Square Feet

...Canterbury

I was in Hawick this week and Homebase there is closing down. They have 10-50% off everything - it seems it all has to go. They are not closing til Christmas apparently, but I doubt there will be much left by then.

Thanks again Ferdinand. The ceiling is t&g cladding and I don't want to hack into it. I also think that two floor to ceiling posts in the middle of the room would completely ruin the aesthetic if I am honest! Yes, will try a belt and braces approach for the newels. ETA: The whole thing is going to be U shaped so hopefully it will derive some strength from the 90 deg joints. Cheers

Thanks Ferdinand, - only just seen your reply. That is very helpful. Yes my concern was also about how to make the 'free' end of the bannister stable enough for folk to be able to hang onto it as they went up or down stairs. In this case I have two such ends - one either side - so I need a good solution. I have just finished doing the ceiling so I can't attach to there now, but can still go through the floor to screw to a joist. I'm just a bit worried in case it isn't strong enough for the surveyor to sign off on though. Thanks too for the shopping list.

Thanks for that. Yes, that was my idea too. Nobody ever done that sort of thing then?

Hi - I am currently renovating an old cottage. The loft was converted at some time in the past and stairs put in. The opening for the stairs is just a slot taken out of the floor above. The previous owners had built a ply stud wall around this instead of a bannister. I have removed this wall which makes the space seem much bigger. Now I need to put some sort of bannister around the hole to stop people falling down it. I had hoped to pick something up on eBay, but after several months of patient searching I have found nothing. Buying something in would be too expensive, so I am looking at putting something together myself. I have seen some metal rods that I could use at the appropriate spacing, and was thinking of fitting them together with CLS. I wondered if anyone here has any better ideas. Has anyone made something themselves like this and if so how did you hold it all together and how sturdy was it? The property is going to be sold so longevity is less of an issue for me than the surveyor being ok with it, but obviously I don't want it to collapse and hurt someone. Cost is also a big issue - I need a cheap solution! Cheers

Thanks for that everyone. Some good ideas there. Cheers

My knees are well and truly done for. I have been working on the floors for the past week and it has really done me in. I try never to kneel, always squat but it doesn't help much after a while. They have been getting worse and worse over the years. I saw a lot of you all complaining about your knees and I wondered if anyone had any ideas about what I could do that might help. Knee pads make them 100x worse for some reason. Sometimes I put arnica cream on them which helps a bit but its more of a sticking plaster than a cure. Anyone recommend any exercise or diet type remedies? I take glucosamine already too.

This was on a sheep farm so the whole place was teeming with rat traps. Never saw a single one in all the years we lived there.

I built a pallet shed too. Mine was a bit bigger - 4.5m by 2.5m. I got the doors off Ebay for £12 and the roofing sheets came from there too for £90. Decking boards were £100 if I remember correctly. There was a huge window inside that came from a skip - it was south facing so let in lots of light and heat. It was at a place I was renting so sadly I don't have access to it since we moved.

Article in the Guardian today - shame it will be five years until it is available - maybe I could make one out of bits of something I have lying around.... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/05/groundbreaking-spinning-wind-turbine-wins-uk-dyson-award

I tried to get that recently for an attic conversion and came to the conclusion it was a non-starter. From the folk I spoke to it seemed that I could only get it for the horizontal part of the attic, not the sloping part of the roof. As others have said though it seems to vary enormously from one council area to the next. I just googled 'free loft insulation' plus the location and it came up with several companies. I rang a few and they all said pretty much the same thing. They also had access to old home report energy surveys so they could see what was there already which was interesting.

I don't know a great deal about French door locks, but if it is the same as many front doors - a Euro lock, then they are a doddle to replace and are very cheap. I did one recently on a front door and was stunned how easy it was (I had to break it as I had no key). https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p80969

Wow, she must be good! A friend's son just got a place with the Glasgow conservatoire so I know what a big deal it is.

Those windows don't look like they have rotted in a matter of days. I would have thought it would take years for them to get like that. The shutter ply does look like it has had it though.

Welcome Suniil. Move to Scotland! We have lots of cheap plots here! I am also at the early stages (ie no plot even yet), but I don't think you can ever do too much research....

That's a fine looking house. I have read some of your old blog posts and it seems that you are living in it now - is that correct? Are you just living in the upstairs part if you are still doing the floors downstairs? Sorry to read about all the stress you have been having with loans and so on. My own future build will have to be very low budget as I cannot borrow and so it all has to come from cash (which I have little of). I did feel quite held back by this but having read your experiences with Build Store I feel a bit better now.

I loved it too, but the bad photoshop on page 56 really tickled me.... Did you spot it?

Nice one, thanks for that.

Hi - I wanted to have a go at this but need to go shopping first. Can you give me an idiots breakdown of exactly what I would need as I hate starting a project only to find that I am missing a vital lead or something. Cheers ETA - could you also post a link to where you got a Pi zero for a fiver please as I can't find one that cheap anywhere. Cheers

It does seem a rather high bar that they have set, but I do think it is worth considering all the other impacts of what we build. I can't wrap my head around using lots of polystyrene and concrete in order to build passive for example - that doesn't seem green at all and I guess this standard would highlight that. Or at least get people thinking about it. Or something.

Ok, thanks for that. It's mostly eps from the first series that are missing as that was some time ago now, but a few here and there from S2 and 3 as well. It's frustrating as it is acutally some thing I would be prepared to pay money for, but I can't find it anywhere. The dodgy sites do my head in a bit as they force-feed you ads every ten minutes.

Thanks yeah, I have seen all those and streamed them as you say, but it's not comprehensive sadly. So perhaps I should have asked - does anyone know anywhere that I can view these shows that isn't youtube or some other dodgy place (Dailymotion for example has a few)?

There is some good nerdy reading about passive slabs towards the end....

Thanks, yes that's what I meant. It's not on iplayer as far as I can see - I think it's too old. Yes, I have watched the ones on youtube but that's not all of them and for quite a few you have to put up with scratchy sound and weird distortions designed to get round the censor. So I was wondering if it is possible to view them properly somewhere. Cheers