Jump to content

Ferdinand

Members
  • Posts

    12213
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    41

Everything posted by Ferdinand

  1. Can you not rivet a patch over it? That was how they built the Titanic .. er.
  2. Does the crate need ventilating? You are halfway there.
  3. Thanks for the responses. We had a two wheeled one tears ago ... difficult at corners and in not quite straight lines. I do not think I will get an electric one through due to cost. One thing I have not mentioned is that an ideal loaded height would be 12 to 15 inches. Cheers for the comments so far.
  4. Ironically, £30 is exactly what it costs me for a new builders' barrow. The local BM do identical barrows in chrome, black and green at 3 different prices. Ferdinand
  5. Certainly for tomorrow morning,
  6. All fur coat and no knickers may have a bigger chance of being preserved.
  7. For the record. 1 - drink whisky. 2 - imagine naval gun whilst in drunken stupor.
  8. You threatened that months ago. I call all mouth and no trousers.
  9. I am looking for a smallish wheelbarrow suitable for my mum (81, 5'2", uses walking stick) to use around the garden. Does anyone have any experience of models they would recommend? I get nobbled for any heavy or prickly jobs, so it is mainly for moving eg plants and pots and clippings around - that kind of thing. (Yes, I know at all the older - undefined - people on buildhub could construct a lighthouse on Rockall in a morning using a Mirror Dinghy and Medium Density Breezeblocks, but there does come a time when we become a little less Incredible-Hulk-like). Ferdinand
  10. Yes, but can he build a 14 inch naval gun out of a set of bagpipes and a crate of whisky?
  11. I hadn't realised until this morning, but Eurocell are one of our local successes, and seem to have a very good reputation. They are a £200m turnover business based within 5 miles of where I live, and manufacture their products in Alfreton, Derbyshire. Largest UK based PVCU profile manufacturer / recycler. I hope they stay independent; we require a Mittelstand. Founded in 1974, , and hahave been through a couple of ownerships; now independent and on the stock exchange. So, yes ... buy Eurocell if they meet your needs. Hopefully suppliers like Sunamp will follow a similar or better growth pattern. Ferdinand
  12. Looks good. How do the two levels of roof work? Ferdinand
  13. That could be one to ask on the Gardenlaw forum, Rights of Way topic. The key thing is probably who has a right to go down it, and who *does* go down it, and in what mode of transport. Agree with "caution". But it could be one of those "no idea" conclusions. If the numbers were small and it was short term (ie less time than it would take someone to do something about it), I might check my insurance and chance my arm. You need to worry about the person in the hospital with a brick which landed on their head, as well as the neighbour wanting procedures following, Chatting to eg dog walkers may be a help if they are the main users. Ferdinand
  14. Depending on when you need them, another option is to ask local worthies (vicar or RC person where the East Europeans are more likely to be found, trade union branch chair, local councillor) for names. Another option is to ask someone who works at a manufacturing or depot type place to put something on the noticeboard. That might find former or trained but never made a job due to recession brickie and trade type people who moved into a different skilled or semi-skilled position. They may want a second regular or occasional job. Another source could be to ask for recommendations from the head of dept or lecturer at your local college construction dept. Ferdinand
  15. My impressions reading around before posting this thread. Working height - height of highest thing you can work on standing on the highest aallowed platform. Seems to be 1.6m-2m above Platform Height. Maximum Platform height - height of highest level you can stand on. I think this is the more useful one to use, since we are different heights. Tower height - a bit ambiguous. Seems to be the height of the tower without someone standing on it. In my mind this includes handrails. 'Lift' - do not know. Ferdinand
  16. Do not do what I just did. Make sure that it is not 3mm bigger than the space it is supposed to go through when it gets into the house.
  17. Prints out in 25cm high bright red letters. Sticks on wall.
  18. Where are you in East Anglia, roughly?/ And which Council area you are in? If you are renting one or part out, your very best guarantee of success is to be within walking distance of a <60 min train journey to London. Wrt to this plot, you need to go and see local letting agents information and find out what rents for how much in that place, what it costs to rent one out, and what the demand is for. And who is your target market. Without at least that you are just playing Pin The Tail on the Donkey. Then you are in a position to identify your gross and net returns, which means you can then make a sensible decision.I have not started building rentals, but I plan to start in the next years - I will be targeting build cost including plot and fit-out (not incl. furniture) in the £90-120k ballpark. I have no idea whether I can achieve this (yet) with target rents of perhaps £700-750 a month. Even that is a low return compared to what can be achieved with refurbs but I want to do some newbuilds and see what is possible. You will need something attractive with no showstoppers for your target market, and something that works to keep them there for 5+ years. And something SIMPLE and ROBUST so you do not spend your weekends mending or tuning it. Tenants will be best with a single cordless controller in a house which is warm throughout with bills of <£500 per annum, annd never needs anything adjusting. Unless they are eco-boffins they will not give a hoot whether it is certified or not. And eco-boffins tend to have built their own eco-houses or want to do so and so will want to be moving on from yours not staying in it. Ideally the whole house should have zero moving parts an nothing to break down, but many are incredibly suspicious of electric heating. The need to exclude complication is one of the biggest lessons we are learning collectively here. And do not underestimate the amount of management involved in rentals - especially holiday ones. Ferdinand
  19. A personnel lift powered using a cordless drill. Take a spare battery. Slow but can reach considerable heights (eg M20 mpdel nearly 5m platform height) - good for swapping high bulbs, for example. It fits through a normal door. I do not know cost or availability in the UK. Apologies for the 70s pornfilm music.
  20. The Teletower. The mechanism is innovative, like a telescopic ladder - but the platform height is limited to 2m. Fits in an estate car. Cost from around £750 new. I am not really sure what this adds functionally over a £150 Youngman Work Platform from Wickes (I currently have one of these and it easily fits in a small car) which also reaches 2m platform height, apart from the guard rails and perhaps better passive safety if in continual use.
  21. Youngman Minimax. Platform height up to 6m. Fits through standard door. Good quality. To get the one to reach 5m or more, it will be £2-3k new.
  22. This thread is for different types of work platforms and scaffolding towers. What do you have, and is it easy to use? Stengths and weaknesses? In my case ideally I need something that will reach perhaps 8m working height (ie 6-7m platform), but will work with a narrow base (side path) and can be carried in a car or trailer. This is a little different to most self-builders, in that I have several houses to maintain and a greater need for transportability. It would be useful if others could add more traditional scaffold towers. I will post videos of a few I have found. All have different strengths and weaknesses. (Currently, there is a Youngman scaffolding tower for sale in the Buildhub Marketplace.) Ferdinand
  23. The "Search this topic" dropdown on the search box might help there.
×
×
  • Create New...