Recent content by Peter_ST16

I used the term 'load bearing' very loosely here - it seemed to be based on direction of the joists but might have got it wrong. The existing personal door to the garage will be retained and within the new utility. Another door, through the new utility wall would be added to access the remaining...

With the door in the loo, the main consideration (apart from aesthetics) is how to sit the lintel. To fit, the doorframe needs to be right next to the perpendicular load bearing wall, so I'll need to chisel out a hole in the load bearing wall to get the minimum 150mm sitting offset. Can you see...

Thanks, I thought about it, but there's 3 problems : 1) the space between first step of the staircase and the front wall is probably only a bit wider than door opening, so again a problem with getting the lintel to sit right 2) the new utility would cut the garage in half with the remaining bit...

Considering the layout below, where do you think is a best place to squeeze in a small utility (washing machine, dryer + a few boxes)? I had an idea to create an entrance to the garage via the understairs WC, then build a wall to separate garage from the new utility, but I worry it will get...

Thanks. I'll read a bit more on that.

I'm starting a sound insulation project on my semi. The party wall is breeze block with plasterboard dot and dabbed to it. The spacing between the wall and the plasterboard acts like a speaker membrane amplifying the noise, so I want to get rid of it. I'm going to remove the existing...

When I had a look the joists were just going into the wall - definitely no hangers, the pockets were cut in breeze blocks but no joist caps were visible. It is the "just noise" that bothers me though ;) Just trying to understand if adding some sound barriers to the wall is worth it...

I live in a semi from mid 1990s, and joists over the internal garage go into the party wall. How likely is it that they're shared with next door? My neighbours are really quiet, but their floor isn't - creaking noise whenever they're in the bedroom. If the above is the case, is there anything I...

Good point about priming - PVA OK? It's an internal garage, and mid work it turned out it has cavity wall insulation, so not much need for the celotex, except me having bought it already. The cable is 2.5mm2 on a fused 13A spur, so should be well within rating. Thanks.

Hi, I'm converting the internal garage and putting plasterboard glued with celotex on the wall. There are some electrical cables and I don't really want to cut channels in the celotex. The plan is to glue 10mm plastic spacers to the celotex and then glue the boards to the wall using adhesive...

Hi I'm intending on converting my integral garage into a room and there are some questions I've got regarding the floor. Initially I wanted to do it myself, timber on both sides and joists to get to the right height (step is around 200mm). DPC just below the joists (leaving an unventilated gap...

Hi All I'm planning to build a lean-to shed next to my house. The existing passage is already tight, so need to put the wall as close to the fence as possible. I can't really remove the fencing, so I'm struggling with coming up with a way to screw in the cladding after I put up the posts. The...