AdamW85

Just realised my pic above of still shows a mitre joint. If i'm right in my interpretation of your proposal @Nickfromwales the mitre joint is not needed. As the slabs will just run into the ACO at that common joint.

Thanks Nick. Agree, ideally i'd not have the ACO drain at the top of the steps. With your proposal, it would introduce a drop along the length of thestep? Assuming your idea is like the attached image?

Evening all. I'm hoping the community can offer me some advice, and maybe an alternative, to a patio drainage problem that I am going round and round in my head on how best to solve. I am re-landscaping the garden and as part of the work re-modelling an old decking area, and introducing a 3 tiered patio and decking mix, as shown below. The reason I'm adding in the middle decking is just to break up such a large patio area and create some contrast. The problem I am trying to solve, is finding the best solution for the drainage, to set the fall of the patio. Points to note that are not shown in the attached images. 1) There is a grassed garden extending on from the patio/decking area. 2) In due course (likely next year) an outdoor undercover eating area will be built, represented by the dashed area in the 3rd image. 3) Slabs are likely to be 800x400 Bradstone Romeli porcelain. 4) I'm an engineer by day, but keen, and pretty handy on the tools. Downside is I overthink things! In terms of drainage, two of the areas are easy: 1) The lower patio (dark blue) can drain off straight into the garden, which is beyond. 2) The decking can drain into a existing drainage that will be under the decking itself. It is the upper patio area that I am unsure of how best to manage. As there will be steps around 2 of the edges, I feel it is best to either drain towards the steps, and have an ACO drain at the start of the steps, or the inverse and drain away from the steps to the house/boundary wall, and have the ACO drain along those edges. I do not think it is wise to have a fall along the length of the steps, purely from a build perspective. But maybe I am wrong on this? Whilst the drainage solution proposed in the image seems sensible, I am not sure how the finished result will be with a mitre joint in the patio. If you were posed with this problem, what would your proposed drainage solution, and fall direction, be? The fact that a large portion of the upper area is likely to be covered makes me think I don't need to worry about drainage on that portion, as water will be minimal. However, if built sometime next year, that would be ~12 months of no cover, and potential problems? Any help or advice you can give would be greatly received.

Afternoon All. Apologies for my delayed replies. I thought I had notifications set to tell me when someone replied. It seems I did not! @Temp I would like to keep the garden side roof height as high as possible, so I don't bang my head and also restrict light into the property. It is quite deep at its deepest, ~4.4m, so any pitch has a big impact on this height. Height of the roof at the back wall of the house will be ~ 2.9m (topside) I am not keen on a flat roof, as the coverings are never pretty. So I was thinking as shallow as possible to get away with a pantile style tile. Something in the region of 5deg. Less than the minimum prescribed pitch, but given its an outside seating area (i.e. not a weatherproof habitable space), it doesn't need to be watertight as such, and building control might allow it. If it does need to be watertight, was thinking the same, but with some EPDM (or similar) beneath the tile to act as the watertight layer, and the tile on top for cosmetic. Open to suggestions though. Just want it to look nice and fit with the traditional style of the structure/house. @Alan Ambrose Yes there will be a roof. The only reason to build it is to have somewhere to sit in the glaring sun/rain. I was thinking mortice and tenon for the main joints. Is there a standard size for the mortice for a given beam size? Would the same go for the knee braces into the upright and beams? If I do put a shallow pitch on the roof, then birdsmouth would probably be the way to go for the rafters I think. And yes, the plan is to have small brick pillars ~5/6 courses high with a chamfered pillar on top, for the main upright posts to sit on. Any suggestions on how to finish the structure on the LH and RH property boundary? If there are 4 upright posts with a main lateral beam, would you just run the rafters from the back wall of the house to the lateral full width? Or have something different on the outer most edges?

Hi, I hope this is in the right forum location. Not strictly house construction, but is timber! Looking to build an outdoor seating area, with a oak frame construction and flat roof. Being an engineer, i'm have a high (an sometimes annoying) attention to detail. I have worked with wood quite a bit, but never anything of this scale, or in oak. I would like to keep it traditional looking, with knee braces and ideally pegs to hold the structure together. Attached is a plan view of the area. Made a little more complicated by the shape, but not too bad. I am thinking 4 main posts (ideally 8" square - shown red). Timber attached to the wall (orange), a main lateral beam (green) with rafters coming out to meet the posts/main lateral beam (blue). Spacing of beams is not accurate, just to show principle. A couple of key points I am unsure of: The timber size to use for the wall beam, rafters and main lateral (assuming 8" square posts) The best joint design to use at the point the upright posts will meet the main lateral beam and the rafters from the wall Is it better to use wooden pegs to hold the structure together, or counterbored bolts with a peg purely for aesthetics Can anyone direct me to some literature regarding these points, and also any general construction best practice would also be useful. I'm confident in my ability to physically manufacture the parts, but its the detail design that I am unsure of! Any help or advice would be much appreciated.