in the future. A good designer will do a bit of "gaming".. what if you have more kids, what if you need to change jobs and want work from home etc, what are your aspirations.. energy use.. ( to use a cliche). Now as a designer you have an incling as to what the "soft" requirements are. To make this work within a budget it starts under the ground. It may seem a bit odd but if you go for the simple stupid option this can really knock a lot off the builder's price as the tender field is more open for example. I often think and see that folk have spent a lot of money on structure (and associated foundations / labour cost) creating a daft open span, or just the wrong span. Get the basics nailed early then you can then use this saving to upgrade insulation etc and also spend some money on.. heating controls/ rainfall showers and so on, some Farrow and Ball paint, stuff which you get to have fun playing with and can see every day. Remember that a house is not just to keep the weather out and you warm.. there is value in being able to play with it , adjust stuff up and down. Visitors only see the finished result.. not the insulation. There is no harm in showing what you have achieved. Wilts it may take a bit of work but go back and review from the foundations up and you may get a pleasant surprise.

Consider the simple stupid. Roughly, as a ball park the labour cost on a new build is about a third for standard stuff, on a small extension this can easily touch 50%. (see R_Sole etc for good info) Some BH members are "in the trade" and can get a good discount and avoid the uplift due to complexity. But if you are starting out then maybe you want to make it easy to build. More local builders will be interested in pricing if it looks simple and they feel they can make a profit with less risk. The less risk they perceive the lower your price will often be. See what prices you get back with simple construction (avoid thin joints) then compare this with making it more complex.. remember that often you are working on a small scale unless you are a very wealthy Client. It's hard to do but you need to look at this in the round.. all the folk on your team should be pulling together. One big problem is that you often can't get a builder to price realistically without a descent spec.. it's catch 22. But starting with a simple spec can be attractive for a builder.. and once they are interested you can explore the cost of upping the spec. Good experienced designers will cost more but you get what you pay for and the really good ones will invest in you and give more than they take.. provided you pay their bill on time. To get the higher strength in a block you need more conductive material (density), less air.. air can't transmit load in this context. The thin joints offset this but you reduce your options regarding the builders who want to take the job on as they have to be much more accurate and this take time = extra cost. For me I would start with basic construction.. see how much that costs. Then you can start adding on the extra bells and whistles that appeal to you, energy saving etc, fire risk and so on. @Jason L"sorry, I'm just high jacking the tread for my house, i have a design SAP rating of A 93, with MVHR and i will try and make it super air tight, do you think I'm not going to need any heating on the first floor and in the attic bedroom, just towel rails in the shower rooms" Jason , it may be worthwhile having a chat with your designer about how the building is prevented from moving from left to right say (on the drawings) when the wind blows. You don't have too much on the ground floor to achieve structural stability by the looks of things. It may be a good idea to make sure you have a good handle on how the structure will work, then you can plan the services. If you don't do it this way then the saving on energy performance you think you make make may not be realised as you could end up with beams etc in the way of your ducts... sounds painful

Onoff. Have you been playing with a biscuit jointer? Can almost see a wee scuff with the plane along the top on the end grain too! Built to last that gate. Oh, and is that a proper brass hinge at the bottom?

Is this an elephant in the room for basements with a high water table? If you stop for lunch, or the concrete wagon is delayed on a hot day and you have some interruption in the pour where you have say no water bar what are the solutions? or do you just hope for the best even though you suspect that your waterproof concrete has a potential weak spot in it.. loss of aggregate interlock? A point?.. you have "insurance, warranties etc" but if it goes wrong you can spend a lot of your life sorting it out, paying for professional advice etc. One idea of self building is to have something that no one else has and be able to enjoy it to the full.

Hi Steve. This is a bit of a puzzle as there is not much info, but enough to spark a bit of geeky interest! Based on what you have posted so far re section size, forces and so on I can sort of see how something like this may work with the wind bracing and so on, but you are going to need a good bit of space to form some of the (assuming bolted) connections, you need to look carefully; if there are window details, a limit on the floor depth and so on. This could be a problem? What you have posted so far looks like the maximum forces and maybe the fabricator needs more info. Take column 2 supporting beams 2 & 3. Simplistically these beams have a bending force at the ends.. the moments - kNm. Beam 2 moment loads the column about it's "strong axis" and beam 3 loads the column about it's weaker axis. If you combine these forces with the torsional moment plus the vertical load (V) then the column strength capacity looks debatable to say the least. What the SE may have done is to model beam 3 with a pinned connection at column 2 so it does not transfer a moment (axial load ~V) but at the other end (at column 3) modelled a fixed connection and provided this set of more onerous forces rather than the different forces at each end. This may partly explain the fabricator's response. The connection at column 2 in particular is relatively complex and will take a good bit of thought to account for all the combinations of forces. Looking at this I think it's likely more than a ten minute job to design a connection that will be as small as you can get it and thus maybe fit in to the space you have available? You could end up with some pretty big bolts, thick end plates on the box section, stiffeners etc, nearly get it to work then find you have a bolt clash or the sequencing of the works stuffs you in terms of the order you connect in the various beams. This could be a communication issue but I would just ask the SE roughly what sort of connection and size and form they have in mind. Also ask if they can do the heavily loaded connections with "ordinary" bolts which a local builder can manage ok. Or does the SE think some kind of tension control (HSFG) bolt may be required which requires more specialist knowledge and tools to install. Make it too complex and most small builders will back off or add a lot to the price. I dabble a bit with connection design so would be interested to see the solution and how it all fits with your structure.

Unfortunately all may be not well from the one photo posted. At first floor level (the photo?) there is no bracing / lateral restraint to prevent rotation of the needles (RSJs) on plan. What is going on at the ground floor. The needles under the windows are only holding up a few course, the props may lift the masonry here. A lot of load could be coming down that masonry pier between the two windows so all the roof load (depending on span direction) could be on the props here and they could easily be very overloaded, buckle and collapse. The tops of the needles have not been dry packed / packed by the looks of things. When you take the wall down you may get some local crushing of the brick.. movement. Also, the props holding up the pier may not be able to carry the load, especially if they are not braced and footed properly at ground floor level. I would strongly recommend that before you progress with taking down the wall you get an SE to have a look at this.

Hello RachelG Build Hub is a mine of info. It may take a leap of faith but the more info you provide the better quality response, tips and advice you will get. I have found you can always learn something new here. All the best with the renovation.

For the splay detail it's worth making sure your tile battens don't have to span too far so a nogging can take the bounce out. Also, if you are up on the roof giving the window a deep clean say then you don't want to damage the flashing if you step too near. For wider windows then the nogging has to be increased in size. This is a part detail but this mono pitch roof has timber sarking boards, counter batten, batten and breathable membrane. The fillet at ceiling level gives you a wider target for fixing the insulated plaster board at the bottom of the splay and you can maintain the minimum edge distance for the plasterboard fixings.

Good points from all. It's worth asking the question whether the connection design is included or not. For domestic applications don't forget that although the beam sizes may be fairly small, the connections are also small so you can develop pretty high stress etc in these. Typically stress is calculated by Force / Area ... so small force / small area leads to the same/ similar stress concentration as ~ Big force / Big area. A good number of frame analyses packages (this is a bit of software that allows you to join all the beams etc together and quickly calculate the forces / deflection etc ) have a bolt on connection design module. This module allows you to design the connections and export the connection detail to another cad package or just print it out along with the calculations. The main thing is you need to know enough / have experience to make sure that what the software is printing out is not rubbish! A good thing here is that you can play about and tweek a connection to say fit in with the Architectural detail, or you may be forming a big slapping in a wall for a set of bifolds. Here you may have some torsional forces (twisting) in a connection which you can't avoid and the look up tables don't work for this. The software does the donkey work and you can then modify the calculations to suit. I find that there are a good few fabricators, partcularly smaller ones who don't have their own in house SE's (or are just too busy) to spend time connection designing on a small job. If you can hand it to them on a plate where they can just pass it to the shop floor you can make savings that offset (sometimes more) the extra SE cost. For domestic stuff a local SE will say know the local fabricators, how they like to work and play to their strengths and this can bring the cost in the round down. For the unwary.. connections don't always play fair! For example you may think that if you have a detail that shows a 8mm thick plate and you swap this for a 20mm thick plate (thinking it must be better) you have lying about this can suddenly make the connection much stiffer as the 20mm plate is less flexible than the 8mm plate, now you can overstress the welds and welds are often not as ductile (stretchy) as say the steel in the beam.. so you can get a sudden failure. An easy way of looking at this is if you take a ruler and support each end on a small bit of copper pipe, load it in the middle, the ruler bends and the ends rotate on the pipe, call this a pinned connection. All the pipe needs to do is carry half the vertical load you apply to the ruler. Now if you fix each end of the ruler to the pipe (which could actually be a column) it will bend less in the middle but this fixity at then ends introduces a "rotational" force called a moment as well. Now you have a moment connection. Here the top surface of the ruler is in tension, the bottom in compression. You can now see that the end connection has to deal with an extra force that can be quite substancial. On a lastish point, I have found that the easier you make it for a small builder fabricator on particularly domestic work the better in terms of cost. Yes, the SE may be a bit more expensive but the savings can be substancial. I always like to see the options explained in terms of the brief and this allows for an informed decision.

Hope it helped, although some of it was not specific to you. The main thing here is to keep talking to the SE. There may be an oversight in how the brief has been communicated to you and how you have interpreted it. Some fabricators can be a bit forthwrite too! It may be that a bit of give and take with the SE it will smooth the way. @SteveMack"Also, I wouldn’t mind if it was some simple connections I’d have a go as you suggest but they are all moment connections and 2 involve a 6m 305x305x198 uc connecting to a 400mm deep RHS which is holding up 80% of the gable end of the house. " I'm curious looking at the section sizes as to what you are doing. How all this is connected into the rest of the structure and given the sizes there may be some high loads, more likely you have some kind of sway resistant frame, I'm guessing though. The UC sections you have look huge for a domestic project unless you have a very big house. The SE may be using these sizes to reduce sway and have designed it as a portal frame with a pinned base connection. But, you can also do these as a box frame with side / top plates and this can reduce the weight of steel and spead the loads more evenly over the founds, more mangeable on site and much easier to drill etc to enable connection to the surrounding structure, thus less labour cost, more opportunity to use standard fixings, straps etc, make onsite adjustments when setting out errors occur, for example.. The SE should have provided clear detail showing how the frame is to be connected to the rest of the structure as this is also a safety critical aspect. The stability system is not something that fabricators generally touch. If this is not clear how the stability and restraint system works.. with all restraint fixings specified / detailed in such a way that it is applicable to your project then it's worth querying. If this detail is not robust then the SE may review and you may find that the issue you have resolves it's self. Just as an aside a 305 x 305 x 198 has a 31.4mm thick flange and a 19.1mm thick web. Consider how you can fix a brick tie say to something that thick, site drill it if you are the joiner with a battery drill and find say that the setting out is a bit off? Hope you can make some progess Steve, the builders may have some good ideas.

Subtle Onoff. I would say port of the left (port side) where the hot should be, white on the right and go a mid postition ( Honeywell) valve for roseeeeeee

All the best Guy. Post some drawings, any info you have on ground conditions and so on and you'll get a few good tips on BH to mull over.

Hope this extra info helps. On larger jobs the SE will often contract to produce the steel schemework / call this a general arrangement. They calculate the various forces, size the members and provide drawings that show the beam/ columns, their sizes, grades etc and finish, paint or otherwise. They also provide a list or show the forces @SteveMackon the connections and what type of connection is required, "simple", "moment".. "wind moment connection"... there are others too. This allows each fabricator who is tendering to design the connection that is most economic for them to produce. The connection design is often passed back the SE to ensure that it meets say the overall stability requirements of the structure. What is advisable to do if you are an SE is to make sure that the fabricator can actually design and practically fabricate the connection as if not it can be embarrassing. The SE may just rough something out or take an educated guess and make some notes which you may not see. The key here is that you (SE) need to make this clear to the Client in your letter of engagement / brief that this is what you only are providing. This is particularly important when dealing with less experienced Clients. Fabricators come in all shapes and sizes. Some have their own in house structural designers, some don't. It's quite common that the fabricator will come back to the SE and ask "can you do the connection design" and we will pay you for it as part of our package. We sometimes call this getting novated to the contractor. Essentially, you go and work for the contractor for a while. There are pro's and cons to this. There can be quite a lot of work in designing well balanced and cost effective connections. Once you have done this there can be significant amount more work to be done if you then go on to produce the fabrication drawings that go to the shop floor. Often for example each component plate / beam has its own drawing often called a shaft and plate drawing. You then have what are called assembly drawings. If you have a beam with a plate welded to each end this is an "assembly". All the assemblies are then bolted together to form the frame and you have GA (general arrangement) drawings for this. On bigger jobs and even small ones that big fabricators slip in as filler jobs you may also give them what is called an NC file, (numerical control file) this is actually a normal text file .txt that they can plug pretty much into their drilling and cutting line and so on. But the approach I favour for small domestic works, say knocking down a wall with a beam and columns is to produce all the steel info that a small builder needs to price (tender) easily. They can see what they need to do and not have to worry too much other than check the site dimensions once things are opened up.. before fabrication. You may think this can delay the job but what you do is to book your production slot at the chosen fabricator and thus can deal with last minute minor changes, say a few mm in beam length etc. The steel info is wrapped up in a package, zipped up in a zip file and all they need to do is send the zip file to the fabricators for pricing etc. Below is a GA for a small job.. knocking down a wall with a wind post. Important notes are added so they don't get missed. I have screen shotted parts of the drawing. The fabrication package for this beam and column contains 8 drawings. Often the smaller fabricators buy in the plates / shafts so if you make it easy for them the price comes down and this offsets the SE cost. All they need to do here is send the plate drawings to the plate supplier, shaft to another, get the components in, weld them up and paint or send to galvaniser. Here is part of the assembly drawing for the column And here is part of a plate drawing. The title boxes and a little info has been removed to try and avoid identification and so on.

Thanks Tony and Peter for your help, much appreciated. I was asking as I want to fix a wind post to the aerated block type in the photo with undercut resin anchors to replace an internal racking wall that is coming down. For all. A good few blocks, Thermalite etc have different scratch markings / scratch pattern on them so you can identify the unit strength. H + H Celcon are painted on the end but for a wall that is up already and you only have a photo to work with.. Was struggling to match these ones so was having to base the anchor design on 2.9 N/mm^2 rather than on a higher value.

Hello all. I'm trying to identify the type of aerated block in the photo. Sorry about the quality but it is all I have to work with. Apparently it was taken during the original construction. My best guess so far is that it is a Tarmac DUROX Supa block. Block size is 600 long x 215 high x 100mm thick. The scratch pattern is horizontal. House built 2007 - 2008 South side of Glasgow. Brick outer leaf, aerated concrete block on the inner.

Although I have made the odd very small rebar cage, bent bars myself on site there are quite a lot of odds and sods to take account of. There is plenty info on the net and you should if in any doubt check with say your SE. You can find what is called the minimum bend radius and rebar suppliers web pages... BS8666 Shape Codes etc. Rebar is elastic up to a point. Over stretch it (make the bend too tight say) and this is compromised. If you take a paper clip and bend it a few times you can soon see what may happen to your bar. Also, if you bend the bar more than once (get it wrong) this reduces the ductility which is very important. It's not a good idea to use a bit of tube to bend the bar as this can notch the bar and / or introduce really high zones of stress in the bar. You can get a hand held bender for not too much (second hand also) that will do for small diameter bars. Sometimes say in renovation when time is short and you don't know the actual sizes until say you open something up then this can avoid a delay.. but make sure that say the SE is happy with this approach.

I would excercise caution here. The chimney breast may be contributing towards stiffening a wall. If you take a chunk out of it will that have a consequence? The fixing of a gallows bracket to the wall is one of the most important things. Ask the builder what brackets they think will be appropriate. Go on the net and look carefully at the manufacture's installation instructions.. the wall/ brick type and exactly where and how the fixings have to be installed so they can carry the weight. Often you'll see that the fixings have to be positioned near the centre of the bricks ect and carefully installed, you are not putting up a shelf for books.. there is a bit to it if you want to be sure all is ok. Urchin.. you may actually find that there is a different way.. cheeper and more cost effective too. Post some photos, diagrams etc and you'll get help here on BH. @tonyshouse "have seen lots corbelled , no steel, no gallows bracket and no wood, no falling down. the prof of structural engineering at Cambridge University told me once that if a masonry structure can stand for 5 mins ti will stand forever BUilding Inspectors like belt and braces as no liability on them and they don’t have to pay for it. " There is a saying that a building will only fall down when it has exhausted all other means of support..wind etc . However, we are afflicted with more common shoddy workmanship. Sometimes for small works you really need to consider the fact that workmanship standards often drop and design for this.

Hi all. This a massive can of worms and much is to do with a lack of design coordination. For all.. a rough overview. For the last few decades once we started using lighter roofs on masonry cavity wall construction (trussed rafters as opposed to heavy cut timber roofs) we found that the roofs got sucked off. We then started to fix a metal straps to connect the roof to the heavy cavity wall to hold it down. Moving on to timber frame / SIPS. At ground floor it was recognised that when you have a timber kit (include SIPS) that under more extreme wind uplift the wind could lift the TF and the roof so we had straps at the bottom. The straps are usually turned into the outer leaf of masonry and this held the whole lot down. However, that is only part of the story. Now we have this desire to have large openings/ glazing. When the wind blows it wants to tip the building sideways so we need to prevent this. Previously we had a heavy masonry wall / smaller openings. For the building to move sideways the wind etc had to overturn the portions of walls, but the mass of the walls and the shear strength of the mortar resisted this. Now we know that a SIPS panel can carry vertical load. If you stand a SIPS panel up and push it from the top end along it's length .. it's intuitive that it is not going to move much.. call this inplane stiffness. When you have for example panels that are higher than their length, at ground floor the wind can generate significant uplift forces at the bottom corner of the panel. You fix a strap to the panel.. and you can calculate the number of nails etc that are required here to resist this force. But the strap needs to be anchored at the other (bottom) end.. and rawl plugs and a few screws won't often cut the mustard by a very long way... to the extent that you have an unsafe structure. If you have SIPS (which are a fancy version of a traditional kit panel) then if you have a masonry outer leaf you are back to roughly traditional kit design. But if you don't have a masonry outer leaf to ballast (if you have a big set of bifolds this ballast is not there) this you have to find another solution to address the overturning of the SIPS panels. One way is if you have a steel frame that is designed to account for uplift... If you don't have a heavy outer leaf of masonry / other frame then you need to find something that is, or connect the straps to the foundation / your ICF raft for example. The other BIG problem is that you need to make it buildable, practical for a ground workers to set out, (difficult for concrete workers if you have steel projecting when they are concreting the slab.. if you want this you will pay a premium) if not they will often avoid your job like the plague or bung on a big sum. The point of this post is to highlight the following: @SuperJohnG " Tanners came back to me today but said its uo to the superstructure engineer. " To address this issue of the interface between the superstructure and the underbuilding requires a lot of thought and associated design cost, detailing and communication between the different designers. But the super structure Engineer can't do their job unless the foundation Engineer has made suitable provision for connection of the superstructure to the foundation.. it gets even more complex folks when you have basements with ICF, tanking, cold bridge mitigation etc In summary while it seems to be attractive to shop about and try and get the lowest price for each part of the design package it's actually very often false economy.. and be unsafe. Why not find someone that can do the lot, coordinate all of it, while making it buildable. I think some members of BH have chosen this route. I appreciate that ICF / SIPS and so on are a hot topics on BH but these developments require some complex detailing to make sure that the building is still safe while maintaining the insulation envelope. One could be cynical and suggest that it's not in the interests of the material supplies ect to point out the additional design coordination element (and associated fee plus contractor cost element) required to achieve a coordinated, buildable in cost terms, safe design. By way of encouragement. Structurally, sitting a house on thick insulation is not new. Cold store designers have been doing this for years, as have say the Canadians. But the devil is in the detailing to address cold bridging, tying a SIPS panel to the found / basement etc. In Super Johns case, if there is no heavy outer leaf of masonry there may be a solution where you can use the floating floor slab to provide the ballast, although this requires detailed analysis and maybe a change in thickness of the reinforcing and the depth of it within the slab. Another may be to design some thicker straps and connect them to the foundations with expanding anchors perhaps. If you encounter this type of problem then it may only require to be done locally. Much will depend on the panel layout, how the stability is achieved and the local panel uplift forces that occur due to the overturning effect.

Hello @834843 " "Hi folks, I'm in the process of buying a first floor flat in SW London. It's a Victorian end-of-terrace house, about 950 sq ft, and it needs complete renovation..." To all.. a few general points when thinking about altering flats. The top floor flat can be less problematic to convert from a structural point of view. Tenement flats or similar can be tricky, as are blocks of three storeys and more. Some blocks have a shop on the ground floor that has been opened up to form a more clear / open plan floor area. The first floor flat above a shop like this is the most difficult to tackle when you want to knock down a wall. What can happen is that when you knock down a wall you start to introduce point loads (from the beam you put in if required) and these can suddenly change the load distribution on say the shop beams below. Often for the attic (not high rise) you find the roof spans front to rear, this helps to hold the walls in place. But.. in some cases the internal walls in the top flat provide stability to say a gable wall at the end of the terrace. This can be more of an issue say in England etc cf Scotland where sarking boards are used. Sarking boards stiffen a roof at rafter level. In laymans terms this means (sarking used) that you turn the roof into a couple of big beams that can more easily transfer say wind load to where it is more esily dealt with. In terms of structural design it's important to consider how what you do will impact on the whole building, not just your flat. This means that you often want to see in the flat below, or if you have mid floor flat then you also want to see what is above. What you are looking for is the actual layout, alterations that have a completion certificate but also as importantly, alterations that have been carried out with no approvals... cowboys. Apart from the safety issue there is an old expression has some merit..last man (person) on the job gets the blame. If you are budgeting on the basis that you may turn a profit by making an alteration it may be worth paying / asking for some advice first. To keep the cost of this down one of the best ways is to put together a small info document. Often you can find estate agents floor general plans on line showing the properties above / below that have come on the market. Take some extra photos of the inside / outside of the building ( the bit the agent has not included) etc and put this all in a document...the more info the better. This can really help someone give you initial advice / pointers.. which is often free if they feel you have put effort into it. If you write to say an SE and say "how much for a loft conversion" you'll just get a genric response. @834843" In regards to the type of work, is an architect essential (vs. an architectural technologist vs. structural engineer)? The essential thing is to find someone that has experience. One key here is to appreciate that every job is different although all the flats may look the same as the next block. Much can be lost on the builder's labour charges if the structural connections are too complicated, or the insulation details and materials can't be bought off the shelf (you often need to pay premium for a small quantity), you can't physically get a beam up the stairs and into the attic and so on. I have found that many experienced Architects / Architectural Technologists have a sound understanding of the structural concepts and SE's reciprocate. There is much cross fertilisation between the professions. All the best with your new home.

Tony.. Was just giving you a gentle ribbing, but thanks. The first part of the doc is good reading but the latter may be a bit out of date. Yes the operatives are not wearing flared trousers but the physical properties of materials have not changed since 2007 (in so far as I'm aware) .. put that caveat in as I think this may appeal.

Not aiming to miss here TonyT! Anyway, in the spirit of BH a bit of banter does no harm and is fun. One good reference document I use is "Rising damp in walls - diagnosis and treatment" published by the BRE. I have a copy but can't post due to copy write etc. Current price seems like £15 quid. It's worth the money compared with a say "Domino's pizza".. of course if you are hungry then a Dominos wins. The guidance it pretty user friendly so you don't need to be an SE to understand it. Here is the link: https://www.brebookshop.com/details.jsp?id=287528 @Adsibob don't panic if your founds are sitting in water, it's quite common. @DeanAlan I think this £15 may help give you some confidence how to progress, marry that up with the comments on BH and the cost effective / practical solution may be there for you. If you think about it you will pay a Surveyor a good few quid, inform yourself and talk to them. They will then know that you know a little about it and will often put more effort into the report as they may well be more invested in your job, over and above what they normally do. It's a people thing.. funnily, folk like passing on knowledge as you often see on BH.

Hello @Visioner101 and any parents out there with kids applying for jobs? Interesting post, enjoyed looking at the photos. Here are a few of my own thoughts for anyone that is at uni and has the self build dream. We know that often the first step is to get a job after you leave uni.. most folk need to borrow money.. no job..often no lending unless it's Mum and Dad...? Visioner.. if you want to go into fund management say then you'll stand a better chance of getting the job you want if you can get a good handle on the mechanics of cost vs return - call that profit and loss. For all. If you are willing to spend a bit of time you could build quite a nice supporting document to support a cv that demonstrates that you have an understanding of the actual mechanics of property development / house self building financing on a small scale, small contracts, the pitfalls and so on. All though this may sound miles off track from high finance it can demonstrate to a prospective employer that this individual has potential as they are able to analyse a particular market, understand it and make rational decisions / recommendations. For all (parents) and including Visioner. BH is a fantastic resource and really, all the answers / info are here that could make a job application stand out, you just need to spend some time reading and learning. I make a living in the construction industry and would always welcome a cv supported by a document that demonstrates that a young candidate has gone the extra mile and is seriously interested in their chosen path. For any parent reading this, it does not have to be technically correct. What is does require is to demonstrate that some effort has been put into the document and to a small extent some logic and critical thinking has been applied. An employer that disregards such a supporting document is probably not worth working for anyway. All the best to Visioner and first time builders.

Hi Sean. @sean1933 "The frustration I have is that where the joists are built in they obviously go from bearing on a block, to bearing on the lintel (which is some 5mm thick + mortar bed = 10+mm)... thus meaning they are some 10mm out of level the joists next to them. Solutions I have considered: .." It's wise to look carefully (as you are doing) at the implications of making what appear to be small design changes. @mvincentd " No mention/discussion of 'load ratio' and no references to it in Catnic product details/specs, so I wonder if contractors ever give it consideration..." Yes some contractors do. This info can be a little harder to find as sometimes it is not presented in the load tables. However, in the Catnic brochure this info is presented at the end, under the heading "Technical Information" Here is a link to the Catnic downloads https://catnic.com/downloads Follow the lintel products selector for the pdf brochure and the load ratio info is round about page 64. @Gus Potter or "take advice from the brickie". Apologies as this is a bit of a sweeping statement, should have qualified it a bit at the time of writing. Yes it can be helpful to take on board advice from experienced brickies etc. But always check with the designer as they are best placed to assess the structural implications of any design changes in terms of say global building stability. If you are proposing to alter the support conditions of say floor joists always check as the floors are often used to provide lateral stability to the walls. Also, look carefully if you are using hangers / brackets /resin fixings as some are able to carry different amounts of axial load (tension / compression) in the joist as well the vertical loads. The tension / axial load arises when say for example the wind is sucking the walls out and you are relying on the hanger (other type of connection) to tie the wall back into the floor.