Search the Community

We recently bought a small timber frame bungalow, which requires some repairs to the exterior render, as there is damaged to the section where the plinth meets the wall, I have attached pictures of the area. Unfortunately, so far we could not find anyone, who could offer use an explanation or solution to the problem. As seen on the picture attached the grey tape (which seems to be some sort of flashing tape) is broken and coming off on several areas around the house, exposing the metal edge guards and allowing cold and moisture into the walls, as on the interior the skirting boards are cold and when furniture are places directly on the wall causing condensation and mould. ( as a short term solution, We have now left a minimum of 10 cm between the furniture and the walls, which seem to solve the problem of sweating skirting boards and mould). Q1: Does anyone recognise what this exterior gab between the plinth and the wall is for?! is it just decorative or does it serve any purpose, like breathing of frame or expansion gab? Q2: can this gab be closed and the house completely covered with an additional layer of acrylic render? Q3: if the gab needs to be kept, how can we repair the damage? Any help and advice is greatly appreciated! PS: As far as we can tell the house is built up of the following layers, starting on the inside: plasterboard, yellow insulation wool, OSB board, insulation board, acrylic render with embedded mesh and sits on a concrete foundation.

Hi all, I'm working on the ensuite now and have seen this Marmox Plinth as a good option to build a shower tray up on top of the slab so I can get drainage underneath. (cant dig into the slab so have to go above it and out the wall for the drain.) The plinth is fixed to the slab with a flexible, cement based tile adhesive. On top of that plinth I would then install a showerlay such as this... Marmox showerlay. My question is: Could I substitute the plinth with some leftover 100mm Celotox PIR insulation? It seems like essentially the same thing. Is there any reason why this is a bad idea? Thnks in advance.

I am just about to start our exterior facing brick and blockwork upto DPC which will involve a skin of 105mm facing brick and backed up with a 50mm block to give a 155mm (ish) outer skin which will eventually be set in by 50mm once the plinth brick has been laid. My question is, would I be better placed to use a 50mm dense concrete or a lightweight aircrete block, the building regs document does not specify which to use and as there will be an inner skin of 100mm thermalite block together with 100mm cavity insulation strength over cost may be the major consideration, there are probably pros and cons apart from the cost angle so I'd be happy and interested to hear what you guy's thoughts are. Cheers