Roundtuit

Looks like you've got plenty of scope to burn without smoking your neighbours out if you pick a day with the wind in the right direction. I'd burn it all, but maybe not all in one go (although its tempting to clear the lot once you've got a good fire going!)

Have I missed something? I thought this was just about a builder ignoring in clear instruction from a client before progressing a stage of the project?

Me too. If you're 100% confident that he understood your request, then ignored it, then he's a tw@t, regardless of the quality of his work. That's not to say you can't continue to work together if the quality and price is right (I had a couple of tw@ts on my build who undoubtedly thought the same about me), but maybe a reminder that you hold the purse strings and that certain criteria need to be met would be helpful.

We've got a timber frame with a cavity and brick outer skin, so decrement delay isn't really an issue, but we do have a lot of south-facing glass downstairs (4m bifolds and 3 sets of French doors), and as I suspected, need to manage solar gain. This time of year it can easily get to 22-24C inside when it's in single figures outside. In summer, temperature can creep up during the day and mvhr purge doesn't really shift it tbh. The original plan was for an external timber pergola walkway to provide shade, but I held off making any decisions until we'd lived in the house for a while. Now I think I'm going to give internal blinds a try for the French doors, and a sail shade for the bifolds. Next stop will be an aircon unit run off the ashp (powered by the pv panels I anticipate).

Mine came from Benchmarx (also part of the TP group) via our chippie; good quality, best price, easy to finish (very fine sanding pad and osmo polyx oil), and look much more expensive than they were ?

Wasn't that his step-dad? I think JC was an early 'Influencer' and went on to be a Superstar. I belive he speaks highly of your grouting though. ?

Locally you can buy a decent used newish panel, foot and clip from a "trader" for about £22 plus delivery. I think I sold mine for about £18. Much less than that and either its a good buy, or the panels are a bit crappy.

Always traps for me inside the house; the smell of decaying rodent turns my stomach ? (I also only use traps outside now too; we've a healthy and varied owl population and I don't want to risk secondary poisoning).

I had mice coming from next door in a previous terraced house. I reckon they were getting through the crappy brickwork around the ends of floor joists, tracking across the void and then popping out around the pipework in the nice warm boiler cupboard. If there is no food next door, that's probably why they're visiting your tenant. Get some traps down!

@zoothorn I'm just back from a (covid-safe) business trip to Wales. The scenery was beautiful, when the fog lifted, but I have to agree, it's very cold and very damp! How's it going?

I've bought and/or sold quite a few thing through gumtree; heras fencing, cement mixer, generator. I like it, because if you find something local you like the look of, you can go and have a look and do a deal pretty much straight away - no messing around bidding etc. More and more stuff does seem to be migrating to Facebook marketplace though.

Sounds reasonable, but I guess it depends on what model mvhr you get. Maintenance on our is pretty much all from the front. As @Oz07 said, the ducting, silencer, manifolds etc do take up more space than you'd think, so it's worth spending some time planning it out.

Frequency shouldn't be a problem, but if 'hard to access' means 'confined space', just make sure you've enough space to be able to carry out routine maintenance i.e pulling our the heat exchanger for cleaning.

If you're the only potential buyer, then the ball's in your court really. I think it's going to be down to negotiation as to what combination of incentives to sell (cash or tree work) gets you the best deal!

Is it desirable to anyone else, i.e any other neighbours that could tack it on to their garden? If not, then the sellers have a pretty limited market, so the value is whatever you're prepared to pay!

I think not; I think it covers maintenance to existing, not installation of new. As others have said, it's long established that a right of way for passing and re-passing doesn't give you any additional rights. (Harrison v. Duke of Rutland, 1893)

Baton it and vertical timber clad to high enough to block it from view, and paint it your colour of choice! May be cheaper than render, and can't be blamed for any damp problems they may have.

Difficult to tell what's going on; plasterboard or lath and plaster? If it was under coving, it might never have been finished properly.

“Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me you built a time machine...out of a DeLorean?”

Still waiting to be power-washed to find out! ?

Haven't taken many yet, but this is the top side of the deck photographed for reference before I started taking too many bits off it. It's had some sort of poor tarting-up paint job on areas previously, but seems solid enough.

Thanks. That's a bit beyond my current skill set, but good info as I suspect this is going to become a new hobby...

Just had a look at this and it turns out they're local; might be able to save postage! (travel restrictions permitting of course).

Haven't finished cleaning off the rusty crap yet, but hoping the deck's solid enough to get a few seasons out of with a bit of preventative maintenance. If not, a new deck shell would be interesting as all the bearings etc look good.

@OnoffYes, read the thread (with admiration!,) but could only find reference to 'zinc rich' paint I think; us amateurs need a bit more of a steer! It's a John Deere, 22hp B&S engine, 48inch deck. 2009 model, but only 220 hours on the clock, if the clock works... Steering is a bit sloppy, and paintwork is $h!te (must have lived outside for an extended period), but looks like it will cut grass! ?