markc

On top of the ground screw you attach a L or U shaped bracket/saddle, these allow you to fix horizontally through the sub frame (or into perimeter frame of a smallish sips floor panel.

Good morning and welcome, no such thing as a silly question. Depending on size, a sips structure will generally need a subframe that would be attached to the ground screws, the panels would then go on top of the sub frame.

You are on good terms with your neighbour but don’t want them driving into ‘your’ lay-by? I really can’t see what the problem is here

In that case, remove the rings, dig a big hole and throw the broken rings and any stones, bricks etc in as a soak away

No need to dig up the drive, I’m sure the downpipe used to go into a gulley on the end of the drain, remove the rings as above and get the water going into the drain again,

Grease should not mark varnish, are you sure it’s not coming out of the timber and now trapped under the finish

Do you really need the office and hobby room? 42 sqm isn’t going to allow for much kitchen or a decent sofa etc. can you move something, hobby, office, bedroom into the roof space.

The trusses would be 600mm spacing and trimmers are added around an opening for stairs etc. roof pitch will be determined by the design and max ridge heights etc. a truss supplier will be able to design accordingly.

Nope, at very shallow rafter pitch a birdsmouth would do nothing except weaken the timber.

Hi @Novice Becky for the inside use brick or block piece/s and mortar - like the outside but no need to make it look good, then just finish to required level with plaster

Getting more common. You don’t need a big commercial drive through unit, there are small ones, basically a catch tank to collect the sludge, pressure washer and you do the cleaning manually. I don’t know who hires the small ones but a couple of local sites have dug a big hole, dropped a skip in and have some heavy duty ramps over the top.

If you are talking about the square indentation, it looks like a mark left by a jackleg for a loader crane or tele handler possibly.

Hi and welcome

Take it down and rebuild, yes you could underpin it but the cost and risk (to the people doing the work and surroundings if it fell over) make it not worth the effort.

200mm seems way over the top for a workshop slab, at work our yard and workshop slabs are 150mm with 1 layer of mesh and we often have 20t point loads. Nothing wrong with thicker at strategic locations, like under lifts or presses etc.

Is this a self build home or a design project? When designing a home it’s al about the rooms, spaces, light, livability etc. not the structure detail.

SE first, wind loads, live loads, connections, torsional loads have more effect than the mass of a structure

As above, whatever stud size would be on similar sole plate on top of the steel or other support.

Assuming it is 4.5m long with the room pitch being the 1+ metres then 4x2 is more than sufficient for rafters.

Hi and welcome

I would say the dropped area was a hearth stone

Is it ideal? No. Is it something to worry about? No. Traddies will have seen much worse and it’s been like that for years. Stop worrying, learn from it and carry on.

If you are wanting or needing someone to sign off on something then calcs are needed (or proof load tests). Likewise if you are pushing the boundaries of material compressive and tensile strengths then calcs are a must. Overengineering a small simple structure like a stair is much easier and straightforward, if it looks and feels right then it usually is.

The roof should be supported by the outer walls, rare to find a house of that age that doesn’t have solid internals around stairs etc. as to the sips or builder, I’m guessing you mean sips or brick/block for the extension walls as sips panels would still require a lot of traditional builder work. in your case, as an extension requiring tying into the existing it will be much easier and cheaper to stick to traditional building methods … I.e brick and block.

Permanent formwork isn’t new but the above arrangement seems like a lot of work in joinery, gap/hole sealing and back propping. Beam and block is fast and easy