tonyshouse

Just rainwater running off the edge of the parapet coping , I always tilt them towards the roof to avoid this problem. Or better remove the whole parapet, they let in damp, wet and cold.

Steel plates are fine, padstones exellent, the concrete ‘lump’ between the two steels in the first two pics is horrid. And the notch is in my view unacceptable. I used to make a slot in the web of the steel with the plate on it such that it perfectly fitted over the web. engineer now needs to sign off the notch

Word of mouth is best procurement pathway. Forget LDC plan well and build in waiting time.

There are some very good resin anti slip coatings

I think that you may be allowed to notch out the top chord to line with block courses, ask manufacturers technical dept

Commercially and large domestic I have seen de-stratification brass pumps use to mix all the water in both cylinders to maximise the volume of HW available.

I like wire-wool and apply with green sponge scourer green side down, very thin even coats.

ask manufacturer/engineer, I think top chord can be built in, if it was mine I would build in both chords Only needed for cavity walls or air leaky walls , if wall is wet it should not be , use lime pointing or render

I like wet plaster but still needs to joined to the airtightness layer in the ceiling, Unser the floor and penetrations need detailing carefully

Single angle grinder cut as blue line, angled slightly upwards into the bricks. 1.2m sections overlapped 100mm leadmated in

Gravity is very good at holding things in place and we don’t really have earthquakes

Build them into the masonry would be my preference. Even if only the top chord went in with a bearer under or over the bottom chord. Horrid if it starts to work loose.

I would EWI inside the garage against the house if it is a garage

Very old fashioned to close the cavity with brick and this introduces thermal bridging which is bad

No but I like traps and clean them annually, I don’t like sending stuff down the pipes

Nice to drop the sill as low as you can so that the flooring abuts the back of the track rail 10 to 15mm below the bottom on the door so that you don’t have to ‘climb’ over the threshold should not be a block under the tiles or they will crack. Nice to insulate the floor alleyway to the sill

You can still buy new Crittal windows and they have thermal breaks in the frames. Thin dg units will fit

Open the windows!

I used pvc ones, vert like twin wall polycarbonate, cheap light easy, also easy to damage, do work, mine done free in very low income household 4 years ago still undamaged and ok

Replace the glass and the seals, possibly hinges, definitely handles and draught strips.

Dense concrete blocks, ideally 140mm , wet plaster one side other side two layers of plasterboard of different thicknesses ceiling full fill with dense rockwool batts, better to use poured concrete but more expensive , definitely double tack ceilings and carry blockwork to 20mm below floor and fill gap with rockwool ALL AIR PATHS MUST BE SEALED, even gaps round lighting wires will net noise in and out. 22mm chipboard floor for me, no holes

If the house is well insulated how come you need heating upstairs?

I prefer 225 to 200 more likely 220 in practice

i.e. don’t cut sawtooth

We used to buy 9x1 1/2 abs get it planed on one face and one edge. Need to leave 50mm above the nosing, now my ex employees glue and pin triangles of MDF to hold each tread (MDF window boards and risers MDF ) generally carpeted to reduce noise