farmerjohn

if you dont mind me asking, what do you mean by 'your group'? i have tried the website and it did not seem to work, i would be intrested in reading up on it. The company i get the insulating lime render from is called eden lime mortars. I have insulated one side of the downstairs of my house with insulated 25mm plasterboard, I really want to insulate the other half with the lime render and then heat both sides up to the same temperature and get a thermal image of the outside to see what the heat loss is like through the walls for each product.

Thanks Alec, i should have got some photos after the water stains were sanded off, i'll see if i have any. I have not seen canoeheads thread, i'll have a look for it now

All trusses and purlings are larch, spars are rough sawn larch. All joints are mortice and tennon made with circular saw, chain morticer and hammer and chistle. comments welcome guys, (if there not too harsh!!!) Thanks, John

joined tie beam to principle rafters using dovetail joint which was made using circular saw, hammer and chistle

I am going to try and attatch some photos of trusses we made for 2 projects, here goes.....

i deal with a few guys up here for lime products and they have developed a very intresting insulating lime render that i am going to try on my house and a grade 2 listed building we have to renovate as soon as the battle with the planning enforcemnt lot is sorted and my client can buy the place. I think that its just as important in modern times to insulate a house the way fuel prices are going and until now the only way to insulate a wall was using modern insulated plasterboard which is not sympathetic to a older property, now this other product is on the market i think it fits a really big gap in the market, is you are intrested drop me a line, i'm going to do a test run on my place make sure there are no problems with it. if you want any detials on it let me know, or any other advice, i'm sure i'll need some reagrding timber soon, cheers

i'm not sure on that one, i'm too far north for thatched roof's to be used never worked on one, old buildings are mainly slate roofs with riven oak laths and iron nails that have rotted in the oak. 'nail sickness' as we call it.

Hi, This is my first post apart from introducing myself, I am not in arbo industry, but my company does a lot of traditional building restoration and I work a lot with timber. Chestnut has excellent durability against rot, one job we priced it had a specification on for a fence with either treated timbers for the posts or ‘green sweet chestnut’. This would leed me to believe it is very durable at the point where the timber comes out the ground, at this point the timber is exposed to the air and is often damp so very susceptible to fungal decay. I am not sure on the compression strength of chestnut but I think it should be strong enough for the uprights. Or you could concrete a pad at ground level and make a upside down T shape piece of steel cut a slot into the bottom of your upright and bolt it through, this would keep the timber off the ground. If you do go down that route it would be best to use stainless as expecially in oak the tanning rots ferris metals very quickly. Regarding the flooring, I would think sweet chenut would be a good option for same reasons as the upright, but on another few jobs we have looked at larch has been specified as a timber to clad or make shingles out of, I believe it is similar tannings and durability to cedar (this is what I have heard from speaking to people but if anyone has more clarity on this it would be interesting to know) and a lot cheaper as a lot is getting felled at the moment (especially around my area anyway.) Lastly, if you do go down the lime mortar route don’t attempt anything this time of year, we only do external lime work between the months of April – October as it is easily effected by a bit of frost. If you want any advice on lime work let me know. John