zoothorn

Its a good Q newhome. A (dividing door between UT & kitchen) is n/a as I just don't have the room to open one either way, plus it would have to be very thick to keep back the cold from the UT & bathroom. So its a Q of big FO thick curtain against the back door, redo the seals around it -properly-, & replace the UT very thin single pane window for a DG UPVC. More than that I just don't have the means to do, I don't think.

Easier to cope when Im not in pain &/or having major codeine withdrawl mind you. Cheers chaps. Hard bit done, I'm hoping. Im struggling most with the soudal can, it & me are a match made in hell! (this is why this shelf took me over a day). Gun jams each time I leave it on the can, screw thing in or out. Will be glad not to have to use it again after gluing the 3 reveal bits to do. I wonder if there's any other alternative low expansion can: one thing I find it useless for is filling small gaps- well the cutting the excess/ a disaster each time I trim, as even with a new stanley blade at the shallowest angle I find it just pulls the stuff out most of the time rather than trimming.. its due to the friction of the 2 materials I think. That's with over a day cured too. I just can't get the knack of it + the gun at all.

Cats + mice in my house same time is the stuff of nightmares for me. Anyway, I'm so proud of my shelf Ive spent over a day doing I'm loathed to put any pB on it now. might leave as is.. PREP DONE THO!

I'm still unsure tbh onoff.. you see here is the front/ pink marks spot (of an angled-down hole thru).so would rather stand out. If it could go <Left, next to the logstore it would be alot better but I bet that complicates the job alot.

Ah good to know you didn't dismiss my drill (front handle always on).. well, maybe I could drill thru after all then.. I know s'one I could maybe borrow a long bit. What dia needed/ what would be shoving thru, a pvc pipe or something? This window demolish & UPVC replace.. boy am I looking fwd to: I bet I could fit that in less time its taken me to prep this sill for the pB!! I'm embarrassed to say how long.. won't.. only finally, the whole wall's prepped for the reveal pB, & main wall pB's.

Actually onoff the Ext Pic is the end of house (the sink wall2 Im now doing), not the front.. & this nasty swivel light will be gone as soon as I get up there. Will add pic of front later. You can see into the back door (howden's "engineered core" cr*p with seals falling out, bowed -in 6 months- due to damp atmosphere.. demanded my money back from builder who fitted it way too fast/ bad job) into 2sqM hall-utility room I call it, then Left into kitchen. So I do have to consider this 'leaky-cold' entry point/ tiny back hall-UT bit after kitchen done (with old single thin window/ to replace with UPVC: to do next- easy enough I'd think even for muggins here!). No door into the kitchen from the hall-UT.. no room to open.. just a door frame. So all 3 rooms within this 70/ 80's extension. 1 tiddler 'hall/ UT', very small bathroom, kitchen.

Hi onoff.. I thought I'd post that pic to give you an idea of the house Ext; yes it is a quaint welsh cottage.. with the badly made 70/ 80's extension, & I have been mulling over the Ext socket idea: if its white, & tucked down & L a wee bit it wouldn't be so obvious. I'll think on this.. but I don't have a huge long drill bit, or I'd have thought the torque to get me thru with my ~small bosch (PSB 400-2) hammer drill.. I don't want to burn it out. Understand the soffit hole idea: only caveat being it would introduce cold air: yup good to put off mice, but adding to the loft cold? whcih in turn lessens the impact of the loft insulation a bit-? anyway last on list/ could be done last. Newhome the kitchen loft was Pro done -in 20mins flat- last year: which means they just plonked thick wadding bang ontop the old orange stuff between the joists.. just whacked it on: a major pain if you want to get in there as all the joists covered, I thought way after it was done.. I only saw how they did it after they left of course, assumed this is the correct 'new' way. Got a grant to help me on this, so couldn't/ can't sniff at it at all.

Thanks for link newhome- i'll bear it in mind, poss quite strong tho itself. Upstairs.. bjeesus, if you thought building work bad downstairs, it ain't nothing on upstairs. Its a mouse heaven, but, not the numbers I'd worried there'd be so far thankfully. For eg adjacent to the loft above the kitchen (pic here), is small bed2. There's a single bit of ply, in a square, tagged on where an old window was ~1830. This is all the 'wall' there is between bed2, & the kitchen loft here! (& as pressing a job this is, its still far down the list 'to do')..

I was doing well with live traps my last house. I like the idea of flinging them over onto my n'bors patch waay over the brook. damn cats will be the benefactors tho. I dont like traps = dead mice all over again, & same with poison. Anyway mice a minor issue. Tmrw reveal will be done, then onto the 1st, trickiest pB PM.. I need to get in & trace that 'C' outline to cut out.. I'm going to use a long thing to get in there once pB wedged in.. could be another catastrophe. Can't wait for new sink jesus.. washing up in the bath at the mo, mind you kills 2 birds..

I'd prefer the smell of mouse, to a glade freshener though. No that's a decent idea, appreciated Declan! I doubt I'ver sealed the cavity now tho, as the top of the 2 block courses is built as a hollow (isn't it-?) by defualt, well by default I mean of course according to bad builders, in a rush, in 1981 that is.. ie as this extension was built. The purlins/ rafters just sit ontop the blocks iirc, no effort's usually made to seal the cavity gap @ this top roof-meet s-block place.. is it? IE mice can get into cavity via this point in day, & jolly well climb back up to do their mousey things of an evening, 'upstairs'..

Prefer flies to mice. I hate that mouse smell: in a small house & kitchen its almost unbearable at the mo. It can't be due to my blocking mickey hole.. they can't all suddenly die & rot in 2 days flat since I did it. The walls have only been drilled into > v. tightly fitting screws.. so not likely that as a cause, unless I missed plying each with grip glue/ don't think that was on the agenda, & the C'tex is just applied pressed between battens onto the wall face.. it can't be that (even with the odd gaps between them I missed on wall 1). It must be the sills I removed, &/ or the only other thing.. the frame, ie the firm strips I removed from around it.

Really terrible dead mouse smell over half the kitchen, & working on 2nd sill today (prepped for the pB) I defo can say its the sills.. which makes perfect sense being they're the only section Ive removed/ replaced.. all the other wall faces etc I've only added to (& the mickey hole is improved). I can only conclude that the foam is -not- an air tight seal: I don't think anyone actually said it was, I just assumed it would do/ its primary job. I don't suppose there's anything I can do to rectify this now. If it continues its not conjusive to live with like it is, in a kitchen. major issue-?

Yes got in loft above as, just as I see in every loft tbh. I'll cross that bridge later, good idea traps.

Too late Im not fkn gluing all the foil back on!? cheers newhome, alot of hard work that was: pB gonna be trickiest bit, but I'm going form L to middle, & from R to middle.. leaving a small middle bit to do, to coincide with most of the pipework faff area. I'll just have to wing much of this 3ft sq section.. or I will go proper loopy nuts.

Onoff, going back to the sill I'm having to wing (no ISO pB left for it).. think I could level off, mortar as before then stick some C'tex on with soudal, pB onto C'tex with soudal too, pin front as before with screws-? It would add some extra height tho. Or just soudal-stick PB to the mortar as a compromise? I'm having trouble with actually thinking actually how to do the foam layer-by-layer you see, & cut flat.. the idea is clear in principle tho.

No mouses allowed in now. Only whippet pi$$ a likelihood now, or mine. Actually one BIG irony now, is that I (for some resaon I cant quite understand at all) can now distinctly smell dead mice behind & in the wall cavities just done! not a psycho-symptomatic thing or wa'evaaa cos I is been clearin dat oomschka up innit, no, definitely that horrible sweet dead-mouse smell. Strong too. mmm..

Right this is best I can do/ stripped off the alu adjacent to pipes.. the reaside- will have to be as is/ alu on, alot of its now foamed in place. I think less likely the backside alu will be an issue/ farther away a tad. And any more on this tricky area & honestly, I'll start to lose my mind!

Crikey.. too late now. It'll have to be as is onoff.. Ive spent 3 days on battening & C'texing just this wall. And Ive still 1/2 a day to do the sill even yet.

Actually the pipe does slip round a wee bit on itself at the joint, enough for some wiggle room. Tbh no it doesn't feel warmer, I may feel something after C'tex ing this 2nd wall, but, with one window fogged/ shot/ to replace, the very adjacent tiny Utility room area & adjacent v.small bathroom both ice-cold, a back door very close.. & the main thing: the floor just hopless re. insulation- I wasn't banking on there being much difference if any even after all this work. That's just my hunch & I'd LOVE to be proved wrong. One may ask the relevant Q 'well why go to all this work??'.. to which the answer would be that I just had to see/ try it, in case it did make even a modicum of difference, or it'd have nagged at me for evermore (if nothing else) if I had left as it was. Time will tell, but I'm not optomistic tbh.

Hang on what do you mean copper pipe not contact alu of the C'tex??

I think I did.. oh well its too late now/ I have really done the best I can with this- I just can't do any more, its so tricky & exhausting filling these spaces- its so time consuming it drives you totally insane tbh.. ie all day on no more than 3sqM of C'tex.. Job DONE.

Not sure if this is entirely the correct approach, but all C'tex done: I hope at least onoff's impressed with my fastidiousness! I went a bit gaps OCD..

Aha.. maybe that's it, still getting used to the back screw/ tended to leave mid so I'm used to how it flows for a newbie. Ok reticent, but will leave can on. -- Yes I read & envied onoff's suggestion re. redoing the whole pipework .. but its just a job too far for me/ it'll take me most a week, inc mistakes etc.. time I just can't add, the sink situation being as it is. Plus it's as much a liability me redoing/ a newbie, as the pro plumbing as it is.. so a Q of C'tex around. And fingers x'd the existing plumbing will last. Just got to make sure of thses ISO valves, not to fk them up re-attatching the new Hep2 stuff on. I'll have my nuts crossed for this. Appreciated chaps, zoot

Progress, sun / monday.. ok so up to tricky areas, advice if you would re. C'tex..

Everything going tickety boo.. thanks zootH