Alan Ambrose

OK let me ask the dumb question, I thought that's one of the reasons we love plasterboard in the UK?

With £30K at risk, I would spend an hour or two and (a) read the CIL rules on the .gov website twice and (b) read every CIL thread here on BH. There are a few gotchas described in the threads. LPAs seem to be quite variable in general - mine is fair-ish on CIL and apparently arrogant and unscrupulous and crazy slow on planning. I can email my LPAs CIL people and ask them ‘can I do this without invalidating my self-build CIL exemption’ and I’ll get a thorough and helpful reply. CIL is, of course, a revenue raising activity and the rules are fragile.

I think most tile adhesive won’t last through a frost cycle or two and the tiles are likely to be slippy too? I would expect frost to be problem also for a cement fillet. Maybe a bunch of waterproofing with some gravel grid on top? Paint on Bitumen maybe? Maybe there’s some ideas or some components you can borrow from flat roof design?

For elec & fibre etc, I would think a diamond core drill would zip through the block easily enough. Waste pipe might be a bit more of a challenge but doable.

That looks quite a tricky-ish problem and I think you’ll need a big-arse petrol cutter to get through a 100mm slab, which means you won’t be cutting v close to the building. Maybe with an operator if you have not done it before - I haven’t either, but I’ve helped keep the disk wet with a hose while someone else did the skilled work . You could trim off most of the biggest bit though within say 150mm of the wall. Should cut through the rebar also. Is that the swa lying loose by the edge? Can you pin it up or remove it temporarily? The cutting will be noisy and a bit dusty and take maybe 30mins, but everything else’ll be quiet so shouldn’t disturb anyone. Personally, I don’t hate the flashband solution.

Can I ask? Were the DNO & Openreach happy with one joint kiosk for a combination of power & data?

Well we can probably all agree that there are some health risks to building, some people are unlucky and we sympathise, and that we prefer all on BH to be careful - if only so they can answer everyone else's questions .

I think they’ll want drawings before they’ll start the clock, do you have those already? Look up your LPA in the gov stats (or look at similar applications on the LPA’s portal) to get an idea of real timescales.

Worth a try, but depends a lot on your LPA.

Yeah, definitely interested.

I think one of the main brands is Euromat, but there are a bunch of others. 1.2x2.4m mostly with various means to hold them together and various load ratings. This kind of thing: https://startsafety.uk/ground-protection/ground-protection-mats

Anyone have some go to ground protection mats they use? For say <5T rather than properly heavy stuff. Site is fairly slippery atm and I have a SPT rig making a mess right now and 'not knowing' how they will move to the next position. Also why is hire for a day or two only slightly cheaper than buying the thing in the first place?

>>> I don’t get this idea of suing (unless it was negligence, ) the dangers of asbestos were not known initially and only contribute to 4% of lung cancers. In think it’s this - the government is ‘insurer of last resort’ whether that’s supporting failing banks or energy suppliers or thalidomide sufferers or postmasters or lessees of flats in buildings with inflammable cladding. That is, all members of society sometimes need to put their hand hands in their pockets to support some citizens who are disadvantaged - especially if this is due to circumstances which are not their own fault. Of course, the government usually does that by setting up complex rules about who gets what and how and who is excluded and those rules will sometimes need to be challenged. And 4% doesn’t seem a big deal unless you happen to be one of them.

I’m sure the fixings have plastic or rubber ‘washers’ so no part of the metal fixing actually touches the glass, no? Assume that’s toughened and, say, 10mm so properly strong? If you don’t wrench on it like a crazy person, you’ll be fine. I would do firm finger tight and then 1/2 a turn to be gentle. Are they pig-nosed, I can’t see?

Well whoever put them in must have thought they were necessary otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered. i wonder whether there’s a clever way to find out how much load they’re supporting? What’s above them?

Actually we have a friend who died from emphysema, probably caused by asbestos. He was a stage manager, probably picked it up from some tunnels in the ICA where he worked for a bit. There is a government compensation programme which is not too difficult to access given how hard it is normally to get funds out of the government. i wonder whether @ks6788 is going to to tell us what results he got?

I’m seeing typical beam & block as, say, 300kg/m^2 allowed loading and scissor lifts at say 1,000. e.g. https://www.hybridlifts.com/ansi/GoHyer/2021/What-is-Floor-Load-and-how-do-Scissor-Lifts-Stack-Up.htm An example spider is 1,500kg over say 6m^2 i.e. 250 kg/m^2 e.g. https://www.siteheight.com/spider-lift-hire-13-80 So, not that far off the designed floor loading? @markc any thoughts?

Yeah it is heavy. We used a ladder on a bit of a slope with a couple of step ladders on either side and someone to jamb a plank above the ladder rung immediately under the roll. So, two guys on stepladders either side. Sequence was - two step ladder guys lift roll up a few feet. Guy with plank jambs it under roll to hold it. Step ladder guys go up a few feet. Rinse and repeat. Don’t have the slopey ladder stick up too much above the roof otherwise the last lift is more tricky. I like epdm a lot.

I’m also interested in one as I’ll have vaulted ceilings. Is there a floor loading problem with these though? I’m sure they work on a concrete floor slab, but would they be too heavy for some floor types?

Welcome, I don’t know of any other water engineers on here so your skills will be valuable. What’t the plot availability like in yorkshire?

Is that internal or external footprint btw?

@nod - what’s the usual method of getting these in the right place? I could see that even a few inches out might be tricky in some circumstances.

Well there’s are so many ways in physics to generate heat from electricity so suggest one of those mechanisms are involved. If you can get over the initial shaky camera and compulsive mcb switch operation this is interesting: https://youtu.be/gOUSDDLKICk Mike is always good value on this type of investigation. I had no idea how complex RCBOs are both electrically and mechanically. Which begs the question what’s inside more complex devices llike afdds etc.

Could be overheating failure I guess as it's running at about 38A vs. max of 40A if your numbers are correct. That's a lot of power. These days the cables in the consumer unit should be torqued using a proper torque driver. So, it's also possible that a slightly loose-ish connection has been arcing.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/05/fears-of-new-uk-cladding-crisis-after-blaze-destroys-timber-frame-homes It never ends…