Tony K

You are now the second person to say this, and the first had seen my awesome physique too... My plan for materials was to leave pallets out on the road so that the delivery driver could lower the jumbo bags etc on to them, then I could drag them to site on the pallet truck. Perhaps I'll invest in a really good barrow and a trolley, and just get stuck in.

Nope. I can get a car or a van to the edge of the site but not a lorry. Using a pallet truck seems best if only to avoid double handling the blocks (presuming they do come on pallets to begin with, though round here they seem to).

Single storey, low walls, so shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks. Even so it is inside the weight limits the pallet truck can handle, so it's more about whether a person can drag that weight around once it's on wheels. For what it's worth, I'm a fairly big bloke and not afraid of a bit of effort. I just have no clue whether dragging a pallet of blocks is feasible. I presume it is, or why invent the all terrain pallet truck?

They do look good, and the spec I've just looked at from one hire firm suggests they can handle the weight. If these maths are correct.. A block is 17kg, a pallet has 44 blocks, so that's about 750kgs a pallet. The truck can apparently handle that weight, but can I? I'll be dragging the pallets up a very mild slope. My instinct is that once the weight is on wheels it should be fine, but that's only a guess really.

Hi Does anyone have any clever tips for moving pallets of blocks around without a forklift? My plot has tricky access, and it will be necessary for me to have the blocks delivered about 50m away from the edge of the site, then carry them to site myself over a fairly good, though not totally level concrete surface. I had thought of buying a second hand pallet truck to drag the blocks around on the pallets they come on, though I am not sure if the weight will prove too great? Any ideas / experiences gratefully received. Thanks

Seems like the kind of thing where you'd want to see one in person. At those prices they are obviously not pretending to be top of the range, but that doesn't mean that they aren't up to scratch.

I suppose the difference in my case compared to some is that I don't want an oversized front door, or one that turns on a pivot. I can imagine that the engineering requirements for either are significant and almost certainly beyond my DIY skills, but I could have a crack at modifying a standard front door, probably by cladding it, to give it a non standard appearance. Thanks for all the discussion and ideas all.

That's interesting. I could see what that costs vs the other options. Another idea I've had is to buy something like this: https://www.screenwithenvy.co.uk/products/larbre-corten-garden-screen?variant=31461792284715&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&cmp_id=11450961827&adg_id=112868478460&kwd=&device=c&gclid=Cj0KCQjws-OEBhCkARIsAPhOkIblkVsPP-kzA9Ij7Yx0-C8vWjBpqH48jWDsFNcavPyhIxqWYGJTzB4aAuUuEALw_wcB ...and pin it to a blank door. If I set it about 10mm from the face of the blank door I could even backlight it in some subtle way.

In either timber or some sort of metal this kind of thing appeals, though it need not be a swivel door:

Right, so buy a standard blank door with frame to match, then customise both?

That's the kind of thing I had imagined. As you say, I can buy a blank door and add to it. I presume I would then ask a chippy to produce a frame that fits the resultant door rather than buying a standard one?

Well, I don't have such a mate, but even commercially the material itself doesn't seem too expensive?

Timber rather than steel is another idea I've considered. I quite like timber in horizontal panels. My concern would be that whereas metal would be robust in a thin sheet, I presume timber cladding would need to be thicker? What timber did you use, and were you please with the result?

Less than a grand? Now you're talking! Thats is a very interesting idea. I may even be able to place that folded sheet around a simple timber frame rather than an old door, and place insulation on the voids?

Gotcha. though I have never encountered a proper expensive posh door, so I won't know any better! As the song says, if I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor! This is my thinking precisely. I only want a solid door with no windows, so I'm only affixing one whole thin sheet to a door, or perhaps several equally sized strips, which should make it easier. Given the low cost of 2nd hand heavy doors on ebay, and the relative low cost of sheets of various materials, I might just have a go. Unless anyone has any suggestions for reasonably priced doors of this type?

I thought so! Mind you, if I had a normal timber front door with normal hinges etc, and I just stuck a sheet of thin material to the front, making holes carefully for the key hole and post box, that could work? In theory?

Hi all, I am interested in a contemporary, statement front door like these: https://camelglass.co.uk/liquid-metal-front-entrance-doors/ Initial research suggests these things are very expensive for what they are. I wonder if anyone has any advice on the following: 1. Are they always as expensive as I have found so far (thousands rather than hundreds for a door)? 2. Is there any merit in taking a standard old timber door and seeking to attach sheet material to it, thereby achieving a similar effect? Thanks

Out of interest, any idea what a good garden designer charges?

Good idea. Ta very much for that.

I was tempted by tarmac simply because of the available edge treatments. You can buy some sort of spray to apply to the edges of the excavated area, and a sealing strip to melt on top of the edge of new repair. These things apparently combine to prevent cracks at the edges when liquid gets in and turns to ice in winter. What sort of mix of concrete / sand would you use then, and would you want to include any special treatment (fibres etc) for the mix?

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Hi I have agreed a deal with my neighbours whereby I get some temporary vehicular access to my SB plot across their private roadway, and in return I will fix a few holes in that surface. There are three or four areas similar to that shown here. I had originally thought to cut out a neat edge around the broken areas with my large angle grinder, remove everything inside the area, then use tarmac to repair it, having applied fixing solution to the fresh edges, and then melt fixing strips on top of the joins. My concern was that tarmac might not do well with the rebar which is in the current surface construction, and I am not sure that removing the rebar is a good idea. When I spoke to one supplier today (Meon UK) they suggested I use their Hardmaster w615 stuff, which is like a flowing concrete you mix with water and pour in. This stuff operates in depths between 30mm and 250mm. As you would expect, I have to remove any debris and loose bits, apply some sort of sealant to the exposed rebar to prevent it rusting, then pour the stuff in. They advised me to create a neat edge if possible, though apparently it's not essential so long as the edge is stable. The problem with this method is that there are lots of areas where I would have to break out pretty stable, sound material just to create at least 30mm of depth to pour the W615 into. The damaged areas are like mini craters - deep in the middle but progressively more shallow to nothing towards the edges. Even with a slightly different product (Meon do a W660 which seems to operate between 10mm and 100mm) if I feather it out at the edges I will naturally be creating areas at the edges of the repair where it could split, crack, fail etc. If anyone has any experience of doing decent, but economical repairs to roadways I would be interested in your opinion. Thanks

That's it, yep. The nominal / notional / nocturnal / whatever it is boundary was, in this instance, the far side of the footpath from me, so it can be stretched even further than the centre line depending on circumstances. The really important thing of course is that it is, in fact, fire safe. The building inspector apparently had a quick chat with the fire safety officer about my set up, and both were happy, so that might be of use to someone on this board in a similar position. I had prepared a fall back position whereby I proposed a fire door, but happily I didn't get to test run that argument. Finally, my original post posed the question: Can the inspector overrule the plans checking authority once they have approved a set of plans? Well, the building inspector himself told me today that legally he wouldn't have a leg to stand on once the plans had been approved (which is how it should be, otherwise why have the full plans procedure?), though whether he would have issued final sign off when push came to shove is another matter perhaps.

Thanks all. No sooner had I posted than the local building inspector turned up unannounced, said he had spoken to the fire officer and to the checking authority, and was now happy for me to proceed as planned! I've also had the neighbour over to clear the air, which was nice. And it's sunny here today too. For those who are interested, the dispute was over the interpretation of part B4 of the regs, and whether it was safe for me to build a house to the edge of my plot, with a door facing onto the boundary. The regs say that any wall with an opening (doors, windows) greater than 1m2 must be one metre back from the boundary to prevent fire spread risk. It is a difficult thing to envisage, but our neighborhood is very olde wordle and higgledy piggledy, with access via a series of footpaths only. The checking authority were happy that the footpath outside my plot was sufficiently wide that there was no risk of fire spreading from my house to my nearest neighbours (who by the way, have recently built an extension with doors and windows facing the same path!). The local inspector originally less pleased, and minded to say I could not build to the boundary and have a door. This is to do with the difference between the legal boundary and the nominal boundary for building regs purposes. Your actual legal boundary is not necessarily the boundary for the purposes of making a fire break. If the land between you and your nearest neighbour is never likely to be built on (so a road, river, access or whatever) then it is legitimate for your building regs inspector to feel that there is a fire break there already and you don't need to provide one by stepping your building line back. Here endeth both the lecture and the stress!