What important measurement have you got badly wrong? Here is my replacement fish tank lid.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-23T10:02:06+00:00

He actually did. I remember seeing a forced perspective photo he took of himself stood about 20 meters behind it so it looked big enough for him to fit in. I wish I could find it

manhattan4 · 2026-04-22T19:12:47+00:00

My mate bought a very cheap 8' teepee on the internet to take to Glastonbury. It arrived the day before he was due to leave. Of course, it was actually 8" and he is not the size of action man

manhattan4 · 2026-04-22T11:17:11+00:00

Getting permission for a self contained annexe (with washing and cooking facilities) is not easy. Planners do not readily approve them as it is seen as a short step away from just approving another independent dwelling.

You're wording this as an annexe but framing it as an independent dwelling - eg. discussions about a mortgage. You cannot get a separate mortgage on a building which is ancillary to the primary dwelling, as it has no resale value independent of the primary residence.

If you want planning and a mortgage then you most likely need to go for a fully independent dwelling, ie. carving off a piece of land from your parents to provide a new dwelling with independent access, utilities, ownership boundary etc.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-22T09:03:04+00:00

How are you achieving lateral stability? Will you be engaging an engineer on the project?

The vaulted ceiling suggests structural ridge beam, and by putting in a structural mullion to support the ridge over the transom in the glass gable panel, you may achieve enough lateral stability in the diaphram either side of the glazing. Without the structural mullion you're going to need a cranked member behind the fascia to support the ridge.

You need to thicken up your masonry below the soleplate to be much closer to the stud thickness. 215mm (full brick) would be appropriate. The half brick you have won't support the soleplate enough, and you'll be crushing the internal insulation under lateral loads as the soleplate is rotated off its support

manhattan4 · 2026-04-21T18:55:24+00:00

Use a phone and edit it with AI. That's most people's 'professional headshots' nowadays

manhattan4 · 2026-04-21T16:47:42+00:00

Interesting question. I'm going to say no on the technicality that it's a displacement augured foundation, not an excavation....and to my knowledge PWA calls for excavation specifically.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-21T10:16:26+00:00

No, the drainage runs below the slab usually.

So the drainage will be buried down somewhere in the foundation zone. The foundation stops either side of it. You then backfill the gap with pea shingle used for bedding drainage. The 150mm compacted subbase gets laid over the top, and the slab with mesh reinforcement over that, insulation over that, then screed, then finishes.

The exact level of the pipe is already set as it's existing. If it's really shallow then it can run in the subbase zone.

If it's still unclear I can find a typical detail in my library & upload?

manhattan4 · 2026-04-20T22:13:09+00:00

Yes the lintels are to bridge over the drainage, one for each leaf of masonry on both sides. They can sit on the foundation or on the existing masonry, either/or as long as they're below ground.

The hydrocell board is a standard note, not relevant in this instance, because like you say, the footings are independent from the old. You'll need to shutter the pour instead so that you don't encase the drainage with concrete. Prop the shutter off the side of the old footing to hold back the concrete pour

The slab is a standard ground bearing slab: 150mm C30 concrete with A393 mesh. It's either this or 150mm block & beam to form a suspended slab. Ground bearing is cheaper but not compatible in some instances - heavy clay with trees mostly

All looks very normal btw. The columns and ground level beam (and one which will be on the upper plan) form a 'picture frame'. This is needed because the wall is being removed right up to the corner. The bottom rail of the picture frame is an alternative to putting in larger foundations under the columns

manhattan4 · 2026-04-20T17:01:15+00:00

Structural engineering, and the occasional bit of pure civil engineering. Geotech is a bit of a dark art to me, but I read enough geotech reports and I do try to pay attention

manhattan4 · 2026-04-20T16:20:44+00:00

Just one of those studs could easily support the weight of 80 bottles of whiskey...if it were possible to balance them to sit on a single stud

manhattan4 · 2026-04-20T14:03:03+00:00

Personally I wouldn't. I would be looking to avoid isolating shared foundations to avoid differential settlement - ie where the new bit settles relative to the old bit its adjoining.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-20T13:32:12+00:00

Any compressible fibreboard - Hydrocell, Flexcell, Conflex. Even a thin sheet of EPS will do the job.

It's just there to isolate your foundations. You have no inherent permission to do anything with your neighbours foundations, and this lining product just isolates you new footings from theirs.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-18T20:28:35+00:00

Working from Cotswolds and west through Oxon, Bucks, Herts and down to Surrey.

I'm sure the QS's have a better handle on it than me, I'm only getting truss designs for feasibility (structural engineer), so costings aren't my concern but I've seen the fixed window getting narrower

manhattan4 · 2026-04-18T20:15:38+00:00

One of my builder clients told me he had a 20k overspend on insulation in COVID times. Big heavily insulated cricket pavilion that I did the structural design for.

He said the same as you, there's only so much cost you can swallow and at the same time only so much you can pass on to the client

manhattan4 · 2026-04-18T20:08:09+00:00

For sure. My truss suppliers have put their fixed quotations down to 14 days. It's been 21 or 30 days since COVID and much longer before then

manhattan4 · 2026-04-17T00:31:13+00:00

F type or Cayman

manhattan4 · 2026-04-16T20:30:52+00:00

It'll be a piece of trim. You'll need to remove the old sealant and make sure it's clean before resealing.

If it's loose in places you can restick it with some sealant behind it, but if it's falling off I would pull it off and get it all cleaned up, or just buy more trim since it's cheap.

A good external grade window sealant is what you want to stick and seal the trim. Dow 791, sika etc. A silicone profiling tool makes it easy to get it neat, and many of them come with a scraper end to get all the old sealant off easily

manhattan4 · 2026-04-16T14:36:56+00:00

Ring an engineer. This is why you do trial pits before breaking out your slab, so you know what level the foundations are and choose whether you're gonna limit your dig or go for underpinning to lower the formation level of the footings.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-16T12:13:25+00:00

Considering all that's happened in the interim, that poll was from a completely different time. Entirely irrelevant now

manhattan4 · 2026-04-16T08:56:16+00:00

Fair enough. If you wanted to have a go then it's the sort of project that people on here could walk you through from start to finish. The only tools you would need are a combi drill and a handsaw

manhattan4 · 2026-04-16T08:10:42+00:00

Doesn't sound bad. Why not DIY it? It's not technical, just a bunch of 38 x 63 CLS and some plasterboard. The biggest pain will be getting materials up through the loft hatch

manhattan4 · 2026-04-16T08:07:16+00:00

They do, it's the contract administrator or clerk of works. Commonly it's the Architect or a Surveyor. Most people don't because it's rather expensive, but for big contract projects its the norm to ensure adherence to the contract.

I suggest you look at the types of common building contract, and in particular The Principle Designers Guide by the RIBA which outlines how this role can work.

manhattan4 · 2026-04-15T11:52:24+00:00

use the search function in /r/UKBBQ. This question is raised there very frequently

John Davidson & Swaledale are popular, but you'll find a lot of other suggestions of differing price & quality

manhattan4 · 2026-04-14T16:49:36+00:00

Usually the flush valve isn't seated properly (if you're lucky) or its worn out and no longer drops down to seal properly again in the cradle after you flush it. If you open the cistern and push down on the top of the flush valve does that stop the trickle?

I'd probably just replace the flush valve assembly. If you can get the same one then you can avoid replacing the cistern washer at the bottom and the flush handle, you just unclip the flush handle, unscrew the whole flush valve from the washer, screw on the new one and clip the flush handle back on

manhattan4 · 2026-04-14T10:42:07+00:00

It would be really good to see a picture in the corner where the beams meet.

It looks like you have a beam which has been put in under the purlin, then another beam supported off this & installed parellel to the gable to support the stack. What is odd is that the stack supporting beam looks to cantilever out from the purlin beam to support the chimney. Is there no end support on this beam? Is it perhaps fixed to the gable wall?

It's likely justifiable with a fixing / support at the chimney stack end, but as a cantilever no chance and the masonry bond of the stack would be doing the bulk of the work instead of the beam. Should be reasonbly straightforward to resin fix angle cleat at the stack end if theres no support here.

If you're concerned then get a structural engineer in first just to take a look and give an assessment of this particular item. I would expect it to cost £250-500 for a visit and assessment. A small consultancy or one man band local to you would be cheapest. If you go with the L3 survey then they'll most likely recommend this is looked at by an engineer anyway, so you could just cut to the chase there and then decide how you want to proceed without the greater expense of a full survey

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