Carrerahill

We ended up filling 1 general and then getting in a brick/concrete only afterwards, which we also filled!

Well, its nearing the time I will have a BCO poking at all my hard work so I need some fire alarms for the new bits and altered rooms etc. I was looking at Aico but I am not happy with their customer support via email as the guy was frankly rude and clearly just reading from their own guides which I had already read, understood but still didn't answer my question. Having said that, I may get them anyway as I do believe they are good. I need a heat alarm for the kitchen and some smoke detectors, first fix is in (3 core and earth for power & interlink). I just want a reliable option for fair money. I have found some sets and some products but would be keen to hear from any of you who have recently bought some. Quite a lot of them also list mains mounting plates, surely the products come with everything in the box? Simplicity is my plan here! I want 4 alarms with everything I need in 4 boxes. End of. Suggestions appreciated.

I meant to add, I used this and it is still stuck to the wall, didn't go off quicker than usual and followed the usual sort of drying pattern - 2-3 days it's dry but "soft" then hardens up after about a week.

Looks good John. I did a post on Amtico at the beginning of the year, for me it was about dispelling the myth that it is a "specialist" fit only but I would say you need to have some good abilities at working with your hands and understand the process well. We are happy with it, been down since about late March now, there are a few marks on it already but you only see them if you look across the floor with your eyes near the floor scanning across, so I can live with that and having a building site the room over doesn't help! We will be continuing it across to the next room too. My experience of Amtico previous relates to a 28 year old floor that still looks good, I think the stuff is different now though. As with anything these days, little is made as well. What I need to do is clean the Ardex adhesive off some of the joints as I never did it at the time! I am thinking a light solvent of some sort will work but I will need to investigate on a sample before I go for it!

Good. We have managed to do our entire build, demo works, garden works, extension, garage etc. so far with no skip! Everything has gone to a friends farm for a bonfire or to the recycling centre in about 50 car loads over the 3 years, also a big hole in the garden came in handy for rubble, I call it the soakaway now! The binmen were also very handy, they took full lengths of timber fascia with gutters still attached to them right into the back of the truck, all the rendering waste too (mainly bags of hard render and swept up chippings) ! Years of talking to them and being generally nice paid off! Till this point I have also recycled loads of it so I feel good about the build, metals all went to the metal pile at the centre, rubble in the rubble dump for crushing, wooden pallets turned into log stores or if untreated wood burnt or reused to send things out on pallet. This is the final cleanup really.

Will ask driver what he thinks.

Good call. I agree reference the weight and ground conditions, but that will be OK, had heavier in here and the ground is very stable. I mentioned a brick garage going into the skip and the guy didn't say anything so I assume it will be fine - I will talk to the driver tomorrow and ask him, after all he is the one who does the lifting all day long and will know what his wagon can lift and will know if he has comfortably lifted a 8 yard skip full of rubble before.

Question to someone who has demolished a garage sized building and skipped it. I have an 8 yarder coming tomorrow, idea is to demolish the old garage into it, imperial commons with some render, the area of garage that is left (some went 3 years ago for the new garage to be built) is basically a gable wall and 2 side walls - no front at all - so we are looking at about a building of around 3x3.5m and 2.3m high, with the gable probably another good 300 bricks above the 2.3 height - will it fit in this skip do you think? I know in volume it should fit but in real life will it? Also want to chuck the old kitchen and floor into it.

Madness!

Developers never seem to have this issue which is galling!

Looking at it I would be tempted, in fact, it would probably have a major collapse about... now. It looks like @Imogen could bulldoze this and start out of the ground pretty quickly. Can we see some exterior photos please. As soon as you try and do "conservation" or "listed works", people just add a few ££ to the sign as they know they have you over the barrel. The way I see it I would ask for a Building Control officer to come to site and visit you, maybe see if they would come out with a planning officer too. Don't read this next bit if you just want the advice, but here is some very recent anecdotal evidence of how things go. On Saturday I started to take up the floor in parts of my original house, now the extension is done I am moving into getting the adjacent rooms all sorted out, the old kitchen, which will be a dining room had a hell of a T&G floorboard floor, full of holes and just a mess. Opted to remove this, taking care not to damage my brand new wiring and gas and water pipes etc. it took the best part of a day to remove it all, get the wood out the house, and start to make good. This was one small room, it was a horrible days work, it was filthy, it was dangerous and it was just not nice. The point here is that your WHOLE house needs this doing. Either you do it, in which case you are exposed to the danger and filth etc. or you pay someone, who will want paid acceptably to take on your dirty work. You could rent a 14ton digger for the weekend and sort this yourself!

Lack of water/nutrition causing that.

I did this last weekend! I am a competent DIY plumber, copper and solder for me (although I did have to bite the bullet and go plastic for a bit through floor joists in the old kitchen ceiling) not including the plumbing of the new extension which was done at first fix and finished as the kitchen was installed it took me about a day and couple of hours to relocate the stop-cock - by extending the incoming water pipe to the new kitchen, removing all plumbing from the old kitchen, which also meant totally re-plumbing the bathroom above for my super perfectionist requirements (basically I didn't want stop ends anywhere, I only wanted plumbing to exist that would function). It cost not a lot, but then I have heaps of copper solder fittings and things so just needed some copper pipe and some plastic and 4 JG Speedfit unions. If you can cope with plastic for everything then I reckon I could have done it all in a half day horsing it in. I had the new kitchen totally plumbed and pressure tested back in December, but didn't go live until about early June, so all I had to do really was get the tails of the new kitchen onto the rest of the house system. I am also lucky my house has a suspended timber floor, so access underneath for plumbing is no bother. Waste was easy for me as my extension had a new waste built into it - old one just needs taking down down from the outside and it will become a patio drain. This way you can work away at your leisure and get it all installed as you go then only bring it "online" when you are ready.

I'll have a look.

https://www.soundinsulationstore.co.uk/products/standard-resilient-bar?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9b_4BRCMARIsADMUIyo5H5MmUS1DtJMhk_iR3e6j_G5tnD8wji-IHWKL6IADy9aiw9k7peAaAgovEALw_wcB

I think you are quite right... Resilient bars... I know what these are and how they work but have no knowledge of "systems" or who/where etc. A quick google suggests I could basically buy some, fix them across the old ceiling and board away. Hmm.

As part of my ongoing works I have started to sort out some of the original house rooms that tie into the extension, I have a small room, 6m sq. which I tore down the old ceiling for many practical reasons and just to renew it as it was a bit cracked. Above this room is a bathroom, the room will be repurposed as a little office/den. I have been thinking about lining the ceiling in 11mm OSB, then 12.5mm PB. I did think about twin PB sheeting the ceiling, but I have something in my mind about the OSB being a good idea. There are some thoughts to my OSB lining plan, it will create a good solid ceiling and help to stop some noise, I have about 15 sheets left over from the build, it will mean when the bathroom is being done up and the floor is up there is a slightly more solid covering so when things are being bashed about it is less likely to damage the PB etc. Has anyone done this? I know lining walls first is commonly done but ceilings? Does anyone think the 11mm OSB would sag overtime, the joists are on 20" centres - I had thought about cutting a load of 4x2 blocks and adding some additional support that I can fix to. Basically the theory is a rock solid ceiling with slightly better acoustic properties than a single sheet of PB. I would appreciate thoughts here, I am sure someone may suggest going for soundbloc or something but ideally I would like to use materials I have here as waiting for delivery (about 3 weeks from my friendly merchant just now) is just not happening.

I'd suggest getting a 6' piece of 1 1/2 x 1/4 steel bar, place one end against something solid and give it a good push at the other, report back.

Have you got them in PDF? If so they can be converted (and dimensioned correctly). I do it all the time. Occasionally, it fails, but that is more to do with a wonky printed PDF.

If you can't find what you need, then you can get a pack of 2 15mm fullbore isolation valves from SF, then you a plain 1/2 -1/2 tail or 1/2-3/4 whatever you have on your taps.

It is all OK now. I went out and bought all new stuff from Screwfix on the Saturday and used the superseal inserts too. The stuff I was talking about came from the merchant and was all a bit doubtful. I have used JG before plenty of times on non-critical installs - taps in garages etc. So I guess I have already taken a bit of a jump the fact I now have some 3.6m, over two runs, of plastic pipe and 4 x JG fittings in and installed and working.

They only seem to recommend these clips for hard pipes.

They only stock one "system" and the inserts were given to me after I said, "and some inserts to suit". Not pleased as I now have fittings, pipe and inserts I do not trust and will just let sit for a decade or more!

Clearly marked 15mm.

Exactly what I have always found and also expected (they must fit tight or they cannot work). I checked the pipe 15mm - inserts for this pipe were supplied. I have chucked it into the garage where it can stay for 10 years till I bin it. I am, like you, in the earlier stages of my copper affinity, I do now have 2 sections of JG installed for the very reason you give above, great for pulling in.