saveasteading

You can get that ready made in half's. No bottom plate but with heavy fixings it might be OK. I can't cut and paste them for some reason.

Not flat and level enough. It's meant for floor slabs, roads etc. On anything rougher it will wobble about and the blade will jam.

No that looks good. I had in mind it having bars sticking down but bolting down is much easier so I agree with that. I'd just say to make sure that the concrete base goes well under the channel, in case the load all wants to go down the narrow side at the wall. I've a feeling you can buy that ready made. Yes just looked and SF have them but only up to 100 x 100 (sabrefix) . Perhaps search further.

what the builder has told you all makes sense. a shutter would have been tidy but has a thickness so he would have dug out more of your side. then when removed there would have been a gap to fill. Better with the concrete as it is not undermining your property. The issues are small but annoying, other than the cheek of building right on your line, and then just beasting on without discussion. all a normal though. Note the pegs in the trench sides.... that's what I was suggesting in another post recently, as level control. If the poster is seeing this, it is a good example of just how approximate the process is.... this is control yet will be rather approximate. Maybe that is just a guide and he put a level on it.

Even the noise turns back to heat. A tiny amount either way. The only energy lost to a space is light going out through a window. That's radiation including outside of our perception of it. So to answer the question. For 100% efficiency (from socket to room) do not have a heater with light emissions. @DaveR it's good to get a chance to deal with these matters. You are right that a lot of advertising is misleading. Any more queries?

U shaped bracket, with 2 rods projecting down either side of the channel. Concrete base beneath the channel. OR set the bases to miss the channel and the timber construction revised to fit.

Where it is surface only, an inch or so, first a simple tap with a hammer and skinny spillover bits may break off. Next a run down the line with a masonry saw to an inch or so deep then the hammer tap. Anything that goes deeper is better left alone.

I've just realised that you are the correspondent who distrusts science on principle, and purveyors of knowledge and expertise, as you think they always seek personal advantage. You may therefore prefer to disregard my advice , in case I have links to the pipes manufacturers, or the construction industry in general.

Have your neighbours broken them? You should get a formal proposal for the repair and have it supervised by their building inspector. Clay pipes are still available so a like for like replacement is better than repair. Alternatively there are adaptors from clay to plastic, and a plastic pipe could be inserted. That is trespass. The best time to remove it is now, before it reached full strength. Concrete gets hard in a few hours but increases in strength for about a month. Doing it asap will be easier and cause less damage to the foundation. Are you allowing them to work from your side? nothing should cross the boundary line so a wall on that line is likely to have a fascia at the top which will cross it. ie the wall should be set back.

I'm torn between turning off contributors with nonsense, anti-science and anti- fact beliefs, OR keeping myself aware that such people exist and interfere with my world. For those above who don't believe science or authority: On BH most of us giving advice know the science and/or best practice or practicality of the subjects on which we comment, and take the advice of others on other matters. If you don't trust experts then I don't know why you are on here. Don't go ignoring the regulations. Please. Otherwise things will likely go badly for you and others. I will now turn off 'follow'

I am also taken with some recent publicity on Beechgrove Garden and Gardener's World programmes of 'Prairie planting'. big area of daisy-like plants. I've got a few in pots that grow to 3 ft and flower for months...and produce hundreds of seeds. Brilliant colours, but subtlety and texture is also possible. So it is cheap too, and maintenance is easy. The aim is to have swathes of colours and textures that look natural but dramatic too.

I was liucky to be in spain during thd worst of it. If there was an outbreak they forebade travel to and from that community, except essential services. The benefit showed dramatically in the death figure. I try to get into deniers' mindset on this, but can't. The best i can manage is an extreme fear of science... people knowing things that they themselves can't begin to comprehend. I don't understand therefore it is conspiracy?

You could use a thin layer of concrete very locally, using grit or gravel instead of the usual ballast stone, to suit the thinness. Or if you have ballast, pick the big stones out. That will be as strong as the footing.

Meadows are the way ahead. So much more interest, less work and better for nature. Cut just once a year, very low, and all put in the compost heap. Mulching is good for the the lawn but feeds the meadow too much. Or have areas of both. Interesting flowers and grasses can be introduced. Yellow rattle is a must. Our small experimental area is now a favourite spot to sit. Leaving some lawn for kicking a ball about.

Make it so. Or use perforated duct. It doesn't need to be twin wall.

And yet the one i bought with the kiosk was white on the long leg and red on the short leg. It was too narrow for the big cable so I used a bigger black pipe without issues.

That's a very good point. But assuming all the ground is the same then the trench below the box should act as a soakaway as fast as it enters. At worst, the cable ends are well clear of such water and the box to base is not sealed so it would run out.

I mean that the cable comes down the pole into the ground, so they need a hole there. Then underground either alone or in a duct. Then at the box again it has to emerge from the ground and go through your hockey stick. In my eyes your case it is only 3 ft. Take away the hole at the pole leaves 18"? Leave hockey stick expose, another 1ft gone. So has a negligible trench so doesn't need a duct. But if you had a bit handy they could drape it over the cable if they wanted to.

A tactical withdrawal is preferable to suffering a massacre. Well done General.

No. If the box and pole were 20m apart then they would need an exposed pit at each. In your case they join so it is all pit.

Feel even better about it, as you are still overthinking. What comes next? Blockwork? As @nodsays, a bricklayer (you in this case) will use a string line and smooth that line out, and up. Relax, work out what level your first block goes at, and move on. If there is a high spot, you could regard that as your new datum and lift the building a few mm.

The point being that concrete is hard work, the workers are busy with what they do best, and not esp skilled with lasers etc. Ie do the precision at leisure. 10mm either way is absolutely fine though and better low than high. 15mm is probably typical of decent work.

For future reference, I tended to either bang pegs in the bottom and mark depth with a nail. In clay, knock nails or bars in the sides at finished level. Very formally for precision ( big structures) we would have T profiles along the side at say 2m above finished level and a 'traveller' a T that we placed on the concrete and lined up with the profiles by eye. A laser can replace this if used skilfully. Big IF. Hence the nails.

It's OK. I've seen very much worse. Lasers aren't always accurate and are only used approximately in trench footings. Successive processes get more accurate but For perspective: the published tolerances in timber buildings are plus/minus 10mm.

what you show was state of the art, but about 30 years ago. It's thin, irregular, and gappy. And there are old bridges from the room through the timbers to outside. Its a matter of balancing cost and benefit. Youll find much more previous dicsussion on here. I think, 1. keep what is there but straighten it out, and add an extra thickness... how much would it take? 20mm? PIR is best for insulation. Or replace what is there with PIR. BUT it is tricky to fit tight so maybe you'd end up pushing in the fibreglass again, or a boarded version. Then an insulating inner layer over the surface would kill the cold bridging.