Recent content by DitchManPete

Hi, Has anyone got an experience using an reclaimed heavier brick on top of a new lighter weight brick? Im building a 3m high cavity wall and have laid up to the DPC with 73mm x 100mm extruded engineering bricks. My intention is to now lay the rest of the courses using reclaimed 75mm x 105mm...

Yes, that’s a good idea. Never heard of these before but that’s a perfect solution. Thanks Freddiemercurystwin.

Hi All, looking for a bit of advice, I’m planning an extension on the rear of my property and I’ve been advised to port the existing air bricks through which seems sensible. Due to the slant of the ground around the property if I bury the porting pipe work in the substrate (mot type 1) I’ll...

Another query if anyone can help, when I lay the foundations I think I’ll struggle to get the width as per buildings regs for our soil type and keep the wall central on the foundation. The neighbours extension sits almost on the boundary so I’d wager their foundations will come up to the...

Thanks all for your replies, I had t considered what would happen if the neighbour needed to demolish their extension…good advice indeed. Have thought about an extension but I think it would block out a lot of light from out property.

Hi Just looking for a bit of advice, I’m starting a strip foundation on the boundary of my property for a single storey wall as part of a conservatory. The wall will sit aside my neighbours extension and gap to it by about 70mm. When it comes to the foundations, I’m pretty sure they’ll be next...

Thanks Woody, Pleased to hear there’s no problem building a wall on one side of the trench fill foundation. I will look at what depth footing I should have but is there any risk to my neighbours wall if I dig lower than their foundation? I’m mainly concerned over the height of the end wall...

Hi, I’m looking to build a conservatory on the back of my semi detached property. It’ll be a lean-to design with a 600mm dwarf wall. One end will have a solid wall. This wall will come out 3m and slope down from approx 2750mm to 2500mm over the 3m. It will have the 600mm dwarf wall at the end...

I think the ground looks more solid than anticipated, it’s water logged but still there. Think it’s quite a heavy clay soil as it definitely retains a lot of water. JohnD was right about the collar on the clay pipe, it’s broken but I’m not seeing a lot of water coming out when I flush the loo...

Thanks for the response JohnD, appreciate your time. There’s no sign of subsidence yet, although I worry that if I continue excavating I may cause this. Are there any measures I can put in place to minimise this risk whilst I repair the pipes?

Hi All, Looking for some advice, I was looking to extend my drainage for a new conservatory however after breaking through a concrete floor and digging down I’ve noticed a foul smell. Having dug further there’s a lot of water around the foul drainage soil pipe (see photo). It doesn’t drain away...