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Mine is 175Nm which was enough to drive concrete screws 15cm deep.

I don't have that model but I have an impact driver (makita) and I can't believe I went as long as I did without one. Depends how much time you spend screwing things. If its just for the odd job here and there a drill driver will do the job. For any kind of construction though for that price it would be daft not to

Impact drivers let you drive things with far more power and less strain on your wrists.

Cheers guys. I didn't know led strips even existed.

Dimmable ultra slim lights to put in some soon to be constructed built in alcove shelves. Anyone know what I should get? I'm trying to keep the shelf thickness as thing as possible. It'll be wired to the mains.

Few layers of ptfe and tighten it up it should be fine

OT and probably a very basic question but I'm technologically challenged. I have a newly built outhouse in the back of my garden that I want to have wifi in. I have already laid a cat6 ethernet cable from the outhouse into the main house that will connect to the router in there (virgin fibre). To get a wifi network at the other end, is the simplest thing going to be to get another router and configure it somehow to broadcast a second wifi network? There will be PC there that I want to connect via a cable too which I presume I can plug into said router?

Would any old router do the job?

Interesting. I'm not very good with really understanding these vapour barriers. So what would happen if I leave the gaps open? Isn't the fact there is a continuous vapour barrier behind mean the water won't condense there? I have trickle vents on the bifold doors in case that helps. At the end of day surely it's impossible to make it gapless? Eg bottom of the walls clearance from floor / skirting. Normally that's caulked against wall and under skirting will have a little gap with the floor.

Let me know your thoughts, I don't want to balls this up at this stage. Thanks.

@pryally

Ta. Thanks for your suggestions, I'll figure it out from here thanks. I was already planning on using lost-tite screws which have a small head (and torx). Will take care to space them evenly, and possibly leave them as is. Will decide afterwards. I can see it being useful to leave them exposted tbh should I ever need to take them down for whatever reason.

@mespilus Thanks! I have used the toolstation cheap stuff so far and have a bit left over. I had no idea there was a disparity between them. I was planning on trying Soudal next purely for the fact they sponsor a cycling team. To be honest I doubt I'll bother filling the gaps at all.

The tape is aluminium foil tape, I used this to tape the vapour barrier to the stud walls. I also bridged the gap with this tape to the cavities between the roof joists at the front and back wall, so it was one continuous barrier up to the bottom of the OSB roof deck (which in turn has its own vapour barrier which I put down before laying down the roof insulation)

Yeah it's below the chipboard. Cut to the same height of the insulation and about 40mm wide. Screwed directly to the slab. In hindsight, a strip of dpc wouldn't have hurt. Probably could have used some softwood but I figured it's direct on the slab and under a vapour barrier so to avoid any risk of rot I may as well use my trusty length of Sappele I salvaged from a door a couple of years ago.

Ta. Too late though, took delivery of the Birch this morning. I'm pleasantly suprised of the quality as I went for the cheapest I could find (Builder Depot). No damage to any of the sheets during transit either.

I have the facility to cut them, just I'm running low on time, my electrician is away for the entirety of Dec, and I'm away on business next week so that give me 3 days to get the walls up and other miscellaneous activities. Would normally be fine but I juggle with daddy time which makes it tricky.

You got me thinking, so I drew up full size sheets horizontally and staggered and it looks nice. Showed my wife and she confirms. Then I mentioned ripping them in half and she likes that even more. But it's so much more work I don't think I can face it.

My only reservation with the horizontal expansion gaps is I can imagine dust will sit there. Although perhaps easily remedied with some black silicone.

What size gap do you normally spec between boards? Also do you have an example picture of a chamfered joint? Do you butt them or leave a gap? Paint? The layers of the plywood might look odd if chamfered I'm thinking.

Current plan is full size with a shadow gap (3mm?) between them. That will give vertical lines every 1.2m all the way around. Open to more aesthetically pleasing suggestions that aren't a ballache to do.

Rip them down the middle won't work as my studs are 400mm spacing, although I could always add grooves with the track saw and paint them black to match the edges. I'll will be screwing them to the studs with lost head screws and covering with wood filler.

Little update. Since last time I have managed to:

1. Osmo UV oil the cedar cladding. Much contrast, so grain.

2. Level the floor. As some of you might remember, due to a combination of my builder being a bit crap, and the concrete pump malfunctioning on the day, the foundation slab ended up being out of level and not very flat. I've been able to work around this (with much heartache) along the way, and the flooring was no exception. First I went through 10 bags of self leveling compound, which did an excellent job of flatting things out. Required a bit of work with my long spirit level to trowel it around but it was excellent. However, it's expensive and to fully sort the problem more economically, I cheated a bit and used sand to bulk up. I was sceptical of this, however I did a fair bit of research and concluded for this application this would work fine, and it has. Bit of effort again with the level to spread it around flat but after the floor went on you would never know.

3. Insulate floor. So after the above, I set about putting down the insulation panels. This was dead easy and a welcome job after the suffering that was insulating the walls. The insulation serves two purposes, first one is obvious, to insulate, the second being to build up the floor height to match the threshold of the bifold door. Once the final layer of flooring goes on it will be nice and flush. I screwed down a strip of hardwood I ripped to size at the door way to provide a rigid support to the front edge of the flooring as its a relatively high traffic zone and the edge so just a bit of precaution to stop the edge of the insulation squashing over time.

4. T&g chipboard. Chucked on a layer of dpm as per floating floor guidelines, then set about laying the flooring. This floats on top of the insulation, so I left 10mm gap around the perimeter. It was a straight forward enough job. main thing to watch out for is to get the first course dead straight using a string line (although there is some margin to play with the t&g). Glue both sides of the joints and push together. The stuff is heavy and did a nice job of pushing the insulation below down snug. I was worried the floor might feel spongy, or worse yet I would hear the sound of sand crackling but I was pleasantly suprised with how solid it feels (although forgiving on the feet), and there is no difference in terms of feel or sound between the sand parts and the rest. Happy days.

5. Vapour barriers. I elected to go down polythene sheet route as taping over studs was taking forever. Simple enough job. Staples, tape, patience.

6. Plasterboarded the ceiling. Definitely a two man job. It's quite hard to hold a board over head and screw without your arms getting tired, so i ended up making a couple of jigs to help out. Just some blocks of wood as a ledge to rest one side of the board on, and an upside broom shaped thing out of wood to jam between the floor and ceiling and also take some weight / remove sag. Was fairly straight forward. Cutting the boards is very easy with a stanley knife, a straight edge, and a karate chop at the end. One thing to note, do not cut out a skylight opening before lifting. With hindsight, it seems rather obvious that the board would snap due to the stress concentration at the cut corner. Whoops. Otherwise, lots of screws. I used a special bit with a shoulder to help drive them in to the correct depth.

That's it for now. Next step is for a plasterer to come in and skim the ceiling. Then I'll be putting in the walls (Birch ply - £££ but nice). Get the electrician in to second fix. Engineered oak flooring, clad the sides and it's done! I'm hoping to throw a Christmas piss up in there before I move my workshop in and ruin it all.

Ah, wish I saw this last night, I found someone on mybuilder and have him booked for tomorrow. £230 incl of all materials for tape/beads/2coats of skim. Pretty happy with that.

Ta. I think I'll shop around a bit more.

Does £450 to skim a newly installed plasterboard ceiling seem reasonable? 3.8 x 5.8m with a skylight. I was expecting it to be a days work but looks like I'm being quoted for two.

Fantastic effort and work. Looks really good. You must be pretty knackered by now. Is the rest of the house next? :D . I'm still at it 2 years in with no end in sight.

After it has dried out probably some Zinnser 123 would be able to seal it and also act as a primer before repainting? This worked for me when I accidentally knocked over my full dehumidifier in the loft and it stained the ceiling below.

Ta. Staggered and perpendicular it is.

Cheers @TooTallTim and @Bobbo . I'm confused about why boards need to be perpendicular to joists though? I'll end up with far more unsupported edges that way vs if I run them parallel. Are timber battens half and half overlapped at the supported edges good enough or do they need to be attached to the joists too.

I'll have a second person helping me. Was planning on just using a drill driver and one of those drywall bit holders to get the screw depth correct. I'll be doing the job bit by bit over a couple of weeks or so don't really fancy hiring any equipment. I was going to make a couple of T shaped upside broom things to help wedge the boards in places while I drive the screws in.

Anyone know anything about drywalling? I'm about to start doing the ceiling of my garden office. 400mm spacing, 5.8 m wide x 3.8 m deep. I will hire someone to plaster it afterwards. My questions are:

1. Do the orientations of the board matter? The short edge of the room is in line with the roof joints. I would end up with far few butt joints if I orientate the long edge of the board along the roof joists as two boards would more than cover the 4m depth
   
2. Do I need to stagger the boards
   
3. Do butt joints need supports behind? If yes, will a piece of timber half half between the two boards with screws suffice? I've seen the folk down under do something called back blocking with offcuts of plasterboard and special adhesive. I'd rather avoid this if I can.
   
   

I want the answers to be no, no and no.

Cheers

I was about to say that the titan one from screwfix is also totally worth it's price tag but it looks like they don't sell it anymore.

If you're thinking about the lidl one, it's worth checking out a video by Peter Millard on YT about it where he does a pretty in depth review of it and some tweaks to improve the track a bit.

A track saw will make your life a lot easier. Faffing with a straight edge and clamps gets tiring after a little while.

Ha. If there is witchcraft involved then I shall not skimp out and use my left over dpm. I'll go get some more thinner vapour barrier.

This membrane stuff is confusing. Vapour barriers are actually slightly breathable, and breathable membranes are even more breathable then!?