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Hi All, I wonder if anyone came across an alternative to steel beam thermal breaks? Thank you

The current job I'm on has a one block pillar to be built between a doorway (2m roughly) and a window (1.2m roughly). The engineer has specified a windpost for the pillar. Will I or should I put any sort of damp membrane on or around the windpost itself?

Hi All, How much should I be paying for the standard priming of fabricated steel RSJ sections please. A price per tonne would help? Thanks

I’m on holiday so struggling to look this up and argue about it. My architect wants us to have all the steel in our timber frame sent away to be sprayed with intumescent paint. I cannot find the regs at the moment but it seems totally over the top in a two storey house. He argues that just putting it behind fire rated board is not enough. It would be a massive pain and expensive to do during frame erection. Scottish regs apply. Any thoughts?

Am just cleaning the window corner steel as I made them remove the ply etc after finding the frame leaked rain onto the unbitumened steel. There was a nasty rust place about 5cm2 below the cill, so I feel vindicated. From previous reading, I've cleaned the mastic off the steel, but regarded the rust as sacrificial and reapplied 2coats of FeO (rather than hacking it off), and am now on to 2 coats of bitumen. Should I put a bit of sand on bitumen onthe surface of the steel below the DPM? It needs to be encased in concrete. It is half encased already so I hope it's OK. This part (ie below the cill) *is sitting on the slab, below the DPM and there isn't anything under the steel. Any tips gratefully received.

Our Winter Garden - outside the heated envelope of the house - is a steel-framed construction. It will be open to the elements, and intended as a filter for the light from the south: all the rooms open into it or have a window onto it (except two). Debbie's keen on gardening. Me? Hmmm. Lots of people have been round to poke and stare at the build, among them a couple of local builders..... Talking about the Winter Garden, I mention we have been told that the steel frame for the garden needs to be built by a CE marked and Certified company. Cue snorts of derision, sucking of teeth and pithy Lancastrian. Who's correct? The builders or the ones with PII (Professional Indemnity) cover? WinterGardenIllustration.pdf

Trying to be diplomatic here. Our architect has drawn up our living room to have floor to ceiling glazing on two walls meeting at a corner. This is to make the most of a nice view. We understood that there would have to be a vertical steel of some kind to support the floor above (a room-in-roof constructed from timber attic trusses with slate cover @ 50' pitch) but the SE drawings have come back with a massive 200 x 200 I beam rammed right up to the glazing frames. That's before boxing around and finishing in the impossibly tight gap to the glass. On asking if this could be switched for a slimmer alternative, we're simply being told 'no'. Similar constructions I've seen elsewhere utilise 100mm square posts although these may have been single storey. Anyway, a wide variety of sections and wall thicknesses are available out there but the SE won't budge. He's been paid already and TBH we've only just picked this up while studying the drawings. I can't see a way out of this as hiring a different SE we may be back in the same situation only £££'s worse off. It doesn't seem to be any real fault of the architect although they might have warned us. We haven't got the engineering knowledge to call out the SE on the decision and the plans already got building approval for the giant steel. Any thoughts on how to handle this? I mentioned diplomacy at the start of this post because IME these kind of professional can get a bit cagey when their decisions are brought into question. If not done right, all flexibility can go out of the window.

Any help out there please? We have 2 corners with glazing meeting at the corner vertical SHS. We have an MBC timber frame but there is no timber frame at these junctions, just the glazing units and the steel corner post. We are worried about thermal bridging. Still at the design stage so could design in some insulation. What would you do?

hi all, need to replace hss drill bits and am looking for suggestions as to good ones. so over to you......

Hi, My builder says he sent out for 5 contractors to quote on intumescent painting of the steel in my house. Only 1 returned the quote supposedly the others were too busy or the job was too small. The quote came in at £150 per square metre for 78 square metres. I cannot find a suggested cost for this on the internet, but it seems ridiculously high. Has anyone had any similar work done? Thanks for your help

These are on the way up near our current flat. I'm trying to work out what the make up is here - the walls are steel framed, but can't quite make out what is sheathing it - some sort of board that is taped? Assuming insulation is packed into the steel and PIR or similar on the inside?I see the steel sections arriving every morning when i head to work. I think the exterior is to be rendered, so assuming this will be straight onto the boards? Seems all very lightweight. It's an extremely exposed location - hope it doesn't suffer the problems countless other new build flats down the Clyde have suffered with damp and moisture penetration. Would be interested if anyone knows any more about this? Thanks, J

Good morning all, We have been checking out (the many) bath options there are out there, and trying to narrow our choices down. We are weighing the pros and cons of steel vs acrylic, and it seems as long as we go for thicker ones, then either material will be durable. We've been looking in particular at Trojan (acrylic - 5mm and 8mm) Trojancast Kaldewei (steel 3.5mm) Carron (5mm) We're looking for one around £100-300 price range. This is probably a very common topic, but we would really like to get some advice from any plumbers / fitters out there. Any advice or other suggestions about your (good or bad) bath experience are welcomed.Thanks in advance