markc

Area behind water butt looks wet. Is this over spill from the water butt or from gutter etc. hitting ground and splashing? Also appears to be moss where patterned concrete? meets wall. If it is concrete it really should have been finished short of the wall.

Blasting of lead paint in open areas is done wet to prevent dust, the liquid and sludge is collected for disposal. ice blasting is great for car parts like alternators, manifolds, cylinder heads etc but unlikely to be effective on old lead paint, plus very slow progress. definitely do not go near an old beam with a laser, might as well use a blow torch.

Dry lining box or set metal back box in foam maybe

And wrap tape or cling film around end to stop and splashed and odours

An alternative to Glulam especially if you are going to paint it is PSL .. think of OSB in beam form. Dense, doesn’t rot, bend or split etc.

If you have taped both wires together they will not bend .. knot bare cores together to keep join as thin and pliable as possible, once you get the new cable - as above push and pull at same time to ease it around the bend

Gable braces - common in Ag buildings to maintain a wide open gable to just above head (or cattle) height but allow the gable “triangle” to be filled in to provide some shelter. If you want to remove them you need to restrain the gable with a couple of posts in place of the braces

@saveasteading several options for lightweight lifts, know as V.P’s or vertical personnel lifts. Depends how much use it will get, but there used to be a thing called a SkyWinder - purely manual wind up and you assembled it in sections as you went higher. The stabilisers meant it could be light … anything without stabilisers has a bit of weight to it.

Highly unlikely you will have any problems unless there are adjacent buildings where the height would be noticed. If just using FFL, you will (could) be bringing landscaping up at the end of the build so height will still be relative

Are you any good at plastering? If not then I would go for a rolled on finish somewhat like artex or masonary paint.

Small screwdriver to pop the caps out of the tops, remove screw to remove knob and you will then get to take the tap apart. just re read post and you cannot get caps out? If that’s right the whole cap/knob may be held with a snap ring and just pulls off …. With some force ….. or it may shatter!

Fhbrundle is a good supplier, fair prices and delivery is straightforward. i haven’t had key clamp stuff from them but I do buy quite a bit of steel sections and mesh etc.

@marmic .., too many humans …. Couldn’t agree more, now let’s see which groups really care about the planet and volunteer cut the numbers.

Good to see some groups are looking at the climate impact of manufacturing and end of life processing.

The screws are pants, in the past I have drilled the holes and tapped M8 then used M8 stainless countersunk set screws with head for hex key. You could probably get away with M6 but I just had some M8 available.