Onoff

Think we suggested this back in the thread.

An old tarpaulin is good, not a new one unless you dont mind puncturing it, another empty jumbo bag is an option or a big old bit of DPM. Hell, even an old carpet rolled out.

If you use the Everbuild Integral Waterproofer it is also a deaerator so less air bubbles get formed in the mix that need tamping out. I was going to suggest he attacks it in two hits but couldn't face writing another diatribe...

So in a low energy house what is the major mistake(s) made that you have to use energy to cool the place in the Summer? Seems a bit wrong to me. Is the house orientation wrong, could more thought been given to natural shading etc?

I might have a black plastic waste here somewhere. I'd put that in then the plug with a bit of silicone for good measure. Was half thinking a flat metal disc like a conduit lid whacked in with CT1? EDIT: But not a conduit lid as that's galvanised so zinc.

I'd first cut a fillet of pir to go along the top and infill (or gun foam) where the sloping board meets the ceiling. I can see a gap! ? I'd do horizontal battens top and bottom then at 400 ctrs on the rafters. You want to support where the slope end's boards meet the wall & ceiling and back up the joint tape/scrim. Even then you might be wanting a flexible filler later on if you get any cracks.

Buy the cement in plastic bags rather than the paper ones if you're going to store it but check the expiry dates on it. Paper bags if you are going to use immediately. Ballast just comes in plastic bags. I tend to cut the top off of cement/aggregate bags neatly with a pair of scissors. Once empty they're handy to keep for filling with small quantities of rubbish from garden waste, to shed clearing rubbish, to excavated hardcore. It saves on buying rubble bags and they're easier to lift. Rather than a shovel I'll often use a bucket for mixing to get exact quantities. Shovel mixes offend me a bit for some reason. Here doing my shed base I used the black builders bucket you can see filled with ballast. I think I did the base 5:1. Can't remember tbh but it's strong I know. Use a smaller bucket or paint kettle, cleaned out 5 or 7.5L plastic paint container etc for smaller mixes etc. Of course lifting a full builders bucket might be too much for some. Took me about 4 hours on my own this one. Hardcore consisting of anything; brick, block, tile, flint, slate, bits of mortar and concrete, old slabs, the odd bit of broken glass etc. Might have been some A142 mesh in there too but no photo of that: Soft sand blinding layer as there's a DPM went on next. You can see the DPM here: As @Russell griffiths says JFDI! ?

That's for a 1:2:4 mix isn't it? I think a 1:2:3 mix, the old "123" mix equates to 1:4 if using all in one ballast. 1:2:3 as in: 1 part cement 2 parts sharp sand 3 parts aggregate up to 20mm I reckon if he's got 2/3 tonne left, circa 666kg he'll have enough. Zoot, are these 600mm dia / 500 high formers in the ground yet? Put one next to the ballast pile. Get shovelling. Will the ballast you've got left fill it twice? If so you've enough.

@Declan52 quoted sand wrongly, no biggie, we knew what he meant. You are using what's known as "all in one ballast". It's a mixture of aggregate up to 20mm in size and sand. What mix are you using, 4:1?

Have a read of this: 056-How-to-make-concrete.pdf

If you stacked 8 cubes each 500x500x500 they would make 1m3. So each one is 1/8 of a cubic metre or 0.125m3.

Sorry. My mistake, blinding headache here and waiting for pills to kick in! It's actually 0.14m3 for each plinth. So 0.28m3 for both.

Do these up slope plinths are 2' or 600mm dia and 500mm high? Is that correct? That's pretty much bang on 0.25m3. So 0.5m3 concrete required to do both plinths. EDIT: ABOVE CALCS ARE WRONG!!!

You have two existing plinths that are "down" the slope. You want to put two more plinths further up the slope. If I'm correct each side measures 2300mm. Standing down by the stream, looking up the slope: 1) From your existing left hand, lower plinth, strike an arc 2300mm. From your existing right hand, lower plinth strike an arc 3252mm. Where the two arcs meet is the centre of your left hand plinth further up the slope. 2) From your existing right hand, lower plinth, strike an arc 2300mm. From your left hand, lower, existing plinth strike an arc 3252mm. Where the two arcs meet is the centre of your right hand plinth further up the slope.

I don't think so! Sounds like hard work and overkill. Might have a black plastic waste somewhere here... One thing I'd noted is I left the parts in the small tank for over a week and some parts have corroded/ disintegrated! What was 4 circlips: The plane blades are interesting (and annoying). They've both thinned down and narrowed at what I guess is the high carbon content end:

Need to blank the plug hold off for the big bath tank. Figuring though the citric acid might eat whatever alloy the waste is made of as it says it'll eat zinc, tin, lead and alloys thereof. How to blank it off?

Don't beat yourself up you could have been the bloke who ordered two! ? All I really wanted was a switched power take off for a vacuum, for my radial arm saw and I've just realised I could have done that with a 13A socket and one of the many 230V coil contactors I've sitting here! Doh!

Arsenal...North of the river then? I mean "Welcome aboard!" ?

MORE wrinkly I think you mean... Was using some 50% phosphoric acid at work today (for it's intended descaling purpose) and wondered how that would work in the heated tank?

10kg of citric acid just arrived. Bath time soon!

We've used this stuff before:

I used Polypipe panels, video: Then A142 mesh over the top: Then 100mm of concrete:

I just left a pub and half a pint still in the glass! Some American IPA I regretted ordering. Prescott Summer Season something...yuk! I think you only need insulate as far down as the "frost line" in my case. With an insulated, passive esque raft...not sure.

As belt and braces I rolled some perforated galv sheet: ...and wrapped around the duct in the "vulnerable" space above the footings: (Pre Wiska Gel and before Jet Blue Plus fixed the leak).

Had to drill through the existing footings when I renewed my mains water. What a bitch! There's a metre of pipe insulation down inside the duct and Wiska gel on top to hopefully fully seal the duct.