Ferdinand

Genuine question on this. What is the position of including 2nd hand patio doors in a reno? Wrt to eg Fensa? There's no end of them, and I have just used a couple of 3 year old ones for a garden building which were about £125 each, and wood-grain to boot. Each of those is pretty much as good as new, and it seems criminal to waste them. In this case one of them was one of a set of 3 nearly new ones being taken out of a barn conversion because they thought the new white ones would be classier. F

The trick there imo is to make it accessible so that cleaning is easy. It needs to be easy enough that you do not bury yourself in the football waiting for someone to get a penalty awarded against Man U. 1 - From the ground with a window cleaning pole. As you may have for roof mounted solar panels. I have pro-kit for my panels, which gets used about once a year; it goes up to 26ft plus me. You need to budget £100-£200. Discussed at length here: The parcel was about 11ft long. 2 - Make it easily accessible from inside. That may mean putting it on the landing if you have a catslide roof, or near a mezzanine or bridge if you have one, rather than at the inaccessible end of the 6m high wow-void that requires a scaffold tower or mountaineering gear. Near enough that you can reach it with a sponge-mop (extendable sponge-mop?) whilst standing on a reasonable thing like steps or a hop-up-step. Velux window poles are very good for opening it so you can reach the outside side. 3 - Have a way onto your roof, such that you can reach your skylight. 4 - Have a "Scottish" skylight which reverses so that you can do it from the inside. If such exist. See 2. 5 - Put a patterned stick-on on the inside, of the sort used when Mr Planner says it must prevent overlooking. The filth and dead magpies will not be seen (by you !). 6 - Have a regular window cleaner. 7 - Use the direct approach like @Declan52: My choice would be to design in access or reachibility if possible. F

Would welcome your comments to see if I can improve my practice. Now I always fit single lever ‘nudgeable’ mixer taps to rentals .. operating like this one at home, though not necessarily as expensive a model .. on the basis that they can be operated without grip and with less fine motor control using a single hand. And that such tenants need something as easy to use as possible, and that they are nicer anyway provided they are robust and dependable. In your opinion is there any better option eg for your condition as it progresses? I guess that at some point there will be taps which have sensors like the hand drying machines, and probably are already, or even voice control. “Alexa, wash up.” Cheers Ferdinand

If that's Hollywood, California the ruined walls will make it like the Alamo. Cool.

They had some not unlike these in the clearance auctions I have been mentioning on the "Offers" Featured Thread. They are clearing a soak.com something or other. I bought a £100 waterfall type wall mounted one for my bath for about £35. You could get one from there to put in your kitchen. You do not get the elephant nozzle, however. ISTM that waterfall wall-mounted taps from the bathroom could be a good idea for the cat. Credit: http://www.catbehaviour.net/why-does-my-cat-drink-from-the-tap.html F

I have this hankering to start a standalone blog, and maybe write an e-book. It needs thinking time. Back in a month or so, though I will keep an eye on messages.

So .... we have you and the Council. Which is which?

Russell >plonker Well @Patrick Rodney ? We are all pleased you are in one piece. I think you potentially have different safety issues than cutting it down. One issue is how it moves unexpectedly when you cut bits off. Breaking a leg is dead easy with a coupe of tons wobbling around. Others can probably advise better, but to hold it in place it has to e done from different directions or have a self-retensioning apparatus for when it moves. Are you actually sure it is 7 tons? Might it be less? No particular benefit, just a smaller elephant to eat with chopsticks. I would listen to @PeterW on this. He has worked as a tree man. We had a 90 footer blow down and just miss next doors’ bungalow roof years ago at the previous house (they have a sprinkling of different coloured tiles now). On that occasion a local chap said he would do it for the firewood. So we snapped his hand off, and left him to it. 4 days later... Best of luck. Ferdinand

I can see electric cars being compulsory when it becomes practical. And Buxton (or Bradford) will be to London as Shimla was to New Delhi. F

Great job.

I use the version of that without a humidistat, which I never seem to get on with. About 2/3 of the price. The only question I have on these is the throughput on boost in a shower room. But I will still use them. F

Welcome.

I now use ones with a constant low flow plus boost and timer rather than a backdraft shutter. I do this to provide a better background ventilated space in restored houses where a full MVHR cannot be justified, and trickle vents have been avoided because on principle they are a horrible thing to inflict on energy bills. Vent AxIa do these, and I would recommend. They are silent. I have swapped out a couple of HR units where Ts found the slight noise to be too much. My one comment would be to are sure that the boost extraction is enough, as wet rooms can be steamy places beyond expectations. VA also have some interesting auto response type fans. I have also used the Icon Airflow. One rented property has had one since perhaps 2012. They whirr slightly, but are Fine. They do however do bigger ones, and if you fit the wrong one you will know about it because you will be blown away. F

The best case I know of is the sea "dock" of Harlech Castle, which since the 12C has grown room for a golf course on land that has appeared as a result of the spring-back. Are there any others eg new Islands in Scotland? F

About 175m here. Can sometimes be a bit windy, but not on a Scotland scale.

£250 ouch. i think for that one I would try a jet washer with a nozzle on a pipe long enough that it reached all of it from one spot. Or learn to love lichen, which may not work for you. Ferdinand

First issue with the new bathroom. The slighlty textured tiles are necessarily wonderfully grippy, to avoid eg slips, trips and broken hips. but they also grip dirt eg bits of remaining mud on shoes. Does anyone have good suggestions for day-to-day light cleaning? The best I have done so far is probably the pull stroke of a sponge-mop. Cheers Ferdinand

+2. Talk to the Carncil now. Or I guess that if it is marginal, you may be able to accidentally get it a bit too wide. In any case, just check that the error margins on your structural door width calcs will leave you still in the sweet spot.

Welcome. With luck the covenant may be unenforceable. It can be quite difficult to do so. Suggest concise advice from an established local solicitor with a suitable property specialist. Crucial things are who the beneficiary is and whether you can show if anyone has breached it successfully. It is unlikely that people will take the risk of attempted enforcement either if you are doing something minimal or they have a low chance of success. Unless they are Mr Suburb with money to burn and/or hate the ground you walk on. There can be 27 PPs in existence if you like. But be clear about what you are implementing. The terrace idea may be better if you can combine parts of adjacent plots and make it a small cel de sac. F

lawnmower racing,

From a design blog, a stencilled patio using masonry paint. Interesting idea for a shortish term makeover to concrete slabs. But stencilling is real attention-to-detail stuff. We had a stencilled border on a floor to detract attention from the floor material, and it took a lot of care to do. The design here looks to me to be intolerant to slight misalignments, though the curved shapes and space in the design at tile-edges would help. A bold random texture might be an easier alternative. Credit: https://iamhayleystuart.com/2019/07/04/my-patio-makeover/ . Worth a quick read. I do not understand keeping the fence; that looks like the cheapest form of panelled fencing you can get, and may disintegrate when coughed on by a goldfinch. Unless it is next door's, in which case it formally needs permission to paint it.

Potentially shocking?

Bit of a boob there, if you try eating every pasty you see.

It's quite funny isn't it - these are back with a vengeance. Did they ever go away? Though I guess that it might be more likely to be a man to doing the ironing than the cleaning in my experience (taught by the forces?). Even at home we have a woman to do the cleaning every fortnight, and there is a Ironing service round the corner called Pressed for Time. Ferdinand

I make that you now have a full set of answers. ?