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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.

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    • CommentAuthorWulbert
    • CommentTimeAug 28th 2013
     
    At the risk of seeming very stupid indeed....
    'm building a ply/50mm celotex/ply sandwich floor for my shepherd's hut project. I've got my 1200 x 2440mm ply and I assumed that I could run my 75 x 50mm floor joists at 600mm centres.
    However it seems that the ready cut Celotex comes in 450mm widths. This is the stuff made for pitched roofs.
    The nice drawing I've just made will need to be re-done. It's annoying me because I thought I knew this, and it means that my insulation width will not tie up neatly with my ply width (1.2m). I really, really don't want to be cutting celotex with a handsaw.

    I'd always assumed that roof joists/trusses were 50mm thick, at 600mm centres (2ft in old money). However, that can't be right, if Celotex are selling between-joist insulation at 450mm wide.

    Either roof trusses are 6" thick or the centre spacing is less that 600mm. So, what is the standard thickness of a roof joist/truss and what centres are they placed at?
    • CommentAuthorWulbert
    • CommentTimeAug 28th 2013
     
    Bl**dy H*ll!,

    Just been out to measure it and my plywood is, in fact, 4ft x 8ft (1220mm x 2440mm).
    So, I either cut plywood or I cut Celotex....Plywood it is then. And I'll need to use another sheet of ply to make up for the lost width of the offcuts. 7 bays instead of the 6 that I planned (shed is 12ft long), so another length of 75 x 50 too.
    Lucky I bought an extra sheet of ply "just in case" ,so I'm not as daft as I thought.
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeAug 28th 2013
     
    The sheet insulation is likely cut for cavity walls where two blocks = 450c/c

    Joist centres are often 400 or 600 centres depending on what the engineer says, occasionally 450 centres. And rarely 300c/c for wide spans or high loading.
  1.  
    400mm or 16 inch (c406mm) ctrs fairly common. Last roof I did with a client, I had reminded him to check whether OSB was metric or imperial, ten we both went on to auto pilot and did 400 ctrs. Was fine till we laid the 1st board....
    • CommentAuthorTimSmall
    • CommentTimeAug 28th 2013 edited
     
    Have done all mine in 600 ctrs - less thermal bridging - slower pentane loss from the Celotex too... Consider using T+G OSB/3 instead of ply, then you don't have to match up the edges with the joists (and you also have the option of using the OSB as the air-tight layer too - which worked very well for me, and others here use too).
    • CommentAuthorBeau
    • CommentTimeAug 29th 2013
     
    It's a joke that in the 21st century sizes of building materiel's are not better organised.

    OSB is imperial, Plasterboard metric. Ply could be either. Now 4x2 (more or less 50x100) which when you buy it has been "Regularized" to 45x95 so your 450 batts would now be a rattling good fit at 500 centres.

    Rant over.
    Our centers are at 600mm but if building again I would make it less as when slating the spring in the unsupported batten made getting nails in on knots difficult.
    • CommentAuthorWulbert
    • CommentTimeAug 29th 2013
     
    Thanks for the empathy folks, a rant shared is a rant halved. I don't feel so bad now.

    TimSmall; good tip about the T&G OSB, saves lining up the edges with studs. I'll probably try that in my walls to save time. Too late for the floor, the ply is all bought and cut.
    I got the 9mm WBP Ext hardwood ply from the importer. It cost £14.34 per sheet, inc VAT, compared with £25-£28 at the B&Q shed.
    Ply seems to be an international commodity, it's price fluctuates a lot. Could/should I invest in plywood futures?
    • CommentAuthorWulbert
    • CommentTimeAug 29th 2013
     
    All I need now is to discover that celotex is not actually 50mm thick!
    Having said that, most of my 75 x50 douglas fir has shrunk to 73 x 47:neutral:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeAug 29th 2013
     
    Posted By: WulbertAll I need now is to discover that celotex is not actually 50mm thick!
    It won't be, will be all over the place. Some caused by shrinkage (I called it retrecion once to sound sophisticated), some by storage, some my damage. Wavy stuff it is.

    Posted By: WulbertCould/should I invest in plywood futures?
    Only if you want to invest in a downward trend.
    Now if you want to speculate, that is a different matter. Buy up 30% of the UKs demand, withhold 20% of that stock and watch the price rise. Spend the income on increasing your stock holding until the monopolies commission comes knocking on your door.
    You can have that advice for for about 50 sheets of 6mm marine ply if you make a success of it :bigsmile:
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeAug 30th 2013
     
    If I remember correctly Trada tables have rafter dimensions for various spans at 400, 450 and 600mm spacing.
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