saveasteading

It would have the one advantage of making your head warm, especially when standing. Perhaps the floor too but insulation would be vital. Also I can see this being useful in a small, occupied area of a large space. Eg a till operator in a retail shed. The whole point is that the air is not being heated as much as with other sources, but it is 100% electric so expensive. I've stood next to an infra red heater disguised as a framed picture. It would make sense if next to a desk or chair in an otherwise cool room. I wouldn't consider it for primary domestic heating.

What do you mean please? What stage are you at?

I should have said 'in the congested SE of england, where there is nowhere for the water to go. The Scottish system theoretically has the proposal approved by the Scottish environment protection authority (SEPA). They didn't disapprove anway.

Building Inspectors tend to be very lax on this for a single house. So I'd say that you suggest a 1m3 pit, That is as measured below the inlet. If you fill it with rubble they may be happy. The crates you mention are not filled with rubble. The whole point of them is that all the volume is available for water. It will work better as a larger area and less deep, because of the exposed earth area. Whether rubble or crates, surround it in geotextile, preferably 'nonwoven'. That stops muck getting in from the surrounding ground. When it is done, check your first sewage bill. You will get a reduction for having no water to sewer.

And then sold them to someone with the same name?

Paslode official maintenance/cleaning guide. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAXH1VCXlAFN_Xsz2pBeSfZIJ6874ri4Y Please be aware that if you purchase a tool from outside the UK, you will not be able to get the compatible nails and fuel within our UK distribution network, as the gas system is different. So i'll have to watch out in buying charger/gas/nails on ebay, if the Continental spec is different. I wonder why though.

Found the instructions easily, now for maintenance. https://itw.by/download/paslode/IM350-TEC-USG-GB-1.pdf Yes that crossed my mind. It was at the guy's house, and he had a new gun that he borrowed the battery and gas from. says he's a chippy and does these up as an extra. So I chose to believe it, and didn't see any signs of markers on them. From recent experience, the successful chippy lusts after the latest model, perhaps justifiably, and not these. I will mark these because, despite the low value, they are the sort of thing that gets nicked on sight, on site.

A motto for life?

About to eat the last of last year's tomatoes. Not bad eh? These are the dregs. They were all very sweet, I think through ripening slowly on the vine and the small varieties did best. Picked in early December from the greenhouse. The outside ones all got blight in late October and were binned.

Ive bought an old paslode nail gun, well 2 actually. 350/90 model. I saw them both tested, and fired a few nails myself. But I feel that a few tweaks of the nails and gas cylinder were needed by the vendor and maybe I have to learn the same. Can anyone point me to an instruction manual or a good youtube demo? I've got to buy batteries and charger but that looks straightforward. Nails, the guy said to get slanted, partial headed ones. Nail and gas prices seem to vary a lot. Can't see the reason for that except maybe SF and TS charge what they can. Either it's a bargain at £70 each or I've bought somebody else's problems. Do feel free to say.

Always learning on BH. Despite my interest i had not realised that directly pumped water was taken to the heat pump. I thought it was a closed loop through the borehole, absorbing heat. Where does the 'wasted' pump energy go? If it's in the house it isn't lost, just inefficient. I'm assuming that the spent water is discarded some distance away. Any idea the (typical, theoretical, actual) temperature after the energy has been taken out?

Not really. I'd look again myself but we've made our decisions, incl BH advice, plus I'm researching and doing other things atm. It crossed my mind while doing something else that thse 3 layer walls were built for structural efficiency but happened to keep the rain and most damp out. Then much the same technique was used on very posh Georgian houses. Eg Edinburgh and Bath, and all qualities inbetween. These houses have inner liners. Most survive.

There is loads of info from Scottish heritage groups. Some of it it technical and convincing. Referring both to how 3 layer walls work and lime. There is also loads of evidence of the problem with cement render. There will not be a damp course. Get googling. I can't report fully yet but report so far. Our project is a farm building, not built as a house but fof cattle and grain. 600th walls in traditional 3 layers. It sits on granite ashlar at only 400 depth. We have built an inner 100mm stud (min 25mm off the stone) with vcl on the outside and mineral wool infill. Air gap, stud, polythene, service gap, plasterboard. An area of a few m2 is left exposed for heritage/aesthetics. The large windows are probably the biggest heat loss proportionally. That insulation level is decent, not stunning but the floor and roof are heavily insulated to new build standards. 2 nights ago it was minus 7 outside and plus 22 inside. Result. No damp worries yet. .

Well done finding that. So you are 99% sure of sitting on London Clay that is 258 feet thick. Routine for your SE.

I started looking. What I found quickly was plenty of comments but nothing scientific. It's there though. Lime let's water in and out again. Cement doesn't. The skill is to make the lime the best shape to shed rain but stipple for maximum evaporation.....something like that anyway.

If the outer wall is substantially big, impermeable stones, then very little water will soak in. Most of that will evaporate out again and the rest won't pass the central core and will evaporate in draughts, tend downwards or stay put. Moisture inside the building is stopped by a vapour barrier, if fitted behind an internal stud. If the wall is bare stone then, yes some will get through but that is an aesthetic choice and compromise.

I'd say we dug a trial pit or two on 90 % of our projects and our SE simply observed the stratum, which was usually as anticipated. Sometimes he'd go in the hole and prod at it. It isn't necessarily very complex sometimes they'll send samples fof testing. Often not. On the other 5% we had boreholes. It really depends on the natural terrain And how ptedictable it is. Hence your SE might immediately save unnecessary testing. Oh and the other 5%? I was cocky enough to not do any trial pits because it was 'obvious'. Once I was expensively wrong though.

In case it is relevant. My house has a brick chamber in the garden. When we bought it and applied for change of use, the water company demanded a treatment station was installed. But with a letter from the vendor stating that the brick chamber had been in use for many decades, and where the soakaways were ( in the adjacent field) the matter was dropped. I have contrived to reduce the amount of rainwater connecting to it and it works fine, having been sucked out once in 20 years. After the sucking out I saw that the pipes in and out were badly damaged and at the surface so i sorted them. The reason they were damaged was apparent. There were lumps of old roof (tiles and mortar) chucked in the pit: old builders clearly weren't scrupulous any more than now.

SE located in the SE. The SE is too big an area. I suggest talk to a very local SE. They will know the local soil types. Probably they will want to see one or 2 pits on site, so that only takes a couple of hours. As you suggest, it isn't complex unless the site has history. That is what phase 1 could show. eg you don't want landfill or pollution. You may have done this already. Building Control will accept the SE report. Try phoning one or more for a chat about the ground and subsequent needs. I'm wondering how you have a foundation contractor at this stage,when there isn't a ground report yet. And is the frame design dependent on the ground?

I've been reading the building regs again. The Scottish regs still require a huge and unnecessary percolation area ( but the inspector didn't). The English regs appear to have dropped this requirement. BTW, a treatment tank will mostly work well with the power off. Can't prove it, but it will, unless used to the maximum.

If it has been there long enough you probably still have rights to use it, unless it's clearly causing pollution.

A live tank for sewage would have brown crud on top and black sludge on the bottom. That pipe isn't right for sewage either. It would turn down to be below the surface, both at in and out ends, to let the contents settle and digest. So i think it is rainwater. Is that another pipe at the bottom?

Bags of tarmac are available in all builders' merchants and some diy stores. However it isn't very strong. it is made with very small stones and high solvent bitumen, which hardens by evaporation. It is for patching and potholes really. this bag is about £8 and you'd need a few. Maybe try it? Proper Bitumen Macadam comes from specialist suppliers, supplied hot. You can get it delivered or collect it. It then has to be laid and compacted while hot, so it's best to use a specialist contractor. It is made from a mix of stone, with the bitumen binding them, and goes very hard. How much do you need? eg if it is a 5m long bund, then you have say 400 wide x 30 average deep x 5m.. 5 x .4 x .03 = 0.06m3 or 0.152 tonnes. Not a lot really. So it might be a 'leftovers' job for a contractor after a bigger job up the road. Or do it in concrete. It won't last long but at least you are protected for a while.

Is this brick or fibreglass? if brick it will be very old, and could also be taking rainwater, because they didn't think about this sort of thing back then, just getting rid of it. If fibreglass, well there was a naughty habit of bashing a hole in the bottom to save on emptying costs. so lots of unknowns. Keep an eye on the levels. is there a layer of 'brown' floating on top?

These walls breathe. sometimes more than we would want. so any condensation should be slight, then evaporate. If it doesn't, it won't be absorbed by the hard stone but by the mortar in the central core. Also, and I'm no expert here, skillful application of external lime pointing both encourages run off and evaporation.