Home DIY

My ‘usual’ builder certainly knows about this. He specialises in extensions and the RSJs hold the wall up when he makes a hole.
My builder uses an engineering firm to produce the plans and beams. I am pretty sure the plans have to go to building control but not 100%.
I’m in NI so probably not much use to you though.

A word of warning - a 5m beam will be really heavy - like very very heavy. Weight could be an issue indoors - like the whole thing disappearing through the floor boards! Good builder and engineer may have an easier solution. Unfortunately, I am neither.
My experience of one 3m ish beam gives me and my builder nightmares - trying to get it to ceiling height was a ‘challenge’. My builder still mentions the danger now.

Yeah wouldn't want it dropped on your foot....

No Genie?

The builder who we've had doing stuff took a couple of floorboards up and just put the props on the ground. I think a 5m beam was about 250kg, him (2m tall big unit) and little whippet of a helper got it up over a 10ft wall and up to ceiling height without any difficulty apparently.

We had a 12m ridge beam put into our bungalow when we did work a few years back.. It came in 3 bits and was installed when I got home from work.. I didn't even want to think about how they got it up and in place.. it's total weight was about 750kg..

Yes - with Genie. Builder had to put RSJ on the end of the tongs to get it into place. Very, very dodgy. Full weight on the tips.

The builder said he would never try anything like mine again. He did an identical extension last month and the hole and beam were the first thing he did. With ours the walls were built and that restricted access to put the beam in - nightmare!

Been at the coalface of wallpaper stripping today but a big thanks to everyone who has given advice and shared pics. Will search tonight for local builders and bear in mind everything whilst they're talking about what's involved. Again big thanks!

Wallpaper stripping... the gift that keeps on giving.

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For what's worth, my local homebase(Devon) has stacks of reduced Schneider electric faceplates. Picked up a coaxial slim for 1p.

Yeah both blades I have are dry cut for porcelain specifically. I think a large part of the problem is my FIL’s angle grinders has been used and abused and the bearings are a bit knackered so the blade’s chattering a bit.
I’ve hired a bridge saw for tomorrow as I can’t keep a straight line with the angle grinders, so we’ll see how I get in with that.

20mm is thick though. Maybe wet cut would have been better, I find wet cut keep the dust down which helps my concentration. A steady hand and grinder are essential, not always easy if you're working at ground level.

I'm used to hiding as many cut edges as possible. Trying to make them look like a machine cut edge is beyond anything I've ever achieved.

Haha. We had 11 layers on one wall to remove. Nightmare. Took about 7 hours to do a small room, and that was with industrial levels of scratching and soaking the days before we got to it.
All walls needed a skim in the end anyways.

Hate artex...how old is the artex?

Saginator says it should be OK, but thought I'd sense check....

Will 18mm ply be OK for twinnslot shelves?

Just pricing up my bench worktop and getting a massive sheet then having some of it cut for shelves seems like a fairly economical option vs stevo_com's people's off the shelf shelves.

But if it's gonna be all floppy in places then it's a false economy and I'll go for a smaller piece of 12mm.

Cheers

Suppose it depends on the length of the shelf and what your storing? Do you know what spacing you'll be placing the uprights?
Where you going for the twin slots?

I think Dov used 18mm ply and his shelves were longer than mine

Agreed, nothing has happened (beyond some quick fixes) since the 70s, so I'd assume it was put up then. I'm considering covering the Artex with an insulated plasterboard to avoid the removal fee.

The ceiling the other side of the dormer was original wattle and daub, but was ready to fall down, sad face.

It's going to be a range of shed/workshop shit.

I mean the length of the shelves is obviously a good point. Saginator said 70cm would be fine, which is what made me unsure. As it's a functional space and i'm going to install it fresh I can choose what spacing I go for. Total length is 260cm so adding one or two extra rails isn't a big deal.

Obviously ordering pre cut pine shelves is less hassle, so just trying to work out if the squeeze is worth the juice as it were.

Why would you not just have more anyway?

I have 12mm ply over 400mm centers in my shed, which will support 20kg between each bracket with no problems.

Also, it's a shed. Who cares if it deflects a more.

Well the aim is something a bit more than a shed eventually, but I take your point. Mainly I just don't want to have to redo it. But I'd also like it to not look shit in a years time.

12mm ply over 400mm centers... which will support 20kg between each bracket

This is useful. Cheers.

with that said - I have an alcove which is about 980mm wide (not plumb and wonky) - could I get away with 400/450mm centres then - its for a bookshelf build - originally I was going to run 3 support brackets - weight is about 50 -60kg possibly more (for comparison we have the billy bookcase which have bowed

👍

that'll be ideal if I can run 2 uprights instead of 3 and have less brackets - means the cost will be lower
I was going to use pine shelves