saveasteading

Unnecessary with a good and thorough brickie. But it does ensure that excess is not poking into the cavity, and that it is compressed. I think I might even pay a little extra for that. Flush should suffice though. How to check? Brickwork before inner block, makes it visible. Alternatively stick a hand down the cavity and feel between the bricks. Some 'brickies' have been doing it for days (they were labourers last week) , and aren't keen on questions. Diplomacy. Others are stunningly skilled. As with many trades the best ones don't seem to be working as hard but somehow do more in the time. Again diplomacy...they would do it properly anyway.

A fully mortared face between the perpendicular faces of adjoining bricks. For an amateur like me it is tricky. For some "bricklayers" also perhaps. And many will simply apply the minimum to the front edge for their ease, as they will usually get away with it.

What everybody else says.(some of it anyway) Then do your own test ( as ProDave and others). Tape over all fan and other ducts. Close or tape over window vents. Dont assume any builder understands airtightness. Then tell the testeron site that you need 0.8 ( or whatever) and are confident of achieving it. Difficult gaps to complete are at the eaves ( and there is a lot of it) and openings. Examine the detail, discuss with the builder. Supervise.

Tell them that their trench crosses your access and so please leave that bit undug. The likelihood is that this is simply a quick trench that they will examine the sides of , looking for traces of ditches and hedges. Not a slow thing with trowels and toothbrushes.

Yes. Presumably sometimes the chairing is less robust. Councils want houses.

Remarkably similar quotes. Maybe thank them and ask how many site hours and office hours they anticipate. And if there is there anything you can do for them to reduce the cost. When you eventually have them on site, it is a good idea to show great interest, ask what they are looking for and shadow them all day. Ie killing off additional research. I did that successfully....no roman road. I explained to the guy that ironstone is natural and it wasn't an old road.

I will drop out of this now as my views are quite strongly against converting a garage to habitation, then asking for more more parking, to the detriment of others. My instinct if a councillor would be "refuse", but the rules and precedents may be otherwise.

I've been to lots of planning committees. They have all been run very correctly, including severe guidance to any councillors ( from chair or the chief planner) who go off piste. Most members turn up without any preparation and take the lead from any councillor who speaks for or against. In truth they don't care much about 1 crossover outside their constutuency. I do feel that the councillors can be influenced by personal statements, and so they should as our representatives. Therefore it is important for either side to make use of the 3 minutes to speak.

That looks really dry and hard. Perhaps try a breaker with a spade bit?

I made this argument, officially on behalf of the parish, as creating one crossover was going to reduce on street parking by 2 or 3, where there is already a shortage. The planners couldn't understand it, even with a diagram, and didn't care. So I doubt you have any problem.

This isnt a raft. A raft is a very heavily constructed slab, linked to a ring beam, that all supports the structure. In your case the structure should sit on tge thickened edge which sits on the hardcore base. The slab supports you and furniture, and pir can do that. If it was a house, then you would take the footings deeper. I see this as a garden shed with insulation and draught proofing. People have a point though....will a skinny footing support the structure and stop it blowing away? So yes, dig a trench around and make the footing deeper and heavier. People on here aren't wrong becuase we are suggesting different solutions. We might all do it different ways depenfing on cost, performance and risk. It is make your mind up time soon.

Pir stops short of the edge by 150. Concrete at perimeter sits on the hardcore. Hard-core is min 150 outside the slab.

How about this? 100 hardcore with sand blinding. Dpm 25mm pir board. Dpm 100 concrete. wall plate on edge of concrete. Cladding oversails. Live with the heat loss the slab perimeter. Air to air heater/ chiller. Roof osb then battens and metal. The gap will allow a lot of the sun heat to dissipate. This will save you a lot of time and construction cost, and enough insulation to avoid the worst extremes. Logic? If heating the air only in daytime, by the time the slab has warmed up, you are turning it off again.

He is right. The ground has been disturbed. Only gives an indication of the ground conditions. I wouldn't be getting lab tests done. The ground will be typical all around the area and an SE or bco can tell by inspection. However, when your tree hole is dug, do poke at it, and take pictures for us here. And no reason why you can't take a sample. Dig a neat lump out and put it in a sealed container.

Much as it can be annoying, we shouldn't expect a planner to be expert in all these things. There used to be so much difference between which planner you got some being much too lax. But I never hesitate to question the report and recommendation and the planner can then take a view

Personally, I would get some type 1 or ballast even. Whack it down with a tamper. Then it will support the footings and wall, will not wash out, won't act as a soakaway, and you can dig neatly through it without collapse. If you use hardcore it might be fine but I can't say without seeing it. You are looking for something solid without voids. You could poss mix your stones up with some grit or sharp sand.

Do not backfill with the chippings. Not suitable next to the building. Put them in bags then either use as mulch or to brown bin, or to the garden waste at the tip. Backfill with stone, tamped hard.

I am rather surprised that the kit has not been made to do this. So I would seriously suggest to use the old 2 x 2 method of tamping. Just move a timber up and down in the concrete and it will mix and settle it, and remove air. It also merges the previous pour wit the new one, if soon enough and so loses a weak layer. Looking at that picture, though, there are skinny vibrating pokers that should fit in there. Ask the plant hire company to get one in. Wind speed at Wick is averaging 20km/h this week, up to 38km/h (10m/s.). That is windy. I am thinking Happy Valley's support inside and the scaffolding outside, wedged against the wall....and lots of stages. Somebody earlier mentioned the wind during construction. The building will create increased wind speed and forces during construction, so all edges are vulnerable until all the openings are closed. Adding the roof before infilling windows also increases the forces. It would be the same for timber of course, and it wouldn't be as heavy as concrete filled walls.

A downside of stages is in getting concrete delivered in small , and expensive , quantities. And if you have outside labour, then that too. Unless of course you mix your own on site, when the small stages make it less daunting. I think on our project they were mixing 1m3 an hour with a domestic mixer.

Are you allowed to build and fill in stages?

That is because you don't have the freedom that Britain has to buy from wherever. Oops. Politics Seriously gb doesn't produce cement any more so it is imported. Stone and sand aplenty though, so the rest of the cost must be higher wages, and profits, and prices from different sources remarkably similar. Best price for lots of blocks is usually about the same as readymix. So may be about £1.50. Perhaps others are more up to date on current prices.

Standard blocks are about 70c here inc vat and aerated about €2-3. What's the price difference there? Today wickes are saying one dense block is £2.70, inc vat, aerated £2.60 and medium dense £3.25. Each. Obv that comes down a lot for quantity.

No, but learning something better than not. Actually the schools I mentioned it was 16+ for these activities. We took on an apprentice and he changed trade twice once he saw the real jobs on sites. Ended up OK.

Perfectly normal. Many companies will use their accountants' address as the registered office. They will not normally open letters but forward them. Someone is probably there, but contacting may be tricky. There are dodgy registered addresses too, but don't assume they are all bad.

I did buildings for a couple of schools where I got to know the senior staff well. One officially did trades, such as catering, hair, nails, plumbing, brickwork. These kids mostly learned admin skills eg scheduling meal ingredients, then costing them. They still did some formal classes and I gather took them more seriously because they realised the importance. In another school they did not have this setup but some lads were allowed to disappear to an onsite garage and fiddle with an old car.....the alternative being disruption or truancy. That was stopped in handing over to an academy....as were sport, music and theatre. I also did a maths practical in every school. Just how much concrete do I order for the floor slab. A x b x c = d m3 The decimal point was the main issue in the top set. Sums for the rest. We seldom got to question 2 in an hour. How many lorries of 6m3 capacity will be needed? Shocking really. But the teachers said it was very worthwhile, esp that I said I used arithmetic all day, every day. The most satisfying was a very special needs kid, with 2 staff. We did colouring. But this lad asked a very astute question about why was there a piece of wood in a steel frame (temp prop). He saw it as interesting but the teachers proposed it as a silly question. I approve of skill and trade classes.