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If your building it yourself then whichever construction method your most au fait with, but as your getting a builder in then id say build it as you would an simple house. b Block,150cavity fullfill,block. Then its very simple and any builder can do it. Makes for easy render and easy internals. 45deg pitch will save a fair bit of hassle,Your going to have to build thay gable end up if you dont match the current roofline. Which leaves you a leaf magnet between the gable and the rhs pitched roof...

Bit late, but if you know any students... the whole of adobe creative suite is free. This includes sixth form students.

Thanks all, so with an arrangement as above, the window isnt on the osb? Is the osb just to give a soilid fixing for plasterboard? Im planning on setting my windows in the cavity but they're going to have to sit on the outer leaf a little bit; 20mm or so, as the brick work isnt neat or square enough. If i've got this wrong let me know but my plan of work is; Cavity closers, Windows on straps from inner leaf, Compriband on the edges, Ply box that butts up to inner frame, Airtightness tape on frame to ply, +Airtight on ply reveal to walls? Plasterboard the reveals Then later.. Full fill eps beads,plaster Window board, sealant ect..

After reading, lots. im still unsure whats a good idea and whats not. My new openings are bare at the moment. Block inner skin, 150mm cavity -full fill eps bead- Block outer skin -to be rendered- Brick window detail on/below sill. Cavity closers still to go in Current windows are set back varying amounts and im looking to replace these later and equalise the setback at the full brick depth. What should i be doing before measuring And ordering? Is there a good way to suppurt windows that are essentially going to be sat above/ within the cavity?

Whats a good method of fixing the small length of batterns needed at the bottom of a valley where two gable ends meet. The wall build up is block,180mm cavity, brick gable detail. Theres a corbel on each gable so theres not a rafter in sight for nearly a meter of roof line. Er help!

One of the many failed wall ties it's easily doubled in thickness

Should anyone be interested... This wasn't half as bad as I'd built it up to be (in my mind) Starting at the top l, the brickwork came down quickly, two afternoons to get to below corbel level. A handy hint, if you want to stop loosening bricks below the course your removing then stop hitting them on the face and take them out front the ends. Rebuilding was pretty quick, I used the screw in wall ties, ant it was much easier to put them before the blockwork than afterwards. Figure out and mark on the wall roughly whereabouts your ties are going, then when it's time to put the block in; offer it up(no mortar bed yet) mark and drill the tie hole15mm above the top of the block, then mortar bed down and lay the block.

I'd say it's kinda impossible to know without a, the original designer telling you or, b. removing them and taking a wait an see approach.. If it were my own house... I would add an extra timber of the same dimension on the left and right, form a 'goal post' arrangement with a cross member of decent size to take any potential rafter sag. Cross member needs to be on top of uprights not screwed to sides At the back of the 'cupboard' I'd add a further triangulation uprights. That would form the rear wall. All this is not really about rafter sag but about roof spread. Looking at those rafters tho, they appear to be quite substantial so perhaps all the above would be excessive... but that method is what I'd feel confident with and its still going to give you extra storage. Edit to add, with the uprights being built before the floorboards I would definitely err on the side of caution and not square the room. They are likely part of the roof structure. A SE would be able to calculate properly if they are superfluous I'd still build the cupboard though, as when a roof meets a floor in a room the space is practically useless anyway.

This is how I did mine,up to a point. You can get eaves trays, lap vents and a dry ridge kit which will allow the passage of air and consequently allow moisture to vent away. You have essentially two roof types in one, a cold roof in your eaves and a warm roof in your loft space. As long as your eave aren't rammed to the soffits and you ridge has vents you'll probably be fine. The gap above the foil, below the tiles/membrane does have to be continuous to the ridge on each rafter bay though. So if your loft insulation doesn't have air flow to the ridge your going to want some vented tiles to provide an exit for the flow of air.

Does anybody know where I can find a comparison table that shows lintels from different manufacturers? eg. What is the ig/Birtley equivalent to a Naylor r6 or a Catnic cg90?

Is there any reason I couldn't close the cavities horizontally at 1st floor level? So far my cavities are very clean, I'm very carefully laying blocks and removing any droppings, even hoovered them out. But as I approach the 1st floor I can't clear any thing that does drop. Would a cavity closure be a bad idea? It's getting eps blown in afterwards. Is it a waste of time and effort?

Great point about the wind, thank you. I'm hoping the inner skin isn't cracked like the outer so it can stay up. But if it is, i'll definitely build a studwall internally like you suggest.

Not sure if this is the best place,but.. I need to take down my gable end and rebuild it. It has wall tie failure and it will, when rebuilt -higher on one side- form a cheek of a new dormer. My question is really abut the process and support for the roof during. It's a purlin/ cut rafter type roof and there is a loft conversion already which has steel running directly under the purlin at floor level with uprights that support the purlin every 100cm or so. I'm thinking that the purlin isn't going to be much of an issue... And the ridge is a board so the rafters are likely going to hold that up. With all the above considered any suggestions precautions do I need when taking the gable down?

I found the planning portal invaluable for this, searching local builds/extensions on the map meant I could see what was being built and you can down load the documents for any particular application. Got lots of ideas and tips just from looking at what had passed planning. There's the whole range from biro on lined paper to full architectural designs. Doing it on building notice means i never submitted any thing to building control past drainage layout and a shed load of money.

pige -cat- ons.. I'm definitely going to be putting a self leveller down, Knauf N430 to be precise. looking at 20mm worth. That would make the max depth of any pipe 60mm and the minimum depth of some pipes 20, I was planning on a floating bamboo floor with an expansion gap on the perimeter and the 20mm thick skirting above the floor. I've used cork edge on a laminate floor before and it worked well, would bamboo be likely to contract more than 20mm from each edge...?