Recent content by John37

Please can anyone help? I need to select a boiler for a semi-detached house conversion in London to supply hot water and underfloor water heating over three floors: 200m2, 100m2 and 90m2. The house has been brought up towards current building regs for thermal insulation and it will be...

Very funny. You're right about concrete not being very green. I've got a new idea - I'll teach everyone how to levitate so they can float around - won't need a floor, much cheaper! Not sure what to do with the dead squirrels though....

Hi Pinenot. If I've understood your questions, we are creating a ground floor meditation room, peace cafe/lounge, entrance hall, toilets and small plant rooms in a semi-detached 1920/1930s house having ground, first and second floors. We are extending (doubling) the ground floor area and...

We need to compact crushed brick for our 200 m2 ground floor sub-base which will be 150 mm deep. Would the Evolution Hulk 2.4hp Petrol Powered Compaction Plate be good enough to do the job? It has a claimed 10kN compacting force. We can buy one of these cheaper than the cost of multiple...

We will be laying a concrete ground floor, approx 200m2, inside a refurbished and extended house that will be a meditation centre and world peace cafe in London NW11. We've got old masonry - concrete and bricks - that we can either pay to have taken away or recycle ourselves with a concrete...

Thank you all for very helpful advice

I need to cut about 1 metre off a steel beam 203x203UC46. The flanges are 11mm thick and the web is 7.2mm thick. Can a 9 inch angle grinder do it? Grateful for any advice.

Thanks for your kind advice. What is the function of the hardcore? What problem arises if it is omitted?

How do we know whether or not the substrate is suitable, please? What characteristics are we looking for?

I'm going to lay a concrete floor inside a large house. It will be approx 200m2 in two sections of 100m2 joined by two interconnecting doorways. My idea is DPM, 150mm concrete slab with 6 or 8mm diameter mesh mid-level, 120mm celotex or similar, vapour barrier, 50mm liquid screed enclosing CH...

What size timber ceiling joists do I need for 4.5m span at 400mm centres, please? The joists will support two layers of 12.5mm Soundbloc plasterboard, and nothing else, apart from themselves. There will be no load imposed from above, i.e. no floor supported by the ceiling joists - I want to...

Thanks, Static,sorry I didn't make it clear at the beginning.

Thank you. Just screwing them together would be much simpler and quicker - at 300 centres staggered maybe?. I wonder if the building inspector would be happy if they weren't bolted together?

Thanks. I don't fully understand what you mean about getting sensible timber to work between (around?) the roof lights. Please can you tell me more? Since I'd be removing two of the "composite" joists for a distance of 1500 + 1500 to make the two 1200 openings, wouldn't the rule of thumb...

Thank you for your helpful replies, sorry about the elephant though! According to the TRADA span tables (looking at C24, access & maintenance only, 0.75kN/m2 imposed and dead loads, 400mm centres), 47x170 would be strong enough for 4.07m span and 75x170 would be good for 4.85m span. I...