Porthole

Hi there Be grateful for your comments. We have an integral garage and the builders have built a stud frame on the external wall to hide some pipes but the stud is coming off the wall quite a bit, so you lose roughly 150mm of the room, maybe because he is trying to square up the room. The garage is fairly narrow to start with so this does make the room a lot narrower. Can you please tell me if this is a necessary buildings regs requirement because we are converting a garage to habitable space? Bit disappointed about how much room we are losing. It was going to be a gym so didn't need to be too warm really. Many thanks

Can I please ask is Hammerite no 1 anti rust beater OK to use on an old steel beam which has signs of rust? It's still sound and structural engineer said just sand and treat with galvanoid. I can't find galvanoid so just thought I'd get what I could from Screwfix Thank you

Hi All Be really grateful for your comments on this one please. We've got our tiler coming on Wednesday to do 3 bathrooms but the builders are struggling with first fix. We came to site yesterday and the Hansgrohe ibox was dripping - looked like it was from the top but could be a leak from the bottom of the ibox - not clear. Please can I ask what is generally done in order to test the pipes and connections to one of these? I spoke to our bathroom shop and they said that the top cover of the valve is needed to test the ibox for leaks, as it is not watertight without it and it will leak. I'm just very nervous about whether the pipes are going to be water tight before the tiles go on. The builder said they had tested the pipes so when we saw the leaks, we were rather concerned. (Some of the leaks in the photo are from the caps put on the end of the pipes, so nothing to worry about, but the ibox one was quite worrying) Thank you very much!!

Thanks Nick for your tips

Many thanks Nick - that's really helpful. Tiler is installing ditra anyway so that's good. We'll make sure heating is turned down!!! I thought it was a bit high - should trust our instinct next time.

Hi there Had a sand and cement screed said about 3 weeks ago (approx). There is a hairline crack now which is at 45 degrees to the corner of a wall (which supports a steel). The heating has been on at around 40 degrees constantly over last week or so. Don't know if that has caused it. Please can someone tell me what should be done. The builder spoke about raking it out and then putting latex in. Tiler didn't think you need to worry about hairline cracks only if bigger say 10mm. Your views gratefully received. Many thanks

Thanks - good to have an explanation for why different pipes are used. Some plastic ones are thinner than the others though and just wondered if that matters from pressure etc point of view. If that is ok, should the only issue be the connections between the different pipes? Thanks

Hello Please can someone tell me if it matters if different types and sizes of pipes are used to plumb the house? We have all manner of stuff being used - didn't know if it affected pressure or anything. Is plastic just as good as copper these days? I've never come across it - we've always had copper pipes installed by the plumbers in the past. In one bathroom, they have used copper to connect to the shower valve, in the other it is plastic. I asked why and they just said it was what was available. Be grateful for your thoughts. Thanks again

ok thanks

Thanks for your reply - do you mean Damp Proof Course on the ground (apologies if this sounds a silly question - we're new to this)? The builders have put a membrane on the ground as new screed etc has been laid. There would just be original slate (I think) damp proof course in the old bricks themselves. Does that help? Thanks

OK that's reassuring - thanks all for your views. I'd heard that mortar shrinks and cracks and isn't so good but I am guessing that small amounts are OK where he is plugging gaps?

The bricks crumble when you touch them and bits fall off so assumed they are broken in places. You can put your finger in quite far in some cases. Some hairline cracks too in the bricks. Thanks

Hi there Your help would be much appreciated on this one. We have solid brick walls and the inner skin of bricks is cracked (see photos). How should the inner skin of bricks be repaired? The builder is using mortar to fill the gaps and then going to use Thistle Hardwall over the top then skim. Should hairline cracks be filled with epoxy resin? How big a gap can be filled with mortar? I've heard that mortar shrinks so is this a bad idea? Thank you very much once again!

Hi there I'm having a sand and cement screed laid this week over 100 sq metres. Does anyone know how long it takes before you can walk on it? Builder thinks next day without boards. They plan to put large rooflights in next day involving 8 men so concerned about footfall on my newly laid screed. Many thanks

Hi there We are putting underfloor heating down on an existing part of the house and the builder is suggesting 20mm celotex with 16mm pipes on top, then 55 mm sand and cement screed with fibres in it on top of the celotex so 39mm minimum above the pipes (there will be more screed in other areas but this is the minimum it will be). Is 39mm sand and cement screed with fibres ok or is it a bit too thin. On top of that there will dietramat and porcelain tiles which are 6mm thick (long planks). Thank you very much

It's a warm roof. He has put them on the insulation as the roof is large and needs to slope both side to side and front to back. Can't change it now if it is wrong unfortunately - says they do it all the time on newbuilds and it is all signed off by building inspector. Fingers crossed!

Please can I ask an urgent question before I meet builder this morning: Should firings on warm deck flat roof sit on joists or insulation? If firings are wet when roof installed, does it matter? Thanks!!!!!

Thank you very much for your support on this

Thank you very much. We are a bit concerned about attaching the backer boards to the brick wall behind the layer of hardwall as it would be impossible to see where the mortar lines are. During the course of the build, the builder has been telling us how hard the bricks are mortar are. Also, is there a chance that the bricks would crack behind the hardwall and we wouldn't be aware of that? What would be best fixings to go into very tough bricks if we cannot see where we are going in? Is it the hammer fixings you mention above, or can some kind of nail gun work? Sorry - I am not a tradesperson - just a homeowner so this is all new to me. Thank you once again.

Hi Nod, our tiles are 8 mm porcelain tiles which weight about 20 kg per m2, but after grout and adhesive of say 4kg per m2 we will be above the limit for plaster skim. They are pretty standard porcelain tiles (600 x600mm ) but sounds like they will be too heavy for plaster skim and we will need backer boards. Do you know if the backerboards can be stuck to the hardwall?

Hello Thank you for your response - giving me some hope. Please can I ask what the weight limit is for solid skimmed walls and where I can find this? So, if we get them to skim the hardwalled walls, then we should be ok with our tiles which are around 20kg before adhesive, if they tile onto the plaster skimmed walls? Thank you very much

Thank you both for your replies - my mind is at rest!!! Much appreciated

Hi Nick Thank you for your reply - that is reassuring and helpful. With your bathroom experience, can I please also another question regarding tiling? Our builder has used hardwall on the solid brick walls of our house. In the bathroom, he has put moisture board around some parts of the room but the rest is just hardwalled with no plaster skim on top. Our tiler said that he could not tile on the hardwall, and it needs to be either skimmed or plaster boarded. Our tiles are quite heavy 19.4kg per sq metre so we thought that plasterboard would be better. The problems is space is becoming an issue as the builder did not anticipate this. The builder has suggested that a primer is used on top of the hardwall then it would be fine to tile onto this. I'm not keen on just plaster skim as our tiles are rather heavy. My preference would be for some kind of boards - plaster board or tile backer boards screwed into the bricks with stainless steel screws. If the builder just won't do this, or there just isn't room now, then would the primer on top of the hardwall be ok and strong enough to hold porcelain tiles? Many thanks! Kind regards Sui

Hi there Be really grateful for your comments on this- am having MAJOR panic!! We have a 1930s house with solid brick walls (no cavity). The builder has hardwalled half of the house applying PVA first I think. But we have just read about how hardwall would not be the first choice for solid brick walls due to damp penetration. This is a major blow for us as half the house has been done and they are in the process of slapping more onto the walls tomorrow. Can anyone tell me whether we should stop them in their tracks before they hardwall the whole house? If it is not good news, we were thinking maybe we could use the Limelite brick and stone protector which reduces the amount of water absorption by the bricks by 98% if used on the outside of the house. The reason the builder used hardwall is because there are some broken bricks and he says it helps to bind everything together. Our tiler has also said that he cannot tile onto hardwall in the bathrooms. He said he needed the walls to be dot and dabbed with moisture resistant plaster or skimmed. I am thinking that skimming is not that good an idea as I understand it takes 20kg per sq metre of weight and our tiles are on the borderline for this. Therefore maybe moisture resistant plaster is better. However, please can someone tell me how to apply the green plasterboard to the hardwall as presumably if this does not bond well to the tiles then it is no different from trying to stick the tiles to the hardwall directly. Would be really grateful for your comments ASAP, as this is a bit of an urgent issue. We have bags of hardwall up to the ceiling in some of the rooms so I need to know if this is the correct stuff to do. Thank you soo much!!!!!

THank you for your reply, There is a cover in front of the pipe but I guess I can get inside if it is taken off. Yes drain was already there so saved coring another hole in the wall.