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Yes beam sat directly onto padstone ideally. Normally pack between the top of steel and masonry with steel or slate shims

I’d just pour a 150mm thick x 300mm wide concrete strip foundation. It’s less than a cubic meter of concrete which in comparison to most foundations is practically nothing. What are you doing for the floor?..

Not a problem to jack them up if you’re replacing the ceilings throughout, but might find you crack the plasterboard or start popping screws if your keeping the existing ceiling elsewhere. Yes you can fix the original ceiling ties to the newer joists. The reason they’ve sagged is probably...

you’d be better off using a wider but shallower timber for your hip purlin. What has a dragon tie got to do with the depth of a birdsmouth on a hip purlin?

Yes fill the cavity with concrete to 225mm below DPC. Especially if you have a ground-bearing slab as your external wall will also now be acting as a retaining wall.

Yeah they'll be fine sat on top of another timber as you've suggested Don't really need to bolt the new joist ends to the existing joist ends if they're going to be sat on that sole plate anyway, they won't go anywhere

Its a trial pit not a grave...

No you don't need to birdsmouth timbers for a flat roof. And you can buy clips specifically for fixing timbers down to a wallplate as you've described - they're called truss clips

It just needs to be large enough for you to be able to reach the bottom of the trial pit with a tape to measure up - depth from ground level to top of foundation, thickness of foundation and the step out from the face of the wall to the edge of the foundation. Not really any need to have a...

For an opening that size the building inspector will probably tell you what lintel to use!

A few hundred pounds on a structural engineer is definitely a waste of money.

Yes a standard concrete lintel will be fine - something like a Naylor R6 will do.

Retrofitting in an older house built before cavity walls were the norm? Bi-folds aren’t exclusively for new build houses…

Yes. Probably easiest to install the new purlin beside the existing one with it still in-situ and remove it afterwards so you won’t need to prop the roof while you do it

Thermalite

Its not common but yes you could do it, but will all need to be designed by a structural engineer. It might save some floor depth but it will end up costing you at least twice as much. 8 inch joists aren't the 'normal specification' for floor joists. The size of a floor joist is based on the...

Is the wall over the door a cavity wall or just single skin?

Why is your builder installing Helifix bars? Have they actually identified and diagnosed a genuine the problem or are they just telling you that you need them because of some minor cracking?

We've just done our loft a couple of weeks ago - sounds like the same situation as yours just with existing insulation between the joists. Used Knauf glasswool - 200mm loft insulation super top up layer (£25 a roll from Wickes). It was dead easy to lay and seemed decent quality so not sure i...

You'll have no problem making a 300mm opening - a masonry wall will typically self-support over a span of 900mm or so