Cpd

Cut mine last week for the first time but my lawn is only a small percentage of my total garden as I have huge areas of wild garden devoted to wildlife conservation. As @Temp says if I did not cut it in May I would not be able to cut it at all with the self propelled mower that I have.

I have just finished an 18 month stint in a hobby touring caravan that I have on my property and I found it completely manageable. The thing that makes it work for me is having the kitchen and the shower in separate units attached to the vans outside. Having these on the outside eliminates the problems of damp and lingering cooking smells inside. I also stuck an additional 100mm of kingspan on the roof and 50mm on all the sides, built a frame round it and clad it in timber and then stuck a turf roof on it......... ok so I went completely over the top and it would have been cheaper and easier to probably build from scratch..... if you have the skills then build a box and kit it out as you will end up with a much more manageable space. It’s not going to be cheap so do the sums before committing. One other slightly easier option is to buy a large log summerhouse that can be assembled on site with the addition of tagging on an external shower and loo and then at the end of the build you can dismantle and sell on.

I know someone was looking a while back for a pillar drill. ex demo but looks like a bargain https://www.rutlands.com/sp+16mm-bench-pillar-drill-ex-demonstration+eddk7228

Very much a real one with wheels but it’s never going anywhere..... well not any time soon as I have added external insulation and clad it in wood.....

I agree but as I have already said and there is just no room to put in a proper vented system as it’s a caravan

There is no space above and below is vital for storage.... there is however a cupboard about 1m away so could fit it in that as the pipe work already runs through this location. The consumer unit is also close and I could get a dedicated take of from that. Do you have a recommendation for make / model @PeterW ? Thanks

I have a caravan / cabin that is used by visitors and the hot water boiler / heater has broken. Its a 5 litre Truma hot water heater and is absolutely shite and I would like to take the opportunity to replace with something better. I only need a small amount of hot water for doing the dishes and serving a wash hand basin, 10 - 15 litres. The shower is electric and I don’t want to change this. People who visit do not expect continuous hot water on demand but I would like to make improvements as I go as boiling the kettle to do the dishes is fine by me but seems a bit archaic to others. I have looked at specific caravan hot water heaters but feel underwhelmed by what my research has turned up. I am in a remote location so getting specialists in to service a system annually is not an option. There are two options, instant hot water or stored hot water, not sure which will be the lowest energy consumer. just looking for recommendations or possible solutions. It needs to be an electric option as I don’t want gas. thanks

I built half my property with volunteers, they are not experienced but if you know what your doing and can manage people / are a people person then it’s a great way to get loads of the unskilled graft done. You need to provide good food and reasonable accommodation. If this is the route you decide to take then I’m happy to provide more information through pm or phone call.

I have 6 chickens but the garden is 2.5 hectares so the damage they do is minimal in the grand scheme of things but it does drive me bonkers when they destroy new plants that I have put in...... usually I have to put up some kind of protective guard until new plants are established. I love my garden but love fresh free range eggs even more so I have to put up with a bit of destruction.....

I have cut thousands of slates with a slaters axe and it is not hard to master, I have taught half a dozen people how to do it and it takes no more than an hour or two before they have got into the swing of it. It’s really the best way and gives a fantastic finish.

Welcome from Argyll on the west coast of Scotland. I took on a rundown property 10 years ago and am still trying to dig myself out..... admittedly I look at it as a daily hobby rather than something that HAS to be done in a certain timeframe... well that’s what a started saying after the first 5 years in.....

These are three pictures spread over the last 10 years, the last one with the flowers taken just last week. It’s about a third of my garden. I make it up as I go along but every year the wildlife increases exponentially and the area becomes more and more interesting.

Good evening @Jonathan Oakes I am a bit brain dead with tiredness tonight so cannot give you a good reply.... the main problem is that you have nothing below the tin to fix the velux easily to. from what I can see the roof you have is a very light weight design and adding lots of timber, windows and insulation could cause structural problems. as I say to my friends, anything is possible.... it just comes down to how much money do you want to spend on getting there. I am afraid that this is probably beyond my field of knowledge. maybe @Mr Punter would know of a solution as he deals with more commercial projects I think..... if something comes to me when I am not so brain dead I will post again. best of luck and sorry I have nothing useful to say. cpd

Sorry i may be operating with a dull brain today..... I interpreted your question as - you have a nice 45 degree pitched roof with exposed oak rafters and you were wondering how best to insulate the roof..., my quick response was to go external insulation.... but what I should have said was - look at external insulation for the walls and link it into a warm roof design so that all your oak can be on display. Still not sure if I have got the wrong end of the stick..... I think I just need to sleep..... https://www.helifix.co.uk/blog/warm-roof

External insulation would be the best.

75mm is so much easier to cut and deal with than 150mm would be my first choice given the option.

I have a total area of 6.3 acres / 2.5 hectares and I have planted about 2/3 of it, within that there is 0.5 acres of existing low grade birch woodland. I have not planted just biomass Willow but a fairly huge variety of species with the majority being birch, Scots pine and willow. I have also planted about 300 eucalyptus of which 150 are quick growing species designed to be coppiced. there are lots of trees planted just for nature conservation including hundreds of trees which provide great blossoms for bees and hundreds of trees to provide berries for birds. And lots of trees to feed myself with including cob nut, hazel and lots of fruit trees. Pretty inappropriate site for PV I am not preaching biomass...... or anything ..... but have a huge garden that is dedicated to wildlife enrichment, being beautiful and a wonderful place to explore and to one day provide fuel fir some of our heating... the fuel part is only one area in my efforts to become more self sufficient along with some livestock and vegetable growing. I would love to have PV on all the buildings one day and a wind turbine but have NO capital so that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

really no idea.... well above my pay grade ! Never encountered any problems seems to work flawlessly straight out the box....

Yes very expensive (£55 a month) but it’s shared by 4 different users so it makes it affordable. We only get EE reception so it was the only option. Speeds when near the router are fantastic - 40+ mps. Just need to work out the best way of sharing it around.

@Paul Leigh or anyone with experience ! I have recently signed up for unlimited 4g wireless internet with EE provided through a router I have no landline My property consists of 5 dwellings that need internet All the buildings are in a rough circle and at max about 30 metres apart in the future i may have another cabin further away that needs wifi. At moment I have the router up a pole in the middle of the property with an armoured cable running to it...... it sort of works but not well and especially not well where the buildings have calotex insulation in them... so my question is - is the TP link / Pharos the answer I am looking for ? I am reading the blurb on the website but as I am a Luddite it’s all very confusing. thanks for any advice cpd

@Adsibob I will try and remember but if you don’t see me post then please drop me a reminder, I planted these last winter as cuttings and in the first growing season the Q83 shot up like nothing I have ever seen..... from a 600mm cutting (200mm in the ground - 400mm sticking out ) they have grown to at least 10 to 12 feet !!! The other types went well and most about 5-6ft but I was pretty shocked at the growth on the Q83. I am now a bit concerned that at that rate of growth they will not be wind firm in the location I have them..... but will just wait and see.

Living on the west coast I am always using ss screws and had been eying of this lot until I noticed that they no longer ship to the UK ?

You only need to cut out a small section top and bottom, just jam in a wood saw or bread knife and cut down the side of the foam, you will need to put the new bits in in two sections as I don’t think you will get the new insert in in one bit... put the filler triangle in first (1) and foam it in and then put the last bit (2)in between the remaining insulation (3) and the triangle insert. Foam and tape. I used 70mm over the top on my last project and made my own washers out of 5mm ply - bandsaw and pillar drill and 10 minutes later I have 100 washers.... away as I was not having a service void in the roof section I drove the washers in below the surface of the insulation by 5+ mm and then foam over the top, stick a bit of tape on and then glue plasterboard over the top.... obviously if your having a service void then you can leave the washers proud.

how are you securing the 100mm insulation between the rafters ? I check to make sure that there is not any variation in insulation thickness or discrepancies in the inside face of the rafters and if it’s all good I then attach roofing batten to the inside of the rafters at the desired depth so that when you push the insulation in it buts up nice and solid against the battens. Would then foam in all the 100mm insulation, cut the foam back and then tape over the joints and right across the front of the rafters so that it’s a continuous silver foil run from one side to the other. Depending on your wall build up I would then be putting any inside wall insulation on that so that I overlaps the bottom of the rafter insulation (foam and tape) and then I would be putting my 50mm sheet insulation over the rafter ends to eliminate and cold bridges. I find that the only way to get all the 45 degree cuts (or whatever your roof angle is) perfect is to use a hand held circular saw set to the desired angle, if the insulation is thicker than your saw cutting depths then just finish of with a hand saw - it’s easy to follow the angled cut that you made with the circular saw. the pic is just to give you an idea - this is how I have just insulated a room in in the roof of my shed but your design may be different - and I may be wrong... however this system has worked well for me and gives me 100% airtightness and would take a lot of shrinking and timber movement to cause failure.

I clad my cabin with Scottish grown larch 7 years ago, I paint it every few years to keep it looking smart with Cuprinol and the larch is as good as the day it went on, there is absolutely no movement that would be cause for concern and no distortion at all, I really could not be happier and it’s definitely my go to material for exterior use. I used minimal fixings - single row of ss ring shank nails along the centre of each board and ss screws in window work etc. I did all the work myself and was very carful with grading the timber and making sure that the overlaps were sitting down really snug on the board below it, using a draw knife to shave off protruding edges. The painting could be an issue for a bigger property but then you would just use a much better quality paint rather than the budget Cuprinol ducks back that I used for £10 for 5 litres.