Jump to content

MikeGrahamT21

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1908

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Everything posted by MikeGrahamT21

  1. MikeGrahamT21
    My vote is for Marmox boards, they also provide a little insulation, but work very well as tile backerboards for both floors and walls, and are impervious to water and also have a high resistance to water vapour permeability. They come in a variety of thicknesses, and there are other brands too, but basically, its XPS inner, with a cement polymer and fibreglass coating on either side. The cement backer boards, such as no more ply are horrible things, really heavy, hard to cut too (you'll go through plenty of blades for both circ saw and jigsaw).
  2. MikeGrahamT21
    Wow, you must have one large property!
  3. MikeGrahamT21
    If you don't want to put more plasterboard up, why not just put a piece of wood (or similar) on the lower part, just before the step, and simply paint it. This is obviously only OK if you don't mind the step being visible, if you want it seamless, you will have to overboard... or take the entire ceiling down in the old bit.
  4. MikeGrahamT21
    I used flexible brick slips (available via ewistore.co.uk), made by elastolith. These are DIY, and very easy to do yourself, just a little time consuming, but they look great when done. We even managed to get a good match. Building on left hand side is existing house, centre is the brick slipped one, and right hand side is a utility with real brick. You could also consider brick effect render, which is pretty impressive these days. There is a growing number of contractors doing this, but expect to pay in the region of £50-£90 per m2, its not cheap. We had a rough quote from this firm: https://www.decopierre.co.uk/ They can do pretty much anything!
  5. MikeGrahamT21
    I ended up with a continuous extract fan (dMEV) venting out via a roof tile, not what i was after, but it does the job, and it only cost me £30!
  6. MikeGrahamT21
    Yeah, this is a grit sanding board, very coarse indeed. I bought it to sand down the joints of the aircrete blocks as we used thin joint method, so its probably about the same as you say. To be fair its done a good job, i'd say we have around 30% exposed now, and any bits I've missed i'll pay close attention to individually. Hard to see how much i've done because the bloody adhesive for the thin joint is white and the paint is cream! lol
  7. MikeGrahamT21
    I got talking to someone who's mother had one put in, they always did all the readings, and submitted them etc, and they kept a record. He noticed when the smart meter went in, the readings started rising, as did the bills, yet the usage remained the same. He rung the company up, and apparently they dialled in and applied a patch to the unit!!!! I wonder how many more are unpatched!!. Its just unbelievable! I shall be sticking with my old clunky, but accurate, wheel meter!
  8. MikeGrahamT21
    yeah, roughing it up is fairly easy, so im going to do that, just done about 1/3 of wall in 10mins so its worth the effort, plus good exercise! lol
  9. MikeGrahamT21
    Just been and had a look how well bonded the paint is, stuck some airtight tape to the wall and pulled it off, and some of the paint did come off, not sure if that is OK or not. I could rough the surface up with a very coarse sanding board I've got, which should provide enough key, or just put a test spot of adhesive on, and see how easy it is to get off. Ideas?
  10. MikeGrahamT21
    I think i may have found a better solution, which I have actually used before as a tile backer board... Marmox Multiboard (in fact i've still got some of it left!). They're not stupidly expensive, and I'll save me on a few bags of expensive plaster, which can be replaced with cheaper board finish. I never realised you could use it in place of plasterboard, but more importantly it has the insulation layer, which is closed cell, with an Sd value of 3m, perfect for what I want! Thinnest they do now is 4mm (i've emailed Marmox for recommendation), which is suitable for dry lining, and its also ready out the box for a plaster skim according to their website. and I'll use some BAL white star tile adhesive to fix to the painted blocks (unless someone can recommend a better tile adhesive for the situation?).
  11. MikeGrahamT21
    If you want it to look perfect at the new wall thickness, i would imagine you would need new door casings which are wider, a fair bit of money involved and time and effort, but it will then look perfect.
  12. 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.
  13. MikeGrahamT21
    Link for the article regarding Triclopyr: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/chemical-kill-ficus-roots-62378.html
  14. MikeGrahamT21
    Whatever you do, plan your attack and go in with intent!
  15. MikeGrahamT21
    I had nightmares after watching that when it was on the TV!
  16. MikeGrahamT21
    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.
  17. MikeGrahamT21
    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.
  18. MikeGrahamT21
    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.
  19. MikeGrahamT21
    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!
  20. MikeGrahamT21
    ahh right, no worries, thanks for the replies :-)
  21. MikeGrahamT21
    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?
  22. MikeGrahamT21
    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?
  23. MikeGrahamT21
    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.
  24. MikeGrahamT21
    Yeah, everything still OK? I presume they are all quite similar in their make-up?
  25. MikeGrahamT21
    EDIT: or would I be best doing neither, and just plastering the blocks, so at least water vapour can come back in?
×
×
  • Create New...