lizzie

@newhome Ive just looked at green thumb website and fb page now I have reminded myself about them - thank you! They are in Scotland too......might get them out here to diagnose my lawn, I suspected leatherjackets but cant find the grubs. Green thumb do a free lawn diagnosis consultation......

@newhome Looks like mine and mine is not a year old LOL. Give another go with thatch machine and aerator if you have one....it will look like hell for weeks but should be worth it. Feed yes but not until you have de thatched and aerated and left a week or so after that and use the right feed for time of year....will say on packet at garden centre. Do the seeding later in the year while its still warm and risk of summer heat(!) is over.....end August/early September might be good depending on your weather up there, hopefully will get rain then and grass will have good month or 6 week to get growing before colder weather sets in. I wont seed mine July/August here. Do you have lawn companies up there? I used to use one years ago....Green Thumb...a national franchise, came 4 or 5 times a year and did all the treatmentes etc, was not expensive and they did a better job than I ever did........hmmm maybe I should look then up again for here!

@newhome that seed looks fine to me. The miracle gro you have is not the one. The one I mentioned is patch magic and is specifically for doing ‘patches’ (large ones in my case). If you need to re seed whole lawn its not the thing. https://g.co/kgs/kSRexv patch magic link

Means prices up!

Our access road also belongs to neighbour

as @JSHarris says for us too.

We have a really narrow access down a single track with a tight bend at the end and on that bend a tpo tree. We got our TF in no problem plus the numerous lorries, we did always request the smaller vehicles for deliveries though and if they sent a giant one it would have to go away unless they had one of those on board forklifts to get stuff down to us. All things are possible with thought and care. Good luck.

Well done @Buster great news, pleased for you.

@newhome If its just bulk seed by mail order you are after I have used this company several times, good selection of seed and quick delivery. https://www.thegrassseedstore.co.uk/

@newhome it fertiliser...... nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium if I remember correctly. How much have you got to do? If its not huge area try miracle gro patch magic ( can get at garden centre, amazon, b&q etc) The seed is ready mixed in a growing medium, just sprinkle straight from the carton water in and in two weeks the grass will be growing, guaranteed. I used it to sort out the lawn at the rental before we left, dog wee had not been kind to it. Great stuff.

Ours got mowed today. Its turned brown the last few days but rain is promised tomorrow. The other day I visited a friend at her new (new to her, house is Georgian) place and it has a fabulous garden been very nicely and professionally done for previous owners. 3 dogs happily scampering about on....yes you guessed it.... artificial grass! My friend loves it, says its brilliant, she has gone from acres to this and says the low maintenance lawn is a huge and unexpected bonus. I have to say in the context it did look very good.

Doesnt look too bad at all. I would be wary of different types of seeds etc if you contract the grass out to a farmer for hay. They wont appreciate the hay field being sown with fine lawn seed. If you just pay him to cut your grass for hay for your use different matter. I would just roll it a few times fill the dips seed where necessary and keep it cut shortish. The marquee floors and paths are pretty forgiving of some uneven spots but not great big holes. One time we had ours under several feet of water (2007 floods) a week before we were hosting party for 150 but we managed to get it good enough for marquees and party went ahead.

mmmm well my so called lawn is more like a field after 12 months LOL Rolling and cutting, levelling dips and seeding where necessary. Thats about all you can do. Plenty of people put marquees in the paddock. As long as its free of trip hazards and big dips it will be fine if you keep cutting between now and then...a few goes with the roller too but not too many or you will kill the grass. Its never going to be a ‘lawn’ but could be a useable grass area in three months, weather permitting of course. And congrats on the forthcoming wedding post some pics of the lawn.

Architect said we could do it for a lot less than our budget ...we ended up going down a route I would not recommend to anyone and spending far in excess of what had been a healthy budget at the start. We were lucky, we were able to fund it without huge difficulty but it is not what we planned. If money is already tight and you have compromised your house design I would ask yourselves seriously is it going to be worth it, will you end up with something you want at the end of it all.....and it will cost more whatever ‘fixed’ price is agreed with a builder, if they price too low there will be ‘extras’.

anyone get there this year? Better value than GD I reckon wish I could have made it.

@nod.... they would like it to be....(I am Welsh so I can say that) ?

When I was a child we had an ironing board with a grey heat proof area where the iron sat. I used to draw things on it with a sharp implement, it made dust etc..... I know now that was asbestos and I do wonder if that has contributed to the progressive lung condition I developed in my 50’s.

Yes sounds like you might be in the scandalous situation that a lot of leaseholders are in with the new companies that have bought up blocks of leases. An escalator in your lease is provision to increase the ground rent every few years and in newer leases (in say last 15 years or so) lots of those increases are onerous. I would never buy a leasehold property, I have owned blocks of freeholds but before this latest scam came into being. They are a commodity that can be traded. As a property leaseholder you do not own the land your house is built on you rent it. If you have the opportunity to buy your freehold do it at the earliest opportunity. There are specialist advisors out there if you need help to challenge the Landlord on his price. One of the instances where the English language descriptions are accurate.....Landlord, one who owns the land....Ground rent, the rent the tenant pays to the Landlord for the use and occupation of his land....the leaseholder....the tenant of the land.....the lease....sets out the terms between Landlord (lessor) and Tenant (lessee) the rent and terms of use and occupation. When tenants paid small fixed ground rents and before leasehold reform tenants had less rights but in some ways more protection. My advice to anyone is buy your freehold if you can.

Will see if I can find out but wont be for a week or so as I wont be there again for a few weeks.

@JSHarris window fitting was a shambles. We filled gaps with foam and flexible silicone and put some sort of tape around the frames after window fitters had 'finished'. I bought the same one used on frame. I forget the name begins with a C but not Compriband. That tape was left stuck overlapping window frames and was showing on the frames after plastering and was a nightmare to get off - others on here have had similar with tape. I am hoping if I caulk the gaps inside where plaster has shrunk away from walls it may fix it. I don't even want to think about anything else.....yet!

I had hoped to have polished concrete...coloured in some parts. Thankfully I could not find a contractor within several hundred miles able to do it and in the timescale....I say thankfully as the amount of work we would have needed to do to the uneven slab to make it ready would have been even more than it took to get it ready for tiling..... I visited a new hair salon locally today and they have the most fantastic polished concrete floor I have ever seen. London contractors, megabucks and a 13 month wait but wow it was beautiful.

@SiBee do you have an escalator on your ground rent?

freehold property is always better than leasehold, buy it while you have the chance.

A very interesting topic @davidc Its something I have wondered about myself. I have a lot of movement and cracking internally. The areas around my window frames need resealing too as shrinkage gaps and can feel cooler air. My carpenter told me all TF structures move and he allowed for some frame shrinkage when he did the outside cladding.....he said he has seen them shrink by quite a bit over a few years as they dry out and settle, its normal apparently even with the new TF constructions. I guess really no-one has the answer on longevity of air tightness only time will tell.

Sounds cheap to me I would buy it.