Cpd

Thread resurrection...... I am getting very close to needing to order quite a lot of gabion baskets. Being based in Argyll on the west coast of Scotland may make delivery from some companies prohibitive...... most of my proposed walls are between one to two meters high but all can be rounded down or up to the nearest 500mm I have four main areas and a back of the fag packet calculation gives me an area of 185 Square meters but of various priorities as listed below. priority area = 35 m2 Driveway project area = 75m2 Cottage area 45m2 Polly tunnel 30m2 I expect cost is going to restrict me form ordering them all at once and therefore maybe I will need to do it in 3 stages. I definitely would like to uses ones with square / rectangular mesh shape not the more rounded / hexagon pattern I am assuming that 1m cube is a good standard size but see Lots at 1m x 500mm and wondered if anyone had used these. Is there a specific gauge of wire that I should be aiming for 4mm ? It’s very much a practical project not fancy garden stuff..... have people got any new information or feedback from projects they have done, quality of goods, longevity, flawed design, etc @Russell griffiths @iSelfBuild @nod @SiBee @matt-shrops I will try my various local Builders Merchants As well as the recommendations above but just wanted to see if people had any further feedback. thanks for any Additional information. Col

One of my Airbnb geusts was working in this feild and at the time I was intrested, lost his bloody details now..... but his research was to do with LED grow lights as it was a very cheep way of. Increasing yield on a large scale, so hopefully someone knows something. I want to eventually look at the feasibility of doing it throughout my planned polly tunnel to extend the growing season..... linked in to the whole thing being powered by a moderate sized wind turbine..... mostly just dreaming at the moment but........

I am cropping, bok choy lettuce spring onions rainbow chard purple sprouting broccoli kale texal greens radish suger snap peas garlic strawberries all in abundance and having to give stuff away ! It’s amazing what you can do in a small area. I will be getting my polly tunnel up within six months ready for next year as I feel I have outgrown my fish box garden.

A quick way to bulk out the brown stuff could be to buy a few bales of straw, it’s only about £6 a bale and it will go a looooooong way.

still got the stair hole open with no stairs or doors..... the project ground to a standstill when I became ill a few years ago and even though I am back on the tools now I have become distracted by other projects That I started during my “time out” so to speak.

Yup... I went a bit bonkers when I did my floor between upstairs and downstairs....... x3 layers of acoustic plaster board x 3 diffrent layers of acoustic rockwool..... etc etc....... ongoing.....

A thing of true beauty!

What’s the law about fire doors being left open ? Are they meant to have sone sort of auto shutting thingy fitted... does the glass have to be rate.....

As previously mentioned clean it out and pop a bit of mortar in there as good practice to prevent front damage.

Great project, what part of scotland are you in ? I’m in Argyll. Look forward to hearing about your plans.

Not a green wall but it’s my take on raised beds.... fish box garden. Mostly designed keep chickens out but lots of other advantages with it being raised of the ground to waist height.

As I said it was all for free, have no idea what I’m doing and it’s worked a treat..... Bonus !

@PeterW Not sure of the make as it was all free from the builders merchants...... another stock take bonanza. The profile was higher at the back. This is it but in white.

In my situation I used a shower tray that had 50-70mm upstands And brought the wall panel down over the upstands and finished it above the edge of the tray, next Time I will finish it higher as so that the gap is easier to clean.

..... and again I will add that I used the trim, filled it with clear ct1 And squished it on, installed the panel about 4 years ago and it is still perfect I did NOT want any silicone on show and this worked perfectly. There is just no way water will get in if done correctly. I will do the same again In my next shower upgrade.

Spot on @Russell griffiths This would be my solution.

This is my back garden and the front is about the same size but with huge lawns on the flat..... I blame the garden for my incredibly slow progress on the Building renovations.....

When I was recently doing some repairs to my cabin windows I realised that water was blowing into the structure between the cladding and the window linings and has caused rot to the fairly cheep marine ply linings (it’s only a cabin...) to solve this I replaced the linings with yet more cheep ply ? (as i had it on stock) but added A rubber seal between The cladding ends and the linings. It’s worked really well and I can at least rest assured that water won’t be getting behind there anymore. The top of the window is ply lined that comes down at an angle So any water will always want to come out, I upgraded this by cutting up some old velux flashings (I have many....) And put them on top with a lip to keep the ply nice and dry. Other photos are of the back of the cabin with the cladding overshooting to protect the linings, The linings are all angled down so that any water that blows in it will always fall towards the cladding rather than the window. The cladding is all cut at 45 degrees to help shed water rather than it sitting on the bottom edge of the boards.

Been using Makita for 20+ years and it’s my go to make for sure. It takes abuse with ease. I have not actually got a broken makita tool and I have a lot, ive just upgraded as the years go on and the old stuff gets buried deeper and deeper in the shed.....

Also make sure that the chisel bit end And housing is clean and well greased, often they are not cleaned and get clogged up with dry grease and dust which effects performance. Drop the bit out tip the machine upside down and spray loads of wd40 Into the hole, give it a good scrub with an old toothbrush, tip it back up the right way and spray / flush it out with more wd40. Re grease and off you go. I’m sure there are other ways but when your in the field of battle this is my pit stop solution that had always worked.

Welcome to the forum mate and greetings from the west coast of Argyll.

I brought a wreck of a place seven years ago in an isolated location for £110 k, it’s got 5 acres and is absolutely beautiful with the ocean just a few hundred feet away and surrounded by remote hill farm country. Yes it’s registered, on grid and I pay my taxes but it’s as close to living of the grid as I want at this time. A friend rents a caravan of me on site and gets all the benefits of living here without ownership or hassle and I make £75 a week which covers his electric hook up. Plenty of officials are aware of the set up and don’t give it a second look as it’s convenient for him as there are no other accommodations available locally and he WORKS locally. My place is very clean and tidy and his caravan fits in without being obvious that its not moved in a few years and in reality you hardly notice the chap as he keeps himself well contained. I know of many other examples of this happening throughout Scotland and done in a low key manner where it doesn’t have any negative effect on others and is visually VERY low key seems to be tolerated quite well. Should he get sick and need help he is not stuck out in the middle of nowhere, should the local official stance change then its zero issue for him or me as he can just move into the house for a few weeks and then....... but it’s just not a problem as everyone is aware if the situation and nobody cares. Anyway it’s just an example of how to live very cheaply without going down the road of building an illegal cabin in some remote woods that you may well get evicted from ! Often it’s better to do these things in plain sight and be totally honest with the neighbours about what you want to do because at the end of the day if it’s going to get reported it’s going to be by someone who is upset by what your doing, and to be upset they need (generally) to be effected by it. If I was you I would build an amazing tiny home and find a lovely remote spot that you can park up at with the the blessing of the land owner and enjoy your days..... if you were to find the right place you could come in as a volunteer in some form of countryside conservation and then you would be seen as an asset rather than a squatter, again this would give you meaning on a day to day level and help to bolster local support and hopefully create further tolerance for your non standard arrangement. It’s definitely possible. I could go on but will leave it at this for now..... if I was going to go fully of grid I know where I would go......

Totally use these every day and forever after. QUALITY being the important word for these two items.

during this lockdown I have been living in my cabin as a way of getting a real feel for what needs to be done to make it even better than it is now, one of the BIG things is hot water in the sink. There is a small caravan hot water heater under the bed but this only gives you about a kettle full of water to do the dishes before it runs out....... as someone who does all my cooking from scratch I can soon rack up a good few dishes ! It’s a pita having to boil the kettle 4 times just to be able to get things ship shape after cooking. I had considered a hot water tap but my location and tight budget have prevented me from following this up, your not going to get a service engineer here...... anyway @nod £300 pounds and 5 years trouble free seems like a really good deal and something I could stretch to, are you able to link the tap he has ? Or does anyone else have any advise. The shower is electric and runs great so it’s just the main kitchen sink I am concerned about as I will leave the washbasin sink to run of heater under the bed. Thanks.

If you are only going to use one layer of batten with the roof membrane draped between the joists then I think it will be fine as you can get good fixings through the 50mm batten into the joists, it could get quite expensive for fixings if your going for two layers of battens at 50mm and then Into joists. It’s strange that you can’t get the standard 50x25mm roofing batten.