daiking

I recall a thread earlier in the year about the use of window films to prevent damage to furnishings from the sun and I thought it would be a good idea. How #&@! much? About £15/sq m on a window basis. Ouch. I don't suppose there are alternatives.

52?

I thought I'd seen it advocated before for airtightness in a block build where chasing is required for boxes.

Just out of curiosity, not personal worry, what's the reason for this?

Even better, only actually stencil on the bat house entrance.

From Edwardes https://www.edwardes.co.uk/en/search/p/3/q/enlite I've got a mix of Enlite EN-PL012 and EN-PL09 Seems to have been superseded by a B mod.

I'm very happy with a mix of 9W and 12W round panels I have in kitchen, utility and WC areas - but I don't have air tightness worries.

What do you all mean? This is tidy and is already an improvement! Stuck inside at the moment with some interior work but will need to get outside more in the coming weeks. i have been quoted over £5k for groundworks and tidying up to build up the bit by the house and construct a sleeper retaining wall (140 sleepers!). Thats is without paying any attention to the drains. So that isn't going to happen." And it will be DIYed as slowly as it is until such time I need to get help.

As I understand it, BC ok'd pictures of the drain trenches and probably a blagged pressure test. Drawings showed an engineered trench with gravel and concrete protection over the top - clearly not present. It does look bad at the furthest point but the ground level needs to come up a bit - the foundation blocks are exposed. (off topic but this is probably the shallowest point of the foundations but it was the correct depth and a shed load of concrete went in the trench so I'm not overly worried about the apparent lack of depth) I have at least lifted the manhole cover to see that the kitchen waste water does make its way to the front drain so there is a fall and no catastrophic leaks.

Potential is why we bought the place but it's hard work to make that real. There is no real grass at the moment. It was previously covered in ivy, the topsoil is just matted with roots. the intention was to dig over/cultivate the flat area, pull out the worst of the contamination (stones/roots) and get in a few tonnes of topsoil and lawn maybe 40-50 sqm. That could be done for a few hundred pounds relatively quickly. I'm prepared to put off the bit nearest the house for the time being. It doesn't get the best of the sun, the part where the chairs are does so I'll need a temporary hard area over there. I did want to keep the bricks and rubble, I've been pulling them out whilst digging investigative holes. I wasn't sure they would be good for anything but didn't want to pay to clear it and then pay to bring fresh material in... The spot behind the garage for the the future build is ideal for storing this - but I need to lift the bluebells and transfer them elsewhere first.

Some drains were laid and they're certainly not to the drawing detail and I need to find out what I should do before we landscape over them This drain leads to this manhole: Turns through 90 degrees and leads up to this one: and the original drain under the drive that has been replaced by this new concrete cover Is my only option to dig them out and take a look?

Actually I do know where to start and it's the drains...

So here is how some of it looks: This is stood by the stream look east along the north wall of the extension. This infill is full of rubble and there is a drainage pipe (kitchen and rear gutters) running along this section to get round the front of the house to main drain. We would like a 3m+ wide patio out from the bi-fold doors. Not a completely level threshold but certainly up to 1 or 2 brick courses of the door. Coming out 3m+ from here will leave the level 1m - 1.2m above the main garden that the chair is at the start of. I figure I’d need a retaining wall but with the low height and only a couple of metres of earth from the house means it won’t need to be engineered. And some sort of steps down from the patio to the main garden. So need help here. This is looking at this area from the other side This is the stream side position but looking south Again the infill is full of rubbish but I think we’d want a sort of path along this wall and then some sort of transition down to the lower garden level. A smaller retaining wall? This is the current state of the side return at the back of the extension - broken up old roof tiles :shakeshead: This is the bit at the front of the house where the drive was dug up to do the drains ITs like a canyon and needs filling. The drive will not be re done anytime soon. Will MOT1 in here compacted do the job indefinitely? And this is the current state of the ‘garden’ My boys seem to love it even if they can’t play football/ride bikes - its far more interesting than that for them. The tramp’ and playhouse need to come up the east side of the garden leaving that area clear to be dug over and turfed so its the garden. Theres an area to the rear of the garage, down at garden level which will eventually be the site of a large (PD) garden building but that’s a long way in the future The current wreck of the garage is full of SH1 Type But I’m currently loathe to get a skip (or four) to clear the site as Gabions might be an option for landscaping. I don’t really know where to start.

So we started off with this, an end cul de sac plot, semi detached house, stream on the long border, north facing. House and garden had little maintenance for years. Garden was overgrown but cleared before we bought it. A load of mature trees along the borders and ground covering foliage, not grass. The house is raised a little above the garden that in general slopes toward the stream. There was a concrete drive and area between the house and concrete sectional garage: Now we’ve added a side and rear extension and the garden is a mess. the garage has lost its roof, door and half a side but still stands on the concrete. Part of the drive has been dug up to do drains (There will be a separate thread about drains) leaving massive ‘potholes’ much of the concrete section between old house and garage has gone but the ground around the border of the actual house has been infilled with earth and building rubble with random piles of stuff all over the place

Found out something this week. my local 'tip' has a special locked/covered skip thing for plasterboard and I've disposed of quite a bit that way. From 1st May that stopped. It needs to be taken to a weigh bridge tip place that's miles away. (expletive deleted) knows how that will work for a few boards. Oh I know, it'll get hidden in burnable waste :rolleyes:

Does it fit on your trailer? Fancy coming down to Manchester to dig my garden?

Does anyone have a load cell in their pan?

I don't like the look of the plastic hoses compared to the metal ones, are they actually better from a strength/wear perspective? They're not as flexible in my experience. and I believe flexible is a 'requirement' in this instance.

I'll take a look later. She started off leaving the control valve open all the time and just having the gun trigger as the isolation and I only noticed after the metal split and the hose was bulging out because the mains pressure is right up against the valve in the trigger and trying to escape out of the hose. I told her that if it burst and she flooded the extension, she should pack her bags and never return. So now she always closes the valve (I hope). However, unlike a shower hose that has an end open to atmospheric pressure, even when you close the valve on this, it leaves a quantity of water in the hose at higher pressure, presumed 3-4 bar. So not only does she have to close the main valve, I trained her to press the trigger to release the pressure after she closes the valve too. These things are an insurance claim waiting to happen.

Akin to onoff's hose quest, The additional thermostatic mixer with gun set-up I have in my bathroom looks like it has a normal shower hose. The coiled metal outer part has already split near the gun (I'm not sure whether this can be attributed to a manufacturing fault or user error) and when the line is pressurised (just normal mains water pressure) the inner rubber hose bulges out. Thinking about it I realised that, unlike a shower, with this design the hose is always under pressure. So if I replace it, can I get a better hose that will take, maybe, up to 10 bar all day long?

Come off it, that's just a fancy washing machine hose. But you've reminded me I have a hose question too.

Can you trust your contractors though?

Fortunately, I've only got one 4" stud wall. fortunate because it's s mix of cls and regular. The difference seems to be 4-5mm. I only noticed long after the flat side had been boarded

Why not? I keep walking past skips thinking there's £20 of insulation here, £40 there etc, just chucked in the skip. Wasteful buggers. i need to start fishing it out, if I had anywhere to store it

I don't have a schedule. The fact it's not finished means it's behind schedule.