Gone West

I had a small piece of horsetail growing up next to the sandstone path leading to the house. I put a small amount of salt (NaCl) on it to kill it, as I often do for horsetail growing on its own. Unfortunately I didn’t know how damaging salt can be to sandstone until I searched the internet. The effects of de-icing on sandstone buildings in some Scottish cities is well documented. It’s a pity I hadn’t heard about it and this is the result. Needless to say I won’t be de-icing my paving with salt this winter.

I may be wrong but I don't think the guide is accessible until you've made ten posts.

What a great looking build, well done.

I have a range of one handed clamps from 50mm up to 300mm which are very useful but I still use G clamps for some jobs.

As @JSHarris has mentioned I think it is mostly young birds that hit our windows. When a sparrowhawk flies around here, there is panic, and the small birds fly off in all directions. The older experienced birds know which direction not to fly in but the youngsters often fly into the windows. Most of them are casualties rather than fatalities and after a rest for half an hour or so they can be coaxed into flight.

After what @Onoff posted I did wonder about using a CT sensor rather than plugging into the circuit.

Now that's what Wendy wanted, but I think I prefer a tenner.

Thanks for that, it's a good idea, I didn't know they existed.

For my sewage treatment plant I have a semi-buried box containing the air pump and electrical conections. It has two warning lights on the lid one for an air pump fault and one for the holding tank liquid level being too high. Since connecting the sewage treatment plant to the shed consumer unit, there is no way of knowing if there is power getting to the sewage treatment plant other than to check in the shed. The MCB on the dedicated circuit for the sewage treatment plant or the RCD could trip without me knowing, causing problems with the holding tank backing up. The simplest solution would be to put another beacon on the lid, which is lit all the time there is power, to indicate a problem. Are there any other ways of indicating in the house that there isn’t power in the shed?

We fitted it about seven years ago so the designs have probably changed but the install was straightforward. Eclisse quality is good. Sorry about the dirty door and photo quality.

We have an Eclisse glass pocket door on our ensuite but there's no lock on it.

I ran all my cables in 32mm round conduit in the Icynene and derated them accordingly as sheathed cables in conduit in insulation.

Yes, IIRC we saved around £3000.

Sorry I haven't replied earlier, I haven't been on the forum for a couple of weeks. Our I-beam sole plate sits entirely on the concrete slab with the OSB3 racking lining up with the edge of the concrete. There is an EWI layer of high density RW6 Rockwool on the outside of the OSB3 which joins up with the EPS foundation upstand.

No problem. I was going to use the panel with one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253475165592 and one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233215849621 to power a water feature in the garden. I had an old slate water feature and drain gully which was to be the underground sump. I realised that it was a pointless waste of time and gave the various bits away on Freegle, which is where the panel will end up.

Sorry didn't realise you already had a pump.

I've got a roof slate PV panel. Never been used that you can have to play around with if it's of any use. Output details:- Pmpp 14.0W Impp 4.89A Vmpp 2.96V Isc 5.07A Max Voc 3.70V Max

I wouldn't say large, it's only a few square metres. We have had most success with leaf cutter bees when the box has been at head height and facing anywhere from south to west. At the moment it's in a temporary position facing north and there haven't been any takers. I didn't know before but on Gardeners World, this week, they said the canes should be replaced every year.

We are levelling our back garden ready for turfing and are using earth from a pile stored in the garden. Originally the pile was around 12m long, 4m wide and 2m high. We used half of it to landscape the front garden a few years ago and the remainder has sat there being colonised by miner bees. Over the last two or three years we have had more and more Ivy Miner Bees nesting and this year we have thousands of them. Unfortunately their site is slowly being decimated by us and we uncover nests with females waiting to hatch out. They are amazingly robust but as soon as they fly off they are grabbed by the males that are waiting to mate with them. It's very interesting watching them but it does slow up the work being done. The area I videoed is about a foot square. https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ivyminingbee/ Ivy Miner Bees.mp4

I was a member of the AECB and GBF and looked at Ebuild, I guess, around that time and didn't like it. I didn't join Ebuild until it had improved. Then a while later it shut down.

Not around here. The farm workers from the EU who live in 'caravans' on the farms nearly all have flashy cars. A couple of years old Lexus, Mercs, BMW etc, it's what they spend their money on.

I bought some ball valves which were listed as being BSP and when they turned up were BSPT. When I asked the company they said their default was BSPT so they were listed as BSP and they would have been listed as BSPP had they been parallel. I was surprised as I thought BSP meant BSPP so I always check now.

I have only ever connected parallel to parallel thread or tapered to tapered not sure what would happen in your case. Would be a good experiment although it may not end well.

Non-traditional construction usually refers to older houses which may be all timber construction but could also be concrete such as Woolaway type houses. It is difficult to obtain mortgages for properties of that type. Modern all timber houses shouldn't be difficult to mortgage nor insure. We have built a house with a plinth of brick slip on render board and cedar cladding for the remainder and had no problem insuring it.

Hi Fiona, I have replied to your message. Our Fontanot staircase meets all the UK requirements and the pictures are not specific to the UK. Did you visit the UK supplier in Rotherham to order the staircase?