JohnBishop

right, where did you source the grid? I can see some grids have their own barrier so the gravel does not mix with the sand and MOT aggregate underneath. You said about French drain. What would you recommend? In my case the house is sitting pretty much on sand - no clay so I should not be too paranoid about rainwater however I would want to reduce moisture around the house by implementing this French drain or these plastic/aluminium drains. On the picture the soil on the surface is not original, it has been accumulated by previous owners over the many years which is great if I go for grass otherwise only moss and some weeds grow on the sand. The front yard point in the direction of north-north-west. The bottom of the trench is sand. I will have to remove some of the soil, quite a lot of it and replace with MOT. I am thinking if I need the retaining wall all the way or only where the aggregate/grid is going then slope it down where the grass is going to be. Initially I though about building the wall about a foot away from the concrete but now I think I bring it closer. The gap will only be for the French drain or other drain.

Thanks for your suggestions. Of course I am going to apply to the council for that and I was not planning to chisel the kerb myself 😆 From what I can see the neighbours on the opposite side (mirrored) of this semi-circle road got a lowered kerb.

do you work for the council by any chance? 😁

Hi All, I hope you are well. I hope you are enjoying premature summer in England, Scotland and Wales. I hope it stays like that. If I didn't have enough on my plate already I commenced the work in my front yard. I started restoring the fence but then I realised there is too much overgrown grass to clean it properly so the thick lawn carpet intertwined with moss has been taken off. I think I turn it into a driveway. I reckon 4/5 of these 40sqm is going to be grid and stone/gravel then 1/5 grass and a small tree or something like that. We need to put a retaining wall (dwarf wall) to keep it level. I think it would be good to improve the drainage a bit so I am thinking about the soaker way, potentially join it together with the existing one that goes under the concrete. I also have this big lid that was installed I reckon when the house was build ~80-90 years ago. It goes at a weird angle. Not sure what is the purpose. The sewage goes on the other side of the building. It looks like it's rust bonded. What would you recommend to use (e.g. a chemical). Ideally I don't want it to break in case it's still in use. The lid is at an awkward angle but it's also the cast iron bit is above the pavement level. I can see some people have these large trailers parked in their front yards. I think I I do the same and park it where "TRAILER" is written. The trench you see on the picture is the Internet cable. I have to figure out if I put it deeper under the soaker way or above it. I am not sure if I have enough slack on it. Please feel free to make any suggestions at this stage. Thank you

I have updated my design. I just wonder if these 2x12 girders and 2x10 rafters are not an overkill....

I can see in most cases they use girders even on both sides but it looks ugly if you ask me. In one case I can see the girder is inside posts with a sufficient cut I reckon to conceal it In this case the crossbeams go on top of the posts so I reckon this is still mortis and tendom but inserted from the top not from the side what makes more sense. It looks like I have over-engineered mine. I have to decide if I want to go the crossbeam on top or girders way. The girders way seems the simplest.

Do you mean not to bother with mortis and tendon just use 2x12 for girders and 2x10 for rafters? This would actually level everything.

Have a look. I also made the crossbeams horizontal. It just does not make sense to make it at an angle, difficult to do and impractical.

Sure. I start cheaper then look for some more decent eq. If not Wifi smoke alarms then what? Are there wired LAN ones? To overcome this I got 4 smoke alarms of 3 different vendors. If one gives up 2 other should pick it up. You can set it up to notify you if the devices decides to vanish.

I have RPi ready with HomeAssistant but believe it or not I misplaced my RPi USB-C charger so I have to wait couple of days to get a replacement. What is this Tasmota about? I keep hearing about it.

I use both, the stainless steel will go central over the expansion gap, the other one will go to the other side. The remaining 2 will be the ones that submerge to the concrete.

I also got these two bases I have to choose from. The nice looking one is stainless steel but 5mm for £43.50 The ugly looking one is galvanised steel but 8mm for £36.50 I like the ugly one only because it would allow for the post to be a bit off the ground. The stainless steel one has a much wider span between the holes what would suit me a bit better

I just don't like the colour (too blue) and low frequency of this light.

This is how it's going to look. Of course the roof itself is going to sit on a number of 2x4 Not sure if the short crossbeams should be at an angle like on the picture or horizontal?

I ordered each of these to see by myself. I have to double check the thickness because for M12 - 3 inches thickness is minimum. I just need to get myself a SDS drill to make a probe hole. I talked to a lad who worked in the pit and he said that many years ago they used resin to make permanent anchors. Thank you again.

what do you think I should put in front of the shed? 1. block pavement 2. pavement slabs 3. fill with MOT aggregate, grid system on top then gravel/shingle 20mm like https://www.nidagraveluk.co.uk/

yes, this is what I was considering in the Tuya, Heiman and MOES smoke detectors and some Sonoff Zigbee devices.

so I reckon the smoke detectors coming from China are not certified is this what you are trying to say?

I dug into the concrete expansion gap and in two places I was not able to hit the soil but it looks like more concrete. The gap is between 3-4 inches deep but how thick is the concrete below the gap I don't know? I cannot check around it as there is kerb all around it.

I am in Midlands, England.

Hi All, I hope you are doing well. I am looking into Zigbee to do some monitoring (temperature, smoke, temp/humidity, motion sensors) and simple automation lighting in the house. Rather than bulbs (I don't want LED light) I would control lamps with a motion sensor + a Zigbee plug. As you are aware there is tons of vendors. The priority is to deploy a controller (RPi + Sonoff Dongle-E) with MQQT and then a number of temp + smoke alarms, CO alarm. I would prefer to monitor the temperature rather than smoke what I believe gives me the earliest warning. Smoke in the house can be extinguished but in the wooden shed or a wooden garden office it's probably already too late. Please correct me if I am wrong. The automation is less of a priority. This will be added later. I have seen some Heiman, Xiaomi, Shelly, Frient, Aqara sensors. I would even prefer to mix them as if I stick to a single vendor I can be fooled e.g. one man bought a Frient smoke/temp sensor, it looked like it's working but it wasn't (was faulty). If you mix then less probability they are all end up faulty. What would you recommend?

but can I paint it with an exterior masonry paint or just leave it as is?

yes, I am in the process of digging a dungeon

right so you say it's nonsensical to do that on those bricks. Not sure if this is actually bitumen paint but it looks like it must be at least 15 years old.

Just another picture of the shed. Not finished yet but done the cladding, just need to finish of some bits and pieces.