J4mes

Thanks! Got a mist coat on it today and it sucked it straight in and dried within 10 minutes. Will give it a top coat tomorrow if it's still above 12 degrees!

We had a newly built small outbuilding rendered about 10 days ago (top coat was 10 days ago) scratch coat was about 4 weeks ago. The render has gone very light in colour and appears completely dry. We have a break in the weather in the SE and for the next 4 days its looking like the daytime temperature will be 12/13 degrees and 8 degrees overnight. No rain forecast. Does anyone know if it would be ok to give it all a mist coat to give it some form of protection? I wondered if the render will be dry enough. The sandtex paint is labelled as breathable as its the microseal one and can be applied in temps no lower than 8 degrees. I'm thinking some protection would be a good thing before the weather really turns but don't want it flaking off if it's too soon. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Would this set up work and resist roof spread in a small outbuilding with a hip roof on all sides? Building is only 3m x 4.8m. Wall plate is at 2.2m and wanted to get a bit of extra head height, would be installing rafter ties 200mm above wall plate. If it has the potential to case issues then we will just go with ties/ ceiling joists attached to the wall plate as usual and live with the lower head height.

Thanks @markc I have now spoken to the roof framer. He said the best bet to gain a small amount of extra headroom whilst keeping the structural integrity would be to have ceiling joists on every rafter as usual and collar ties but that he can lift the ceiling joists up 200mm above the wall plate giving us the additional head height we need. He is quite experienced and seems to think this would be more than sufficient to stop the walls spreading. Given we only need a small amount of additional headroom, i think this would work! I hadn't really thought about what happens when you fully vault a roof and take away all the supports, but it makes a lot more sense now.

We are having a block built double skin garden room built. Its under 30sq meters so doesn't require building regs. Carpenters have said they can vault the ceiling no problem when building the roof structure, i would like this but am a bit worried about roof spread as the tiles are the heavy concrete ones. Any idea if we could / should be adding rafter ties? I was thinking something like the below and leaving them exposed which would give us an area in the middle that's fully vaulted but would still tie the walls together? Or do we need them both ways? Any advice would be welcome! Thanks Building is 4.8m x 3m.

Well we thought if it’s brick built with tiled roof, UPVC windows etc then might as well insulate and then could be used as an office etc in the future if we needed to.

Thanks for the reply. Originally we were going to go with prefabricated timber summerhouse but in the style we wanted it was coming out around £12k which seemed a lot for a timber building that would deteriorate and need yearly painting. I thought something built of blocks with a tiled pitched roof and UPVC double glazing would be more of a long term investment and we could match to the house etc. Looking like £15k would get me almost there… Maybe we are over engineering it though, especially if we end up losing 300mm on each wall.

Building an outbuilding which will be a gym, so it will be used occasionally for an hour or two per day. We have planning approved, dimensions 3m x 4.8m overall height 3.65 with a pitched tiled roof. I think I may be going overkill with the building specification so wanted to see if anyone can advise. It will be under 30sq meters so doesn’t need building regulation approval. Been quoted for a slab base 300mm thick with reinforced steel mesh and fibers. The quote for the walls is for double skin blockwork 7N outside and thermalite inside. Outside will be rendered and painted. Pitched roof will then be added and it will be tiled with Redland Concrete tiles to match the house. Regarding the walls, could these be single skin? Or would that cause issues with condensation / damp. I would be happy to insulate the inside if it meant I could have a bit more space, at the moment I will be losing around 600mm plus paster board width, so the room ends up being 2.35M wide ! Any advice would be really appreciated. Regarding the walls, could these be single skin? Or would that cause issues with condensation / damp. I would be happy to insulate the inside if it meant I could have a bit more space, I will be losing around 600mm plus paster board width, so the room ends up being 2.35M wide ! Any

Thank you. It’s going to be a Gym so it will be occasional use. The groundworkers have quoted to lay the slab and then once block work is done come back and add celotex insulation and screed floor to final level, would that not work? To be honest I’m trying to keep track of it all and work out levels etc as there are a lot of separate trades so don’t want to get it wrong.

Yes building with blocks and a tiled roof. So assume 300mm with reinforcement would be better. I’m no expert though

Thanks, there is a youngish Pine tree within a few meters of the build. It was only planted about 5 years ago, it’s going to take many many years to reach any height. I assume the mesh reinforcement in the slab would help long term with any potential cracking?

Looking for some advice... We had planning approved for an outbuilding with dimensions of 4.8m x 3m with a pitched roof (overall height around 3.6M). Approved plans: As the building in under 30sq meters it doesn't require building regulations so apart from the planning drawings with dimensions we don't have much to go on. I have been quoted for a reinforced slab with the metal rebar stuff and fibers 300mm deep which the groundworkers seems to think is more than enough for a single story outbuilding. I've also been quoted for double skin blockwork walls using concrete blocks (the heavy ones on the outside and thermalite blocks on the internal skin). The roof / windows / electrics etc i'm more comfortable with sorting but the foundation and walls are pretty fundamental and i don't have a lot of experience of these things, does the above sound reasonable or am i missing something. It seems simple enough but I know that building rarely is straightforward! Any advice would be welcome, thanks in advance

Thank you for the advice, we have emailed the planning officer that approved the plans and asked if we can submit a non material amendment, hopefully that will be the way to go. Noted re that photo! That is way bigger than what we are doing so i've not used it as an example. Lets hope planning approve !

Thanks for the reply, sorry not sure I understand the suggestion, do you mean just change the steps to slopes? The idea we saw was similar to this so we liked the look of it..

Hello,I'm hoping someone could advise us on what the best course of action is, we have approved plans for a wrap around single story extension to our bungalow, we are on a sloping plot so the height difference at the back door to ground level is around 0.8m, we have the attached design approved with a raised patio and steps leading down to the garden.We would like to change this by adding raised flower beds along the back of the house, first one at floor level, dropping by 0.4 then dropping again to ground level with steps and a pathway going through them so that we can gradually step down into the garden rather than a sheer drop.This is the plan we would like;We think this may be a non material amendment but are not sure, friends have said raised beds do not need permission as they are not a platform and you will not raising the ground level. We will be having steps and a ramp/pathway through the middle which will be higher than ground level so i think it needs permission.Could anyone advise on the best course of action, the builders are due to start in 4 weeks and want to do the foundations for the steps and wall at the start of the build.Many thanks.