Category: Construction Section

Today’s Property Factlet

Rafter – A sloping roof beam, usually from eve to ridge. In traditional timber framing the rafters share loads in common; a full-length intermediate rafter runs from eave to ridge but a jack rafter goes only part way, meeting with hip or valley rafters. The term ‘rafter’ is also applied to all types of trussed rafter, the sloping beam of a portal frame, and the principal rafter of a truss.

Your local surveyor will know all about construction techniques and their application, contact them via www.propertysurveying.co.uk for help and advice.

Today’s Property Factlet

Taking-off – The recording of dimensions from drawings or schedules, with a description of the work. This is the first main stage in preparing bills of quantities and is followed by ‘working-up’. Exact rules should be followed when taking off so that the work can be continued without misunderstanding, even by another person.

Your local surveyor will know all about construction techniques and their application, contact them via www.propertysurveying.co.uk for help and advice.

Today’s Property Factlet

Patination Oil – A white spirit based liquid that helps prevent white carbonate (that can occur on newly fitted Lead) from staining adjacent materials and provides a pleasing finish to new Leadwork.

Ideal for use on Lead roofing, flashings and cladding to give a uniform, attractive appearance where Lead Sheet is visible or where water flowing away from the Lead Sheet surface may come into contact with other visible building materials. Recommended by the Lead Sheet Association.

Your local surveyor will know all about construction techniques and their application, contact them via www.propertysurveying.co.uk for help and advice.

Today’s Property Factlet

Stripping Time – The number of days or hours that formwork must be left in place before it is removed from set concrete. For non-loadbearing vertical surfaces it may be 24 hours, but it is much longer for beams and slabs.

Stripping Time – The number of days or hours that formwork must be left in place before it is removed from set concrete. For non-loadbearing vertical surfaces it may be 24 hours, but it is much longer for beams and slabs.

Your local surveyor will know all about construction techniques and their application, contact them via www.propertysurveying.co.uk for help and advice.

Today’s Property Factlet

Parquet floor – A decorative wood-block flooring of hardwood from different types of tree, arranged in geometrical patterns. Traditional parquet in panels is secret-nailed to thin battens on a wood sub-floor and polished after laying.

Your local surveyor will know all about construction techniques and their application, contact them via www.propertysurveying.co.uk for advice.

Asbestos an ever-present issue as Southampton firm convicted over fibre exposure

The sentencing of a major Southampton contracting firm reaches its end, punishing the needless exposure of four workers to potentially damaging levels of asbestos fibres.

After the exposure of four workers to potentially damaging levels of asbestos fibres, a major Southampton contracting firm has…

To read the whole article, click here

Britain’s countryside to be blighted by 300 miles of Electricity Pylons

300 miles of pylons planned to link nuclear power stations and sprawling wind farms into the national grid threaten the peace and tranquillity of the English countryside.

The revised National Policy Statement issued by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in October 2010 did not take a strong stand on over-ground energy pylons. Consequently, countryside areas all over the UK are now faced with the prospect of over 300 new miles of high-voltage power lines and the 150ft metal frames that accompany them.

Read the full article here

How the snow can help you keep your house warm

It can seem a contradiction but the snow can help you keep your house warm.  This can happen in two ways.

Firstly, a covering of snow can help reduce the wind chill factor from extracting the heat from surfaces that are covered with snow.  For instance if your roof is covered with 4 inches of snow and say that the temperature is -3 degrees and there is a 20 mile an hour wind.  The wind chill factor will make the temperature have a cooling affect of about -13 degrees.  Your roof though thinks that it is only -3 and therefore the level of heat loss is reduced because the differential is reduced. 

Secondly, when the temperature rises above freezing, go and have a look at your roof covered with snow.  See where the snow melts first.  Compare this with any neighbours nearby and see which parts of the roofs lose their snow covering first.  (You have to consider exposure, aspect and other factors too.)  These weak points may be due to thermal weak points and show which parts of which roofs need insulating most urgently.  

To read other interesting articles on property matters go to the propertysurveying.co.uk website and click on the link to the Article Archive and Newsletter

Chartered Surveyor Help ?

An interesting article explaining some of the ways an Independent Chartered Surveyor may be able to help you has been written by a member of the propertysurveying.co.uk team.  This lists the work undertaken from building surveys to valuation work as well as the less common party wall, expert witness, retrospective valuations and other related work undertaken by multi discipline professional independent chartered surveyors. Read more here