Jump to content

Ferdinand

Members
  • Posts

    12072
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    40

Ferdinand last won the day on December 9 2023

Ferdinand had the most liked content!

2 Followers

Personal Information

  • About Me
    Serial renovator, of both my own and rental properties.

    Current favourite self-build-quote:

    "If it isn't as long as a piece of string, we try a different piece of string"
  • Location
    Notts

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

Ferdinand's Achievements

Advanced Member

Advanced Member (5/5)

3k

Reputation

  1. Door height may well be your physical issue, and sealing a space you need as much attention to ventilation as insulation. Try the forum's heat calculator as a place to start written by a member which many have found helpful - including me. 20mm XPS in a floor (unless maybe you control the flat below as well and treat them effectively as s ingle unit) seems ridiculously low. The last one I did (bungalow) was 100mm Rockwool under the existing floor (~equivalent to EPS) + 25mm of PIR on top - and that is less than ideal. Rather than 0.7 R-value, normally for a floor we would be looking at 0.12 to 0.25, depending on the conditions beneath. There may be a minimum value building regulations require you to meet. Have you thought through what you will be doing with the walls (my suggestion from rental renovation experience 50mm->75mm PIR)? Ferdinand
  2. Not having done that very much, though I regularly measure road corridor widths etc arguing that there is space for mobility tracks, how is this Google Earth technique affected by overhanging trees?
  3. This is the sort of thing I am out to measure. This is a 1969 ish vintage footbridge over the M1 where it cuts through communities, which is the only non-motor-vehicle route for several miles. That slope in the middle is about 1 in 12 and 60m long.
  4. Thanks for the comments everyone. I think my Android Phone has a facility (guessing a mercury bubble or something) in the hardware but not the software, but then I am about 4 versions of Android behind, so it may have one by now. Straight edges are fairly doable tactically - eg lay it on a fence rail since rails are parallel to the ground and posts to the vertical to within a couple of degrees. Alternatively I have things like a lightweight monopod or a walking pole I can take around with me to be a straight edge. Cheers.
  5. Can anyone recommend an inclinometer app for my phone to help me measure gradients of pathways? My application is not building as such, but measuring the accessibility of local footpaths, greenways for wheelchair and mobility aid access etc. Some are diabolical - I came across one recently in the middle of the new Greenways around Salford / RHS Bridgewater which is an 8% slope down to a road, with a grit-over-base skiddy surface that means that progress in eg a wheelchair is difficutlt to control, and any attempt tp stop turns into an instant skid. I was able to measure this one via a photo of the fence rails and counting pixels, as they had a datum on the fenceposts when they built it. Accuracy I am after is not that great - I'm thinking +/- a degree or two. I need to be able to tell the difference confidently between say 1 in 8, 1 in 10, 1 in 12, 1 in 15 and 1 in 20. Since I tend to survey such things using a cycle, I'm not up for a 1m or 2m long sprit level. Thanks for any suggestions. I'm on Android at present. Ferdinand * Photos
  6. For that if I recall I just used a normal clear roll, perhaps something like this, which is 4m wide when unfolded so it will do many rooms and lap up at the sides in one piece if you need that: https://www.screwfix.com/p/capital-valley-plastics-ltd-general-purpose-sheeting-clear-150ga-25m-x-4m/71880 I'd suggest going down to Screwfix and having a look to make sure you think it is strong enough. If not there are thicker ones available. If you need to overlap, then you can do it by say 0.5m and tape along the join if you think that matters. One rough check that your subfloor is properly dry is to tape a square of sheet to the surface, leave it for a couple of days and see if any moisture which has been evaportating into the atmosphere has collected underneath. One thing to remember is that if you have one lapped up at the sides, the first lot of water from any leak you have isn't going anywhere unless you have slits - which may be good or bad depending. But leaks are very rare. I get less than one per 50 years of house occupancy in my small set of rentals.
  7. If you need more space around it, one possibly acceptable way may be to have a set of modern hearth rails at a suitable height. In concept think of the altar rails in churches, but made out of eg wrought iron or something shiny. Or a traditional fender if that is permissible. I think the only difference I might have done with the cast concrete would have been to use shiny sheet for the mould to make it very smooth - but that might have shown imperfections.
  8. Is there a high build (eg crack filling) or premixed filler you can dilute that would do it? TBH I think you are forked, and will need to skim.
  9. That's a shocker; they have been a fixture of the North of Scotland for half a century. For those not familiar, they are (were) a major regional timber frame building company, with a turnover of around £200m. Devastating for Stuart Milne himself, who had delayed retirement to try and pull them through the post-Covid trading environment, and for the employees. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-67918029
  10. For shower screens and trays, usually Amazon or Ebay - or outlets of shops or traders on Ebay. Quality is important but brand not particularly for screens, but yes for trays. The difference is huge between such and retail on shower screens. For shower panels brand first then outlet second. Large variations and quality of install is very important. You can now get good quality with no ply, and can expect a 20-25 year life if done properly. For grab handles etc Croydex are reliable. From Screwfix usually. If they get wet, textured plastic or some sort of grippy-when-wet cover - *never* chrome grab handles in a shower. For showers I go with MIRA for electric, or more generic if gas. Usually deals are around. Always shop around, and savings of 20-50% are common across the same item. For wall storage cabinets I shop around and go for ones made entirely of stainless steel. Another one with huge variation from one shop to the next. My experience with iKea is that the metallised legs on their vanity units develop rust quickly, so I am imagining the one in my bathroom two to be Corten steel, grinning and bearing it for a few more years. I do not have a current handle on taps - I am this week replacing a whb monobloc mixer which I think was a Bristan, bought from Wickes at admittedly half price, but which is leaking around the bottom after just 7 years, so a Trade Rated one from Screwfix will be going in as a replacement to avoid pfaff (rented property). If you are dedicated to a single well-advertised well-known prestige brand, you will probably get your nuts roasted on the flames generated by your bank account being burnt down. Have several quality options, then look for a deal.
  11. That I think is very good comment. Without any commitment to supporting a practical and rational level of regulation / enforcement, everything else - all of it - is mere weasel words.
  12. 1 - The elephant in the room is existing buildings housing stock which are far bigger emitters and a far bigger question than newbuild. The Govt have stopped improvement in its tracks by cancelling eg required improvements in EPCs in rented property, and are resiling from application of the same principle to owner occupied. I think purely because they believe that that will appeal politically to Mr & Mrs Nimby and Mr & Mrs Daily Mail Reader. By comparison newbuilds are rearranging Titanic deckchairs. 2 - These proposals seem to include no improvement to newbuild wall / ceiling / floor U-values, because 'it is not cost effective'. 3 - Seem to be replacing SAP with a New Energy Model. This to me is problematic as we need to be in line with other European countries. 4 - It relies heavily on decarbonisation of electricity supply, but does outline essentially no fossil fuel heat sources in the future. 5 - I see no prospect of this happening, bearing in mind the approaching General Election this year.
  13. You missed out SMART Goals. Which are what seem to be currently ruining football, and causing Manu U to keep losing - it never being Man U that causes Man U to lose. 🤠
  14. TBH not sure - before I had a half round section attached to the wall with its far edge just my side of the halfway point between the windows since 2017, covering height approx 150mm to 1m, as an anchor for my mesh fence. Perhaps it has been cleaned in line with my side of that? (I can't be wrong in my call on the halfway point, can I? - It would have required one side or the other to have changed the window size.) I don't think I have a photograph showing that section, even reviewing the Little Brown Bungalow renovation thread which applies to this dwelling.
  15. TBF it's not an inch. After very careful conversations someone has demonstrated that they cannot find the midline of a row of six bricks, and overstepped - which says either it was deliberate, or someone is being at least inattentive. The normal course of events after something like this is that more abuses will follow, unless it is nipped in the bud and *soon*, then consent will be de facto assumed for the next item, and dissent ignored. The thing that concerns me is not a boundary dispute - which it is not since it is as plain as a pikestaff - but the argument in 10 years time when the next one goes in and I want it moved back. Having said that I have long term tenants, and next door are a couple of oldsters there for the duration managed by their somewhat confrontational 5x or 6x son; it is quite possible that my Ts and the couple next door will do nothing awkward until someone dies. A "light touch" way of dealing with this would be to write a letter stating that for this fence I am giving him permission to put his fence on my land to shortcircuit future disputes; however I am not sure if that is sufficient - which is why I asked the question. Perhaps I need to say that as it is on my land it is my fence. Another one is whether this is a one-step-and-done thing, which means I can cap it off without concerns for the future. Since it is a rented property things can easily happen that impinge without me finding out for a couple of months. Still mulling. I can't let it go entirely uncommented. @saveasteading Is the correct position of the other end obvious? Eg right angles from the house? I'm not sure yet. I'll check next time I'm down there perhaps. Since it's a bungalow I can't go upstairs and take a photo. If there's a serious angle it will make me more likely to challenge.
×
×
  • Create New...