gaz_moose

the garden room guru group on facebook is a good source of knowledge for this type of stuff.

I rented a 0.8t machine for 4 days and was pretty good on it by the end. For grading i had the machine on idle and was pulling the left lever (which operates the smaller bit of the arm) then with the right lever i quickly alternated from moving it backwards ( which moved the bigger part of the arm) and moving it either left or right (which does the bucket) depending if i was working up or down hill. I didn't have time to practice but, You could park the machine somewhere flat, put 2 old scaff boards at the front of the machine facing away from it, then clamp them down with the blade, then practice grading on them. try to keep the leading edge of the bucket an inch from the top of the planks. Put the radio on and zone out whilst your doing it. One of my initial mistakes was just trying to dig with the bucket, then i moved on to trying one movement at a time, then i realised i had to do all 3 at once. I should have rented the machine for longer but was being a cheapskate. By the end of it i was using the bucket to clean the debris off the lawn where the spoil had been after the grab truck had taken it (about 30t) when digging out loads i found i would end up with a mountain of spoil infront and over the front blade. so found that when digging close to the front of the machine i could dig in towards me then pull the boom outwards as i was coming back out. I drive a forklift often so i figured it would be the same as a digger.

I doubt a jig saw will not cut 47mm thick wood straight. Just buy a circular saw and use that, it will come in handy for other projects.

can you try taking one out to see if you can just turn them over? this will depend on how they have been laid.

attach it to the studs in the wall.

ive been away from this for a bit, those allan blocks look good, the colour variation is mad.

the allan blocks were the first ones i came across, ive just been stacked out with work and had no time to put into researching this. i do appreciate you guys filling me in on block systems as its something ive never seen before.

i didn't really want the added charms of the creosote version. 30 pretend oak sleepers on a pallet is a grand. i will take a better look at interlocking wall blocks as its not something ive seen before. thanks for the heads up. i found some that are £14 each. wickes do them Marshalls Croft Weathered Textured Walling Stone - 300 x 170 x 100mm - Pack of 90 | Wickes.co.uk although they remind me of the aztec zone on the crystal maze. shame they only do buff colour.

fair comment 😆 what kind of money do they want for that dry system? im just a mere mortal with regular amounts of wages to spend.

should just pull out. might need a bit of a wiggle. use some washing up liquid as lube when putting it all back together.

google says they are about 50kg, does that sound about right? I just seem to be premier league at buying stuff that weighs a friggin tonne then having to eat 3 shredded wheat for breakfast 😁

try putting a wanted add on your local facebook pages. you could look on brickhunter.

I currently have a sloping lawn and want to build a retaining wall that is an 'L' shape roughly 3m x 9m to level it out and then put a gravel patio in its place.. I was thinking of using new railway sleepers, Oak ones seem to be the better choice, looking around and i can get them in 1.2m or 2.4m lengths, 100mm x 200mm. how much do these things weigh? as access is a bit limited so they will have to be man handled into place. I was thinking of laying them on a type 1 base and back filling behind them with round gravel to help drainage so they don't rot out. The ground also slopes the other way so i will need the wall to be 600mm high on one side and 400mm on the other so was planning to lay the sleepers on their side? is that a done thing? What is my best way to join them together? So far ive seen stakes that hammer in the ground behind them and then screw to the back. spreader plates along the back, steel channel posts, rebar and drilling holes in the sleepers. The rebar out the ground sounds the better option, as it will still hold when everything gets a bit rotted. the whole garden is getting landscaped, so im open to any other suggestions, the plan is grey porcelain patio, white gravel where the lawn was, sleeper step up to more gravel that will be a darker colour, probably slate chippings or whatever works out cheap. sorry for my rambling, has anyone got some good insight into what's best, cost effective, less labour intensive to build a small retainer wall.

id ask a local estate agent which would give the best return.

they just look like old council slabs to me.