Onoff

Got the soffit piece up. Held a piece of Marmox up and drew a line on the frame in pencil. Masking taped to that line or near enough. Primed the 4 sides with some tile primer about 2:1. Let it get tacky. Foamed upward onto the reveal concentrating on the edge where the window meets the soffit. Then foamed the top, internal corners of the reveals. Did some lines perpendicular to the window about every 300mm. Held the two soffit pieces up on a board and wedged with some battens down to the sill. Cocked up a tad as the little infill piece on the top right, is at a slight angle. I used the bottom of the masking tape as my guide. In the crap light last night I thought it was the frame! 😤 Plaster should hide it OK.

I don't think in this instance it'll be a huge issue. Tbh though as long as your mortar mix isn't too sloppy you should be able to bed them in dead straight and level without packs, tapping down here and there. That's how a proper bricky or most of here would do it. Mortar squidges out and you just run a tool along like I did above.

Erm...no, I said I'd glued the packs on with CT1 then slopped mortar on so the stones/blocks "sank" only as far as the packs. I then went onto say about possible shrinkage. Remembered where it was now, doing my gate pillar caps.

Just suggested to my brother we get Dad one. Brother informs me he alreay has one. The worry is I've made him tea up there!

Think I’ll go and glue some coping stones incorrectly. Anyone want to buy crazy paving ? Ffs .

Do have a link for that?

Nah, got to be The Goodies and the Beanstalk for me.

I tell you what, I reckon this gardening lark is good for mental health. I read somewhere about doctors prescribing it for such. Must admit after a day of filling the trench, sorting stones, breathing in "dirt" etc I felt quite chipper yesterday. I want to "ring fence" the veg plot. I need it defined by a boundary to give me something to focus on. 8"x4" sleepers would be the ideal but that's out on cost. I wonder if treated scaffold boards, on edge would work? I need something anyway to clip my twin wire, electric snail deterrent to and the eventual frame that's going to go over the whole area.

As I'm filling the trench / clearing the ground I'm pulling up this ground ivy. There's masses of it. Usually you grab a bit and a 6' long tendril comes up. However bits of it are breaking off and a good number of bits I'm sure have gone into the trench. I'm worried these will re-seed and grow in my new veg patch. Am I right to worry?

Personally I'd only bed them on a full mortar bed. Heavily laden with SBR. I'd then pipe the joints with the same stuff. Do it properly or water will get under them, freeze, expand and loosen them over not too long a time.

You look different without your flat cap on! 😂

I've done exactly what you're advocating, that is got the packers level and CT1'd in place. Then slopped the mortar on. Put the "stones" on and they will only bed as far as the packers. Just can't recall where I used the technique. Not sure if shrinkage will be an issue as mortar/ concrete shrinks back a bit I believe.

Flints anyone? Got miles of ground ivy that's migrated from next door to clear then some conifer cuttings to burn. Must make that 50 gal drum incinerator.

Raked the wood ash across the base of the trench, started backfilling, removing the big flints as I went . Chucked a 100 litres of bagged compost in, more soil, more raking. Cut the lawn, chucked the cuttings in, raked, more soil. Got bored. Stopped. More tomorrow. Got a couple of compost bins can go in. Will hopefully get my Czar runner beans in pots tomorrow. I have no idea what I'm doing. Am making frame connectors in green PETG. This to make a bfo netted frame o/of the miles of 25mm steel box section I have.

Disclean.

As there's a skin the other side i.e the non cut side of the foam I'm hoping that will provide the airtightness. Primer at the ready, got some battens ready too for bracing.

...Googles sp295

I rest my case, you must be beating them off with a sh!tty stick! 😂

Is that your back alley on the right? Looks quite tight for getting anything up there.

Bet you're a proper fanny magnet! 😂

That seems good. Is that including the VAT? From Fixings Warehouse where I got mine it'd be £133.20 delivered. Watch for the use by date on the can. All December 2023 on the 4 I bought here.

OK I concede. Illbruck FM330 is whole different can of foam! To trim the excess I struggled to cut it with my normal fine toothed hand saw or the couple of old bread knives that are my usual goto. Resorted to the 18V Fakita multi tool. It's weird. Not like the crunchy run of the mill expanding foam. This stuff is like rubberised merengue...but in a good way. Not sure if when you cut into the shiny top skin you bugger the airtightness properties? I suspect not. It's bloody tough stuff!

No sh!t... 😂 Aren't there 3rd party outfits whereby you can get around this?

Wet, tacky or dry?

Schneider board wasn't it?