Carrerahill

You are not alone, that could be me writing above. I have spent my entire working life, more or less, designing aspects of buildings, sitting in meetings with all disciplines discussing integration and compatibility of design elements and even with a team of 100's working on a new building things still end up just not quite right on site, certainly mistakes or oversights are made but also because generally contractors don't actually care and will drill holes and mount things where suits them, often to the detriment of the user, design, aesthetics or function. However, the fact is then that buildings are not perfect, I think what we see if meant to be pretty good on the whole, but even in new builds you go into cupboards and plant rooms and risers or basements only to find rubbish, paint runs down walls, concrete splashes on equipment, ducting joints that are rough as get out. This is partly why I, like you don't trust many tradesmen, I feel that they don't care. I have used very few trades on my build, I got a brickie in, I was happy with his work and cleanliness, the dry-dasher/builder was good but he got some of the soffit and fascia a bit squint which annoys me but a year after being done I have sort of forgotten about it, but I do sometimes look up at it and it irritates me, for the sake of shaving a rafter tail and packing out another tail it would have been perfect and I would have done that, it would have annoyed my having to go and mess with bits of wood and cutting bits and maybe delaying it by another weekend but I would have done it that way, I built my garage in 2018, on the first side of the roof I was still learning about the details of roof tiling, getting the first tile lifted up enough to allow for the fact it is not sitting on a tile, I got it close but there was always a bigger gap on the bottom row, however I finally fixed that at the weekend as it annoyed me and I am now happy as Larry, because every time I saw it it did annoy me and it did cause me to lie in bed wondering what I should do, how to fix it without a bodge etc. I also now know how to do it and have done it another two times since the first one and my roofing is as far as I am concerned perfect. I think this is part and parcel of this sort of work. If you ask me I would tell you my builds are full of mistakes, but I think really only very few would spot them and at that they are only mistakes because I know they are mistakes. I think builders and joiners and plumbers, all the trades really make them all the time, they shove bits in and glue bits on and stuff things into holes and just don't care. In an ideal world everything would be perfectly square, cut accurately, every finish would be textbook, joinery work would be flawless, but it isn't and in 1-2 years when this is all over and done you will forget about it, you will put a plant next to that bad bit of skirting, or you will hang a picture on the lump on the wall. I do sometimes get fedup with things too always striving for perfection and not getting it, so I get annoyed so I decide that I will risk getting someone in, doesn't happen often but sometimes if I just say I want X, Y and Z done and I come to look at it a week later and it is done, I do feel pleased it has moved on, even if there are a few little issues, but then, maybe I would have had my own issues that might have looked worse.

I don't like them, they are basically made from a fines only "concrete" mousse, i.e. the slurry has heaps of air entrained into them. They are usually more expensive than ordinary blocks so unless weight was an issue I'd always just use block, they are not as strong, they are actually worse for the environment than ordinary blocks due to the high energy costs for preparing the materials for use in the "concrete". You also can't get a reliable structural fixing into them either as under high loads the bearing area tends to crush opening up the hole over time, perhaps something can be done with epoxy however the block is so wimpy you'd never trust anything of any importance on it.

I'd get him to route it so that you can build in the future, and hopefully it is deep enough, I would also have him leave you a connection point so you can tie in your house or garage or whatever you want as well. Also, you need it in writing who is responsible for it all if things go wrong in 20 years time and start flooding your garden etc. You also want to make sure any drain is laid carefully and to spec and potentially insist it is signed off by a civil engineer etc. I would also probably try and arrange as much of this as I could over a cup of coffee and see what could be done. Depends on the type of chap, maybe the bartar system will work for him. Maybe you can get some labour and materials etc. you could have your place done in 2 months if you end up with a part time squad on your build!

Same here, only I left it overnight.

I did it, I took the risk to be honest and I know the risks and understand the reasons why I should not have done it, I actually believe if you MUST undertake air testing you are meant to display warning signs stating that air pressure testing is underway - that is how dangerous it is deemed. Think pipe-bomb basically. I did my pressure testing in an empty house, my house for that matter, and I undertook it with mitigation measures in place. I had to bury pipework that would not go live for months after it as buried, I sure as heck was not going to bury it without knowing!

You are not meant to pressurise water pipes with air because of the risk if something does let go, air is highly compressible, water is not, therefore if you pressurise a system with air then you will have far more of it than you would water, i.e. just the volume of the pipework with water, with air you can multiply it by the pressure. 1 litre of capacity at 2 bar is 2 litres of air (note compressibility of air changes as pressure increases, however from about 0 to 10bar it is about a factor of 1), I'd say you need to pressure test pipework at a little over local water pressure, so when I air pressure tested my pluming I ran it to 4 bar, I don't know the exact capacity of the pipework but I reckon about 15 litres for the runs I was doing, so I probably had about 60 litres of air contained in that pipework, imagine that then let rip at a loose connection, could take your eye out or worse! Also, arguably you could test at 2 bar because if it is going to leak it will probably leak at less then 2bar to be honest, but I was being naughty, however I also felt that going to 4bar would also show more clearly if there was a drop as air can leak out the smallest of holes at a very low rate. I made a pressure test rig with a inline pressure valve and 2 isolation valves then a Schrader valve that let me use my air compressor, I could then isolate the inlet and leave the pipe under pressure over night and check for a drop, I took the risk, which for my test situation was deemed minimal because all the runs were under the floor.

Totally agree - I was just jesting to be honest!

£1000 tends to do it.

Bang on - I now have the flush body sitting in the basin, looks like the seal is hard, I can get a new one.

Hmmm - yes I can see that, there are some lugs in there. I might have a look later. If I can do it all from up top that would be good. Maybe I can even find a replacement seal for the valve rather than total replacement!

Our flush valve is leaking, apart from the leak the annoying result is the fill valve pulsing on and off every blinking 2-3 minutes to refill the lost water. Looks like the seal down at the bottom is just letting a trickle of water past constantly. I have identified our flush valve as a Siamp Skipper 45 Dual Flush and to save any hassle I was just going to buy another the same. The valve itself seals to the cistern with a big o-ring, but what about the seal from the cistern to the pan? Are they all the same size? The whole point of getting the same valve is so that I can do the job without needing to strip it down, go and find someone who stocks the bits drive about, come home, fit it and generally spend 3 hours doing something that should take 30mins. So can anyone confirm the anatomy of a toilet?

Basically my thinking is you could create the exposed stringer look by making a fake one... it will give the appearance that the stairs are timber build and dress of the sides nicely. You would end up with this - you can leave the top flat wood or dress up if you want, I think it depends on your skirting, I personally would go larger and use the top and bottom of the stringer as a skirting block and just bring my skirting up to it. You did ask, so this is what I will say about the radiator pipes... could you move them? What is under your floor? I see what looks like a joint in caberdeck, is that right? Could you carry those pipes on through the floor, turn under the floor and pop back up at the rad? If I am honest, I think it will be a pain in the neck to change, but I think it will be an even bigger thorn in your side for many years to come as you will have this "odd" bit. I'd certianly create a pipe box - ideally in plasterboard and plaster it in and paint it. to almost make it disappear. We have one of these for our central heating pipes in the hall at the front door, you don't really see it as it was boxed in as shallow as possible and plastered at the same time as the hall. Other alternatives are just to box it all up and try and hide as much as possible.

What is on the back of your house and what are you proposing for the front in terms of tile names and colours? Do they look near enough the same? I was under the impression that you would end up with a Frankenstein roof.

For the stairs it depends, are you going to carpet them or leave them bare or what is the plan? If you were going to cover them in carpet or even wood I would make a false stringer - basically tale a piece of 1x8 or something, and cut out the stair part, then sit it over the top so it looks like a normal stringer, you can then leave as is or dress with a piece of bead. cut the ends 90° to the floor and you can then run skirting up to these. Another option is just cut and fit skirting up and around them all but I think that looks a bit fussy and doesn't look right in general. If you were say tiling the floor then tile up the wall one tile type thing. As for the rad pipes... what can I say!

You can do anything to be honest, bearing in mind weights, but, is it worth it and is it really saving you money. Unless you have a huge roof expanse needing 1000's and 1000's of tiles then I'd just be looking for the right tiles and doing it properly - you will look back and regret it I reckon.

PM me your details and I will give you details of a top guy.

When it comes to pressure washers I want fierce, the fiercer the better!

It has to be Nilfisk - Karcher have a great advertising program, shame they don't spend the money on their products! I have a Nilfisk P180 - very pleased with it - it had a man washing a tractor on the box so figured it must be good and was aimed at the heavier use market! It does do a nice job of excavators! The key to look at with pressure washers is volume of water, people, like me in the past get hung up on pressure, but loads of pressure with hee-haw water isn't going to do much. The plant hire place also commented this was the only electric pressure washer they hire out as it cuts the mustard. Mine has a detachable stainless lance with a vario-head on it with 4 settings, 20°, 60°, rotating whizz-blast and soap. You can buy things like HP drain cleaning heads for it and all sorts. For it's size and punch it is pretty quiet too, doesn't drone on like the £80 Karcher's Asda like to do deals on. It is also very robust with full brass construction pump and all brass fittings - you can also feed it hot water.

So many options. We have a mono-pitched ceiling in our kitchen, totally uplit it. Not a thing on the ceiling, worked well as I lit from the cabinets, I have 2 colour temps, I can light in 4000K or 2700K or mix them, works really well and is nice light to work in as it's indiscriminate and baths everything in light. Our original plan was a single indirect light source suspended centrally along the room, it would have worked really well (a little better than the chosen actually but never mind) but we discovered we could have this big white empty ceiling and it would look really clean. I appreciate neither of these options are maybe the right thing for a living room but there are so many variations of light. Flos do some really nice little wall/ceiling mounted fittings which look like little white pipes which can be focused where you want them, those combined with suitable other sources such as table and floor lamps can light a space very well. Incorporate light into custom book cases or plasterboard shelf details if you have anything like that, maybe some wall lighting - what stage are you at? Could you create a detail around the perimeter to push light up?

I believe coffee grounds are meant to deter them and also act as a soil filler. I open my kitchen window and chuck the grounds from our machine onto a flower bed in the planning stage - no cat poop or interference yet - yet they do poop on other areas of turned over soil. I had only prepped an area for turf 12 hours and there was cat poo on it!

This is what I want next year - I note you are in Scotland too - good, I have a chance of success! Where about in Scotland - not being noisy, just roughly for climate reasons.

A local farmer may have a trommel. Does your JCB have a PTO?

I have quite a few old bricks, found them under the old garage slab, looks like they scraped all the top soil off to the clay then dumped a lorry load of bricks to make up the ground then covered it in whin dust which sort of filled the top layer gaps. Interestingly if any of us suggested this method today we would all baulk at the idea, yet this garage did pretty well for 60 odd years on a 2-3 inch slab with edges built up on cobbles 3/4 layers deep. The bricks are quite nice, big 9" red bricks in pretty good condition, so I have been scratching my head after I had to lift a couple of 100 to run a soil pipe through the old garage site wondering what to do with them, so I looked about, I have always liked the reclaimed brick walls and paths and things so decided to give the new garage a new side entrance as test bed for bigger things. (The dark area to the left of the 4th from the right bottom brick isn't a gap, it is heavily fired clay.) I am quite pleased with the results, I used a wet grout technique, this will not be a step so the rough sides will be unseen - the ground level around is coming back up. So the plan is now a much larger area that leads to this entrance to create a theme.

So what I may be looking for is another woman?

Post the real drawing so we can see where the lines representing things actually go.