MarkH
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Everything posted by MarkH
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Since that post the bath idea has been scrapped. Not for lack of HW reasons or for compliance (that'd be very unlikely to be raised by our BC), just to use the space in our bathroom more effectively.
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We had an interesting conversation yesterday - what would the minimum height be from which you could drop a £6000 window and still destroy it? An inch?
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I do @SteamyTea. They're gathering dust, much like i did whilst building it. Itchy dust.
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We built a 10m catamaran (that we consequently sailed across the Atlantic) in a polytunnel, it was a great workshop. Our tunnel weathered several gales and from that experience I'd say make your doors well, as you can see from the photo - ours were crap. I had to venture out in my pyjamas on a couple of windy occasions to lash them up. The 'hotspot' tape many 'tunnel companies offer as an extra was worthwhile, preventing chafe on the cover and extending it's life considerably. The chap who inherited the polytunnel from us didn't bother with the tape and his sheeting showed signs of wear within a year. Tunnels get hot. I got tired of boatbuilding in scorching greenhouse temperatures and then one day - idly pondering the greenhouse effect, albedo and other things whilst sweatily sanding fiberglass - the idea of some white cloud cover in the form of an arctic camoflague net came out of nowhere: instant, permanent cirro-cumulus! It worked a treat.
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After some dithering we built our own. We were going to spend £1500 on an off the shelf shed but built this one for a hundred quid less. It's WAY better. Much more robust, secure and solid than the bought sheds I've seen. The roof pitch is angled to suit the PV panels, as a useful consequence of that there's loads of space in the roof. It was fun to build too.
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I had a play around on iwood.co.uk - it's a very good website for comparison of species and general pricing up. I then went to my local mill who were helpful but didn't have very 'green' green oak or douglas fir so I looked further afield and got some high prices compared to iwood. I phoned them, had a long chat with a couple of the people there and ordered the timber for our trusses three weeks ago. After good and clear comms from iwood It arrived today. All seems well. It is very heavy.
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I-Beams in, no drama. It was a lot of fun. We hired a telehandler with a 10m arm. I went to our local hire place and asked if they had "a thing for lifting stuff over a five meter wide house". The guy took us round to the yard, jumped in the machine and extended the arm, I said "that'll do" and next morning they left the beast at the end of our lane. I like that in the age of the hi-vis vest you can hire a large machine like that without going on a course or having a certificate, or wearing a hi-vis vest.
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Yep, the lady behind the counter said the new prices would kick in when their existing stock ran out. She reckoned brexit was to blame. Don't know if that was the official excuse though...
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A note on the counter in our local Jewson yesterday said CLS was going up 18%, aircrete blocks up 22% and most other stuff 5-10%.
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I've emailed him, just thought I'd ask here anyway - just making eye-contact with the SE costs £65... His drawings only mentioned the purlin size, not the location of any joints.
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The main bit of our house is just under 11m long and therefore the purlins (200x100mm green oak) aren't going to be single lengths as 11m+ oak isn't easy to come by. So given I'll be using a couple of lengths where should I scarf them together? Close to one of the four trusses? In the middle?
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S.E. didn't think so. Our walls are dense block on flat so there's a fair bearing surface there. I've got a bit of steel plate knocking about, I guess using that would make sense. I'm not anticipating much shimming: the guy who did the block-work for us is old school - mm accurate. Or rather 1/32" accurate. Thanks fellas!
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Ok. That's very helpful, thanks. We've got some old slates knocking about, they'll do!
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What's good to use as packing?
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Thanks! No bolts specified.
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I've got two 6m steel I-beams to serve as the lintel above a sliding glass door, one to support a mezzanine and one more to serve as the ridge beam in part of our build. We're rust-proofing at the mo and I've got to weld some roof timber related stuff on the mezzanine beam but after that they'll be going onto the walls. We have substantial walls - 215mm dense concrete block laid on flat - so no padstones required. I've a couple of things I'd appreciate advice on though: Is it usual to just sit beams on blocks or should I put a slip-plane of some kind (like some dpc) between the steel and the block? On similar lines I've got about six courses of blocks to lay on top of the window lintel-beams - again, slip-plane required? DPC? Thanks anyone who can point me at the right way!
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Thanks! The shed is OSB/breather/battens/shiplap. It's suprisingly warm and pleasant inside - maybe the caravan would make a better shed and the shed a better caravan... Guttering, facias and miscellaneous things still left to do. They're on the list. It's a temporary structure officially, the shed is built on the garage slab and at some point, post-house, we'll want to get on with that. We've considered moving the shed into the woods then, chucking in some insulation and alpine decor and letting it out to tourists.
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After all that talk about crappy off-the-shelf sheds and photos of people's projects I pretty much had to build my own. Here it is: Yeah, the window is off-center - measure twice...
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Slab Insulation, UFH and Mesh
MarkH replied to MarkH's topic in Energy Efficient & Sustainable Design Concepts
Ha. We had a last-minute dither about putting the manifold in the loft space and having included extra pipe length in case of mishap thought we'd leave that option open. It is somewhat linear. The planning permission was granted based on the new building sitting on the footprint of the 18th century cottage which was a traditional 'rectangle with small lean-too attached' (there is a name for it, I forget...) hence the layout. Room width is 4.8M in the large section, 3.4 in the small bit. Overall area - 70.5m2. P/A = 0.67 Anyone want 100m of UFH pipe? -
Slab Insulation, UFH and Mesh
MarkH replied to MarkH's topic in Energy Efficient & Sustainable Design Concepts
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The beer bricks would've worked if we'd heard about them a couple of weeks ago... Based on the main gist of the above - bought sheds are crap - I'm going to price materials to self build something tomorrow. Don't really want to go down the container/site cabin/caravan route as they'd have to get in here and be manouvered onto the garage slab which now the house is at floor level would be tricky.
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I know the general idea on here is: build your own! And I'd usually lean that way. But I've got a shoebox-sized caravan spare room currently overflowing with all our tools, our off grid battery bank and bits, work clothes, stuff... Now our garage slab is poured I'm sorely tempted to order a 20' by 10' shed today and whack it on there asap. Can anyone recommend a shed company?
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Morning, Is it essential to fill the UFH pipes before the slab concrete is poured onto them? I've heard rumours to that effect but can't see why it's be necessary given they're only 50mm beneath the surface and seem more than rigid enough to take the slight pressure.
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Slab built on walls - how to avoid cold bridge.
MarkH replied to MarkH's topic in General Construction Issues
You're not wrong. But we don't plan to have insulation or screed over the slab - it's all below. Still screws us up though. I've come up with a path ahead I think.