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To save space and get an upstairs toilet closer to the wall, but have the vertical waste come forward of a floor joist below, I want to use a swan neck / question mark shaped wc waste connector. But every toilet I can find has the rear shape not truly vertical, but tapering out slightly, This...

I would like some advice on how to build a retaining wall, to hold back soil. The garden of the property backs onto a field which slopes down onto my land. I want to excavate this slope to make a flat surface, which will leave a vertical drop of 1.5 metres from the high surface of the field...

When do you use stepped flashing AND soakers, rather than just one stepped flashing that bends 90 degrees to cover the tiles? Is it to do with the tike shape; flat or pantile/curved?

a query about flashing where the gable end meets a flat wall, ie. stepped flashing. there is a video here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5108430840165855546# showing how to sut the steps to go into the bricks, but it says nothing about soakers. maybe they are there but not...

CLEANING A MIXER Any suggestions as to how to best clean out a cement mixer, without using lots of water? I do not want to have loads of messy water all over the lawn. CORBELS And a query about stone corbels - existing ones seem to be 2 bricks long and 3 brick high, like a breeze block...

Thanks for the above answer... When making the footings, is there any reason why I should not just pour ready-mix concrete into the trench, right up to ground level? That would leave just one block (inner skin) and three courses of bricks (outer skin) to get to DPC level. Seems simpler than...

In my extension, I am planning on just one course of blocks for the inner skin to bring me level with the existing dpc. Can I use aerated blocks BELOW dpc? I like the idea of aerated blocks which are lightweight and can be cut with a handsaw, when I think of all the cutting there will be with...

OK, but when laying screed, do you screw battons around the walls to act as guides to the height , and then move a straight edge over these? My question is how exactly do you get the screed surface flat ans level over the whole room? One method I saw was to first make long lines of screed...

thanks. Now about laying the screed - my extension is only 2200 x 2100 mm so once you deduct the 300 thick walls, the actual floor area is even less. But what is the easiest way of laying the screed perfectly level, and to finish so it is same level as exisisting floor level?

Can someone explain the various layers of materials in making a solid floor; am I right that you can have , hardcore; sand; DPM; kingspan insulation; and screed on top. But NO ACTUAL CONCRETE? Or do you need concrete on top of the insulation, just under the screed? And what are the...

thank you all - I get it now.

not sure if this should be in Roofing section, or here..... Building a gable end, should the slope of the outer skin, and inner blockwork, be on the same level as the rafters, or is the outer skin lower than the rafter. to allow for bedding the final tiles onto the bricks? If so, how much...

Thanks for all this advice - it begins to make sense!

OK I see I can build the inner leaf blockwork up to wall plate level, put on a wall plate and the final rafter next to the gable end, and then build the corbel up to meet the top surface of the rafter. But in practice, the porch is only 2.1 metres wide across the gable end, so I may not have...

drawing of proposed porch with corbel

I am building a porch ands want to match the corbelling on the gable elevation. What I cannot understand is how do I work out which brick course to begin the corbelling, so that it goes out the right amount to meet the roof timber?

thanks - I get it now.

I am bulding a porch with a pitched tiled roof, against existing house wall. Where the roofing felt of the new roof meets the existing wall,do I fold it up a few inches against the existing wall and push the new tiles against it? What happens at the top (ridge) where you cannot really fold...

I am thinking of converting a garage, which is a modern garage, half brick wall on concrete floor. How would I meet insulation requirements with the floor? Presumably I would have to build the floor level up with slabs of insulation and then a screed on top? For the walls, can a 100 mm...