Carrerahill

For common sizes in regular use I usually buy DeWalt SDS bits. I have however bought some of the Toolstation TookPak (I think they are called) super naff 22mm SDS etc. for boring 5-6 holes for conduit and pipe sleeves, did the job, cost less than £15 quid and are still on the shelf for the next time I need to drill a hole that big. However, my DeWalt SDS drills have seen me through renovation work, an extension, a garage and now building work at my parents house. Those are your common 5.5, 7, 8 and 10mm set which pretty much cover every fixing. I also bought a 16mm bit for doing the resin anchors, it was an Ebauer, its done about 60 holes now and still works well. I am running all of these on a corded Bosch SDS.

How would that work?

In that case, I would call the grinding man first (try tree surgeons etc.), he has done this 1000 times before, tell him what you want to achieve and he will advise, he might want you to dig down a bit either side so he can get right in, ours was fully exposed when our guy came and he just chewed through it all by steering the tracked grinder at it with a big spinning, highly lethal looking cutting head. You can hire them too, but probably more hassle (and that is coming from me who DIY's everything).

The first thing I would look at and consider is the existing building, make up, materials and how long has it been there. Assuming it has been there a while, is there any damage or cracking, subsidence etc. etc. that is caused by the existing foundations failing in some way? I would give the foundations a bash with a hammer and a cold chisel to see how hard the concrete seems, I would expose sections of the foundations and check for big cracks, bits that have fallen off etc. If the existing foundations are suitable in size, and pass all the other common sense checks above, then I would consider the new structure weight. How does it compare to the existing, if the walls are basically the same as before, with only a pitched roof going on, I would not be too concerned as the new roof load is supported round the whole build. Assuming you are pretty sure the founds are OK, and if not, even get an SE to come and have a look (dig some test pits and let them have a look), then I would probably just crack on and do it. Do you actually have building control on your garage or just planning? If the garage is small enough then BC won't be involved in which case do your checks above and carry on. If BC are actually involved, then it depends on your inspection schedule with BC. If they want to see the trench and founds then you need to raise it, if they don't really care as it's just a garage then on you go.

You basically, you dig you trench, then get a stump grinder in to basically grind a route through the stump and all root systems etc. it more or less leaves a channel through the stump, below the root ball will be soil again, dig that out, you have a trench through the old stump position. We were then left with a trench that was a bit wider in the middle, so we used timber to create some form work to keep the foundation the same width the whole way along. We now have a 1000mm foundation the whole way down, even though the stump area was maybe 1400mm wide.

Can't you remove any obstructions between two joists, then drop the pipe down parallel to the joists then rotate it under the joists? It is not clear from the photo what the full situation looks like but from the area I can see it looks like there is a good space below the joists. I would also be willing to reconfigure, temporarily remove things just to get this pipe in properly. I'd not really want a jigsaw soil pipe, although I am sure it could be done. Could you not even get 1m pieces down and then rotate? Another thing to consider, is there any outside wall access that you could core a hole to feed the pipe in? I have seen that done before.

We had an issue like this last summer, an old Cherry tree stump right in the middle of a proposed wall, tree had been down for 5-6 years, I was sure it wouldn't move, but thought it might break up, so tried with a narrow bucket on a 1.5T digger and the stump just laughed at me, we did not want to dig it out as it was going to screw up an awful lot either side, so we got a stump grinder man in, he ground out a channel through the whole stump and root system at that point, and then we dug down to the same level as the rest of the trench before/after it. The foundation was wide as it was but we cut the channel wider at the point of the stump so the roots were back enough, then placed formwork to keep the concrete from widening out too much. A year later and soil and stone and bits have back filled the gap and roots randomly jut out the ground either side of the foundation but about 300mm back from where any wall will be, by the time this gets back filled with stone the roots will just rot away and be sequestered into the soil being no different to a root in a garden near a wall being left to rot. My initial plan was actually to burn it out, build a little bonfire either side and over the stump and set it on fire, I was game, neighbour was not so keen.

This is not over the 68mm - I reckon this runs deeper, the names tell me something about the two couples and I fear this is an abject lesson in multi-culturalism.

Yes. So basically you clear a bigger area for a safe build, pour a box, backfill. I follow a lot of North American You Tubers who self build, or trades who film their work and spent 2 weeks in Vancouver where I watched developers at a local site over the 2 week period and this is, 80% of the time how they do it, you would need to have the space to do it like this though. If I had space I would do this as I feel it is a safer option and easier all round, only issue would be muck-away but depends on your situation that might not be an issue at all.

Ah, see if you are a developer, they will sometimes even pay you to install it! I put in an application for 96 apartments earlier this year, they offered £116 per apartment to the developer to install it all - they then come out and hook up the main fibre to site. They even free issue duct and fibre. It is actually very clever if a bit cheeky, you install their network and they then know they will almost certainly get line rental from BT or another for the next however many decades!

Just put in an application via the developer portal (this is what developers use to put in applications for plots of land that have no infrastructure at all). I could even do this for you if you want. PM me if you want.

Soundproof toilet room?

I would dig a big hole, pour a concrete box in it, waterproof it/tank it, then backfill with clean stone. This is how they do most basements in North America then build a timber house on top. I would consider things like a sump pump etc. I wish I had done something a bit like this when I built my garage. Too late now really.

Would be good to hear why it doesn't work as advertised, always good to have a reference for this sort of thing.

260mm sounds pretty serious, are you expecting a hurricane? Remember the fixings are just the start of the fixing "system" the fixings are in shear so don't need to be particularly long to achieve a good fixing to the building. I would probably use 75mm Fischer fixings but to be honest, if the framing, silicone, external treatment (i.e. fully rendered in solution or full silicone) then all of this adds to the fastening solution.

Agreed, I have probably had a shock more times than I have fingers to count them on. Luckily each time it's been a fast pull back of the, usually hand, and an OW! That hurt. Clearly you have had your fair share of shocks too. As you know, not a nice thing as it is happening and leaves a funny feeling after the rumbling/throbbing energy running up your, usually arm, but I've forgotten about it pretty damn quick and thought, "what an idiot" and continued on. It is usually my own fault, most recent I can remember was fault finding a motor on live electric mower, that was one of my not so clever moments, in fairness I was doing live testing of the circuitry and sort of forgot it was still on when I pulled at a live spade terminal! My earliest belt was as a child, I was feeling up to the switch on a table lamp which in fact had no lamp fitted, my fingers found their way into the bayonet socket and I prodded, what was clearly, the live pin!

Call them? https://www.blum.com/gb/en/contact/contact-persons/

I think what you are actually paying for is the Ted Todd, hence the higher price, a bit like saying I can get a Miele washing machine for £1000 but I can get a washing machine from an online retailer for £400 and the online retailer is selling you a Beko or Candy or something. We put Ted Todd throughout the ground floor of our house, love it, even some 5 years on I look at it and admire what a beautiful floor it is. We looked at a lot of flooring and ended up paying the extra for the TT. I think it was worth it, when it comes to wood flooring, I am going to say they are not made equal. As for imperfections, I would say no, you cannot just sand it, they are usually treated with hard waxoil or other oils or waxes or some are a lacquer so you would need to refinish - do not get an untreated floor, my brother got untreated beech and the result was a nightmare as the essentially sanded floor finish just gathered dirt and marks, I am not sure if he was meant to do something with it but he assured me it was ready to use as laid.

Are the little black/grey tabs locks? Do they push in?

Pull up at the front and they will unclip - certain I have these ones too and they are a swift upward action and they pop out a clip.

Messy work, that is about the only downside I can see. PVA (or SBR but I see that used more externally only), as I see it is the secret step to towel trades getting stuff to stick. I know of a planned, temp bodge, of a tiled wall that was PVAed with plasterers sand in the mix, the skim was put onto tiles as a stop gap, it ended up on the wall for 30 years. You now get stuff called Blue Grit (IIRC) which is an out of the tub solution to this sort of thing. My plasterers reckon they can plaster anything that is solid enough. They usually spend day 1 tweaking everything, checking screws are down, taping, beading and then PVA the lot, then they go. Next morning bright and early they come and plaster. We had some odd walls in our house that someone had painted with bulletproof gloss paint, I was worried about them and I was going to overboard, the plasterers took one look at it and said no we can make that work, 8 years on things are still good.

Every plaster skim over plasterboard, or any other substrate for that matter, I have had plastered across multiple projects and properties, be it renovation or new build, the plasterers have always PVAed the whole lot before plastering. Even on a new build with brand new plasterboard the team I usually use would always PVA it to lock up any dust on the board from the building process and ensure the surface was good to go. I assume by too dry he thinks the issue is going to be high-suction? In which case I am surprised, you would expect a plasterer to be familiar with plastering on all sorts of substrates from low to high suction and know how to deal with each appropriately? Even I would have a good idea how to plaster onto most materials as a DIYer. If you apply PVA/water mix with a roller it will be good to go.

Aim for about the 430W mark, they are the same size as the old 350-375W panels.

Why are you using such low power density panels? Mid 400's are common and 500-520W are common now too. 2 ways to go here, about same no. of panels (they are a bit bigger), much greater generation, or less panels and same level of generation.

That is the ideal way to do it, but you can, in certain circumstances, use the BS7671 433.2.2 reg which states that the device protecting the cable against overload may be installed along the run of the conductor after the change occurs, that change is something that de-rates the cable, in this case the reduction in cross section, there is also a limit to 3m (this is interestingly where the DNO 3m tails rule typically sort of stems from) and there may be no other connections into the cable before this device etc. It also states that it should be installed in a manner so as to reduce risks. @Spreadsheetman - If I was going to, I would split the 6mm using suitably rated terminals so I could get single 6mm² wires into my FCU or socket terminals. You could also, come in on 6mm² into a terminal, then go out on a piece of 4mm², then take 4mm² into socket 1, then back out and into socket 2 so you have a little 4mm radial. The protection would then come from the 13A fuse in the plug-top as the limiting factor, in fact I would probably fit 13A FCU's then come out of them into a single un-switched socket or cut the plugs off the appliance leads and wire in directly into my FCU's (what I did for my Bosch oven). I cut plugs off appliances quite a lot, and on the occasion I needed to return a faulty oven I just removed the cable and installed a new cable c/w moulded plug of similar looking style to that which I had removed and Bosch were none the wiser. Another option may even just be to see if you could get an FCU that you could squeeze 2 x 6mm wires into each terminal and just run a 6mm radial. Essentially I can think of about 10 ways I could do this and comply.