Carrerahill

Where about are you?

We didn't build a house but we took on a 1960's house, tore it back to a shell, renovated most of it, extended it, built garages and demolished old buildings and now on the final push to complete it all with the final parts being renovated now (parts that directly adjoined the extension). Been a hard 5 years so far, I'll be glad for it to be over if I am honest. I go through periods of what seems like total inactivity but you must remember that planning and material procurement and decisions are progress in their own right, we have recently broken the ice on about a 2-3 months period of more or less no or very little progress, but then on breaking the ice suddenly the project takes a leap, I have a JCB turning up later to dump hardcore over a wall into our garden, I have flooring arriving tomorrow/Fri, I had a painter in last week, I made some decisions and plans which then let things move again and I just need to be bold and go and buy lots of materials and hope it all works out OK! In 5 years I have had help from professionals on my site for about a cumulative 4-5 weeks, that includes a joiner for a day, a brickie, general builder (dry dashing the house), gas man, plasterers & painters. The rest has been me on my own or with limited help from friends and family. I overthink things, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it just creates issues and stress, I have actually been feeling a bit off for a few weeks now and I am sure it is stress. I pondered over the silicone job on a window sill for about 2 days at the beginning of the week deciding it let the whole new kitchen down... apparently it doesn't but because I paid too much attention to it I stood and stared at it and fiddled with it and wasted more time. I have also decided that if I do something now and I am not happy, move on, don't think about it and if at the end of it all, I still look at it and think no that is not good, then redo it, assuming it is a job that can be done in isolation obviously! Don't worry and don't you or anyone else set targets for yourself, you will not meet them and you will feel demotivated and then stress and rush and then you will step back and go, wait, I made that deadline, there isn't a deadline and suddenly a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders.

I would not worry about it. I read up on asbestos and researched it because I too had to deal with it in my house. I have also spoken to about 4-5 major demolition businesses that run waste transfer stations etc. who have then filled me in on all the details for legal transfer of this stuff and it wasn't too onerous - this is for white of course! It would take me all day to put what I have discovered in writing and all the facts and reasons but let me go a little way towards trying to give you some information that may put your mind at ease. First, get onto the HSE website and download the asbestos guide with the asbestos content % table which lists most materials and the type and % contained within them, this goes from Artex coatings, bitumen adhesives, flooring and brake linings. You will note from reading this that content is almost always very low in these sorts of products, 2-10% and that is was normally chrysotile (white) asbestos which was the least dangerous, do not mistake me, it can still cause all the same health problems that the others do, but it has a lower risk. Asbestos containing materials, "ACM" such as cement asbestos, cladding, floor tiles etc. were commonly cut and installed by contractors wearing no mask, although there is a greater chance of asbestos related illness among these individuals, particularly those who installed or removed these materials for many many years or decades through employment they generally did not suffer and frankly die before now as badly as those installing brown and blue such as boiler and pipe laggers - so generally heavy industry. You will often hear the comment that, 1 asbestos fibre can kill and that is true, however it is a but of a misnomer because it doesn't mean that you only need to inhale one fibre and that is it, you have had it. You do inhale asbestos, we all do, in a life time we will inhale over a billion asbestos fibres as it is in the very air we breath all the time, ambient background asbestos is about 10-200 fibres per cubic meter of air (they reckon the average person will inhale 265000000 litres of air in a lifetime), it will be worse near for example a primary school that is being demolished and may increase levels for some time (even when it is dealt with properly there is always an escape, even just any dust it left in the school being disturbed etc.) so if only one fibre killed we would all die of asbestos related illness. What it means is that that it will only take one fibre to get lodged in the lungs and cause the damage and scar tissue etc. that leads to the illness - but realistically we need to expose our self to a decent cloud of of the stuff as a one off to potentially get it, or many many short term exposures. 1 of the biggest groups outside of contracting is school teachers and hospital workers who work(ed) in old building full of the stuff, it just gently releases dust as is get older, or a knock or a vibration, ceiling tiles were the worst, and the staff were in there for 30-40 years of their life breathing it in. Working outside with asbestos is far safer as it will get blown away, I took our asbestos roof off the garage, proper half face mask and brand new filter, gloves and old clothes with the sheets wetted down, done in the rain on one occasion and with a slight breeze, strip off and shower afterwards with most outer layers going in the bags for disposal too. I also know I cut through floor tile bitumen adhesive with a circular saw, I am fairly sure it will have had asbestos in it, not too pleased about it and know it may come back to bite but I had loads of windows open, a breeze through the room I was working in and I got out pretty quick once I spotted the black adhesive. However, it is also said that although I cut it, the bitumen will have adhered to the asbestos, it will have then become less small and light, and was also partly or fully encapsulated so the fibre release although still present wasn't a case of pure asbestos floating around my house. The HSE also permits the removal and disposal of these types of asbestos by home owners, the others are strictly trained contractor only, I just don't see the HSE saying yes no bother you can do this on ACM's that are simply deadly, my local tip also let me take some in, all double bagged, I told them what I had, they opened a container for me, I put it in, and left, no paperwork, no questions, no particular H&S to follow. My uncle told me they once installed a garage roof in the 40's and they cut all the sheets with a hand saw - he is still with us, just back issues he has! Do understand, asbestos is dangerous, I do not think your exposure is going to kill you, I don't think my exposure will be what kills me, it might, what I do know is that I will never knowing do any more ACM work again in my life without full PPE like that damn floor I cut up. I am confident that when I did the garage roof it was done correctly, so I think my exposure was minimal and I do not intend on doing any more - I am not letting it worry me. There is a far greater chance of you being killed in a RTA.

I wouldn't cut the skirting, I'd cut the bed - when you move that thing or the next person moves into the house there will be a hole in your skirting and if it was a house I bought I would be cursing you. It could be done and you would really want one of these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dwe315sf-gb-300w-electric-oscillating-multi-tool-240v/8890h This is a building forum and not really a DIY forum, so you may get better responses from a DIY forum.

Just get a excavator with a breaker. Relatively speaking sandstone will break up easily, then use a narrow bucket to remove, I'd not worry too much. Are you hiring a machine and doing it or paying a groundwork contractor? If the latter just let them know beforehand they will need a breaker and maybe a bucket with a thumb, you might be able to sell the stone if you get it out in nice big chunks for landscaping and stone walls! Given they can break out entire concrete buildings they will breeze through SS.

I saw one of those at a social housing fair/seminar last year in Glasgow, smart looking think, I suggested to the Tesla rep it looked like a huge iPhone strapped to a wall, he concurred. What capacity is it? I assume you have some renewables - solar? - to feed into it for later use? Interestingly a lot of housing associations were looking at them, according to the rep, with a view to capturing solar energy then feeding it into the battery for use in heating applications at night.

First off, are you sure you cannot slip a timber in full size? If you have a cavity wall then you may be able to insert a full length timber albeit with a slightly reduced bearing surface which could be made up for with relevant additional timber or steel bracket/anchor. I'd investigate that first. I know I could do this in my bathroom because I have a 100mm cavity. Cost of joist replacement using this method £25. If that was a no go situation I'd then consider a steel route, but that is just me and I can sort out steels as easy as I can get a piece of timber! Just for thinking aloud purposes, I think hollow box section or a flitch beam which I would assemble in place. The box section idea would require off-site fabrication, I have a leaning towards this sort of thing because I can easily get hold of steel and have a friend who owns a large fab shop who would weld it up for me, or to be honest, for this, I would weld it myself. Cost - £50 I reckon and I have a good solid repair. Next option and really only needs a piece of plate cut to length and depth of joist and drilled. A flitch beam is basically a piece of thin steel sandwiched in-between 2 pieces of wood. This would allow you to use steel and timber and do it all DIY - you could then have a single piece of steel in the middle and then sandwich it with 2 say 1x6's you could use shorter timber and butt joint it, and then offset the other side, so you end up with one steel (which being bendy on it's side can be slid into wall, and wriggled in at the far end) then add the timbers to give you a solid twin timber flitch beam with offset timber joints. This, coach bolted together tight would be solid and cheap. That piece of steel from brundles would be about £30.00.

Yes - if you layered them you could create detail, outer leaves with cut outs or something - have locating holes cut and then pin them together with steel rod and weld up.

Not as nice looking obviously, but what about get them laser cut from say 15mm steel - you could hand bevel the openings etc. and "dress them up" after a coat of paint and incorporated into the other components they would probably look fine. Just an option. Casting is not going to be cheap, £300 a pop is in my mind quite good. I've had dealings with this for architectural steelwork and by the time they make the sand moulds etc. it's not a quick task.

Your Landy?

It depends, I have not for any of our door or window openings and nothing has gone wrong, you just need to know how to use a measuring tape really. For our garage we just left a standard opening - when I came to fit the door it was within about 5mm and I just shimmed it in - job done. Pros with a frame are that it is set, the brickie needs to follow it and if you are not on hand to confirm sizes or there is a miscommunication it is fine as there is a physical object to follow.

Yup - and if you are doing carpentry a great way to get rid of offcuts!

Sounds more like what I will do, rather than I have planned! I find normal clothes (always a collar and tie optional) and a Dickies Redhawk pair of overalls (always a collar and tie optional) are pretty much all I need for warmth unless I am standing at the bench doing something intricate which doesn't take much movement, and therefore heat generation.

Thanks for that, the issue is postage. I need about £24 worth of tiles yet it will cost me nearly £90 with delivery! I can only assume they are a bit fragile and take a lot of care with packaging them. I've found someone on ebay, a shop's ebay page, who look like they will do them at a reasonable delivery. I did wonder if I could cut them from the 1000's of old imperials I have stacked in the garden! Would be a nice thought to have our own reclaimed bricks made into these and reused in our build.

We have a boxed in pipe in our kitchen, only visible from worktop to underside of cabinet so about 5 1/2 bricks - looking to tile it like a brick wall to make a feature out of it. Based on the corner bricks (which is all I would need) being standard brick size I have worked out I can buy 12 corner tiles and the bits I cut off each side to create a bond would result in the bits I need for the side return. So basically I am looking for 12 decent corner brick slips, tiles whatever you call them.

I paid 80p a block for a bale of 36 I ordered about 4 weeks ago on top of an order for other bits to top up my block stock for little bits of wall etc. Just tried to buy 2 there and they wanted £1.68 inc the vat for the 2. Maybe we are spoilt as there is a block factory about 3 miles away. I think the issue is supply and demand. Thistle multifinish was £12 a bag at one point but I see it is back down to £5.85 a bag in B&Q which means I could get it from the merchant for probably more like £5.00

Mad - I know this was back in June but just for reference, I get all my stuff from J W Grant, they have a branch in Coatbridge which may deliver to you. I was looking at my invoices recently and we are on £3.10 for a bag of cement, £33 for a ton of sand/aggregate/mot etc. I just picked up 5 bags of Enewall (made in Wishaw) magnolia dry dashing top coat for £5.70 a bag.

Our old kitchen had a recirculation type extractor, waste of time and space, I always envied those who had a proper extraction system as I knew the benefits of the system. Now we have our new kitchen in the new extension I have my extraction hood, brilliant. Comes in handy for more than just cooking. I sometimes use it to drag air through from the open dining room window and ventilate the whole space - close the door a bit and you can feel the blast of fresh air breeze past. I know this also means in the winter that I am loosing warm air but we have a bit of a glut of heat in our home so I can live with that. We cook every meal from scratch so boiling water and cooking food is a daily occurrence, great being able to stand in the kitchen and look out the window on a cold evening with large volumes of steam being dealt with and not a single bead of condensation on the windows and doors. There really are so many benefits, I dare say if you don't cook then the benefits may be lost on you. Why not go for a semi-suspended hood and duct out the wall behind.

This is absolutely awful! It's a diesel and match cure in my eyes! But really, this building just looks BAD, really really bad. I think you need to get the SE back and get him to view it as is, I'd also want my own SE there at the same time.

Sounds like the people who built the conservatory I demolished with my bare hands to build my new extension! I lent the ladder against the block wall at the back which had been used to extend the conservatory past the side of the house, as I climbed I suspected the ladder was slipping, go a little fright, came down and noticed that actually the block wall had shifted! There was me ready with a hammer and bolster to drop the wall block at a time! On the plus side, I was able to reuse all the blocks as they cleaned up good as new simply sitting in the rain for a few months! Fecking cowboys!

I have not installed it yet but the ground work has been done to put in a stove. It will be a solid fuel sort of commercial looking thing. I know it is an uninsulated space but I have a forest worth of firewood and I would only light it for example on weekends, in the winter when I intend on spending a lot of time out there. I have also run conduit back to the house with the intention of feeding hot water from the burner back to the house too. I am actually doing the final ducting and formwork for concrete for this this weekend as I may actually keep the stove in a separate little boiler-shed for safety reasons. I have the option to insulate my garage if I wanted to, I'd put PIR in between the rafters, and batten out the walls and insulate and ply line but I don't think I would if I am honest as I've never felt the need. I do a lot of my projects outside, building things and what not so being in a garage is like a luxury in itself!

That really is shocking - OSB they have used too, under that awful artificial grass, which will just sit wet and damp all the time. Some people should be banned from this sort of work. It's like buying a house someone has done loads of shocking DIY in and you realise you need to start again on everything! The DPC should also have been 150mm min above finished ground level. It is a cavity wall so a bit of moisture against the wall isn't going to cause major issues but I would limit moisture/water by using gravel. That water pipe, is it the mains? Or a feed to a garage or something? It isn't deep enough. Right, what to do, I'd cut it back straight, get some edging into finish the concrete/slabs, then fill from the edging to the house with stone, get in cheap stone, 10 or 20mm gravel or granite chips or something and fill the trench, this means that although stone will be touching the wall it will be free draining and will really only be wet when it's raining or for a period after. Difficult to judge qty's here but for £30-40 quid I'd just get a ton bag of whatever in and barrow it in.

Some pics...

Yes - single skin with 2 piers down the long walls and at the main door - a half height pier on one side of the pedestrian door for extra strength. I have about 20mm of dry dashing on the exterior built up with base coat and top coast etc. so the thing is dry as a bone. Sure it can be cold in the winter but I keep a car and garden tools in it! I'll get some photos... hang on a minute...

Took him 3 short days so £83.33! This was in conjunction with our extension build and I laboured for him. He was happy, I was happy. He works FT for some house builders during the week, he did it over 2 weekends, he isn't fussed - cash in hand.