Recent content by SouthLondonCharlie

I have sliding French doors with an external timber sill that was damp at one end last year due to surface varnish having worn away. I repaired with filler & repainted with gloss. However, rot seems to have got in and the internal sill is rotten. Is it possible damp is coming up from the ground...

Yep, staircase - thanks. I think I will leave them and just fill & paint the black holes so they look less noticeable.

My house (built 1997) has strange little blocks of wood in the corner of soom rooms - pic below. I'd like to remove them but not sure what they are for or whether they are doing something important. Anyone know what they are?

I shouldn't need to mend it if the ply or ply+chipboard makes the floor solid. The reason chipboard eventually fails is that repeated bending under dynamic load of people walking on it between the joists eventually softens the fibrous structure. If something rigid is spreading that load to the...

The chipboard is already laid and I can't remove it without a major fight with teh builder and huge expense. So ideally I'd like to firm it up with ply. 18mm might overspec the floor and make it too heavy for the joists, so wondering if 9mm would be enough?

I'm in the process of having a loft conversion done by one of the big loft companies, who have laid standard tongue-and-groove chipboard floors. These are used throughout the rest of my 20-year-old house and have lost strength and become squeaky and bouncy in lots of places. I'd like to prevent...

Thames Water's build over team got back to me about this. It's good news as I can build over the sewer and don't need to re-route them. I just need to take out the existing manhole (making all the half-pipes inside into solid pipes) and then create a new manhole in my garden connected to the...

I'm getting a drain survey first with invert levels marked on a plan so hopefully that will make it clear. Not sure who to use for this yet. If you can suggeest a reputable London company that does build-over surveys acceptable to architects then let me know!

Thanks, but rules of thumb & guesswork are only going to get me so far. Clearly I need to discuss with Thames Water what they think will work. Will report back if they get in touch.

That's why I was a bit mystified by Thames's sketch in post #10 above from their official guidance - it shows two junctions without manholes. I've no idea what system of rules they work to but hopefully they'll give me a steer when they call back and not simply tell me to ask an engineer.

Assuming my neighbour doesn't mind a bit of digging... I could try something like this:

Thanks. The revised drawing is what Developer services suggested to me, but I might not have fully understood. Now e-mailed to them and I expect a call back within 5 days to discuss it and work out a solution that is worth formally submitting for permission. Fortunately I get on with my...

After a quick chat with Developer Services, I think I can do the following. The drains are shallower than the foundations, so I think I will need to use cantilevered slabs/concrete lintels over them and build around. Thames seem happy for junctions to disappear under the building as long as...

The neighbour is OK - I'm pretty sure she would allow a bit of digging. She doesn't live there currently as the house is rented out, so the inconvenience would be to her tenants. I'd have to make good after the works though.

Thanks. When I spoke to Thames they said I could use a Y-junction to move the manhole, but they haven't seen the drain run so I don't know if it would work. I had a look at the download you recommended and it includes an example of one (pasted below). In this case the new manhole isn't over the...