daiking

I’m gazing at my Aldi special now worrying about the wind. Gusting already but not supposed to windy till later. Took it down last week when it was 40mph ?. Forecast is 35mph+ later. Wont you have to lift the decking and fix your post into the ground?

You should click on my profile to see my back garden.

That looks like a full time job

My compost is still a load of toss but I have now created a raised bed, approx 3m2, one scaffold board high and I’ve hefted 1 & 1/2 bags of topsoil into it. Bring on the pest blighted crops.

Hence upgrading the system. Its all bollocks as it stands.

This ^. What 'normal' mains water supply has enough flow for 2 or more outlets at once? The shower is below par (but still usable) when another tap is opened/toilet is flushed but you can't run 2 hot outlets at once, the flow is too low. I will be making the upgrade the system to something with a more robust supply when the time comes to change it.

Is anyone able to run 2 showers direct from mains water even with a BFO combi boiler? (no tanks)

Says paper millionaire ? (2 properties outright + personal pension + state pension) I will gladly correct and apologise if that’s wrong. Sometimes its good for all of us to turn down our inner “woe is me“. Because if that’s the worst choices you could have made, well, talk about the problems of being in the 1%.

I’ve got half a dozen valved fpp2 masks in my DIY PPE box but I’ve not bothered to liberate them yet. I might actually need them for DIY (like cleaning out a bird shit covered loft ?) and I’d prefer to avoid the need to wear something for Covid by avoiding higher risk situations for the time being.

I am about to clear out the local toolstation of builders buckets as they are cheaper than 15 litre plant pots I have high hopes for the many seedlings I have. This coming cold snap is a real pisser as I started my runner beans too early and really need to get them outside ?

(expletive deleted)ity (expletive deleted) it. Clearly the correct answer is to buy the painted fence panels in the link above even if I need another fence post to sort the spacing. From my side of the fence, the panels will be butted up to each other with the post behind so we get the seamless effect and the neighbours will have to put up with the posts and dull grey whether they like it or not. The difference in grey paint we'll get used to and I'll cross the bridge of how best to match the slats on the bin store later in the summer. But building something 2.5m long by maybe 1.2m high (open backed) is much less trouble to fettle some timber to look similar proportions - approx 70m of slats PANELS UNAVAILABLE DUE TO REQUIRING 2 MAN DLEIVERY ?

I've been using till battens as part of my patio planters. even with paint the finish isn't good enough and sanding a quarter mile of batten? (when I get round to the add-ons) Only Manchester. This was one of the few results I found for treated AND planed thin timber https://www.estatesawmills.com/product/timber/planed-pressure-treated-timber/board-rail-timber/45mm-x-19mm-planed/ but I'm out of their area. I had missed that NWTT timber as it is untreated but I now see that t has a treated option if you follow it through so that is an option. The practical difficulty is that I need something more to provide privacy - effectively another fence behind them. Even the most basic feather edge affair adds large time and cost. I'd prefer to buy panels but that one is a single slat so doesn't provide privacy, you need a double slat for that. See the problem above with DIY slats These are the best panel option https://www.elbecgardenbuildings.co.uk/6ft-high-1800mm-forest-double-sided-slatted-fence-panel-anthracite-grey-pressure-treated/p6179#tabid2 as they come painted. Its easily worth paying that to save the trouble of individually fitting the rails and then painting them, twice. I need 6 panels to cover 11m (not just the bit in the first photo) so we don't need to look at the retro pebble dash concrete sectional garage next door. I would just need to re-jig the post spacing so we could bring the fence further down the garden. The "problem" with this option is that... the follow up plan to the fence is to build a small irregular shaped decking area to extend the lower patio by 2.5m along the fence and build a wheelie bin store for the 4 (FFS) wheelie bins we have. The intention was to match the bin store with the fence design in slat size and colour to blend in. Everything else in the garden is being painted Bedec barn paint battleship grey (not a RAL) which is similar but not a match to that fence grey (with a RAL). The plan after fence, deck and bin store is the long awaited pergola which shouldn't cause any design problems* because its not slatted, only the colour issue. *Drainage is the problem I have here not design. I don't have the time or patience to do that so it's worth spending the money up front on the correct material. It would be hard enough to create a slatted fence without a nail gun and having to paint the slats even without also having to give 100 x 3m pieces of timber a treatment.

Tell me about it. You search for cheap timber but then find you're out of their deliver area not that deliveries are easy to get at the mo.

Thanks but I’m trying to build a contemporary fence as a design feature, hence smooth planed narrow slats. Tile battens are a workable size but just aren’t good enough quality. I’ve got a link to some PSE 44x19 on my laptop but they don’t deliver to me. Something like this, approx 11m long rather than 5.5m and painted battle ship grey

This is doing my box in. Posts are the least of my worries. Panels are an awkward size that come up short. Reasonably priced raw materials for a diy approach don’t seem to exist and if they did there would be delivery for weeks and weeks. If anyone knows where I can find some smooth, treated timber, 35-50mm wide, 20mm deep or so for external use at much less than £1/m (I need 300m+ initially), I’m all ears. And I would still need to double up on something to provide the necessary level of privacy, grrrrr.

That’s pretty niche. I know we’re a broad church but not sure even @pocster would be into that filth.

Why not go the whole hog for that industrial look? It’s all the rage in NW England. https://www.notjusttaps.co.uk/knee-foot-operated-taps.html The knee levers are a favourite of mine

Have to say I prefer the ‘tits on a fish’ version.

If you wrapped your bits in cling film, could you make pants out of it?

I am not opposed to a scratch build but am trying to achieve a particular look and although panels are not cheap at £100 each they’re actually cheaper than trying to make that style myself - even if I were skilled enough to achieve it. I want a narrow horizontal hit and miss appearance with privacy so I need front and back timber ?. Even if I did a simple feather edge design on the rear it’s still ££££. ?‍♂️

That is as ugly as sin but not something I’d thought of. Thanks.

Cheers for the tips, obvs I got a level and other basic tools but only a laser for hanging pictures. I don’t think I’ve ever got anything straight or level but for this it really matters. I may even splash on a post level. Before I order anything I’ve got to dig the post holes really. There are council slab retainers, tree stumps, roots and all sorts along there. It might be beyond me to start with. In the photo, the swing ball is about where the end post would be and further down you can see where the fence kinks back into the boundary.

Yes, weight is the issue as I need long ones, at least 50kg for a 9’ post. Just me and wife. And she has decided she wants the contemporary slatted look. And following on from the fence, the bit with the barrow (up to the first laurel) will have a small decking area and on that there will be a 4 wheelie bin compound (local council gives us 3 x 240l and a 140l wheelie bins ?). And only them will I be in position to do the pergola I asked about last year... Got a drainage problem to sort for that ? but one thing at a time now I’ve thought it through.

There is a conventional concrete post and wood panel fence between us and next door. Problem is that it’s only 3 foot high. I would like to have something taller at one end of the fence to give us a bit more privacy. I’ve marked the intended outline in red in the photo. This is approx. 6m long and 2m high. The existing fence appears to be in the neighbours land and I’m not interested in the work of removing the old one and replacing. I’d just like to put something simple a little on our side of the boundary. Simple being to use the existing wooden post one the left in the paved area and installing the posts (wooden or concrete) in the bed behind the small laurels. Filling with this style fence panel. https://www.sheds.co.uk/hartwood-6-x-6-double-sided-slatted-pressure-treated-fence-panel.html So, I need: Something to dig very deep holes (I have a manual Auger) Some fence posts (2.7-3m long) Some post-crete some gravel boards Some nice fence panels My concerns are: 1) Trying to get posts perfectly vertical, all the same height and a correct fence panel width apart ? 2) Concrete or wooden posts? I’d prefer wood as it’s lighter and can be adjusted and modified but more susceptible to rot. Am I missing anything?

I’ve made some garden props for the kids from OSB2. It could do with at least the edges being to treated to make it last the summer. About the only thing I have lying around is primer and gloss paint is it worth the effort of bothering with this? Otherwise gaffa tape is probably easier (when I buy some).