One very productive Saturday...

[Tim Watts]

Me and mate stripped 90% of the plasterboard from upstairs:

The floor is protected with DPM sheet (that was a total win in terms of clearing up - as was a new Henry which did not clog all the time despite lots of dust).

Zero mess in the rest of the house as we lobbed the PB out the window onto the drive - into a taped off area of course!

You now see the timber frame in all its glory - with 50mm celotex (75 in hipped parts) already fitted when roof was retiled.

That filled a mega-hippo bag (medium one) which was a gross under estimate! Luckily I only paid for the bag and not a collection, so I'm booking a midi skip next week (which works out half the price).

Next, I am not too happy with some of the woodwork so we're running 6x2" all around the top edge screwed into the uprights to add stiffness.

The front-2-middle of those (4 in all) can be screwed to the not insubstantial flat roof centre beam (a lump of 9x3") and the other ends to the dormer face support columns - which will add considerable stiffness to the walls.

We'll attempt to block vapour with foil tape and PU glued sections between the new wood (exposed to the room) and the old wood (exposed to the cold side) to avoid too much moisture migrating through.

We'll also add some 2x4" along the sloping edges screwed through the uprights and into the rafter behind for the same reason.

Screws will be:

which I had to buy from Amazon.de as they're hard to get here - but they look just the job for pinning wood like this.

That should be a fairly quick job - so then, we'll infill with another

50mm of celotex (25 on hipped) to get 100mm overall as the BCO will be happy with.

The next planned bit will be to plasterboard under the hipped roof right into the loft voids (fire protection and celotex is not very good when bashed about by stored stuff and heads).

The main room walls and flat roof will be battened out with 40mm ish wood and the plasterboard fixed to that. That, at the expense of a couple of inches on all room dimensions (still leaves a 2m ceiling and plenty of space) will leave some nice cable voids.

[newshound]

That really looks excessively clean and tidy!

:-)

[Andy Burns]

Can't you just lift the arse-end of a Nissan Micra and roll it out of the way :-P

[Tim Watts]

I was thinking of shunting it but I'd already called 101 to see if they could tell the nob end to move it. Next time...

[Tim Watts]

I am impressed with the Henry - the old Vax blew out more dust than it sucked and the filters clogged fast. I was advised to only get the "fabric" style bags, not the washable cloth, not the paper.

I was intrigued by the right hand support column, the one that was built off the chimney (which is fine, it's very substantial). I think we will plaster up to that but leave it exposed. It's a bit "Devon cottage".

[RJH]

snip - good job! I did similar except lath and plaster. Very messy but quick enough once I got stuck in.

Some of that Celotex looks a little gappy - maybe use expanding foam? And I aluminium taped all the points where celotex met other materials.

[Tim Watts]

Indeed I plan to - and fire rated stuff this time :)

The advantage with over covering with more celotex is that perfection is not required, but I do want to foam fix some of those side panels so that they remain in place, and maintain the 1" air gap behind them to the Tyvek - and fill in some of the larger gaps.

+1 - Have 5 rolls of Bostik Idenden coming - as it is not possible to (easily) go into the eaves with the 25mm, I will tape the edges of the boards that go in that general direction (going to take them to the tops of the joists and/or cable tray - whichever snags first). I reckon that will stop the edges crumbing.

I'm not going to be a total pedant about taping every last bit - the lower sections on the hipped are foamed already (roofers did that, mostly) and it has proved fairly un-draughty whilst the rest was still plasterboarded.

[newshound]

Is that these?

I've only used the ordinary paper ones, which seem pretty good.

Main problem with the Henry for "building" debris is lumps blocking the narrower hose, I have a Wickes/Earlex wet and dry which takes a nominal

50 mm hose, but the filters and dust release are not good.

I'll use a mains Dyson cylinder or the Henry for final cleanup, I think the Dyson has more suck, but it is also much more cumbersome. The cordless Dyson is good for nooks and crannies, but fills up very quickly around our house!

[Tim Watts]

Yes indeed it is.

My VAX used to block its paper bags in short order - and a lot of the dust then got through and clogged the large disc filter. These bags seem to hold the dust much better - they are very similar to the Miele bags that never seem to let any visible dust through.

Yes - I noticed the hose is smaller - at least at one end. It seems to be conical along its length which is something I've not seen before.

[Andrew]

Where is the RSJ that should be supporting the ridge ?. Assuming this is a loft or dormer conversion ?.

[Steve Walker]

The problem with shunting is that I have a tow bar, which is likely to put a towball shaped hole in the offending car's bumper and will certainly shatter the numberplate at first touch ... not my problem though :)