Carrerahill

Not a help this as it's another question but what reason are they not wanting to extend it? I am asking out of interest more than anything else and also in case we run into something like this so we can better know how to avoid. Sorry for a question to your question!

Nice work, that is the sort of thing that I like to do, but lets face it, you only get that where someone pays a lot of attention to doing a design for you, or you do it yourself and take the time and care. Bearing in mine infill panels can cost upward of £50 (probably more on some materials) on some finishes it is in your best interest budget wise not to waste money on bits of chipboard with a nice finish on them. My brother got a kitchen from Wren, it's a nice kitchen, but the design was done by them in house, I was not overly impressed with some of the corner cutting - rather than make best use of space lots of bits of infill and panels stuck on here and there. Luckily he had a really good joiner, who was able to work with the units and parts he had to make a better version than what Wren had designed. He modified units superbly to fit around things and hid a boiler that was not even on the original plan to be hidden as they somehow ended up with an extra door. It is rare to get a joiner that good, I would class him as more of a high end shop fitter type.

I think the first thing I would do, is look at the planning portal and get a copy of the plans, then see if it was clearly shown like this, if it was, and assuming you got the statutory planning notice, then you have no leg to stand on as you had the opportunity to look at it and object if you wanted. Your roof is 40mm over the boundary so it was perhaps noted and they chose to do the same, albeit a bit more than yours - give and take - fair is fair. Be careful, your neighbour might say OK - I will move my roof back, but you need to move yours as well and then you have just shot yourself in the foot! If the plans show a much tighter roof to the wall then you have a bit of a case as the extension has not been build as detailed - it could be a case of the builder put up the extension then the roofers just sort of did their own thing and created that size of overhang, they could have done it much tighter, i.e. about 30mm had they used dry-verge units. When you know the boundary wall was going up what did you expect to happen with the roof, was it discussed, did they suggest it would be tight to the wall? Do you need to do maintenance soon? Are you potentially just creating an issue? As for adding a pitched roof to yours that would be easy, you would just get involved with your neighbour, tell them your plans, get the relevant permissions depending on your situation and remove their verge, with their written consent and match their pitch and tile type and tie your roof in identically to their roof - that would look really smart. As for maintenance of your roof - well, it may be difficult at the corner but given it is a flat rubber roof I am sure it would be easy enough to get the downturn down the gap and seal it. The builders mess on your house, yes fair enough, I would have them put that right and make sure you are satisfied. I am sure the neighbour and the builder now think you are being a nuisance but that it just what happens with things like this.

If they tried that with me I would flip. Especially given that most of us here probably know more about the critical measurements of our houses than anyone else and probably even did a lot of the design. I remember going into a place like this with a CAD drawing, the guy started to tell me how it may not be 100% accurate, I told him it was and told him it would be more accurate than any measurements he would ever get. He said it was their policy to do it themselves and I told him it was my policy not to let someone disrespect me by implying I cannot measure a room properly.

My answer is no, you know what you want and if you can design your house you can sure as hell design your own kitchen. The "designer" is someone who can work their in house software, I am sure it is a great service and it is good for getting parts lists but other than that they are just given a job of blasting a design together for you and with all due respect don't really care about our individual needs.

It is a commercial solutions, as you would rarely see this in a domestic environment but it's easily done. They are just using MDPE pipe, anything that suits the materials, temperatures etc. will work, so in your case some off cuts of 22/15mm plastic pipe, then as for the capping/sealing compound this is just a semi-permanent polyurethane or silicone. The reason we say semi-permanent is that electrician number 2 a year down the line may choose to use that duct for another cable, so he digs it out, make a space, then repacks and seals. The capping material really is nothing fancy, it is usually fire resistant to stop fire spread. https://www.dortechdirect.co.uk/everbuild-fire-mate-sealant.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5NPjBRDDARIsAM9X1GJ6AsjkfVpVcKUwcV-cJrX3x2VD0xjsQ1Oxp7NbsOykwRzg8jFjre4aAvr3EALw_wcB

I knew a guy who had a "boiler house" about 10 meters from his house. He ran 22mm flexi's fully insulated and foil wrapped etc. then the whole lot was run inside 4 inch soil pipe which he insulated then ran in a bed of gravel along a trench. Worked well. For 1 meter I would probably go a little over the top but it would work well. I would probably create a concrete/block channel, with a mini PIR insulated slab foundation, DPC round the lot, PIR insulation up the sides, insulate the pipes with good insulation, foil wrap them, then fill the whole trench with some sort of insulation fill, then PIR lid and a concrete slab or something over it. Sounds mad, but for 1 meter you really could do a seriously good job as costs would be acceptable to go "over board" You can buy external heating pipe which is a big insulated pipe with both flow and return within it, but I doubt you could get a meter or so of it on its own, the termination process would probably be about as long as the run and the whole thing would not be worth it. As for the old flue, I would make up the insulated pipes, pass them through then pack any free area around the pipes with off cuts of pipe and then fill the hole - that is standard practise for filling ducts and sealing them, basically your hole in the wall is a short "duct". See sort of example here:

OK - this is not difficult in terms of what needs to be done, but may prove difficult in execution depending on age of your house and the way it is wired. If it was me, and I was doing this in my property or indeed specifying how these works were to be done, I would first create a new sub-main, so from meter tails, into a 100A switchfuse at the meter end, then out on a new cable to another isolator (so you can isolate whole CU locally) before your CU. The sub-main cable would ideally be a appropriately sized split concentric cable (LSZH - low smoke zero halogen is best for internal use like this), probably a 16mm² or 25mm² (depends on your supply rating) or SWA (they end up bigger overall diameter) - however, you could use T&E or even meter tails in conduit - with all cable options except split you really need to have a separate 16mm earth cable - check your split concentric spec, it should have 16mm² on 25mm². You cannot rely on steel armouring for your earth. Depending on route and protection you would really need to protect the whole sub-main with an RCD which is not ideal so I would look into a suitable route and almost certainly use split concentric - that is what the DNO would run. Then to the final circuits, ideally I would want to pull in new cables from the first and last socket on each ring and new feeds to the lighting, cooker, shower radials, this way you do not end up with a junction box to extend all the cables back to your new CU - that is just messy and can impact circuit suitability.

On my building warrant drawings, with regard to the timber frame it says, "... consisting of Tyvek Reflex and 2.0mm cavity breather membrane...". What does that actually mean? To me I would just get a roll of suitable house wrap and attach it according spec - what gets me is the "and" and what does the 2.0mm refer to? rather than a dimension is this a typo and it was mean to be 2,000mm²/m or something... anyway confused and I cannot ask the guy who wrote it now. So, with the timber frame started at the weekend I will need a roll of something suitable this week - I know you can pay all sorts of prices for these, I don't want cheap but I want reasonable, I don't know that spending £400 on a roll of DuPont for example is worth it (well maybe it is) so what you guys have found to be good I'd be interested in hearing about - also, if I am buying a roll, as it is only an extension it would be good if it was one of those wall & roof membranes then I can use it all over. Thanks

No, not quite - national grid own all the 400kV and 275kV infrastructure and some 132kV, once it steps down to 132kV, 33kV, 11kV, then the end user voltages 415V then it is owned by, for example Scottish Power, Southern Electric etc... albeit these guys are also energy suppliers they also operate, regionally, the network. So in Scotland it is common to see Scottish power working on lines etc. I don't know who it would be in your area. So that is better than it being national grid network as they are not moving for anyone - however, it depends what is up there, you see all supplies are 3 phase to a point, lots of older houses even have 3 phase directly into them (now they just pick 1 phase for balancing reasons and run in single phase cable from the street as it is cheaper and easier and safer really) just because a house only has 1 phase coming into it, doesn't mean that it wasn't tapped from a 3 phase cable only meters away from your front door, so this is why I am interested in your cables because depending on what is up there it could potentially have been installed privately to take a connection to a dwelling - the DNO then installed a meter on the end of it all and the assumption is it is owned by the network operator, but it may not be! I was involved in a rural project where we specified SP approved poles and cable, ran a pole drop and installed in SP approved methods, SP approved duct and more SP approved cable and ran in a cable to a property that SP then came along and connected up for the customer. It was far cheaper than getting them to do it - ultimately it meant it was privately owned from the local tap on a pole, albeit the DNO had equipment in the building that was theirs - bit of a ramble but my point is that in rural environments is common to see private water, electric and phone networks, albeit a supplier will then utilise it, IF they can see compliance to their network spec. If your cable is private, and with no paperwork to suggest otherwise, you may end up in a situation you can arrange for a new ducted section to be installed - you do the hard work - they pull a cable through the duct and drop it at pole A, run underground for your site, and it comes back up at pole B. I cannot promise anything, but we have an account to a network operators database which may let me look into your cables for you, the issue is that in rural environments (and city amazingly), believe it or not, the operator often doesn't actually know where half the cables go to and from - I was absolutely astounded when I first learnt this. If you PM me the grid coordinates of part of the line in contention, I can see if I can pull it up and see if there is any info on it.

Yes, I see where you are coming from, my initial comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek - I know that architectural firms offer more than a building concept but when projects grow in size generally their involvement does end up simply being "this is what the building will look like" then as I said before engineers make it all possible! Obviously it is scale dependent, those certainly sound like smaller commercial projects if there is no multi-disciplinary involvement with professional services being provided by relevant professional bodies. At present we are involved with an architect who is providing full services to a small multi-city commercial project, his firm are responsible for more or less everything I can see although we are providing M&E, structural and fire engineering services and a QS is doing some audits, but in the grand scheme of things it is a fairly low budget project and that is why it is all being done in house, but there are only 15 of them in the whole firm so obviously they couldn't directly service a large scale project but may be able to offer the architectural services. On something like Tesco I think they just buy a Meccano kit in all honesty!

The first point, you say a 400V line, in the UK this would usually be 3 cables with 415V potential between them running from a pole mounted transformer, but each to earth is 230V, so is it a single line or 3 x 230V cables - in which case the good news is moving them will be a lot easier and the power company will own and operate it. Does that cable then drop down to a dwelling or other building, or is there another transformer? If there is a transformer then the lines above you are probably actually 11,000V and I would not probably want to live under those! As for the regs, check out ENA TS 43-8 that certainly covers high voltage lines but might also cover the sort of transmission lines you are dealing with.

It is a bit, but, there is reality to the comment! Regarding the services architects offer it all depends what their scope of works is. I often work with architects who basically come up with the building and then advise on it's final finish and architectural details to a point or through to completion but they don't really do much more than that. In commercial building most of the services you list above are carried out by an engineering consultancy who supply engineers, QS, PM's etc. or a contractor that uses in house team or a construction management firm. Remember private builds make up for a tiny percentage of the construction industry and often result in architects sort of taking on a build as their baby and offer services not usually covered by their discipline. Yes, it just seems odd that someone who's job is to check compliance and suitability is being blamed for someone else's mistake.

I like it. As an engineer I design things everyday and coming up with new or unique solutions is what I enjoy best. The joiner and fabricator are just typical unimaginative "no" people who lack the ability to come up with new ideas and just follow blindly. Notice the person who likes it is the one who designs and creates new things for a living. The fabricator just need to be given a spec and told to build it, I really wouldn't care what anyone thought of it, the plumber probably secretly loves it because it should be an easy enough thing to connect up and shouldn't leak. Just check the dims with your plumber for the waste pipe stub - I would probably use SS pipe TIG welded to the tray that will push-fit or compression fit onto a standard waste connection - I am sure this has been thought of but get the plumber to help with that aspect to get what he would like to see - they you get him on board with it. Alternatively have them simply core the SS tray and then fit a standard type waste - I would ask them to punch a waste type "dimple" into the steel so it was the lowest point too. People will comment that you could just tank the floor and build it up with off the shelf materials, however, I think the saving on install time and the sure fire water tightness will help balance this out. Give your husband a pat on the back and compliment him on his creative thinking - this is exactly the sort of thing I would come up with. Got for it.

I prefer what you have gone for. A good solid timber frame, fully injected with insulation makes for a good fill, no bad cuts and bits missing etc.

That is not a SIP. A SIP is just OSB/Insulation/OSB. They have connecting "spines" on them and they just push together like jigsaw pieces, no studs. The detail above to me looks like a fairly standard timber frame construction with foam injected between the studs rather than PIR foam cut and installed. A SIP is just a panel construction, these can just be bought as 8x4 panels and you can work them yourself to your build, or a SIP kit company will buy in SIPs and make them relevant to your build or indeed make the SIPs onsite themselves. You can make SIPS at home if you can be bothered.

It wasn't a build of my own, or a project I was directly involved in but one I followed fairly closely via colleagues who were providing engineering services to a site that used SIPs (they had nothing to do with the design or SIP's at all I hasten to add). But on that project I heard 'nightmare', 'never again', and 'why didn't they just let us build this this with 2x6' was being banded about on site every day and the framers who were erecting it hated every minute of it. The general summary was that SIPs have basically no tolerances for even small onsite variations and issues and can lead to some fairly lengthy processes being carried out to make a panel fit after shaving bits or cutting bits and making new joining spines and hot wire cutting the insulation or trying to cut and slice bits out.

Out of a matter of interest, why did Building Control screw up? Whoever detailed, or possibly didn't, this aspect of the build screwed up - BC are only there to ensure they are happy with details and designs and that contractors build appropriately to those details and designs. Whoever was responsible for the structural design and detailing of this structural aspect, i.e. your architects SE, or independently appointed SE - remember architects just draw pretty pictures, engineers make buildings possible - or your architect forgot to bring this to the SE's attention.

Is it a cavity wall? Why are there not two steels one each supporting one side of the wall? I am sitting in my office just now and my structural engineer is 6 feet from me. He is laughing - sorry... I suggested and he has confirmed: In this situation it would be more common to have two steels, sitting at the required spacing to hold the wall and then put spacers pieces in-between which could be as simple as some M20 threaded rod and nuts either side of each I beam or RBS with some flanges welded to each end and drilled for bolts. The welding on site can also create issues with the strength of the plate as the weld will be right along the stress point of the plate - bolt it. Alternatively re-spec the I beams as wide flange and get a flange that suits the size.

I would not be asking about the price but why this has come about first of all - has someone put the steels in the wrong place, can you show us a photo of the steels in place as they currently are. The wall is 325mm wide - OK what is it made up of, what does it do, why does it need to be 325mm wide etc. etc. are all things I would want to know. I can get you a quote for the 2 pieces of plate easily enough if that helps you. As for the welding it depends what is required - it may not need welded, in fact I would probably prefer it was bolted if being done on site which changes things again...

If the drain hole is in the right place, and you are going to tile it, then I cannot see why it cannot work - you may need to think out of the box a little but if you were to go for a low profile slot drain, and tile up to it with a fall to the drain from each side then it should be fine. I don't know what drain pipe is in place but assuming 40-50mm then you could get a low profile drain unit (look at units designed for use with UFH as they tend to have a smaller footprint), you may at worst need to disc cut out a 300mm square around the drain pipe so you can bed a deeper drain back into the concrete but I see no major issues here. If it was me - I would go to my friendly fabricator and have them make me a stainless steel tray with relevant stub to push into the drain pipe and buy an off the shelf slot drain etc. or have them create a simple SS slot that I can tile up to. People who say things like this are not possible like this are just lacking in problem solving skills or imagination. In the case of Topp's Tile's it just because he doesn't have a product that will suit your application.

Sounds like we both had the same ideas and for the same reason. A green oval product!

Just looking for some images or help regards the door opening detail for my timber kit extension - our build is a little odd as we already have a sun room in this part which will form part of the new extension, so I am reusing the door opening. At the moment it leaks down the outer skin into the cavity, but that is because the builders who built this have used a piece of ordinary concrete slab along the top of the block wall that the door sill sits on, however, they then laid slabs up to the same height as the door sill, so water must just pour down the gap between the slab and door sill, and flood in under the sill over the piece of concrete slab and into the extension! They were clearly cowboys or got their levels all wrong and didn't want to resolve it - the bead of silicone along the slab to and sill shows that someone did see this as an issue! So, in my new extension the door will end up moving in slightly as it will sit flush on treated 50x50 around the opening in the timber kit then the block work will come up to the edge of the frame and get rendered in. I am going to be modifying the suspended timber floor at the weekend and want to prepare the door opening at floor level during this time - can anyone show through images or details they may have how I do this. This is my plan, for now, based on best practise: Install a concrete sill on top of the outer wall, assume no DPC under it so it can drain, I may possibly pour this in situ with a run to exterior and higher than the slabs obviously. I will order a door with a stub sill and this will sit on the concrete sill and end up sealed in. Around the door the render will come up close then get rendered or I will use a render strip and seal it all. So externally there should be no route for water to get in, and any seepage under heavy rain or someone hosing the door or something daft would only result in some water possibly getting in behind the render, down the frame and into the cavity, even at ground level water should not not in as it will run off the sill. Internally I will bring the floor up to the inside of the door frame, this will bring it to the edge of the inside of the cavity, where the door frame will then start. This means there is no bridging except for the door frame itself but sitting on it's own stub sill and then the concrete sill all water will run away from the door - I will also reset the slabs outside the door which are at the top of some stairs with a very slight run away from the house - at present they run in the way and thus under the sill! Does that make sense and sound right? I know it is such a simple detail but only if you have seen/built one before do you know your install is deemed common practise and not just my best practise guess!

That should be pretty good, I sized mine to 2.6m wide by 2.2mm tall which should let me get pretty much anything I could ever want to fit in there. As decent width gives you the option of how to drive the car into the garage depending on how you may wish to use the space i.e. you can take a diagonal line in and maximise working space in the garage - another thing to consider if to bias your door to one side, I would have biased mine to be fairly tight to the left so it was parking only on that size, but tree's I didn't want to disturb meant this was not possible, albeit my door is biased left so the car doesn't sit in the middle and waste space down each side. I worked out my sizes with some of our cars and bits of wood propped up so I could actually work out what would be a nice size.

On my BW drawings there was just a written description of the roof's construction and a simple layout showing truss and purlin locations. Roof Construction: King Post Trusses: 200x50 C16 for joist span with 150x50 C16 rafters with king post made up of 2 No. 150x50 spiked together. 4 No. trusses in total spaced as drawing. Purlins sat on trusses, trusses notched to seat purlin. Rafters 100x50 sat on ridge, purlin and wall plate. Rafters to be notched. Rafters 600mm on centres. I have a truss above each gable end, then I have 2 trusses tied together with 6x2's 750mm apart, this centre truss arrangement is centred in the middle of the garage and the purlins run from the gable truss to the centre truss nearest it, the purlins run wild through the 750mm span where they just touch but are not joined in anyway. This creates a very robust roof with lots of open space as there are technically only 2 "joists" at wall plate height the rest is totally open. I have 420 concrete tiles up there and when I was up doing the ridge tiles I had a little jump and the whole thing is solid as a rock!