Onoff

A bit late but TLC do Baumatic: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Domestic_Index/Baumatic_Microwaves/index.html

Decided to try the bath rotated through 180deg..... BUT that means putting a short trench in the floor slab for the pump motor support bracket and some modding of the boxing in: I'll tidy the trench up a bit later.

I know the site pavingexpert.com was much recommended over on eBuild. With my boy driving soon (hopefully) need to think about extending the parking area. Just been looking at it and thinking what a cracking site it is. Posting here for the benefit of new members: http://www.pavingexpert.com/

Temporarily I would drape a big tarp (possibly camo pattern) over the digger and raise the bucket.....tent like.....

Sounds like your "brick lined chamber" suspicion. Just had it confirmed what it is. Speaking to the previous owner tonight (he's 87 btw), it was "a big hole dug in the ground in 1953". The builders apparently "mixed up the cement in the bottom of the hole and bricked up the sides.....then broke up the cement on the bottom,,,,,and put a man hole in the top".

Just goes to prove that "Every man needs a DIGGER!" as opposed to a shed. You can dig out for a shed with a digger but not the other way round!

I know ROUGHLY where it is as mad as that sounds. In/under a very overgrown area of the garden which I've yet to get to. No trees as such but a good few bushes. We had tbh the very basic survey done when we bought the place and that didn't pick anything up I'm sure. Speaking to the previous owner about the water main he reckons the same guys dug the "cess pool" so whatever's there is circa 60 years old. He remembers it being a massive hole dug by hand, brick built and with a brick built arched roof then covered in dirt. The oddity is that there's no foul smell in the area, no apparent liquid discharge either. I am wondering if either the "bottom" is cracked or there isn't one. It'll be a case of gingerly scraping the top soil off at some time to find what area it covers. As for emptying it - never had to. Just another mystery in the house that Jack built!

We had some minor psych issues caused by the school ignoring and belittling our youngest when she was genuinely ill. The teacher in question got the push partly as a result of it all. Had some long term effects on my daughter's confidence and put her back a bit. We only found out by accident they even had a SENCO. Up until then we'd never heard the term. We had also asked to see the "school psychiatrist" to be told initially they didn't have one and we'd have to arrange it privately. When we went "official" miraculously they found there was one!

Have a look on Gumtree & Preloved for biscuit jointers. Worth trying a few name variations too as in biscuit jointer/joiner/cutter. There's ones on there for like £25 and up. Thought you'd have one of these tbh: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Makita-BPJ140Z-14-4v-LXT-Biscuit-Jointer-Bare-Unit-/390552178925?hash=item5aeeb950ed:g:hc4AAOSwjMJXCgc7

You sound "hen"pecked..... So you've trenched (& ducted?) your PV cables from the sheds to the house?

WTF is a treatment plant? Seriously, something new to learn about! One of those "seen the words but ignored until now". Yep, the rainwater could go to the soakaway easy enough and leave the grey water and WC wastes going to the cess pit. Blank canvas pretty much outside.

Well I had just intended the grey water into the soakaway....but that's not allowed?

I take it that's a no-no then? At the mo the shower/basin/bath wastes just go to a giant, brick built, arched roof cess pool (of indeterminate condition) along with everything else i.e. the rain water and WC stuff that side of the house. The other side of the house is apparently another soakaway (not sure where) that takes rainwater from that side.

Tried a temporary repair which worked on one bit of the old iron but after 3 attempts the other side I gave up. On the back of this though we've decided to tidy up and "level" the side of the house once and for all. It's so rough even getting the ride on mower down to the front it gets stuck. Might even consider a car port / lean down the side later as an outside but covered working area. Current. sloped, path is above the DPC one end, drainage is a complete mess too with multiple soil and wastes. Also under the piles of debris are old footings and a concrete slab from a long since demolished extension of some sort. The whole area just doesn't drain very well and stays boggy even though on a bit of a slope. At the mo bathroom waste and soil goes into a cess pit. There's a soakaway dug years ago with nothing run to it where I'll put the bathroom wastes. Hand loaded that dumper I did:

I think we need a photo of Cluckingham Palace! Wasn't there one on eBuild? EDIT: Out of interest did the bat people mention the EBL rabies like virus and the risk to humans or were they more interested in the bats? What bats are they btw?

The word "shed" doesn't really do it justice does it?

Fair play to the bloke for his effort but the "load" needs to stay on the grid for longer imo. He's losing loads of earth that's remaining clumped and just falling of the end rather than falling through the grid. When what falls off the end piles up and dries out he'll have to re-sieve it. My BiL's idea was better by far. Have the vibrating / oscillating grid sat level atop the dumper bucket. It works away quite happily AND breaks up ALL the clumps including the damp, sticky ones. Then you just tip out the remaining stones from the dumper bucket.

My BiL built one that sat a mesh panel on slide rails over the dumper bucket and had a 230V motor driven crank..... (I don't have a digger or dumper though!)

I found the rat eaten shreds of a copy of the Kama Sutra under a loose floorboard in one the downstairs rooms!

Got 1/2 an acre of garden so no need for a skip! More a case of "redistribution" of materials! I take the odd bit of scrap metal down the local council tip in the back of the estate. For the small stuff I use a tin opener on a 5L wood preserver can and all my little shards of steel, swarf, Stanley blades, studding off cuts etc go in that until full.

I "graded" a load of hardcore a while back by shovelling it onto a heavy duty 40mm mesh atop a wheel barrow. Took ages but worked well. Now digging up a concrete path alongside the house on the back of my water main issue. It needs to be done anyway to sort out the drainage. So I'm ending up with a big pile of soil; mixed dirt, concrete, flints & old broken tiles. It'd be good to sieve it to give a) some decent topsoil and b) hardcore. Got this silly idea I could make a powered sieve using a cement mixer as the basis. Thinking a removable drum (cut down heavy duty plastic barrel) with a mesh base that sits atop the mixer drum, set it going and sieved soil falls into the mixer drum leaving hardcore in the top one. Silly?

Can't convince my missus that ideally we need to get our ROOF issues sorted before anything else as that could affect everything below. It's like a constant weight hanging over my head.....literally! Just waiting until a roof leak screws up the new bathroom ceiling. Tbh the "I told you so!" moment will feel a bit hollow.

Give the guy his due, from listening he reckoned it was within a few metres of the stopcock.....which it was, but to the North rather than to the West where his rods suggested. It was under a concrete path a good couple of feet down. Crossing above it was a clay soil pipe. The noise was transmitting all around, even to the point it sounded like it was in the plastic soil stack connected to the clay pipe. Until you said about it I'd never thought about the salad/sauce orientation which I'll now stress over next time I get one! It's an added dilemma to my life I could have done without! But I do prefer the meat in the pitta first. My Mum used to have a go at doing them at home with a leg of lamb sliced up though I always felt I was missing out on a roast.

Cheap enough too: http://www.windandsun.co.uk/products/PV-Mounting-Structures/GSE-Integration-Roof-Integrated#.V3wYTNIrJdg

Fantastic! Sorry if I missed it but how come the planners had so much say in "the colour of the doors" etc? And is the cladding staying that colour to weather naturally?