ToughButterCup

No, there isn't. BUT, scaffoldingdirect (etc) do provide a help-sheeet that's about as helpful as a chocolate fire guard. If you are using Kwikstage, I'll pop up and give you a hand if you like. PM me or ring. Ian

Thanks to the recent discussion about render ( @gravelld's concern about the quality of his render) I have been given the courage to think about mine. Yesterday Gary wrote this ' .... Regarding the thickness As long as every inch is covered you will be fine .... ' here Taking a bit of scaffolding down today to get ready for our flat roof I saw this ... Little holes that I couldn't see when I was working a bit higher up...... And of course that means that I have about a million little holes to fill. Just need to find them now, that's all. Oh the joys of full on DIY self build. Thanks Gary. Appreciate it.

Whaaaaat ! And you didn't log on to BH Congratulations.?

Well I might as well get two then....... Phhhhhh. Oh poooo.

Thanks. Errrrmmm, by the way , what's with the less-than-instant-response , you had me worried for a minnit.

Here's everything you need to help you decide your best course of action

My attempts at render is exactly what's concerning me at the moment. My concern is the lack of consistency. Lets hope that @nod (Gary) reads this: he's our man Materials: I have used plastering sand, cement, and lime, 3:1:1 on Durisol. Technique: Mix it to a sloppy consistency, apply with a house brush (£2.60 form the local BM). I have tried a variety of 'thicknesses'. Its now bone hard. I can hit it quite hard with a hammer and nothing happens. But have a look at this Look at the difference in colour. I'm not sure why. But I suspect my lack of experience in mixing and - just possibly - a different bag of sand. Not sure. Cost? I don't think I've spent more than £100 on the whole house. My concern is also my poor application of the 'slurry' Sometimes I lay it on thick, others, thin. And you can see the difference. That doesn't matter to much because it will all disappear behind the Kloeber Permo Forte. Sometimes the surface is hard but a bit dusty, others bone hard. 'Spect I'm overthinking it..... @nod Gary, what do you think?

My thoughts too. Bum(s)

Yer learning fast, lass!

It was all going too well. Made myslef a nice big hole, popped the poo tank innit, (?) made myself a nice ramp up and down which to choogle the ballast and 20mm stone. Digger going nice. Then click, bump, click, bump, click . Tek naw notice: noisy + bumpy anyway. Looked down: whassat? And that, and that? See for yourself. Bugger. New track I bet eh @Russell griffiths, and @Construction Channel ?

I am overwhelmed by your question. Help us all would you please. Some more context would help: which way do the windows face, how many are there? What does overwhelmed by light mean?

Pop round and use some of our spare , @Triassic. Provided you don't keep it for a few years..... ? Scaffolding is the second best expensive (over £600) tool investment. It keeps it's value, is readily resold, and does what you want it to when you want it to. Pain in the arse mind. Hard work. Lots of research. Many ways of getting it wrong. I luuuuuurve it.

A very warm welcome. I agree with all the other comments: Its a shame you didn't find us or post - ( if you lurked for a while) earlier. That said you make some useful points. There's the start of a book in there somewhere.

Thanks Pete. How do you get round the need to qualify as a business to get that price.....

Hmmm. Thats a first. I'm delighted. (not referring to your post @joe90 )

Must be a first ..... JSH and PeterW not knowing every last detail about [xyz] Stand in front of any of your eye-level kitchen cabinets - any one will do. Look up at the top shelf. Now tell me what's at the back of that shelf. If you are like me, you don't know because you cant see. This prevents that. In effect, the back of many cupboards are wasted space - knee level or below, shoulder level or above. I am starting to hate bending down. It'll only get worse. Debbie stands on a stool to get to the back of top-level shelves. Every time she does so, I wince at the potential for a broken this or that. Moving into the bedroom, those storage units that are shoulder-level or above are similarly inaccessible. This time round I can plan to mitigate that problem. Pull-down, fold-out, and rotating shelves seem to me to be a way of slowing the inevitable descent into decrepitude - if I'm not already there....

At last, there's an opportunity to build our kitchen shelving units as we would want them. That includes pull-down shelving. And i bet there are some things to be recommended, and others to avoid. Would you like to help us think through what to look fr when buying them, and - just as important - what to avoid? Thanks Ian

Thanks for this post. Brought me up short.

Not in Durisol. I know because I asked the rep. But I think his response might we'll have been instinctive and based on concerns about strength. The concrete design for the ICF will have referred to normal (whatever that is) mixes. If you use concrete of a different design or mix , you would need to be sure that ICF company signs off the idea. Give them a ring.

Join the queue, Jude, join the long line. It's so long in fact I can't see you way down there at the back. Let's keep it simple. Turn the guilt into determined useful behaviour ; that was then, now is now. Forgive yourself. Move on. Take cost control into your hands. That means hard work on both your your parts; OH and you. Break the job down into chunks that are meaningful to you. Get a price for those. Make sure the price is agreed. Take notes, and share them with the trades person. Do not allow the trades to ' .... It'll be Ok, I'll get you a better price for that ... ' find out how much before mandating the work. You hate your rental . Move. Caravan? You won't be the first or last to do that. Communication; Very brave of you to be that honest and open. It's not an option to load one party with appropriate levels of responsibility. Being over-stressed at work is normal. Face it, own it, do something about it. Take control. Keep coming back to us all. Ian

I've done that with flag stones and a couple of telegraph poles. But didn't think to extend the idea by putting the heavy weight on a pallet. Thanks Dad. Ian

Tell ya wot, come and show me how: free coffee and cake while you barrow 3 tonnes of concrete15 meters a time........ I will be setting the mixer up next to the hole after having divided the one tonne bags of materials up into lots liftable by the digger (half a bag or so) ; then use J's idea of making a chute down the side of the tank (cutting the bases off a pair of old plastic dustbins) and tipping it in. Top off with some of our pile of pea gravel. Then fuss the original spoil into a nice level area round the inspection hatch ready for the new lawn - having made provision for the incoming foul drain runs and the electricity supply.

So, water already the 'ole doesn't matter : our water level is - at most - 6 inches above the bottom of the cone resting on the bottom. Technical this hole-filling lark innit? As can be seen from the image of Debbie's feet (above) the diameter of the hole is roughly a meter, and I'll bet that where her feet are is where the lugs are that we have to cover - say another meter and a bit (.5). So that's Pi r squared h innit? 3.14 * 0.5 *0.5 *1.5 say 1.2 cubic meters of concrete. Its a bugger because, at 2.5 meters deep, with a 2.6 tonne digger, you can't dig a conical hole. But, at the time, needs musted. So I need half a tonne of cement and about 3 tonnes of ballast 20 bags of cement (25 kg) (£4.15 each) £83 and 3 bags of ballast say £40 each £120 Shingle : say £100's worth That makes £300 : damn, that old codger @Russell griffiths was right. Hmmm. @Russell griffiths, if I can get the Landy near it, I will. The 'outfield' needs a bit of landscaping first though

?

And now I need to fill the damn thing in. I can't get a concrete pump close to the tank (unless its a 26 meter machine : £500 + concrete) : nobody round here does a small concrete pump. So it's mix it yer' sel' time. There's 6 inches of water at the bottom of the 'ol, as in this heavily edited image .... Does the water in the bottom of the hole matter? Please tell me I don't have to pump it out.......