markc

At the end of the day that is not a lot of movement in 60 years. absolutely, my daughter moved into a new house 4 years ago (luckily renting) hers and many others on the estate have gaps you can fit your fingers into. The builder says it’s just normal settling! I don’t think many of the new houses will still be standing in 60 years.

Nope, my reply is within the quote from you, not easy to spot I agree

Good morning and welcome, if life isn’t scary then you are not pushing yourself. a wealth of knowledge on here by searching past topics and posts, failing that ask away.

An anchor point for fall arrest (single person attachment) requires a 15KN pull test .. approx 1.5 tons. This is to simulate a 100kg load falling 2 metres. in reality you should use a short landyard to prevent going over the edge so work restraint.

That must have been re-Pointed and I’m guessing they racked out some of the DPC while doing it. certainly doesn’t look like subsidence, I would go along with @Brickie diagnosis of splash erosion of the mortar, also looks very grey so may have been too strong and that’s caused the shrinkage. I reckon the path has sunk from being undermined by the downpipe washing away material.

I would have the beam galvanised, even a very good paint spec will need maintenance

Hi @zoothorn, sorry about the late reply, been a stupidly busy day. the thin strong mix is just good at getting hold of a crumbly surface, but as someone else said the fill should be a weak mix to minimise shrinkage. you are doing fine, and all theses small jobs are how we learn as the same techniques are used for bigger projects.

I have a large garage and workshop, no real insulation. I have two oil filled rads (pretty poor in built thermostats) on pretty much all the time except summer. they don’t cost a lot to run and far cheaper than rust forming on tools etc. expensive to get a building up to temp but then much less to keep it there.

Another +1

@zoothorn, well done sir. yes scrape off the worst of the crispies, wet the surface and push on a strong mortar mix (around 3 parts sand to1 cement, even 2:1) use the trowel to push it into the surface and it will get hold and stabilise the surface. then you can use a standard mortar mix and small stones to build up the thickness to render level.

A planter is not a habitable room or building and is unlikely to cause injury to your neighbour. Yes you need to the reasonable steps not to damage their property but just get onbwith it.

Sadly we now live in a world of moaners and complainers, you try and do the right thing and they will still find fault with whatever you are doing. At least you can hold your head up knowing you tried.

If you are wanting to build anything on here, forget the SE (put that towards ripping it all out and starting again).

If you have any doubts, wire brush and prime, but unless this steel is going to be outside or in a humid location then you have nothing to worry about … for a few hundred years at least

A few scabs are no problem for intumescent painter often erected bare or holding primer steel and it would be intumescent painted later

“Accepted” time is 1day per millimetre for first 50mm then 2 days per millimetre after that. 75mm screed really needs 80-100 days

As @epsilonGreedy said, with screed being dry you are combining the sand and cement not just mixing it. Where the conventional mixer tumbles the ingredients together an horizontal mixer sort of kneads it together.

@scottishjohn, if you get 10-20kgs of sand into that small bucket you have done well. The tracked machines are much bigger and heavier so will scoop more.

+1 on the above. Curing and drying out are not the same thing. 60 days is short for drying time

Timber does not expand much along the grain, only across it. If you want to leave a couple of mm that will be fine

It is an option if you definitely don’t want to pull the old floor out

Unless the existing floor is already well insulated you really need to dig it out and start again

In an ideal world you could put in a cavity tray, but where? Ducts/flues are often within a couple of inches of the ceiling or soffit so the cavity tray would go directly under the joists? That’s not good. A full course of blocks down would probably be too low so you end up splitting coursing. I’ll stick to boring the hole afterwards and sleeping it.

Not really, you could go to a concrete place and get it loose from the silo but it’s messy, dusty and one big lump if it gets damp.