LSB

Morning Next question, we have a wall of 18.4m with rooms split into 5m, 4.5m and the rest one room at 8.9m The internal walls are solid rather than stud walls The 8.9m has 2 sets of opening doors of 2m. This is block / block obviously tied together. Does this need any additional strengthening to be stable. I do have SE drawings, which includes a steel frame to support the flat roof, but it's not obvious if there should be a pillar along this wall. It may be that I don't understand the drawings and the marks in the wall are steels, they just seem very small. We are also not having bi-folds now, but sliders, not sure if that makes any difference. Just spotted this on one of the other drawings I guess this is a steel, as in the thing called Wind Post. Thanks

I plan on wood or aliclad windows, but won't be buying from Screwfix or B&Q 🙂 I am going to get a window company, this is our long term home so don't want to cut too many corners. There are places to save money and some to be more careful.

Morning Lovely Monday morning, sun shining, but inside looking at plans and building Basic question, I have a wall that is 4685 long, block/block build, this equates to 10.41 blocks, where does the part block go. I assume not at the end as that is a corner and I guess that needs full blocks for ease. There is a window in the wall, 1405 in from the external end of the outside block, which, of course, also doesn't meet and exact block size. This conundrum is obviously going to happen on every wall as we are fixed to the exact size by existing building. Thanks Jill

We had started preparing the site and the underpinning, but the building regs weren't actually signed off so I need to talk to the BCO to find out what he thinks. We are using a private BCO so not sure if that will make any difference, I gave him some money a while ago, but not before June last year. He's been out for trenches and foundations and the underpinning, but which regs we need hasn't actually been mentioned.

we haven't made the final decision on window supplier, there is one locally that is highly recommended, but quite expensive or the big boys who are slightly cheaper, but not so easy to get back if there are any problems. trouble with building is the number of decisions, we've only just decided to go block / block versus ICF, that decision took weeks of going around in circles We are actually doing a conversion which made the decision in the end as we have to keep some of the barn walls and then double skin them which is straight forward with blocks. The thermal bridge on the join and DPC need working out as the barn doesn't have anything. It was quite difficult to get planning so we didn't look into suppliers until we had that sorted and all the conditions discharged in case it all went pear shaped.

I hope so 🙂 My designer also doesn't really get what I want which is why the plans that were drawn some time ago are not as accurate as I would like. As we are DIY self builders, me the paper side HID the builder I want to make it as easy as possible for him. He is an experienced builder, but has always just be told, do that over there and never given any thought to why or if it is the best option which is where I come in. We are also making some changes to save money, losing a few windows, not having sliders or bi-folds, that sort of thing which all needs to be configured. The original one in the company was okay, but he left and we have been handed over to one 200 miles away who has never been to site which I think is a hindrance. HID says it's easy to cut blocks in half, but not small bits. As I can't even lift up a block then I'm not involved in that bit.

our local household auction has Henry's every week that sell for about £20 plus their sizeable commission, we have had our henry for 25+ years and he has been heavily used and abused. That saying HID bought a bigger one at said auction, exactly like a Henry but twice the size specifically for the new build as I need Henry in the house. He has outlived probably 8 Dyson's which can't cope with cat hairs, dog hairs, horse hairs (my hair) and lots of dirt from all the above. So, you could investigate if you have such an auction locally to you.

OMG - well done, but I'm now worried, haven't even thought about any of this sort of thing yet.

just updated my spreadsheet (I love a spreadsheet, just one field and it does all the work), but helps if you type it right in the first place Surely, it does matter what size the openings are, if French doors come is sizes with increments of say 25cm then we will need to allow that size plus the frames to fit. Am I overthinking this. I haven't spoken to the windows people yet as I want to understand before I do.

we don't want made to measure, we are having to be very cost conscious due to the huge price rises since we did our first costing a few years ago, so looking at ways to save by having standard sizes, but don't know what that means. the wall is block / block for render & cladding and the block size is 440 * 215 * 100 The total wall is 18.4m which equates to 41 blocks plus 10 joint mortar, obviously there are supports where there will be internal walls otherwise it would not be very stable.

Good afternoon I always read that to save costs you should use standard door and window sizes, but what are they. No where have I been able to find this out. Is it within a range and 10cm or something like that. I want 4 sets of french opening doors, but I don't mind if they are anything between 2m and 2.5m, preferably down the middle at 2.300 as that fits in with 5 block sizes of 450 + 10 mortar and would only mean cutting every other block. Any I just simplifying it too much TIA

Wish we could, no road side, not allowed paths or driveway (in the countryside), but we do have 24m to do in 1 hit so will use this for 2m, so only 4m in question and we are thinking about doing other walls as well. The problem is that we have to keep the walls and if we dig too much they might 'fall' down, not that I would mind, but the LPA might.

we are converting a barn which means we have to keep walls and the SE has specified underpinnining of the 6m in question, and more, but that will be tackled separately

Right, thanks all, I haven't made this clear, this is only for 6m, so 2 x 1m three times. For the normal trenches (24m) we are having ready mix with pump, we can time this for the same time for one lot of 2m, but still have the others two to do. But, can you get readymix for a slump of about 100 which is what was specified. The other nuisance is we have to reinforce each time so that it's tied into the next bit of underpinning. If we had lots to do in one go then we would definitely get volumetric. But, it sounds like we may have to bite the bullet due to the SE and BCO.

Hello We have some underpinning to do, current barn foundations are about 40-50 cm but we need 100cm SE says we have to do 1m at a time to reduce the risk of any collapse, so 1m, leave 2m, do 1m, leave 2m etc. So, as it's going to be a manual dig (we've cleared the surface junk with digger), are we okay to use the mixer and do our own for this. BC will need to inspect lots as there will be 4 runs, but getting a readymix delivery for such a small amount is rather pricy compared with the amount per cubic metre for the trench. TIA

We had a soil contamination survey where they did 4 trial holes, but that was looking for contamination as it was a conversion, there was also movement trials which were inspected monthly for 3 months, no movement found. The SE that did the original survey to check the barn was strong enough to convert also did some trial holes (3) to check the depth of the existing foundations, but he just said that it was fine although it would need some underpinning, this was an individual small company. The SE that did the contamination then did the full structural drawings, but as they had been to site already they didn't come back and just looked at studies and what they already had, despite us asking them to come out. We dug a trial trench the whole length of the 24m wall which is where the measurements of soil type come from and sent this to the SE and he just said, ask building control. The barn had 3 walls so the 4th side is simple as it's new and is what we are building now. This is the one where we have the question about depth of concrete and vibration.

What did you commission him to do, full project management or just drawings and and was this all specified on the original quotation. In other words do you think he's done more than the 35% that you have paid him for. If not then just send him a letter / email / text / carrier pigeon to say that you no longer require his services and if he responds with a bill ask him to specify exactly what the bill's for. Also, surely if you commissioned the company, which no longer exists then you would have heard from the insolvency auditors if you owed him money as they would have looked at the debts he had and the monies owed. He must have had debts otherwise he wouldn't be bankrupt. You could try asking the citizens advice bureau as well. As you have said you need to be well clear of him to progress in your build, I hope you can at least use some of his drawings and good luck

we do have a laser, need to find it and set up and find the tripod or something to put it on.

thank ProDave, but the complication here is that HID want to use concrete rather than blocks to fill the trench so he doesn't have to lay foundation blocks under the ground. Thinking about it, the lower ground isn't that much difference to the rest that it will affect deep concrete. Thanks for the advice.

Taking cost out of the equation knowing it's way more expensive. If we have a trench of 1m depth as specified by the SE, to make things quicker for slow DIY self builder is it going to cause any issues getting the concrete trench filled to 775m, i.e. 1 block below ground level. This particular length is 24m, 18m turning to 6m so L shape. I assume this will need vibrating, is this going to work with concrete of 3/4 m deep or is there a different mix that will sink without air holes, drying time isn't a particular issue as lots of other things to get on with. What is the minimum and maximum concrete depth you can lay to build a wall on. On the back wall of the build our SE has specified a depth of 2.4m for wall of 24m where a corner approx. 6m * 6m which 'may' be clay, but has said that BC have final decision about depth for different parts of the wall. The field behind that side, which is 3m higher, has large patches of clay hence this assumption and a geological ? (can't remember the proper term) survey/map showing lines of clay in the area. I'm hoping we can use step foundations for the back wall as the whole wall is 24m long so we don't want to do 2.4 for the whole lot just to make the bottom level. I've seen some pictures of those in some blogs on this site, bit dangerous due to possible collapse. How does laying the concrete work on this. The soil along that wall is thought to be 6m clay, 12m loam, 6m sand / loam all with some gravel mixed in. As a brownfield barn conversion site it's difficult to really see what's there. TIA

spoke to concrete supplier this week, they will poor at whatever the temperature is, if you ask, but you have to 'signoff' the risk if temp is lower than 2 degrees

we decided to try a water level, cheap and cheerful, first one arrived, only a plastic tube and no syringes to measure. returned and another one ordered so going to try today. We know it's not level so that will be a good start as it will be easy to get more accurate. There is one patch that is quite a bit lower, we have plenty of spare soil to top up, but that will then need to be shored up for trench as it won't be solid enough. First though is persuading the dumper / digger to start in negative temperature.

ooh, that's a nice shiny bit of kit which HID would want instantly if he saw it

What is a Dumpy, not heard of them

Hi we do have a laser level that sits on a tripod, I will try that