The package I have used for years is a pencil, rubber, T square, drawing board, paper etc. I find its much quicker than any computer prog and a fraction of the price. The drawings are somehow much more readable too. Recently bought a posh board with parallel motion 2nd hand - only £40. so its even easier.
cheers
Jacob
good lord, you'll be telling us you don't use a router and a fancy jig for mortises next ! ;-)
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
Well, cheers for all the replies and comments - I'm somewhat of a newbie on this group but, as I've got an entire house (well, flat) to renovate, I can see me being quite a regular here! :-)
I agree on the SDS front - think I'll have to find some room in the 'renovation budget' for one of those... been meaning to get one for a while now anyway.
Unfortunately (I didn't show this on any of the plans for simplicity) there's actually a bay window at the front of the house which may cause some problems for supporting an RSJ - not sure - another structural engineer question I think...
Yeah - this would certainly be the preferred option since it would give me over 600 square feet of open loft space... which would be nice. The structural engineer (SE) suggested reinforcing the principal rafters with steel 'U' shaped strips, which may provide enough support to remove the cross-struts. Unfortunately he didn't want to guarantee this without modelling it though - same goes for the king post (see SE comments below)...
storage
Yeah - again, SE territory as you say. Initially the plan was to just do the loft out for storage (we were going to get a full conversion done until we found every quote was coming back at =A320k+ - plus, with it being a flat, it would mean additional fire protection between the ground and first floor, which would be a major pain in the arse). So the plan now is to kit it out for storage initially with a view to turning it into some sort of cinema / music / toy room later down the line. So it would certainly make sense getting the floor sorted now... it also gives me something to do while waiting for planning permission etc. for some of our other projects. :-)
Well, here goes!
Basically there's 3 stages to the whole project...
1=2E Fit the loft hatch The SE was confident the loft hatch could be fitted into the existing ceiling joists without compromising structural stability providing the supporting joists at either end are doubled up. 2=2E Fitting a 'floor area' for storage He was happy with a '1/6' section of the loft being devoted to storage however a new floor would be required in this area - this would need to be held in the wall by joist hangers on one side and rest on one of the 30' beams on the other... er, like this:-Just waiting to get the finalised quotes off him before proceeding - think we might just have to go for option 2 for the moment since, in the scheme of things, option 3 will be out of budget for now... at least until we get the rest of the flat finished. Not sure yet... Anyway, what do people know about soil pipes? :-)
Andy
What do you want to know?
I was thinking about the RSJ running side to side rather than front to back. The beams would then run front to RSJ and RSJ to back. Having the bay window may complicate it a bit since the lintel over it may not be up to the task of taking a floor load. I hade exactly the same issue to solve on my place. I used a flitch beam as a stringer just in front of the bay window lintel. That way I did not need to worry about if it would be up to the job.
areas at each corner in the same way if you need to store heavier stuff (i.e. keeping it close to the edges)
Sounds fair... cost me 570 for full plans and calcs.
Round, pipey and full of **it ;-)
Sorry about the delay in replying - finally got a proper newsfeed working! :-)
It's OK - think I've got the soil pipe thing sussed. Just needed to know if a 12m length with 3 x 90' bends would pass building regs. Turns out it's OK providing I have a stub stack with air admittance valve.
Cheers anyway!
Andy
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