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Stiff brush - basically a broom in a hand held brush!

On a hot summer day you would use hessian dunked in water to cover lime pointing as you want the lime to dry out slowly - too fast and it won't set properly. Protection from rain is maybe more important in these months so hessian or some sheeting can help with that. I have found it surprising how much you can get away with lime pointing in the cold and have rarely had it blow because of frost damage. Just make sure the mix is pretty dry. Even cover up a wall you will be working on for a few days before to stop it getting soaked before you point it. Also - if it has set a bit too much before you try to finish up the pointing a wire brush can help - I don't like the lines you sometimes get with them so you can bash away at the pointing with a churn brush afterwards and that can get it where you want it.

i don't think most brickies would be happy with bricks that still have old mortar on it - obviously depends how much. Like Brickie says, if the bricks are really valuable you could grind off the mortar - but it will take a while!

If the mortar is lime as you would expect it should come off pretty easy without damage. If cement much harder not to damage the bricks.

if you use expanding foam around doors make sure you brace the frame or use some low expanding foam.

I am happy to help when the answer might not be obvious (see your question about concrete slab/insulation positioning) - I just feel that you should be prepared to do some of the legwork. You clearly have internet access as you are posting on here so just look up insulation prices on sites that advertise the prices.

A 2 minute look at a few websites or a call to a builders yard would give you the answer. Please do so.

B is most common. Slab under insulation, screed on top. A might be more common for builders on this forum though since there are some advantages to well insulated slabs with under floor heating in the slab.

If it might be a bedroom in the future you should consider fewer but larger windows that confirm to fire regs. The window manufacturers will know which of their sizes are suitable as fire exits.

cant beat a good blue one - nice and sturdy, if a bit heavy! i think i might have become a pallet snob

I made mine out of old joists I had pulled out on the house and some left over tiles that didn't quite make the grade for the main roof.

is that right? Seems a bit small an increase. I thought it was nearer 6-10db to double perceived volume.

2 pipes to kitchen. Make sure you have a sound attenuator on the supply side before the manifold. Easy to build yourself with some OSB and rockwool RWA45 (or something similar) or buy. Noise comes from the machine itself and through the ducting (loudest).

Zoothorn - i have tried to read this whole thread but it is hard to see the whole picture. I'll only ask this. Have you spray painted the FFL you want on the existing building yet? If not is that because you aren't sure where the FFL level is because of how the foundations have gone? Because in my mind that is a bit of very useful advice that has been offered on this thread repeatedly but at no time have I seen you come back and say you have done it.

I retrofitted one. But as always normally easier to do it first time round!

I've used the fischer fixings on woodfibre board and they are pretty good and surprisingly strong.

I appreciate the offer - I don't think I will have time to have a look as so much going on. I think I'm almost there with my order. Just trying to work out how many normal scaffold fittings I need now!

This thread has been very useful for me to get my head round kwikstage scaffolding so thanks for the collective Buildhub knowledge! I have a few things I'm not clear on. I am planning on getting 2 x 32' bays for each side of the barn I am renovating and some normal scaffolding for one end that is a bit more complicated. The other end already has a flat roof I can use. It will all be used for other projects so I want to have a bit of flexibility. 1. ladder - if my main lift is 3.5m high would I be right in thinking I need a 5m ladder? 2. ladder access - would a typical way of setting up the ladder be something like this.?.....https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-scaffolding-and-a-ladder-access-safety-gate-on-a-building-site-59693078.html I spoke to scaffolding direct and they were talking about a ladder access transom where the ladder comes from the inside and I guess a ladder hatch as well. While I guess that would be safer it seems to get in the way a bit. 3. if I was using a ladder access gate as in the above link what do you do with the ledgers that would normally span the whole bay? Do you fix the gate to the corner standard and then use round scaffolding to fill in? 4. if in the future I wanted to use the kwikstage for a 90 degree return how many return transoms would I need? 5. any kwikstage bits not included in a normal bay package that might prove very useful in the future? toe board bracket (not needed for the barn as virtually no soffit)? extra braces for the ends if it is hard to fix to the existing structure? thanks for any advice.

i'm away for the weekend but when I get back I will try to make more sense of this so I understand it better!

this whole thread reminds me of why I love buildhub. I have followed threads on sunamps for a while seeing the upsides, then the downsides regarding ones with electrical input and other issues. A recent thread about dangers of overheating from hot water cylinders made me reconsider my options and thinking maybe sunamp could be the way to go as but thanks to this thread it seems clear that sunamp and just ASHP isn't going to be that efficient as I hadn't realised the temperature at which the sunamp works best. so back to ASHP and cylinder I will go! dave this is very interesting reading. Is your 300l cylinder for 2 people, 4 people? I had been looking at 170l for what will be 2 people in a small barn conversion. Maybe I should go bigger to account for the lower water heat as you suggest. I had been looking at a pre plumbed cylinder due to worries about ease of getting it all working together (no plumbing expert myself) but they are expensive. Did you have any problems getting the Telford cylinder plumbed in to the ASHP and everything else? Is it just finding a plumber who has some experience with this sort of configuration?

Do you just mean the loss of scaffolding (if nicked) is covered by building insurance? What about insurance for others on the scaff if you have put it up?

i am surprised that the roof buildup doesn't include a ventilation gap (counter battens over the PIR) that the final layer of OSB is fixed to - is that a normal build up?

what sort of land oz? - i think you might need to be more specific

yes indeed - the two bedrooms have rooflights that comply with fire regs. Good to know thanks.

Is it allowed to have a house with MVHR and no opening windows (assuming no trickle vents)? I guess I'm asking if there has to be any provision for opening windows in case of MVHR breakdown. The situation isn't quite that as 3 rooflights and one window will open but am planning on a couple of non opening windows (hard to access) and no opening window in bathroom (easier for me to make!).