Barney12

Im not sure he's overly impressed by my choice of blocks

As an aside our nearest neighbour is currently having a double garage built. Pretty simple affair, concrete slab, timber frame, slate roof, timber clad. They're now 8 weeks into the build. 3 weeks of 2 men (boys) to scrape the soil and lay the slab. It was the funniest thing I've ever watched. Two lads with a mini digger and a mini dumper, I'm not sure either of them had a drivers licence yet! In fairness the frame (simple stick frame, 4 walls) went up in a few days. Then there was a delivery of pre-made roof trusses, bloody dozens of them. They're certainly not getting any loft storage! Hand cutting that roof would take a day at best. But over the past 10 days they've been doing the roof. It's been a joy to watch. 2 days to felt, another two days to batten and then the they started the slates. No word of a lie there are two of them; one slates whilst the other sits on a cushion and watches! Yes I did say cushion, it's a nice brown colour, he positions it across the battens and just sits and watches. I reckon it's a good week before they'll finish slating and adding the ridge tiles. I dont know this neigbour but I hope to god they got a fixed price!!!! This is our daily watch from the scaffold. It's like our very own building soap opera across the hedge!

Oh bother I think like many on here I feel your pain. Devon is not renowned for its "forward thinking" and "modern methods of construction". We've certainly had our fair share of "you're doing what?". One local builder practically walked off site in disbelief when I tried to explain a passive slab. "It will be in a new postcode lad when the rain comes". As for roofers, well they appear to be particularly adept in "teeth sucking" which is why in the end I went DIY. As as you say.....if you can't take a joke.

We're using dense concrete blocks for our external skin on the TF. Then traditional render with old fashioned paint. I'm now thinking the blocks are overkill as it obviously has no structural purpose. Another example of being talked into 'old Skool' building methods by the old boys. I guess though the "thermal mass" will be an advantage .....me runs

If you do use those little plastic cones then I wouldn't put them in until you've tied the UFH pipe to the mesh. The weight of people walking on them will just see them collapse. Or perhaps the ones we had were just cheap rubbish I think @PeterW idea is fine. I can't think of a technical reason as to why not too?

Correct. A 1 in 40 fall would be 376mm over a 15m run. Don't worry about the 1mm though There is a nice explanation here with a nice calculator at the bottom of the page! http://www.pavingexpert.com/gradient_01.htm

1:40 is "one unit of fall for every 40 units of run'. so if it was meters it would be 1m of fall in a 40m run.

Hmm do you think I could convince the National Park to let me have one on the basis of the ecological benefits of storing vast quantities of insulation? We only manage to get an extra 10x8 outbuilding by proclaiming it was a "recycling store".

I want 2!

+1

I would imagine I'm next in line. The guys should finish the membranes etc this week (although it's taking them longer than they anticipated). Thats some weight! I hope theyve got got a smaller lorry.

Ooooh eck!

Crickey. How big is your house? I hope they don't think they'll be delivering mine on an lorry that size. It will take them a long time to walk it down a bale at a time

I've been paying 0.39+vat a linear meter for red roofing battens 25x50.

I'm beginning to think the easier option is going to be to remove the ties and place them above the second DPC. Ill talk to the TF guys tommorow. My young nephew will just LOVE pulling all those rink shank nails out

P.S. I recall you're in Devon too? Drop me a PM if you want to see a now dry MBC frame. The guys are here at the moment doing all the airtightness work.

Hi Liz Don't panic. Our MBC frame got drenched for weeks during and after installation, it's rains up here like knowhere ive ever seen (well apart from the Western Isles of Scotland!). Pools of water everywhere (our slab too is far from level). As you say the roofing membrane doesn't keep the water out. Flooring was completely soaked. It will dry dry out relatively quickly once you're watertigh and you're problably going to need a mild bleach solution to wash away that surface mould. The only damage we have as a result of the water is all the floorboard edges have swelled. When the time comes I'm going to have to hit the floor deck with 40g on a belt sander but when I think just how drenched it was that's not any great hardship. Oh oh and if you read through the archives you'll see that I didn't want to build in the winter to stop this very issue. British summertime!! yeh right!!

Yes nailed to outside of membrane I'm off to site shortly and I'll take a picture.

That's sounds doable!

This was a thought I had but it's now going to be a pain to implement as MBC have gas nailed numerous ground tie straps (im not sure what theyre actually called. It's a strap that's nailed to the frame and sits under the blockwork) around the perimeter. They are at exactly the wrong height to allow the detail you describe.

So I have a timber frame with an outer block and render skin. Our external finished ground is going to be level with the slab (including channel drains at every opening). MBC have installed their DPC under the sole plate and lapped it down to the ring beam that supports the blockwork (see image below). I think I've gleaned that standard practice is then to add a second DPC 100-150mm above the external ground level and lap it down onto the frame DPC. Does that sound right? However, where I'm confused is where to put the weep vents? If they go at the bottom then they will be blocked by the external ground. If they go at the higher level then the lower section could just fill up with water. I'm beginning to to think I've got this detail all wrong?

And mean time back in the bathroom.........

My local groundworks guy is known as "The Vicker" locally as he's taken allot of services in his career

Naughty puppy Do you have a small child you can bribe to roll it back up?

The last time I spoke to them they were down to 2 sales people. The rest had left. The entire team (inc admin, warehouse, technical etc) was down to 8! Oh and as you can tell the women who was 'sales admin' wasn't exactly shy in revealing the information of their shrinking team and appalling service. She wasn't exactly a happy bunny as she'd spent 2 weeks in the office on her own whilst the rest had been at a trade show drumming up more business they couldn't service!!