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Hi all, I’m retrofitting a 1930's end of terrace and renovating/insulating 2 rooms in roof at the moment. I've stripped out old wallpaper and opened up sections of a knee wall (lath and plaster) to gain access to the eaves and install much needed insulation. While doing so I exposed a few timber studs which are directly nailed to the roof rafters (150x50mm @ 400 centres) at a height of 1.6m. I thought it would make sense to move these studs back a bit to gain some extra space and square off the room. It seems logical and fairly straightforward but I'm not sure if these studs (70x50mm) were simply holding the lath and plaster dwarf wall or if they have any structural function. I'm convinced they're not structural but may help to prevent sagging, although there's no indication of sagging on any of the rafters (they barely touch the top of the studs). I took some photos of the roof structure/studs and I was wondering if you could give your opinion on this? Much appreciated.

Hi. Just wondering if there is good structural warranty provider who given the flexibility to source the alternative material other than from only approved manufacturers? Not liking the monopoly some of these big players have and see if there are any alternative options. Thanks in advance.

There's a longer backgound story to this to do with embodied carbon - but keeping it simple.... We are contemplating alternative roofing materials for our new build and need to know if/what the impact on the design of the construction of footings and structure will be if we have to use tiles over our choice of seamed metal. The metal roof covering weighs about 2 tons the tiled roof more like 22 tons. We are planning to use a timberframe construction too. Do we need beefier footings = more concrete and beefier timberframe = more timber? At this stage we'd prefer not to pay a structural engineer to actually work it all out as the design is still a bit fluid and hope we can get an idea from yourgoodselves! Comments gratefully received. thank you

Hello all, Hope everyone is well. Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere on here, I searched but couldn’t find anything - but I have limited knowledge of technical building terms. A year ago we brought a Victorian property that had been empty for around 20 years. We had traders come and do the main jobs but are currently doing the smaller jobs and making the place in to a home. I want to build a small workshop - roughly 14 ft x 9 ft. The area I want to put it has three existing walls - two ‘garden’ walls and the other being the exterior wall to our kitchen. In the one corner there is also an old privy, I am unsure if it would be best to knock down or try and integrate it into the plan, it is a solid build. The garden walls are two bricks in width and around 6.5 foot high, in good shape other than needing to be re-pointed. It would be great to get some advice on areas before trying to move forward with attempting this, so thanks in advance for any help. Would it be possible to tie in to these walls and use them for part of the structure, and would I just use a wall starter kit? (The brick is accrington brick) The garden walls would need more height, I take it I could just add more brick to that to increase the height? Would I have to dig down and see what the foundation is like on the garden walls? I would be digging down to put a foundation for the new front wall, would I lay a new foundation around all sides? As they are walls built at the same time as the house (1901) I would presumably have to put in a DPC, and then build block internal walls? I know I will need to check with my local council but presumably I could build it as high as the privy? I’ve included a photos so people can see what the area and walls look like. One last question (for the moment) - a foolish project for someone with minimal amount of building experience? Cheers for the help and advice. Dave

Hi all, hoping someone may be able to offer me some advice on an issue I have? We have just bought a 1930s mid terrace house from some elderly relatives. There are two chimney flues that run down the front and back of the house that converge in the attic. The breast has been removed in the front bedroom and we think this was done some time in the 70s or 80s. In the attic the remaining stack at the front ends close to the floor, and is supported by some solid chunks of wood that are connected to one of the joists that cross the attic floor. There is absolutely no sign of give and it all looks stable and healthy. The neighbours still have their chimney breast intact. However, I do know this isn't compliant with current building regulations. We are in the process of doing the house up and I suppose my question is what more experienced people advise that I do about it? It's going to cost a lot of money to get this redone and get steel support put in. I suppose I think it's unlikely this is suddenly going to come down without any kind of warning, although I'm no structural engineer! However we will want to re-sell eventually and I dont know how much of an issue this would be in any future sales process. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi can any of you recommend the best companies to use for 10Yr warranty's?# There seem to be lots of companies around any to stay away from