johnhenstock83

me again. soakaway done, I ended up buying a non-woven membrane in the end, even though building control would've been happy with the weed barrier one. it's all installed and nicely connected, hole is backfilled to replicate the soil structure (sand/pebbles up to where top soil starts, then top soil). BCO is happy and he signed it off, but I still need to level the soil in preparation for turf. there's only about 150mm of top soil on top of the crates and I'm just wondering what will hold the weight of the soil. I know the creates are very strong, but they do have holes, so essentially, the membrane is holding everything. should the membrane tear, the soil will start falling in the crates and destroy everything. is there anything that normally goes on top of the crates? a piece of MDF, maybe? any advice welcome

right... the missus kept nagging about the wall behind the worktop, she wanted tiles. so I went and bought metro tiles (200x100), tile adhesive, tile cutter, spacers, trowel, the lot. everything prepared nicely, wall scratched in a zig zag pattern for better grip, tiles cut to the milimeter, what could go wrong, right? I don't know what made me buy the £10 grey powder adhesive from screwfix, I thought it's good enough for a basic job such as this one. I guess not. despite mixing it properly and in the EXACT quantity recommended, I ended up with a paste that couldn't hold anything in place, definitely not a tile. each and every tile kept "flowing" downwards, so I scraped the walls, threw everything away and now I'm frustrated. the adhesive looked very much like cement, not the typical adhesive I've been using for years (white, fairly thick, easy to spread). what was that??? and who uses it?

yes and no. this is one of those things like car insurance, you don't want to mess with it. the probability of something happening is extremely small, but if it does happen, it can destroy your life. the water authority will get things done, quickly (sub-contracted, of course) and then send you a bill which you will pay. tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds, non-negotiable.

Thanks a lot, that’s helpful. I was hoping not to have to buy another membrane, I only need a small quantity and they’re sold in long rolls. as for the silt trap, that’s exactly what I have in mind, I’ll install one, thanks!

not sure how anglian water does it, but thames water demands that new connections into existing sewers are made using the same material. since the majority of existing drains are made of clay, clay must be used. that clarifies the material choice. as for the angle, new connections must join the drain in the same direction as the flow using a Y branch. you should also avoid any angles steeper than 45 degrees, hence 45 degree angle + Y branch.

hi all, I'm digging a soakaway for my new extension. it's a 6x3.5m extension with a fibre glass flat roof, nothing fancy. the down pipe is already laid and I've dug the hole for the crates, but I have a few questions: 1. I know the crates have to be wrapped in some form of geotextile membrane. I'm seeing a lot of pictures of nicely done soakways wrapped in a black membrane, also used as a weed membrane. they sell it in toolstation for £11. will that do or do I need something more specialised? 2. it's not entirely clear if the soakaway crates (1000x500x400 times two) must be filled with pebbles etc. or whether I leave them "empty", creating a huge void that fills with water. I believe the answer is no fill, but I'm not 100% sure, can someone confirm please? 3. where the down pipe joins the underground pipe, I'm looking to add a leaf guard, there's some moss on the roof from the main roof, small pieces every now and then. is it worth adding some sort of a cleaning outlet next to the soakaway, just before the pipe enters the crates or is that not necessary? there's good access from near the extension, I can easily remove the leaf guard and rod the pipe, it's 5 meters long. thanks all

Thanks both. It’s a matte paint, wickes builder’s white paint, thin coat, doesn’t come off.

hi all, I need a bit of help. we built an extension, all done now, more or less. walls are typical masonry walls (brick out, block in), hardwall plaster + skim. I painted the walls white, a think layer, seems to be holding ok. I now want to tile behind the gas hob, but not sure what preparations to make. how do I make sure my tiles will bond to the wall properly? PVA? do I scrape the wall? special adhesive? also, can someone recommend a ready made, decent adhesive for a DIY job? thank you!

hi all, hopefully I can get a bit of help from you. for context, the house is a 1950s ex-council property with a brick wall at the front. when I say wall, I mean probably 1ft high, single skin, essentially marks the boundary. it's a continuous wall with a gap here and there (gate every 2 properties) and also a pillar every... let's say 8m. our side of the wall is also around 8m. what I'm looking to do is to remove part of this wall, rebuild where necessary (there are some cracks) and make good the "left overs". what am I likely to find underneath? aside from some cracks where a higher ground level and some shrubs have pushed the wall towards the street, the wall is perfectly straight. I'm wondering if it's got some sort of a foundation or will I need to pour one myself? on one end, I'll be left with around half a metre of wall, with a pillar to the left of that length. do I need another pillar on the right or given the short length of the wall, I can do without one? on the other end, I'm looking to demolish what's left (around 1.5m) and rebuild with new bricks and mortar, hence my question about foundations above. any tips you can give me?

hi all, I wanted to pick your brains on something I've recently seen, I can't figure it out. 3 bedroom terraced house for sale in Western Avenue, Egham, Surrey, TW20 (rightmove.co.uk) This property above, if you look at the first picture, had a shared alleyway between the two neighbours, but only downstairs. Upstairs is essentially the neighbour's bedroom/bathroom with a flying freehold. I know this is a shared alleyway because we have exactly the same house/layout/setup, but in a different part of the country. These are all ex-council properties, freehold and those alleyways are extremely common, if not standard practice for this type of development. My question is: How did the owner of the property advertised above manage to incorporate the alleyway and extend his hallway? Leaving aside the discussion with the neighbour and potentially paying the neighbour to give it up (many don't use it at all), how would this work from a planning/ownership/covenants perspective? Is it even a possibility or did this guy just pay his neighbour some money and is hoping the council won't find out? I'm asking because I'm very tempted to do the same, it's a relatively small job to open up the side wall (single skin) and the benefit would be a warmer property, both for myself and the neighbour, along with the added space. Thanks!

hi all, we finalised our single storey several months back, everything is ok. it has a flat roof (roughly 22sqm) and it has a downpipe on one side. the downpipe hasn't been connected to the sewer, as it's not a combined one (confirmed with Thames Water), but building control wants to see either an agreement (nope) or a soakway anyway, so it doesn't matter. Long story short, I'm happy with a soakway, I just need some advice on regulations. What I have so far is 5m away from extension (no problem) and 2m away from boundary, though that doesn't seem to be enforced, anyone who had one dug it right next to the fence. 1 meter deep as well and I'll probably be using some plastic crates filled with pebbles or whatever the material is. Is there anything else I need to know or do? We do live on a flood plain, so I can imagine the water table is quite high, but the building control guy is quite experienced, so he wouldn't have suggested a soakway if he knew it's not workable in the area. What about width/length? Worth mentioning that right now, the water from the roof is just draining next to the extension, next to the foundation (which is why I want it done properly asap), but the amount of water coming down is negligible. Even with the wild rains in recent days/weeks, we're talking a fairly small amount. Any advice welcome, thank you!

thanks for replying, I managed to get a manual and you're right, that's the way to change it. what I also found out is that our control that came with the boiler has some hidden settings. one of them was modulation. essentially, every time the boiler kicked on before, it was running at full power, heating everything up to 75 degrees and consuming a lot of energy. since I turned modulation on, the boiler only heats up to the required temperature. it's much quieter now and the temperature rarely goes above 60 degrees, as that's all it takes to keep everything at temperature. gas consumption seems to have go down a tad as well. it's so sad that every boiler installer is only in to connect the pipes and the flue, really. no gas engineer cares about efficiency or talks to their customers about their boiler's capabilities. thank you!

Hi all, we have a 1 year old glowworm energy c30 boiler, works a charm. Our setup is radiators, draytone TRVs with various settings for various rooms, wireless thermostat (always on, min temp 21 deg). every time the boiler kicks in, temperature goes up to around 75 degrees, if required, which I believe is excessive. I tried to adjust the flow temperature, like I did with the hot water temperature, and the boiler displays no. how can I change this to, let’s say, 60 deg? I think that will be more than enough for our house. thank you!

from a weight perspective (downwards force), a 150mm pier will do. in fact, even using just the lateral wall will be enough, as the perpendicular wall can take all the load, easily. what most people don't take into account is lateral strength. less of an issue in a terrace, but STILL a consideration.

1. we simply used a damp proof membrane and connected it to the skirting, which tucks nicely under the DPC (on the internal skin). essentially, you have a barrier between ground level and floor, absolutely no issue with humidity at all, with the extension sitting nicely at 50%, except for in the summer, when the doors are open a lot and the humidity inside reflects what's outside. 2. internal wall between existing kitchen and extension was taken down to screed level, so we didn't remove any bricks from the "footings". we then used liquid DPM to close any tiny gaps, but that was completely unnecessary, as the underside of the extension is bone dry anyway. we then used self-levelling compound to combine everything nicely, again, all nice and dry despite a lot of rain and humidity. 3. we removed the internal skin along the width of the bifold and used the same damp proof membrane to create a "tray" underneath the screed and insulation. again, absolutely no problems with humidity, but I have to admit that area of the floor is a bit colder that the rest, despite using celotex. not a big deal and there's no condensation, which for me is good enough. from the outside, you can see the ground level at 3 bricks under the internal floor, with a DPC 2 bricks above ground floor, so it's quite difficult for anything to get damp/wet, even in heavy rain.