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Thanks for your work on this channel chief, while I'll probably still use contractors for much of my planned renovation at least you've armed me with enough knowledge to reduce the chances I'll be taken for a ride by some cowbow hah. In terms of outliers to consider; external wall insulation. I'll be trying to eco-up a 1950's brick built cavity wall semi(already cavity filled by previous owner) with it and an MVHR among other interventions, and while I've seen a few people online who've managed to wrangle their local BCO into signing off on an airtight underfloor cavity filled with insulation(EPS or foamglass beads) it's a faff & a half and the insulation cost eats into the savings from going with timber. Putting in enough vents to meet modern code would mean having to use one-way membranes to seal up the walls of the underfloor cavity as well as on top of the floor or else every mortar joint is a potential air leak into the cavity and so the whole internal wall, or you have to strip and membrane all the internal walls as well, and even then you're introducing cold air into your thermal envelope and risking interstitial condensation in your cavity. With concrete there's no hassle about sealing up the external vents, and the various layers of adhesive and render involved in the EWI system will result in a decent air seal providing you use membrane to bring it over the top of the cavity and join up to an internal membrane in the loft conversion - not Passivehaus level, but pretty decent. Another thing to consider is radon mitigation. Personally I'd be much more comfortable with the multiple layers of seal you get with a thicker concrete pour with a passive radon sump buried underneath than relying on the cavity ventilation itself to clear it out, or putting the sump in with only the membrane and blinding layer for the timber floor.

Bro this is truly amazing you are an absolute gem 💎

In the last few weeks I have watched dozens of videos on warm roof construction in preparation for building my own 4.8m x 4.2m workshop with a flat roof (1:40 fall). You are the first to suggest not to use a top cover of timber sheet over the insulation and under the EPDM. I see you response below to the question as to your recommendation - perhaps a video to show how it SHOULD be done properly is in order. Thanks.

Can you put insulated plasterboard under a warm flat roof for the ceiling?

Thanks for the excellent video, very informative. How do brick ties get installed on the timber frame option? I would have thought the brickwork would still need to be tied back to the structure? Thanks

Fantastic video! Would love a part II with anymore you can think of

How did you get the top of the two columns to be exactly level, were the footings level or different? Any more videos on getting the columns in and levelling them?

In the top diagram warm roof where the installation sits on top of the joist, do you sheet out on top of the joist and put breathable membrane on top of that and then the installation?

Hi there, quick question..does your contract with the client end after the building warrant stage completed, i.e., in the form of RIBA PSCs ? And do you go on to provide CA through JCT forms ? Thanks in advance

Great Channel !. I'm building a garden room soon and really interested in building the walls the right way so it's useable all year round.. If I'm using 4x2 studs with 50mm PIR in between and OSB toward the external face can I butt up my PIR thermal break layer to the OSB and use my counter battens to fix it in place before my external cladding is fixed to my counter batten ?

What will you do for digging out foundations if you live in a terraced house? Is there any other alternative than craning in a mini digger ?

I have a 20m2 flat roof over my kitchen, cold construction but well cross ventilated. The decking and felt were last renewed in 1989 but it's still absolutely fine and in good condition. When the work was done I insisted on 18mm marine ply for the deck and a high performance single layer felt for the membrane.

Build Better Things and Robin Clevett, the two best construction channels on TH-cam, or anywhere else. But I do have a question that I cannot hunt down an answer for. Do I need a cavity tray above my bungalow extension patio doors with only two brick courses and a cavity closer above with 200mm soffits over sailing the two brick courses? Any clarity on this would be great.

Hi great video, although it been some time I have worked in construction management having come from the trades, so its great to watch a video that is well informed. A lot has changed so I am re-educating myself on some new products, and I have seen a few things on other videos that I question and so I like your point the regard to edpm @ 8:51 you talk about interstitial condensation due to EDPM being glued to OSB over PIR foil back. I have often thought about this. So your saying the the EPDM should be glued directly to the PIR. My only concern with that is how fragile PIR is but I get it, with the cold bridging and the foil and no ventilation in that area due to the sandwich of materials and the possibility for moister to build up from water vaper in the air and getting trapped between the osb and the pir layers. I do have a question as I am planning to build a garden room next year, and was wondering how you would go about designing the base, the total area is 30ms, which will combine both a shed and the garden room. I wondered what your preferred method would be. I am considering both timber suspended or solid concrete. With a suspended timber floor giving 150mm for ventilation would you remove the top soil and lay a 150mm bed of hard core then dpm then the 150mm ventilation void. Or 150mm hardcore 50mm sand blinding dpm and 100mm of concrete with 100mm of pir on top for a floating floor? Thanks

Your great at this stuff keep it up, so much bullshit out there.

Like everything in UK construction there is no right or wrong method of construction and everything relies on individual circumstances. Comparisons will be made on individual projects but the adopted construction advantage only applies to that scheme. On another project the converse might well be true. We were employed by the small works department of a national contractor to provide the construction detailing on a design and build contract for a respite care unit. The building had been designed as a traditional brick/block construction with a trussed rafter roof. Knowing the contractor's passion for fast track construction we suggested SIPS construction on a short bored pile foundation with precast ground beams. To our surprise the contractor took up our suggestion and had it approved with the promise to the client of a cheaper contract value. In the end the contractor saved £100k on the construction due to the massively reduced prelims and gave the client half of the saving and pocketed the rest. The job was finished in 60% of the time and handed over early. I have also been involved with timber framed construction where the whole sides of the building were manufactured off-site and erected as one unit, which was a common feature of New Towns housing. We had an exercise on quick construction that has the whole house built and handed over within 9 days from a prepared foundation. I was also responsible for the development of metal stud external wall framing that is now a standard, which was first used on a historic hotel refurbishment primarily to reduce the construction programme and thereby the contractor's costs. Timber framing or SIPS would not have worked in this context. .

Thanks so much for your videos. Incredibly valuable. Can you tell me what would be the appropriate course of action on the wall abutment cavity trays when the existing building is a Victorian single leaf double brick (no cavity) wall? Liam

Love your channel. About to put in composite cladding with composite battens. Love to know more about counter battens

Chipboard is not timber, awful budget material which will deform, bounce and squeak on a big floor. 22mm structural ply proper spec

Awesome vid. I’ve never heard of anyone changing the centres to minimise insulation wastage before, but I don’t see why not, it is expensive. I have tried just about everything you could possibly think of over the years when it comes to cutting PIR sheets, and have come to a very similar conclusion. I too use my Dewalt circular saw for the reasons you stated. I like to have a vac on hand and to use a fibre cement blade in my saw for this - they have far fewer teeth, so I find the dust is less fine and gets slightly less airborne, although still messy. It is very easy to make a jig to run your saw along for straight, repeatable cuts by screwing a batten to the edge of a piece of ply cut to size. If you make them a couple of mm smaller they should slide in beautifully without too much boshing needed. I hope that helps someone. Keep the vids coming!

Rationality and thoroughness. A breath of fresh air applying design to the realities of construction - and visa versa. Thank you.

subscribed! PLEASE keep making more videos, i'm poor haha

I don't recommend buying from the dictators but I bought SIP panels with 15mm OSB in 2019, total thickness was 15+190+15 (OSB+EPS+OSB) and I payed 105 USD per piece (1200x3000) so about 30 USD per square meter, then I payed a high price for the 20 feet shipping container but I got even more when I sold it in Sweden so I can't add that cost really, but I can add the 2000USD customs fee for handling import and 25% VAT (bought it as private customer so no VAT return.) But in total I payed close to 8000 USD for 145 square meter of outer wall with 190mm EPS insulation which I think is very price competitive. I also bought 150 sheets of grade B+ pine Plywood for 34 USD per piece and 54 pieces of 6m long 45x300 LVL Beams that are flawless for 60 USD per piece. So regarding how crazy the prices became in Sweden during Covid I saved a real big chunk by the China trades but I'm not sure I would do it again.

Thank you for the comparison this was very helpfull, you are wonderful

Hi Jerry, great video! In this one, you show the construction detail for a timber floor with a brick/block cavity wall. Do you have a similar construction detail for the suspended timber floor with the timber frame that you used in the extension build on your channel? I’m struggling to understand how the wall plate for the suspended timber floor should be chemically fixed to the blockwork while also having a chemical fix for the sole plate in the same block. Perhaps this isn’t the correct method, but I’m finding it difficult to locate any illustrations that follow the approach you used for the floors/walls in your extension video.

What thickness insulation in roof did you use ?

Bloody love this guy.

Perfect, thanks

By far the best explanation of the job as always, Kudos. My go-to channel for clear guidance on a particular job.

Great content. Have been looking for something like this and it's more informative, thorough and graphic than expected. How about weight comparisons? Seems relevant for extensions over existing constructions. Cheers!

This high-info-low-nonsense style of video is spot on 😌

I feel like the key thing here is the quality of the native soil. It takes a professional who is very smart and experienced (and maybe a little lucky) to identify that a piece of native soil will stay the same for 100 years and doesn't need a concrete slab.

Dunno how this channel isn’t wayyy bigger! Been looking for resources to get me from self building 0 to self building ‘informed novice’ 😂 these are some of the most comprehensive videos so far! Love the component approach to sketch up. Was planning on ‘building’ my house various ways through this, and heck there’s a tutorial for that too! Thanks man

I’m not an Electrician, but worked in the construction industry for other 50 years. While Jerry does make some valid points, a qualified Electrician is a much better option. Electrical regulation change regularly & a Electrician has to keep abreast of these on a daily basis. As for money saving, well, yes of course you’ll save money doing DIY, but is this saving really worth it?? My thoughts are like many individuals; Gas & Electrics should be done by the professionals.

Is buying a ‘Kit’ not cheaper & easier than Stick Build Timber Frame? Two Joiners will have a Kit Home built in two days, minimum material ordering & Site Work. Do you not use stainless steel Passy nails Jerry. I thought that was the latest requirement?

Another excellent video Is there a table for beam size and span length For example if span length is 6m then would be beam size ?

£500/day labour? I’m in the industry and that’s just incorrect. I wish I was on £500/day. Nice videos though 👌

Or you could use a raised concrete floor. Very common in large parts of the Netherlands, because A) the ground is very wet for large parts of the year B) because you need piers anyhow, to reach the stable sand layer underneath the unstable peat layer.

Every builder prices work differently so that one can prove a timber construction is cheaper and another that concrete is cheaper and then there is the builder's culture i.e. whether the small builder started life as a chippy or a brickie or any other trade because they will favour their own trade solution. Then you factor in a myriad of local conditions and its a complete lottery as to whether one system is cheaper than the other and what those costs should be. The two specifications shown here are not that common and there are various other specs that would satisfy the project requirements. Also, of note is that a goodly number of the house builders, who have less fluctuating circumstances actually favour beam and block construction, which is an amalgam of the two systems, concrete joists with concrete block infill. I have used this to good effect on houses and commercial premises for years, now also specifying it for first floor construction in domestic premises.

good clear video.

Brilliant explanation. I noticed that the links in the video didn’t work when tapping on them on a mobile. Subscribed and liked.

Great video and comparisons. Couple of bits I do slightly differently lately, where possible:- - For perimeter insulation, specify Marmox or similar Thermo blocks to the inner leaf block work, instead of screed perimeter insulation. - Been looking at using multi foil insulations on a couple of projects lately for timber floors. Much easier to drape it over joists and staple,rather than cutting PIR boards between joists.

Vacuum pressure left my rafters attached to the wall but blow off the actual covering,

Oh look! Someone with their face + pointing in a thumbnail! How original! Just think about how many more clicks you’ll get now that you look exactly like every other unimaginative lemming moron on TH-cam! 😂

I’ve done some bits and pieces around my home, including laying slabs, brickwork, tiling etc etc. I have to say, your videos have almost instilled me with enough confidence to do anything building related. My next big thing will be a loft conversion, so if you haven’t already covered this. I’d love to see something. My biggest fear is not properly reinforcing the joist’s to be load bearing. Thanks for the content!!

Hi, couldn’t find a specific video of yours on how to insulate the void of a timber frame, do we need 100mm insulation? Does it need to be flush and gaps filled with expanding foam? Does the bottom of the timber need to be exposed to breathe? If you have a video I’ll take a look. Thank you, you gave me confidence to do it myself. 😊

wow just came across your channel after making this vey decision. I went with timber but one difference is that im using masonry hangers. Do you have any videos or advise on using masonry hangers?

Hello again. Instead of the Bitumen Black Jack paint at 8mins (your video), could I adhere DPM to the back of my wooden retains wall instead? Or better still, could I adhere DPM to the Black jack and have essentially, double the protection? Somebody once told me that DPM could attract moisture to the wood it is stuck to. What would you suggest? I have a roll of DPM that I don't want to go to waste, but don't want to speed up the decay of the wood if it attracts moisture. thank you and great video BTW :)

Morning, can I first start by saying that this video of yours helped me enormously. I live in North London which is pretty much CLAY. Regarding the the gravel you have put behind the retaining wall (4.14 mins on your video), does your final gravel level have a slight angel so that the drainage pipe will also be at an angel for the water to flow smoothly? I have tried to angle my digging for my drainage pipe, but being clay, sometime you can dig a little too deep (even 10cm is too much) before you realise that rainwater will collect in there. So can I simply fill the over-dug areas in my clay foundation with gravel? Thank you once again - wish these videos came up in my search last year!

I’ve just discovered the channel. This is absolute gold. I’m a chippy builder myself and you have to be one of the most learned people I’ve come across - and you’re sharing your knowledge for free! Lap it up people! I’ll be watching the rest of your videos for sure, and showing them to my apprentices as an excellent learning resource. Great work, keep them coming.