My DIY Adventure...

[Hamzter]

I see I'm not unique with this.

Mind mentioning the books you found useful?

Yeh sure, they were...

Loft Conversions by John Coutts - Covers just about every area you need to know about loft conversions

Manual of First and Second Fix Carpentry by Les Goring - Couldn't have put in stairs or floors without this!

Collins DIY Manual

DK DIY Manual

The last two were great for just getting a general understanding of how to go about a task, they're fairly shallow because they cover such a wide range of stuff, I would then generally go looking for more detailed info on it.

 

[Hamzter]

For the external wall in that bathroom, how did you fit the boards? Did you add a vapour layer?

Ok, time for a stupid question, what's this vapour layer you mention? I know of vapour control membranes in roofs, but not heard of them in walls before.

The walls were covered in 20mm Marmox boards, with dot 'n dab adhesive and special plastic 'spankers' (basically big expanding hammer plugs) to fix em in place. Each board was siliconed to the adjacent ones, and used mesh tape + tile adhesive to finish off the joints before tiling. This is how the manufacturer recommended it's fitted, I'm not sure how any kind of vapour layer would work...

 

[Hamzter]

Oh good, thought I'd missed something I think the marmox is watertight like you said, but I tanked out around the shower anyway just to be sure.

 

[Hamzter]

You certainly did a lovely neat job on the insulation. The balustrades & rail looks good too.

About the handle height, 990 is recommended in the building reg's. It can be a pain in the arse when there's a situation like a new extension, and the doors in other parts of the house aren't at that height. I personally think it doesn't matter much, in the case of your door it looks better in the centre of the rail. I however, usually get my butt whipped by the building inspectors if I try to match existing, no matter how crap it looks to keep to reg's.

The ceiling joists shouldn't matter much as they aren't structural, but you might get some overly strict inspector who has an issue - stick to using joist hangers, it only takes a bit longer to hammer in those extra nails. I've seen someone have to rip a ceiling out before as the inspector took up the floor & checked out the hangers from above!

About the ceiling joists, why would they have issue with it? Their load rating is far greater than required and I'm not aware of anything in the regs that requires long leg hangers. Is it possibly a 'that's how it's always done' thing?