markc

Dry screeding is DIY able if you get yourself organised first … or it can go horribly wrong. At 50mm thick, 21sq will be around 2100kgs so you are looking at 3200kgs (ish) - a lot to move for 1 or even 2 people. levels / flatness are your next concern. Set out your finished level around the perimeter.. small blocks screwed to wall work well. You can then use a long spirit level as a screed bar and work from your level blocks. get the screed mix into place and compact it well by walking around and/or an electric compactor. When it’s upto (slightly high) level, scrape it back to level and flat from the level blocks. ….. or just use wet screed and save a lot of effort.

A mate of mine was Electrical Shift Engineer or similar at the new Keadby gas fired station. Some government official at a presentation saying burning gas instead of coal would provide the lowest cost energy possible …hmmm 🤔. Then I did a load of work on Drax where burning local Reeds would be almost free fuel …. Not difficult to see that a few hundred acres of reeds wont burn for long and takes time to grow again.

Well done - one of those jobs you could have brought someone in and they would have bodged it again.

They are Carrier units, I should have provided local rotary isolators but couldn’t do it before they started so agreed an extra £200 for them to sort it.

I have just had 3 stand alone air to air (heat and cooling) units fitted for £4500.00 that’s for the 3 fully installed and they did a fantastic job.

I thought all plasterboard sheets were about 1/4 inch undersize - I assumed you were supposed to leave a gap to push plaster into (I’m def not a plasterer).

A friend of mine did herringbone in a L shaped kitchen and lined up with a wall - looks great in one part and terrible in the other because of straightness / right angle discrepancies.

The more I think about this the more I would go for taking the beam down and putting the extensions on the support beams even if that meant welding. Or I would be adding a 150 or 200mm channel at the ends to reduce the torsion loads at centre span

Hi, can we assume the beam should have been at the balcony edge and it’s the supporting beams that are short? my concern would be torsional stiffness of the beam when you add the cantilevers and then a loaded deck (self weight, plus dead loads of balustrade etc. plus live loads of persons using the balcony and especially leaning on the balustrade).

@Great_scot_selfbuild yes a twin oven is a single supply, if you run 6mm cables you will be future proof. Warming drawer is better on a switched spur off ring main or off cooker supply as they are quite low power.

What oven and hob are you having? Nothing worse than a big hob on a limited supply. Generally good practice to have a 6mm radial for oven and hob but a few years ago I fitted a powerful 6 section hob and double oven so I ran separate 6mm radials to them.

We are seeing a lot of stuff coming out of Europe that is garbage! China is using CE (China export) to run stuff through Europe using the confusion (or ignorance) of the difference between a genuine CE and CE (China export) marking.

10ish years ago I had an apartment in Leeds city centre, the lease did not allow anything to be attached to a balcony or anything to be left on a balcony unattended.

Oh no! … I really hope they get back to you soon. For my man cave pour I got the opposite end … asked for 2 batch trucks, probably 3 loads so one truck could go back for the third load …. I got 4 trucks at the same time on a narrow lane with passing points.

Not what anyone was getting, what I was paying at the time.

We now have an almost constant steady wind so I thought wind turbine, with me doing the ground works, cable and install we were looking at almost £50k with an expect generation of £2800-£3200 per year based on 25p per unit.

In trenches you won’t have any problems (unless you are pouring into permafrost) as the ground will be several degrees above freezing.

Fixing straps, fix to frame and extend inwards so you can fix without going through the frame. 1, no holes through frame and 2, the frame can “float” a bit rather than pulling it tight to masonry etc.

@DavidO I would be wary with this one, fresh cracking on an internal repair means recent movement and as you say, external pointing could mask anything. My feeling is the pretty recent works around the Brunton Residential building has caused movement or settling of the adjacent wall and could require underpinning in a pretty tight site.

I can see a draw for self builders and one off’s. Was it a grand designs where they had a CNC router in a container on site to produce ply “building blocks”? anybody know if it was built / finished?

good morning, do you have any pics of the outside looking at the crack area and what is at ground level.

You don’t want the old path fill inside the building, dig out, DPM, whatever insulation you can and pour a slab to suit your floor level.

The Big6 profile metal sheets “should” lay over the top, but won’t! The original sheets are unlikely to be dead straight and the fixings stick up etc. as above, remove the existing and replace. Over batten and sheet is pretty straight forward but the old sheets are likely to crack in multiple locations and you will regret not doing it right once.

To expand on the dowel - definitely worth doing but masonry style, not close fitting or you will never get it aligned as mentioned above. Drill a couple of holes in both sides fairly well aligned and use screws or pieces of wall tie as the dowels (loose in holes). Once happy it will push back into place, glue on the faces and in the holes and push it in place. If you must remove the Cill, a carbide reciprocating saw works well

As trees mature the root growth slows and everything settles down. Looking at the pics it appears there is a ridge down the middle so some traffic compaction / settlement too. You could remove the pavers, carefefully level back up (probably need some more infil) and relay the pavers or replace with new. The pavers being easily draining are better than tarmac or concrete for the trees