Wolfman310

Thanks for your quick reply, really appreciated. Is what I suspected too. I will contact them first thing Monday morning. I suspect you’re right, the deflection was only very small beforehand as the original cylinder was almost fully on the large timber which spans a long way across. Wasn’t the screws popping or cracks beforehand either. The timber they have installed crosses maybe 3 existing ceiling timbers, but if they had gone one longer across is a supporting wall (bottom left of the cylinder you can see the brickwork) with the brickwork supporting the roof which wouldn’t have hindered. it was Oso themselves which is frustrating. They sent out the lead engineer beforehand to see what they were working with due to my concerns as they originally thought it would be ok with just the one large timber and I said it wouldn’t. the lead engineer came and installed the timbers, one length which was cut in the roof in half and the two nailed together as was left and can see the nail popping through. two less experienced engineers then did the install once he had finished and the experienced one left for another job. hopefully Oso won’t argue and just fix it properly. I could see them suggesting it isn’t their problem.

Hi there. Need some advise regarding the following please… Whilst in the shower I noticed what I thought was the ceiling having a slight bow in it, and I was right. It’s a bungalow so ground floor ceiling in to the loft. it is circa deflecting 2cm and is in the location of a hot water cylinder that OSO came and installed circa October last year. I am concerned just how much it has moved especially as it is enough for me to see whilst showering. Do these things get to a point and then settle or should I be going back to OSO? The large timber with the joist hangers were already present and had a 170ltr Telford cylinder on it and some other useless timber. the smaller timbers supporting the rear of the cylinder span a smaller number of timbers and is what OSO installed for their 250ltr cylinder. I think the timbers they installed are the ones putting the strain as they aren’t spreading the weight across enough and is roughly in the location. Any views as i think it may just get worse? if so i will need to ask OSO to rectify and need to support it better. (They were told about my concerns beforehand as a quote from telford identified the need to support the rear of the cylinder and this was passed on to Oso)

It’s a shame you are not closer to me, I am between Leicester and Coventry. I bought 6x 20ft3 grey from Polypearl in Nottingham and I have used less than 1 so got 5 and a bit bags left to sell which would do at the cost I got them from.

A company called Poly Pearl http://polypearl.co.uk will sell the Grey EPS beads to a DIY person in 10ft3 bags to pour in at circa £22 + VAT per bag. they have been really helpful since I contacted them after my posting here.

Great stuff. thanks for the reply. gives confidence I should be OK. I have managed to locate a company that will sell the grey EPS beads in 10m3 bags in Nottingham called polypearl if you ever need any further beads.

Hi @osprey how have you got on with your EPS beads in your chimney? Any issues at all? I am going to be doing the same soon and trying to work out the best filling material.

Good luck with the other chimney. Great to hear someone else doing the same as I was thinking, especially with no provision for any air circulation. Is difficult to establish the best infill material, I had been looking at a few options and then got befuddled with options.

Hi there. I am after a little advice as confused on differing opinions on the full removal of our chimney and what may be best. We have lived here for a year now so getting through projects. The chimney and opening in the lounge is on the external wall of the house but within the side garage attached. Our chimney and opening has a small wood stove and chimney pipe leading to the roof that produces so little heat and causes some terrible drafts. The chimney itself is in poor condition and needs serious work picked up in the survey, and as we don’t want to use the stove we want to do the following. knock down the chimney to below the roof line above the floor to reinstate the natural roofline and tiles and Brick up the opening in the lounge. This leaves the small cavity and breast left from the living room to within the loft area. Due to drafts I went to permanently close it off without air bricks etc but unclear what to do with what’s left. Could I insulate it from the top down to the bottom and then cap with boarding in the loft the bit left to the lounge? if I was keeping the top would have just added air bricks but as it is in such a poor state someone would have to get up there and rebuild the top anyway so may as well remove it. any help or advice would be great. have attached a photo from the marketing when we bought and a google street view of the chimney. Russell.

Well that was a bust. all on different levels so unsuitable for my lads wheelchair. thanks for reading

That’s a good idea, I could potentially lose bedroom 2 for the kitchen and repurpose space over by the new master.

Hello, I have been a long time reader, with onoff and chrisfromwales inspiring me to do my own bathroom, but due to health reasons for our son have to move to a bungalow with single floor living, so trying to take some positives. My family are viewing a bungalow in a few days, and trying to work out whether I can rejig the layout and extend and if it ‘works’, along with potential costs which I suspect will be too much and may have to look at other bungalows. The aim is to add a master bedroom with en-suite, with space for a study/home cinema space that can be a guest room for family. This would utilise the existing double garage (flat roof currently) and garage replaced with a timber framed garage to the side, or somewhere else altogether not attached to the house I can’t work out how to make the kitchen bigger as the dining room needs to be a bedroom, master/Bedroom 2/bedroom 3 needed for our 2 kids. The existing house footprint is as follows along with some thoughts on layout. It would add circa 24sq/m across the back incorporating the conservatory (13m length of a new rear wall) and 33sq/m from the garage which is currently flat roof. I tried to rejig without the part across the back just utilising the garage space, but layout and conservatory causes issues. any comments from the community would be greatly appreciated, especially in peoples own time, so thank you in advance.