lizzie

I had Tobermore blocks in last house, great stuff very happy with it. Had an Indian sandstone terrace too..... it looked fantastic but was a nightmare in a north facing position. Used to get covered in green stuff quick as a flash and dirty too even applying the sealer was only short term benefit. Plus it turned into a skating rink in cold winter being porous it held the water and became very icy and slippery. It may be better in a south facing location.

I am very heartened at all this feedback on lawn problems, nice not to be alone!

@puntloos I would say I am nearer the finish line of my biblical allowance than I would like to be so good point!

@Ferdinand lovely but not spaniel friendly, he needs grass to roll around on not to mention other things LOL. I have over 100sqm of paving, and some gravel areas already in. I am looking at more gravel and feature paved areas in the final plan but still need some grass for the woofer. My few hundred sqm of grass will not ruin the planet if I did do artificial for sure, all that is between me and thousands of acres of pasture land and woods is a bit of post and rail. I’m not sure if I could live with artificial though having always been a very keen gardener but as I am now older and less able but need it for woofer its an attractive option. Needs thought. This is how far I have got....stage 2 to start shortly.....gravel is to be extended quite a lot and to have pocket planted grasses and stepping stone pathways to bench to go in. Still leaves a lot of rubbish lawn.

Thats a lot of paving!

Gravel then !

Thank you @Temp we seeded from choice as it thought it might give a better lawn although more work. We sifted, soiled (top quality sterilised topsoil), rolled, levelled etc etc, we put land drains in so no waterlogging due to base of clay underneath. Sprinklers on no lack of water...but and I think this has a lot to do with it as @ProDave says ....it was made up ground and it was as hot as hell last summer. We got weeds coming up as @JSHarris describes even after all that. Over the winter it has become very uneven and has bald patches where I have to dig out the big weeds and now we have developed large patches that look strawlike at the roots and this is spreading at a rate of knots....I wondered if it was leatherjackets but I've not been able to find any grubs. A month or so ago we did soil/sand into the dips and over seeded as well as feed etc.......thats fine but seem to have new dips now. I spent 4 hours out there yesterday mowing it, weeding it and generally cosseting it. Never spent so much time on a lawn that looks so rubbish. At this point the astro turf is looking very attractive.

I'm very moderrn :-))

@JSHarris I like your thinking!

There may be something in that - we soiled and seeded as you say. For the build we had to go down circa 2 metres below existing ground level as we had to drop the house down so it does not stick up on the horizon, we had to build a massive retaining boundary wall to hold back the ground outside our boundary, the wall is full of steel and concrete, its 450wide and 3m high above our ground level, it goes down a way too and incorporates drainage....all had to be designed by SE. There was no alternative but to strip the site with all that to be done before we even thought about foundations for house. If it had just been house and some trenches it would have been easier all round.

Thank you @Gow I have plenty of wildlife areas in the garden and large swathes of lavender for bees. I do believe in habitat creation and conservation and have done a lot over the years. sadly my last clover lawn was not a success with dogs. 5 acre field of organic grass will more than offset a couple of hundred metres of garden. Very kind of you on the sedum but I am not in Scotland otherwise I would have taken you up on the offer for a corner starter.

We seeded a new lawn last year....it is beyond awful this year. Lumpy and half dead (may be leatherjackets), full of weeds and generally a big mess. I am about to embark on the final round of landscaping and will be taking up some of the lawned area to make planting areas but I will still have a lot of lawn left. It may be a whole load of wasted effort to try and bring the existing up to standard so the question is do I try or do I have the whole lot dug up and relaid with turf.....or do I dig it all up and lay artificial grass. We have the dog so do need 'grass' we are also surrounded by fields that are grown for organic hay, pretty at the right time of year but they are basically huge weeds flowering and spreading seeds all over our garden so plenty of weeding. For those reasons we will never be able to have a 'perfect' lawn and thats fine but it is really frustrating to have to do it again after a year hence the thinking about artificial grass.

Installers cut mine off with what looked like an oversized electric carving knife, bit like the thing in your link. It was a very quick job.

I used a McAlpine one suggested by @PeterW it may be you need similar or it may be different. I’m sure he will be along and suggest.

Even I know its a condensate after many lessons at the academy of Build Hub. I had a problem with mine and drain smells all sorted with a new waste connection.

Jeremy I am not disputing my result I am merely commenting on the process that was gone through to achieve it. The testers were not going to leave without it achieving the contracted result and so they taped up gaps and holes etc. This is not a complaint it is an observation and comment on the process and you were not here you did not see it so you cannot give an opinion. My gaps were not normal gaps such as the door, apertures, ducts etc I had gaps in all sorts of places plus I had gaps around the windows and water coming in all over the place....it was not airtight on the day and it was made airtight by temporary means with the caveat to sort it properly afterwards. I arrived right at the end of the test and that was what they told me. We used a lot of expanding foam and tape afterwards to try and seal up the gaps as best we could. It just shows that a good result can be achieved on the day if testers want to achieve it, it does not mean that the house would achieve the same score if it were tested again. I do wonder what it would score now....my hope is better but given I have dust and grit coming in under my slider thresholds I suspect not. I have no wish to hijack this thread with old news so no further comment from me.

@Ed Davies can of worms here best left

Poor bloke. He is lucky to have found you @ProDave just a shame he didnt find you earlier.

Thank you. Can I do that over the existing now? Maybe some sanding to key?

We used a screwies or maybe wickes own brand cheap floor paint in the garage.....we have great chunks lifted off where hot tyres have run over it. Will have to find a better solution at some point. We had planned to have that resin paint but somehow that got lost along the way.

My house was (and still is to some extent) very leaky (air and water) on day of test but as TF supplier contracts to give an air test cert of 6 the testers stuck tape everywhere to get the result so TF co could get their final instalment. They would not have walked away without getting the 'right' result on the day. The testers told me to sort it out afterwards as house was not properly airtight and that result would not be achieved again unless we sorted all the leaking. I guess a company employed direct by owner would be less likely to do the temp fixes as they have no interest in getting it to a certain level as there is no third party involved.

Ive got some less than 12 months old and not cheap and this last week they are doing the same thing .....very annoying ...... I have not fiddled with settings, they dont do it every day just some days.

https://www.e-paint.co.uk/Compare_colours.asp?cRange=RAL Design&cRef=RAL 000 45 00&cRef4=S 6500-N&cRange4=NCS 1950 its giving a different ral not 7037 as best match

ral7037 is pretty close to f&b worsted if that helps. web site that is my go to for colour matching is https://www.e-paint.co.uk/Colour_alternatives.asp

Yep looks the same