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The roofer has started and says valley boards are not needed. We have 10 valleys in total all with GRP valley trays. All valleys have a double valley beam. So he placed the GRP valley straight over. Is that going to be an issue and how?

It seems I need to close the cavity somehow so I can sit the patio door frames over it, the "low threshold" door frame is 136mm plus two small ramps, total 236mm Even though on ground floor, there is an underground space below, and the cavity is a void extending maybe as much as 2.5m-3m underground. Can I simply bridge the cavity, as an example with blocks laying flat just at the patio doors area?

Could you please advise me? I am trying to choose two patio doors and having trouble deciding with thresholds, cills etc. I attach a diagram and some photos I took earlier on. I would like to avoid the plastic cill that comes with the door and is 30mm tall, maybe I might order an oak 30mm cill instead, or maybe nothing, just sit the frame on the brickwork. What elements am I missing from my diagram? https://imgur.com/a/PV881Zt

Thanks. Now they have torn down and re-made this section, a bit more square this time.

OK I was just there and I can see whats happening.

I am not sure I follow. It looks like this. Is something missing?

In that photo, there is a 300mm cavity wall which becomes 250mm cavity wall. There is 50mm cavity insulation followed by 25mm insulation where the cavity gets narrower.

Can I lodge smaller chunks of insulation here and there to "push" the main insulation firmly against the blocks right at the top where there are no wall ties and retainers? I am the builder as in I hire the trades in, but have not got a professional supervisor. Trades most often do not care about anything that goes on around them.

OK now I get it, the insulation must be firmly attached to the inner skin, and in places it is not. So we need to stick it on as best as we can before we lose easy access to it from the top. I believe it is just the very top course, as they were working off of trestles. I will go around and check tomorrow.

That is YET another problem you have spotted there. There is a normal 100mm cavity wall, followed by an older style 50mm cavity wall. But in reality the cavity is 140mm and 90mm at the top couple of courses. Those bricklayers... Yes I know! I do not know how badly the rafters are skewed by, but it is visible as you can see. I do not think they have nailed in all the tops yet, as you can see on the photo, I will have a more definitive picture may be tomorrow. Exactly!

Hello everyone, I would like some advice. A couple of weeks ago, the carpenters who are building my roof, made a mistake and set a large part of the rafters at the right hand side lower than the left hand side by about 30-40mm. They cut really large bird mouths as seen on the photo. Eventually they accepted it was wrong and they stripped it out and reset it with new timbers and proper birds mouths. Now at least my fascias and soffits will be at the same level, left and right side of the house. However I have now noticed that the new rafters are now skewed to the right. That means that the rafters do not meet the ridge or the wall plate at right angles. I was told this is because they followed the right hand side wall (a gable wall) which is "off". Thinking practically, once it is tiled and the inside boarded with plasterboard, I will not see the rafters anymore. But can there be other implications I am missing? And should I ask them to strip it all out again?

Yes that's true, I climbed up the scaffold today, there are a couple of things that could slow someone down.

Hello everyone, we are building two gables, 13.5m across, 3m tall. Brickwork and blockwork cavity. Blocks are around 10kg each. I have estimated around 20m2 each gable. But due to the triangular shape it may be a bit harder. The brickwork will be stepped (so easier to do). How could I estimate this job in terms of man-days?

This is a better sketch

This is ground floor. There is no SVP anywhere near those two bathrooms. And there is no connections for sinks and showers.

Hello everyone, We are building two new bathrooms in the middle of the house and we have passed a soil pipe to serve both of them as in the diagram, which shows where the two toilets will go. It has just dawned on me that there is no allowance for sinks and shower trays waste pipes. I am also not sure about connecting two toilets on the same waste pipe. Could someone please advise me how this waste pipe system should be done?

I did ask very, very politely, but the portaloo company refused, after, "I need to ask my manager". I suppose they want to avoid any remotely possible trouble and there is nothing in it for them. Maybe ask their bank to freeze their account?

Hello everyone, I am signing with a different name to avoid any potential issues. We live in the south east, south west of London. Last July we employeed a builder to build us a significant house extension. The builder has taken our money and has disappeared. We have gone to our legal advice team for help and we are building a case of letters, emails, invoices etc to send to the lawyers so they can tell us if they want to pursue the case. In the mean time I am now taking control of the site and today I had the portaloo replaced. The driver who delivered said only last week he collected from a young couple in a nearby area who had also been stung by the same builders and lot a lot of money. The driver also mentioned another handful of similar cases with the same builders in the past few months. I asked the driver to pass on my details to them. The portaloo company, who are also owed money, refused to pass me those client details or to pass my details onto them. This is where we are now, hoping I will somehow find who those other clients who have also been defrauded are, so we can move together. Any advice will be most welcome! Many thanks shares