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The post-war housing shortage led to a boom in new ‘non-traditional’ methods of house construction which were mainly taken up by local and public authorities. There was an urgent need for new and replacement housing at a time when traditional building materials and skilled labour were in short…
A recent CROSS report detailed a situation where a reporter was asked to check the roof of a building which had been leaking for a few years but was still occupied. The roof consisted of flat cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels with falls provided by firing pieces with insulation and supporting…
Judith Schulz and Neil Hitchen of ARUP explained their “Top 10 design specification concerns” at a recent conference that forms part of LABC’s “Professionals in Construction” conference series. This conference focussed on controlling the spread of fire in high risk buildings.
ARUP gave an…
To coincide with International Construction Management Day, the Chartered Institute of Building has released its Craft Your Future lessons on all versions of Minecraft.
As part of the CIOB campaign to attract the next generation of constructors it has developed ‘vanilla’ versions of Craft Your…
At the London District Surveyors Association (LDSA) Annual General Meeting recently, 2016/17 President Tim Gillooly handed his chains of office over to the incoming president, Anthony Oloyede, BSc (Hons) FRICS, C. Build E FCABE, MFPWS.
Anthony had a double celebration - as well as becoming…
A recent Government announcement that affects homeowners in England wishing to increase the size of their homes has been making the news recently.
Temporary measures (due to expire 30 May 2019) that allowed homeowners to build bigger single-storey rear extensions without the need for…
Planning a home improvement project? Not sure where to start? Front Door should be your first destination.
If you’re a homeowner or are involved in a home improvement project, then this is for you. Whether you already have a home improvement idea in mind and need guidance, or want some…
Entries are now open for the Building Excellence Awards 2025 Did a local authority provide the building control for your project? If so, read on:First, you will need to register on our awards platform. If you registered last year you can use the same username and password.Once you have…
Image above courtesy of Torquay Town Hall
You may have come across flitch beams. They were most commonly used as a supporting lintel over shop windows and larger spans where timber alone couldn't work.
Typically, the flitch beam is made up of a steel plate sandwiched between two…
The traditional approach used when two steel beams are provided to support a cavity wall has been to design the beams to each carry half the total load and then connect them with pipe spacers and bolts, even when the loading to each beam was not equal.
This view has been challenged by many…