Recent content by mrrusty

LVT is supposed to be laid warm - read the manufacturers instructions! - the risk with LVT is that if laid cold it then expands in the sun and wrinkles up. For plastics you should allow 0.05-0.07mm/degree/m so a 5m room between freezing and under hot sun (say 30 degrees) will expand/contract up...

That opens up a whole new line of thought - there must be a balance point where the cooling effect of too much ventilation outweighs the benefits of the drying effect on internal condensation that would otherwise compromise insulation. The size of the optimum ventilation holes would vary...

@stuart45 yes, that makes perfect sense; a ventilated cavity wall with only a 2" cavity is likely to have worse insulation than a solid 9", but that focuses on insulation comparison of a dry wall. IMHO the cause of much reported damp and cold walls is caused by condensation. The more we keep our...

whatever - you have to get to page 5 I take the point the OP has CWI, and if it's a victorian property IMHO he would be best to get it removed... I repeat that at the end of the 19th C beginning of the 20th cavities were for damp control not insulation. I'll stick to my opinion backed up by...

You are mixing up two completely different things. Airbricks sleeved right through are for void ventilation - like underfloor. The conversation is irrelevant to new builds - construction methods are different. In Victorian/edwardian houses, the cavities were NOT part of the wall insulation...

@ree - I see you are showing as California - this is a UK site dedicated to UK situations. IMO this is 100% wrong advice for the UK with our damp climate. My house built in 1902 was built with ventilated cavities - several brick sized airbricks that don't go all the way through the wall The...

You will definitely need a building notice (or regs drawings + BR application) the extension will have to meet all the latest regs. My opinion is that if you have permitted development rights (i.e. not been withdrawn, not listed, not conservation area) then that's a PD extension, but only my...

I agree, but it's a much bigger job....

buy some suitable profiled beading and fix it to the top of the skirt. Nice mitred corner and a bit of filler and would look fine.

NFU - they quite likely have a local office where you can talk to real people about aspects of the policies. This is ours https://www.nfumutual.co.uk/agent-offices/preston/

Just do it if you are capable.

yes, exactly. I had a conversation with my BC man once we'd stripped back to bare brick, and our consensus was internally insulate using insulated PB incorporating a VCL to create as near an air-tight barrier as possible, and then rely on the well ventilated cavity to deal with any interstitial...

An old man living basically in one room and 115 years of coal fires every day. I think when considering breathable lime plaster you need to consider whether you are trying to allow the wall to "breathe" in to the room, or the room air to "breathe" through in to the wall......

It does, and a cavity, but when we inherited it, the internal walls were so wet you could almost literally wring water out of the plaster. The remedies have not included lime plaster......we could start another discussion about using that in sealed houses with DG, blocked up flues etc....and why...

....and after 440 pages of theory, the writer of the Salford report carried out a real-world experiment and wrote in his conclusion "If I am critical, however, I do recognise the limitations of this study: it was, after all restricted to a single house of a particular type and occupation" and...