MikeGrahamT21

Have a read of the link i posted. If you cut it down, the roots grow even quicker, the stump is the access route for herbicide, so don't cut it straight out, make good use of it! Any form of cutting, and it will simply strengthen whats left. So the last thing to do is cut it down, when it is truly dead.

Link for the article regarding Triclopyr: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/chemical-kill-ficus-roots-62378.html

Whatever you do, plan your attack and go in with intent!

I had nightmares after watching that when it was on the TV!

Just had a look online for you, apparently Ficus are particularly sensitive to the herbicide triclopyr, which is available in several products in the UK. Also any wood boring you do to inject this stuff, make sure it goes in instantly, as ficus heal rapidly, and wear gloves! Its highly irritant latex which comes out in the white sap.

Oh as for your glyphosate worries, as long as it goes in the tree and not on the ground you'll be fine, even if it does go on the ground it will wash away over the months and years ahead.

People on the 45p/kwh tariff, this may make sense for, for everyone else, just make a consideration when your inverter goes pop, and get the best one which is reasonable in price at the time.

Get some tree stump killer, same as above, drill holes into it, and keep putting it in, eventually it will get the idea and die, but don't expect overnight results. Also if you can peel a bit of the bark away and get some down there too, that will likely speed things up a little. Dig a trench all the way around the tree(s) (if you can, not sure it one side is neighbours), and sever an roots you find, should also give you an idea of where the offshoots may pop up. Then it'll just be a case of digging up the smaller ones as and when they pop up. A digger is likely to be your friend for the trench, there will be a hell of a lot of roots from that set!

ahh right, no worries, thanks for the replies :-)

OK, thats a good comparison, would imagine the builder will have used it before. Is there anything on the tub of the blowerproof to say what its made of?

Yeah I just noticed the advise had changed on the blower proof website, but even on the same page there was conflicting advice, as though they’d only just made the change. Have you ever used blackjack? Long shot I guess, just wondering how the 2 products compare?

everbuild just replied, they don't have any values for water vapour resistance or an Sd, so i'd be going in blind, whereas the blowerproof does have a tested value. Surely a DPM product would stop vapour passing though? Blocks have been painted with emulsion, would that be an issue? i would imagine DPM paint will stick. Its not flaking in any way, was an interim measure so we didn't have to look at horrid grey blocks, wish id not bothered but whats done is done.

Yeah, everything still OK? I presume they are all quite similar in their make-up?

EDIT: or would I be best doing neither, and just plastering the blocks, so at least water vapour can come back in?

Hi, Just wondering if anyone has been here before, and done anything like this. My initial plan was to use blowerproof liquid as a whole wall VCL (we have external wall insulation EPS on this part of the house, cavity wall construction with cavity filled), to stop the water vapour passing through, and getting trapped, or semi trapped at least. Its quite expensive, but seemed to do what I needed. Now they seem to have changed their advice, and say it needs a grit coat over the top of it, something like feb bond blue grit, before plastering. Thought i'd look a bit further afield, and found Everbuild BlackJack D.P.M, which is a 2 coat solution, and is suitable for application to walls as a plaster bonding agent, and throw sand on the second coat so its ready for plaster. Only problem with this is there is no vapour permeability values, I've emailed everbuild to see if they know. Obviously the everbuild product is a lot lot cheaper. Any insight would be greatly received. Regards Mike

Check IG lintels out too, even their standard lintels have a much lower PSI value than catnic if I remember right, and they're cheaper!

love the video they've done for the DryFix! Though as an addition to it, i'd be using a spirit level! Very mixed opinions on the whole foam fix, you can get fire rated versions now, like DryFix which would be best. I remember looking into it for external wall insulation, and everyone said cement based adhesive, though there were plenty of big manufacturers using foam fix, i went with cement in the end.

The more airtight the building, the better MVHR will perform without doubt. A few months back I read a university paper from Leeds Met (i think) Uni, which fitted MVHR to a number of properties and Standard Extractors to a number. They gathered information on all before they were fitted, and performed basic airtight measures on the MVHR properties (hardboard on top of floor boards, and mastic wherever possible), bringing the ACH down from around 20 to 11 or 12 ACH (so still quite high), and they performed very well, obviously fixed all of the issues with condensation, but also dramatically lowered CO2 concentrations in the air, and reduced consumption of gas for heating. So it just goes to show, that even in a building which is very leaky, they do still work. Obviously the less leaky, the more savings potential, and after installation, get a smoke pen, and work your way round sealing all the gaps, its a long hard job, and some will be more sealable than others, but you will sure make an improvement. The MVHR properties outperformed the Standard Extractor fan ones by a fair margin in terms of energy costs, and humidity/CO2 reduction.

Aluminium in its natural form is extremely hard to ignite, and melts at over 600C, so I'd say its perhaps fire rated as it is. The fire rating would likely come from intumescent (sp?) seals around the door, which you may be able to swap out yourself. If it needs a certificate for BCO though, you would be better going for an off the shelf one with cert.

PIR has a double foil face, and its not practical to put supro underneath, i'd probably be able to get it part way, but never with a proper seal, as we don't have a crawl space, theres only 2 bricks worth of room. I had a look on ebay, and managed to get a 75m2 roll of Protect BarriAir for £68, so I'm going to go down the route of VCL on the warm side to protect the timbers best I can (since the reason i'm replacing is because of woodworm infestation which we believe is no longer active, obviously caused by the timbers being too moist, though i think this was more to do with the air bricks being mostly blocked/semi blocked, which now isn't the case), and on top of where the joists are, I'm going to use 50mm butyl tape to seal the penetrations from the screws in the OSB, and be very careful that i'm 100% accurate with my screw placement!

Hi, Never seems to be a firm answer on this... We have 100mm joists with sleeper wall, which we will insulate with 100mm PIR, friction fit, and gaps filled with expanding foam. I have got some Tyvek Supro (breathable roofing felt) left over, and as its airtight to 50pa, I was going to use this across the top of the joists, before the OSB3 goes down. However I've just read online, that its more suitable to have a VCL above the joists, to stop any moist air going underneath. Ample ventilation under the floor and a decent gap. Would you say an airtight VCL may be the best option? Regards Mike

fair enough. I dropped on some Tyvek original tape other day for £13 a roll, which I thought was pretty decent, need some to finish off around the roof windows.

Wow, yeah £9 a roll is very good, I'm guessing thats not a price we can all pay? lol

If anyone is wanting breathable airtight membrane, rather than an AVCL, Tyvek Supro (i.e. Roofing Membrane), is actually airtight to 50pa (I think), so should be suitable and is reasonably cheap on ebay. http://www.dupont.co.uk/content/dam/assets/products-and-services/construction-materials/tyvek-building-envelope/Documentation/Technical-Datasheets/TDS-DuPont-Tyvek-Supro-and-Supro-Plus.pdf Resistance to penetration of air EN 12114 m³/(m² h 50Pa) - - 0,25 (Maximum) Compared with a true air barrier: Air Permeance EN 12114 0.01m3/m2/hr @50Pa Kingspan Nilvent is also classed as airtight. They all claim airtight at normal building pressures 50pa. I plan on using this under the floor boards to save me the nightmare of having to seal every little bit between the joists, and then lap up the wall, and bond to the wall itself, it'll then get covered up by plaster and skirting board.

Whats the airstop stuff like Dave? Read some bad reviews about it not sticking, as I was going to buy some for my windows.