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[ you mean unloading a lorry of 4000 bricks yeah gang lol what weed you got? the stuff that makes every thing look ten fold I take that to mean you don't think I was able to lay 2000 bricks a day. You obviously don't have much experience of price work, I was fast but there were plenty of...

In South Wales I've used concrete commons from the Danygraig works in Risca. In London I've used LBC flettons or sand faced regrades as commons. There's never been any issues with the bricks used below ground from BCOs or NHBC.

I bought a full set of Blakes for £180 in, I think, 1982. Best tools I ever bought. As a 2+1 gang we would do a lift of brickwork on a pair of semis in a day, that's about 4000 bricks or so. With Blakes we could lay a thousand bricks in the time it used to take us to build two 24 brick...

Not rat trap more like a flemish garden wall bond. You could see it was an attempt at creating a cavity but without proper cavity ties. These bungalows were built in the early 30s I think so they should have been able to get ties if they wanted to.

The diagonal bracing is crucial for the rigidity of a trussed roof and should not be taken out. Some truss manufacturers still supply a bracing plan in their design drawings, but usually it's down to whoever is fitting the trusses. Personally I put in extra bracing, I've seen what can happen...

I'm gonna be screeding over the weekend :shock: Should I dry mix 1st then add the water? I understand the screed should be much drier than a concrete/mortar mix ... hence adding the water last to give me a bit more control over the end product? Still add the water first. The secret...

We work on 4 shovels to a 25kg bag, 130 to a bulk bag.

Woody is spot on. It's a lot easier to sort out an existing beam rather than put in a new one. A building settles into the deflection of a beam and I've found BCOs tend to want you to leave beams as they are, whenever possible.

Martin, I had a chef who worked for me. He'd work on site during the day, finish around 4.30 then work from 6.00 to 9.30 as a chef. Though he did eventually have to pack in the chef work as his leaving at 4.30 was a bit of a pain for me. He did work for another builder, as a general...

Extending both the joists and rafters will create your A frame and give you a lateral tie but it would mean an overhang of over a metre. On my own cottage it's about 500mm and we did build a garage with a flat over it and that has an overhang of around 750mm and that looks ok.

Hip irons, they help hold the ridge tiles in place.

To answer your question, put simply, it's a flat piece of lead through the chimney which separates the exposed brickwork above the roof (wet) from the brickwork in the loft (dry). During the Eighties lots of houses were built without a chimney. After this it seems a lot of brickies didn't...

Personally I never use slate for packing. I prefer to use motar. I've come across loads of steels, lintols, brickwork etc. packed with slate and you can pull it out easily, you only need a slight movement in the structure and things can loosen up. I know this is not always the case but I do a...

Trespass on royal residence is a criminal offence. This has only just come about, this month I think, probably becuase of fathers 4 justice. Trespass on railway land is also an offence for which you can fined, also MOD land and certain goverment buidings, eg. 10 Downing Street, under...

Red mites are bloodsuckers, feeding on birds mostly. They are a scourge of poultry keepers and pigeon fanciers. They feed on the birds at night and hide in cracks and crevices during the day. Having kept poultry, I can tell you they are a horrible insect, very hard to control. I once left a...

In reply to scrit I have to say that Welsh is not a dead language, it is still widely used. I know that in the valley I'm from it's very difficult to get your children into the Welsh medium schools, there's just not enough places. Even non Welsh speakers want their children to speak Welsh. As...

Wanabe that was a bit wicked, but then little victories are sometimes better savoured. :lol: These days with my wife being English and children half Welsh and half English I'd have to say dim pob Sais As to gogs and hwntws, to the rest of the world we're just taffs.

When I peg it, the wife said she'd bury me in my Welsh shirt. I thought that was really nice of her, but as she's English maybe it's her way of getting rid of it. Not a gog, I'm a hwntws.