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Post by Zuluhero on Sept 21, 2022 18:59:05 GMT
You really are a ninja.
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geefe
Full Member
Short for Zangief
Posts: 8,323
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Post by geefe on Sept 28, 2022 13:57:41 GMT
Fuck sakes. Just spotted a hole in the external wall of my attic, only size of thumbnail but defo daylight through it. Just by a beam. Think it's through to the gable.
How worried should I be? I'm end terrace and that part of the house gets twatted by the weather.
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minimatt
Junior Member
hyper mediocrity
Posts: 1,684
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Post by minimatt on Oct 1, 2022 16:54:38 GMT
geefe i'm increasingly sanguine about cracks & holes in houses so long as they're not changing over time. I guess copy how other similar beams are fixed - if others are wodged in with mortar all round then bung some in - i'm not a builder, is it possible some gappage is specified to ventilate roof timbers if the surrounding bricks are liable to get damp you might not want that wicking to beams?
SHEDS. Given the demographic I can't believe we're not knee deep in sexy shed talk
We need a small (c. 1.5m x 1m / 5ft x 3ft, maybe bit bigger) to house the usual lawn mower, hedge trimmer, spades, forks etc stuff. Given the electrical gardening equipment is nowadays borderline fancy - battery powered with electronics and everything I'm a little cautious of leaving it exposed to the extremes of temperature & humidity & spiders implied by the usual paper thin larch clad b&q shed
so I guess question one is - should I be worried or is fancy electronics hardier these days?
if not is it worth doing anything to knock the extreme edges off temperature/humidity variations, like a bit of insulation between studs and some ventilation (and if blowing holes to add ventilation, has that just undone any insulation work?) to a bog standard commercial shed?
or, self build? couple of options: either just build a standard shed but better than typical commercial, ie. thicker studwork, cladding, and a teensy bit more attention to construction standards or go whole hog & do it properly with vapour barrier, OSB & insulation etc?
I'm leaning toward self build if only for practice, but I'm not sure how fancy is necessary to allow garden electricals to survive more than a couple of years before condensation induced rust & temperature extremes destroys electronics?
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Oct 1, 2022 18:35:47 GMT
I would self build, unlikely to be much cheaper these days and (depending on your skillset) may or may not be better than one you'd buy but (personally speaking) a great little hands on project to get your teeth into.
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Post by technoish on Oct 1, 2022 20:20:36 GMT
I paid a fortune during covid for a 5x4 shed. Asked for it extra sturdy so I can put a living roof on it.
The installers joked it would be there longer than my house it was so sturdy.
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Post by technoish on Oct 1, 2022 20:25:50 GMT
In other news, I finally have my solar panels! Almost a year since I booked it in, 5 postponements/no-shows since February, and still lacking the battery, but it is there!!! Just in time for winter. It's 8 panels for I think a 3kW system.  |
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Post by stixxuk on Oct 2, 2022 5:19:17 GMT
Anyone insulated and boarded a loft before? Mine has about 10cm of crappy old fibre glass insulation, looking to put some boards on stilts in and roll over some rock wool or something to get it to 30cm
Got a few down lights I need to put caps over to stop them overheating...
I also need to get some membranes up inside my roof beams as it's currently bare tile and gets very dusty (plus lots of flies for some reason in the winter).
Anyone done this, any tips or product recommendations?
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Post by Dougs on Oct 2, 2022 6:27:17 GMT
Found this whilst pondering similar, which seems to review well. www.loftzone.co.uk/Before realising that my loft is too small to take being raised up so will just have to do it normally. At the moment, half the loft is done but the other half isn't, only having that powdery stuff for insulation. I've got the rolls of fibre glass up there as the previous owner shoved loads against the eaves, which was weird. |
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minimatt
Junior Member
hyper mediocrity
Posts: 1,684
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Post by minimatt on Oct 2, 2022 8:03:40 GMT
Anyone insulated and boarded a loft before? did just this last year, will get some photos & product recs to you this afternoon - think the stilts I used were "loft legs" from Wickes with a few custom legs made from 2x4 where joist/truss intersections demanded Get an idea of your spacings between joists - if your house is anything like ours the builders alternated between 400 & 600mm centres and imperial spacing at whim and none of them owned a tape measure. From there plan a layout. Tongue & groove chipboard is most cost effective board in large sheets - though this can be tricky to manhandle. "Loft boards" are smaller, easier to arrange but currently ruinously expensive - they're sold in 3 packs and *important* all the big box stores use a different lip profile for the tongue&groove. Plan your stilt/board spacings appropriate to your joist arrangement before buying anything. Do buy a very good dust mask - COVID ones won't cut it. An impact driver for the several hundred (8 per leg) screws is handy - think I used most 4*30mm - spax if you're feeling fancy, or turbo gold/screwtite. oh and a long bit holder is helpful for access. Pre start screws in the legs downstairs before taking them into the loft. Oh and once you've worked out your spacings between the stilts, cut a bit of scrap wood to that length - then you just place that against each stilt to give you the perfect spacing for the next one. edit: you won't need to pilot hole the joists with half decent 4mm screws but the chipboard to leg connection will need pilot holes edit 2: re the membrane - do you mean there's nothing between the rafters & the tiles, that you can see the inside face of the tiles from your attic? If so then (a) gulp and (b) I fear that's a job that can only be done from the outside, removing the tiles, laying the wrap over rafters & then tiles over that. I've never seen that layer completely missing before. You probably want to do that before anything else due to the immense amount of dust and crap it drops down to your attic |
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nexus6
Junior Member
Posts: 2,527
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Post by nexus6 on Oct 2, 2022 8:17:04 GMT
geefe i'm increasingly sanguine about cracks & holes in houses so long as they're not changing over time. I guess copy how other similar beams are fixed - if others are wodged in with mortar all round then bung some in - i'm not a builder, is it possible some gappage is specified to ventilate roof timbers if the surrounding bricks are liable to get damp you might not want that wicking to beams?
SHEDS. Given the demographic I can't believe we're not knee deep in sexy shed talk
We need a small (c. 1.5m x 1m / 5ft x 3ft, maybe bit bigger) to house the usual lawn mower, hedge trimmer, spades, forks etc stuff. Given the electrical gardening equipment is nowadays borderline fancy - battery powered with electronics and everything I'm a little cautious of leaving it exposed to the extremes of temperature & humidity & spiders implied by the usual paper thin larch clad b&q shed
so I guess question one is - should I be worried or is fancy electronics hardier these days?
if not is it worth doing anything to knock the extreme edges off temperature/humidity variations, like a bit of insulation between studs and some ventilation (and if blowing holes to add ventilation, has that just undone any insulation work?) to a bog standard commercial shed?
or, self build? couple of options: either just build a standard shed but better than typical commercial, ie. thicker studwork, cladding, and a teensy bit more attention to construction standards or go whole hog & do it properly with vapour barrier, OSB & insulation etc?
I'm leaning toward self build if only for practice, but I'm not sure how fancy is necessary to allow garden electricals to survive more than a couple of years before condensation induced rust & temperature extremes destroys electronics?
If there’s no heat source in the shed then insulation isn’t going to make it warmer. Could you just take the batteries out if things and store indoors? Most tech is in the battery or do you have soecific things to worry about? |
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minimatt
Junior Member
hyper mediocrity
Posts: 1,684
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Post by minimatt on Oct 2, 2022 8:37:47 GMT
If there’s no heat source in the shed then insulation isn’t going to make it warmer. Could you just take the batteries out if things and store indoors? Most tech is in the battery or do you have soecific things to worry about? Mostly thinking about condensation and humidity & knocking off the extremes of temp ranges (eg keeping it just a few degrees cooler in height of summer, a few degrees warmer through cold winter's night). Batteries kept indoors for sure. Have just seen tools left in vans overnight suffer more after a couple of years (if not nicked by then) than those brought inside |
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nexus6
Junior Member
Posts: 2,527
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Post by nexus6 on Oct 2, 2022 8:53:51 GMT
If there’s no heat source in the shed then insulation isn’t going to make it warmer. Could you just take the batteries out if things and store indoors? Most tech is in the battery or do you have soecific things to worry about? Mostly thinking about condensation and humidity & knocking off the extremes of temp ranges (eg keeping it just a few degrees cooler in height of summer, a few degrees warmer through cold winter's night). Batteries kept indoors for sure. Have just seen tools left in vans overnight suffer more after a couple of years (if not nicked by then) than those brought inside I see that makes total sense. Condensation is a strange beast. It’s less likely if there is a little gap in the shed as air gets through and there’s no differential in the outside to inside condition. I always feel once you introduce insulation and vapour barriers it can cause more problems |
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Post by stixxuk on Oct 2, 2022 13:14:47 GMT
Anyone insulated and boarded a loft before? did just this last year, will get some photos & product recs to you this afternoon - think the stilts I used were "loft legs" from Wickes with a few custom legs made from 2x4 where joist/truss intersections demanded Get an idea of your spacings between joists - if your house is anything like ours the builders alternated between 400 & 600mm centres and imperial spacing at whim and none of them owned a tape measure. From there plan a layout. Tongue & groove chipboard is most cost effective board in large sheets - though this can be tricky to manhandle. "Loft boards" are smaller, easier to arrange but currently ruinously expensive - they're sold in 3 packs and *important* all the big box stores use a different lip profile for the tongue&groove. Plan your stilt/board spacings appropriate to your joist arrangement before buying anything. Do buy a very good dust mask - COVID ones won't cut it. An impact driver for the several hundred (8 per leg) screws is handy - think I used most 4*30mm - spax if you're feeling fancy, or turbo gold/screwtite. oh and a long bit holder is helpful for access. Pre start screws in the legs downstairs before taking them into the loft. Oh and once you've worked out your spacings between the stilts, cut a bit of scrap wood to that length - then you just place that against each stilt to give you the perfect spacing for the next one. edit: you won't need to pilot hole the joists with half decent 4mm screws but the chipboard to leg connection will need pilot holes edit 2: re the membrane - do you mean there's nothing between the rafters & the tiles, that you can see the inside face of the tiles from your attic? If so then (a) gulp and (b) I fear that's a job that can only be done from the outside, removing the tiles, laying the wrap over rafters & then tiles over that. I've never seen that layer completely missing before. You probably want to do that before anything else due to the immense amount of dust and crap it drops down to your attic Thanks for all the advice, really appreciate it! I already have an impact driver (one of the best DIY purchases I ever made). The house is ancient so I will check the joist measurements before I start. I imagine it's done well, but old-school. Re the tiles/membrane. Yes, nothing between the rafters and the tiles at all. No chance I'm removing the tiles to do it unless we do a loft conversion at some point, my plan is to nail the membrane to the inside of the joists - don't see why that wouldn't work and pretty sure my neighbours have done it... Just going to be awkward, I think I need to get some boards down first so I have something to put a ladder on to get to the high up bits... That is the part I'm least looking forward to! |
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minimatt
Junior Member
hyper mediocrity
Posts: 1,684
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Post by minimatt on Oct 2, 2022 13:40:12 GMT
the purpose of that membrane is to catch drips that manage to make their way past the tiles while allowing water vapour, humidity, to pass up and out - I'm struggling to see what benefit you'll get if it's attached to the inside edge of the rafters as wouldn't it end on the inside face of the wall plate? ie. drips run down the membrane and deposit themselves either right on top of your wall plate, inside the cavity, or on the inside face of your wall? attached to the outside face of rafters it runs down to outside the house.
Accept it's definitely not a diy job but a several thousand pound roofer job. May have got the wrong end of the stick and misunderstanding, but what are you hoping to achieve from that membrane, and if it's to catch occasional drips that bypass tiles, and any condensation that may form on inside face of tiles, then where is that water going to run to, as I'm struggling to see how it would escape house from inside face of the rafters
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Post by jeepers on Oct 2, 2022 14:01:31 GMT
Re. The shed and condensation/temperature etc.
My shed isn’t insulated so does get hot/cold depending on season. It does have a lot of ventilation which avoids mould etc.
I keep a bunch of handtools (cast and ductile iron, A2 and O1 steel etc.; all very prone to rust) and I just bring that stuff inside come November-ish. I have kept a corded drill and Tormek out there over winter with - seemingly - no negative effect.
As mentioned, sheds and insulation - without good ventilation or dehumidifiers - can cause damp, rot and mould. Bring your good tools indoors if you can imo.
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Post by Dougs on Oct 2, 2022 14:35:21 GMT
I've got a summerhouse with a shed at the back. I think the roof is going to need replacing soon...water was getting in at one corner and it looked as if rotten battens were the culprit. Replaced those, sealed it up but it's still happening. Further investigation needed...
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Oct 2, 2022 16:57:02 GMT
Anyone insulated and boarded a loft before? Mine has about 10cm of crappy old fibre glass insulation, looking to put some boards on stilts in and roll over some rock wool or something to get it to 30cm Got a few down lights I need to put caps over to stop them overheating... Tip: draw lines on the top of your loft boards with a Sharpie to show roughly where any cabling is underneath. I did ours just before lockdown and it's amazing how much storage it's freed up, especially once I added some decent shelving up there. |
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Post by stixxuk on Oct 2, 2022 17:32:24 GMT
the purpose of that membrane is to catch drips that manage to make their way past the tiles while allowing water vapour, humidity, to pass up and out - I'm struggling to see what benefit you'll get if it's attached to the inside edge of the rafters as wouldn't it end on the inside face of the wall plate? ie. drips run down the membrane and deposit themselves either right on top of your wall plate, inside the cavity, or on the inside face of your wall? attached to the outside face of rafters it runs down to outside the house. Accept it's definitely not a diy job but a several thousand pound roofer job. May have got the wrong end of the stick and misunderstanding, but what are you hoping to achieve from that membrane, and if it's to catch occasional drips that bypass tiles, and any condensation that may form on inside face of tiles, then where is that water going to run to, as I'm struggling to see how it would escape house from inside face of the rafters Drips aren't a problem, the tiles are good enough for that.... it's dust and flies. I guess the dust gets blown in by the wind whereas because the tiles overlap, water never gets through that way (it'd have to go up). |
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Post by dfunked on Oct 3, 2022 12:22:59 GMT
Would you guys be put off by a tradesman only having (absolutely glowing) reviews on checkatrade and nowhere else?
We need to get our windows done and out of the four people we had in to get quotes this guy was by far the most meticulous to detail and I got the best feeling for him, but my missus isn't so sure based purely on the above.
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Oct 3, 2022 12:32:30 GMT
Checkatrade and the like are renowned for being a supply of unscrupulous and poor quality tradesman, he might be good but you takes your chances, employ him at your peril. Is he FENSA registered?
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Post by dfunked on Oct 3, 2022 12:43:36 GMT
Ah, bugger. Didn't realise it was that bad. He's Assure registered rather than FENSA
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Post by Dougs on Oct 3, 2022 13:05:06 GMT
If you haven't got personal recommendations to go on, sometimes gut feeling is all you have. Have to take the plunge at some point.
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mrpon
Junior Member
Posts: 3,744
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Post by mrpon on Oct 3, 2022 13:07:11 GMT
Romantic.
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Post by Dougs on Oct 3, 2022 13:13:11 GMT
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Post by dfunked on Oct 3, 2022 13:18:06 GMT
Yeah, we did get a guy in to quote who we had some personal recommendations for, but couldn't get even an estimated delivery date out of him and he completely ignored our request for a couple of different quotes and examples of the windows he would've installed.
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Post by Dougs on Oct 3, 2022 13:20:26 GMT
Tis a nightmare. We had some windows replaced, using a guy the inlaws had used a month or two previously. He did their job in about 6 weeks, was about 4 months for us and most communication after the quote ignored until I threatened to go elsewhere. Got done in the end but the comms was awful - if he'd said 4 months from the outset, I wouldn't have been bothered.
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Post by technoish on Oct 3, 2022 16:54:56 GMT
I've been told the which checkatrade version is more believable.
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X201
Full Member
Posts: 5,115
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Post by X201 on Oct 5, 2022 20:13:49 GMT
Just discovered that I haven’t got a lintel above the window to support the outer skin of bricks.
Wonderful.
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nexus6
Junior Member
Posts: 2,527
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Post by nexus6 on Oct 5, 2022 20:26:51 GMT
Just discovered that I haven’t got a lintel above the window to support the outer skin of bricks. Wonderful. Explain please. With pictures if possible. |
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Oct 5, 2022 20:28:53 GMT
I'm gonna hazard he's getting new windows and the fitter has highlighted it
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