oldkettle

Didn't consider this! Hmm, not sure, these doors aren't very strong, will the hinges hold or just make holes in the door even with roller support? The top part of the door has a square profile which gives some rigidity, but the bottom is just a corner. I feel a strong wind would rip the hinges off... This is the top And the lower part - really weak

Right. The opening is completed. 1700mm, good for a 3t digger and a dumper and easy to widen if needed. The right wall is still there but not too tall now, feels safe unless of course someone hits it with a digger arm. A special thank you goes to @joe90 who suggested welding gauntlets for gardening. Turns out they are good for many more things including handling SDS drill and chisels. Now the last part Before I take the door out I need to decide how to secure the entrance. Was thinking about a gate with a roller wheel attached to the pillar next to the house and secured against the right pillar, but there is not much available in 1900-2200mm range and it is not cheap. Then a friend suggested fence panels. Doable, but would look ugly and not easy to move when needed. And not cheap anymore. Looked at Heras, these are cheap (£40-50, well, excluding delivery) but 3450mm, too wide to be used between pillars or walls. Can set it in front of the garage I guess, secure to the tree on one side and to the pillar/house on the other? At 11kg (is it really so light?) shouldn't be hard to move twice a day. Any other options?

Why can I just lift sections like this??? A bit scary. It wasn't exposed to sun much. Down to about 1600mm now. Feels a bit sturdier, before it was just scary that I could pretty much shake a brick wall! The pillar in the middle is weird, maybe was an afterthought, as there are no bricks linking it with the wall, only mortar.

Getting there. The top courses on the right were completely loose, I just took them down, no tools needed. Now it seems I will have no choice but to take quite a bit of the wall down to be safe. My question is: how much can I leave? The reason is I want the right column next to the garage door to stay partially up so that we could attach some kind of a gate to it or at least lock a gate to the column once we remove the door. Will something like a stair step from say a 1.5m column height down to a meter or so for the rest of the wall be OK? Just to keep the column stable? Don't need the rear column.

Well, sds drill really helps. Tried chisel bit but it's pretty useless. Ordered special brick removal one and in the meantime switched to the drill bit. Wow, so much easier. Why didn't I listen... 1700mm between top bricks as is, removing one more on one side makes it 1800. Should be enough? Now, regarding safety. There are a couple of big conifers on the other side, any value in adding some kind of a support in between the trees and the wall?

Yes, 1500 is the minimum, easy to provide. As I said, the garage door is 2100 so definitely plenty of space inside the garage, the question is can the wall fall from the wind rather than somebody pushing it.

Can't see why 3T won't be enough. It is a standard 150mm MOT3. OK, may need 20 or 30 runs up and down the garden, not a big deal I hope. 6T is too large anyway.

The door / lintel are still there. 2100mm door, I hope 3t digger should be sufficient - it's only a 70m dig into a slope with mostly sandy soil. Obviously, will have to remove the door once all is set for the machines to come on site.

Thank you Terry, will try it, just need a 25mm chisel (and I say some videos with an even wider one). Yes, this is the plan - keeping at least 2. The problem is there is a door on the right side and most of the wall isn't really linked to the corner! I had to remove the wall plate but it was completely detached from the mortar anyway. So only the doorframe keeps the two together - not much of a link. Was hoping to get a 5t through but there are a couple of trees that are in a way behind the garage as well so 2m clearance is not there. 3t - 1400 - should be OK and leaves plenty of space inside the garage.

Started - really slowly with a wrong tool, narrow chisel. Then while looking for the right one realised I have sds+ drill which I could have tried 😁

Got it, thank you. There are pillars but of course if a machine catches it they won't help. Damn, that's a lot of extra work I haven't planned for. Need to see what's the worst that can happen, there are mature conifers separating us from the neighbours but if the whole wall falls something will almost certainly get through and make it to their side. Alternatively can install some support on the outside... yeah, need to think about it.

Had to Google it 🙂 movement joint? Frankly, I am thinking if we do cut straight and then need to rebuild may be easier to use blocks. Yeah, I wish but no, too narrow. Sorry, not sure what you mean? It will look better?

Thank you. I think I will need something bigger than 125mm Ferrex which I just tried 🙂 The disc won't reach into vertical joints but hopefully this won't be needed when horizontal are cleared.

I need to remove a part of the rear garage wall to create an opening wide enough for diggers / dumpers to pass. I had this nagging feeling while planning the whole thing that it wasn't as simple as "just do it". So now that I started I have realised it's unlikely I will be able to remove bricks forming zigzags on the two sides of the opening. I can try a disc cutter but then I have no idea whether it will be possible to close the opening once it is no longer needed. It is pretty old but feels solid. I am not even sure we will want the garage rebuilt once we are finished, but since it is attached I am worried about disturbing the wall of the house. Thanks in advance.

Another pretty picture from the usual source. You can multiply zero (left graph) by a 1000, but you will still get... not much. Unless a conversation/text about GW, renewables etc. starts with "we recognise we can't even talk about not using FF anytime soon" I personally won't listen as the speaker simply lies to me.

This is impressive - I was sure OSB or similar would be required. So to be absolutely sure: 100/m3 at 400mm means it's £40/m2 installed? Or is it in Ireland since you quoted euros?

What is holding all this cellulose on the inside? This image seems to only show vapour barrier which is probably not strong enough?

Did you compare these massive dividends with the share price?

@AliG Very good post. Important points on taking losses when the price is low - nobody wants to care about this one, supply/demand and more. The only reason I can't "like" it is the paragraph on "speculation". These companies make hedging possible for everyone (i.e. both buyers and sellers) and many lose money in process. As soon as you decide to prohibit or limit speculation in energy market you will get a queue of other candidates. 15-20 years ago I'd probably support BTL prohibition - as stupid as it sounds. So - can't agree with this one, sorry.

Thank you I wrote a post about it yesterday... then removed it without sending because I knew it was not going to convince anyone. I particularly liked how he only mentioned the cost at source after being prompted in comments. Yes, it is certainly the fault of the spaculators that UK and EU have behaved like lunatics destroying their own energy production capabilities and now we all depend on the nicest states in the world to keep going. He is/was "a professor for 5 years". I pity his poor brainwashed students.

Yep, found it via the main blog already, thank you.

The link seems to be to "edit post" which means I am asked to log in or register?

Thank you Peter CLS is 63mm, top, bottom, I am left with less than 100mm to fill 🙂 Most packers I can find in wickes/screwfis/toolstation are no more than 6mm, is this because 10mm is too much or do I just need to check specialised stores?

Our neighbours have replaced two sets of French doors at the back with a slider and offered the old one to us for free including the cill. We originally planned to use it for the outbuilding but realised it may be better to swap our terrible single glazed metal frame external double door instead. So before we go for it I want to make sure we aren't missing anything important which would make it a bad idea. 1. The width matches almost perfectly, 1500mm doors vs about 1520 between the brick walls. 2. The height of the doors is 2100 vs 2300+ available, will need an extra panel there 3. The house as it is is insulated quite badly so I don't think we need to worry about cold bridging. So to the questions Very roughly how much should I expect to pay to have it installed - we are in Surrey? 300? 500? Should I consider DIY will I need anything apart from expanding foam to fill the gaps/sealant? What is the easiest to install / least expensive option for the top panel?

It's almost midnight and I can't figure out what you mean. My brain tells me you are joking 🙂