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Hi Fitting a couple of U beams tomorrow, can anyone tell me if I should put a bed of mortar between the Beam & lintel, or does the U beam just sit straight on to the beam? Thanks

Hi Need to lay a concrete lintel for the U beams to sit on. unfortunately, the only lintel I can get will mean that I'll have a 40mm mortar joint between the block work and lintel. Someone has told me that this is OK if I layer the mortar with slate i.e mortar, slate, mortar etc until I get...

We are having a new garage built adjacent to the house. We will then have a pitched roof on the garage, which will extend across the existing porch. Can 1 catnic be used to span both the garage and the porch, which will be a total of approximately 5m, but will sit on a brick wall at about...

Our builder put the 1st row of cavity wall insulation in yesterday and we did try and cover it up. However, due to the heavy rain this afternoon it has got very wet. Will we still be able to use this or do we need to replace it? Also, we laid the new concrete kitchen floor about 2 weeks...

Thanks for all your replies! Think I've made my mind up now to call it a day with him and try and get someone else in to finish it off.

Having a new extension built and wasn't happy with rows below dpc as running out. Builder OK and corrected problem but now he has got 12 rows above dpc on the 1st corner and is vertically running out by about 1/2". Builder has told us we have got to be more tolerant. Do you think we...

Thanks for your quick reply noseall!

Knocking through brick wall to create a 800mm door opening. Can anyone tell me what size lintel I would need? Thanks!

Thanks for your reply noseall! Concrete floor's going to be 100mm thixk and the slab shoe's I'm using are 47mm thick -do you think that's OK?

Hi In the middle of laying a concrete kitchen floor that has to have reinforcement mesh in (it's to support a wall that will be built on top). Is it OK to support the mesh on a concrete paving slab that I've cut? Thanks

Hi Just compacted some building sand as part of the base for the new kitchen floor, but sand is quite wet. Sand has compacted but concerned that because it's so wet, it could shrink and crack when it drys out? Could it cause any problems? Thanks

Thanks for the replies! Forgot to mention that the plastic soil pipe is approx 6" below the hardcore, will it be OK to go over this with the vibrating plate or should I keep clear of this area? Also, around the perimeter of the kitchen floor, the type 1 hardcore is approx 2' deep,would a...

Hi Need to compact some hardcore and sand for a new kitchen floor. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between a rammer and vibrating plate? Also, need to do a section in the garage but a plate would be too wide and didn't really want to hire both. My main concern is that a...

Hi All Building an extension and just finished up to dpc, but now need to build another wall off one of the sides. Ideally I would like to keep all the dpc in line on all walls. To do this I would need to make the mortar bed 40mm thick betweeen the block work and the 1st row of engineering...

Thanks noseall Saves me a trip to wickes! Better get out mixing now, while the suns shining!!

Hi All I know that there a quite few threads about concrete mix ratios, but I can't seem to find one that tells me what ratio I need to fill the bottom of the cavity. I know it's got to be a "weak" mix, but any suggestions on what ratio? Also, fitting some drainage pipes and usually...

Thanks for your replies. Just to confirm, the boiler will be on this wall so don't think a timber stud wall will take the weight. Therefore, I think that it will have to be built in block work. Could I just use a thicker insulated plasterboard on the kitchen wall and the 12.5mm fireline...

Hi The flue will go outside the external wall at the side of the garage.

Hi I'm having an extension built at the side of the house and the plans show that the wall between the garage and kitchen is a 300mm cavity wall, built with 100mm dense block. I need as much space in the garage as possible, so is there anyway that the width of the wall can be reduced by...

I'm having an extension built and 4 rows of engineering bricks were laid below dpm on Tuesday. We had a hard frost Tuesday/Wednesday night and don't know whether this has caused any problems with the setting of the mortar. You can scrape the mortar with you finger nail. Should it have set by now...