Ferdinand

Are there any lessons to be learned here from the mutual support that seems to happen best via our 'Norn Iron' region? (Depends on density of people, and also depends on translating anonymous internet identities to real life trusted relationships). F

Can you recycle (am I right you are renovating not building)? I used my current lot to insulate under a suspended wooden floor in the same house using a staple gun (need good ventilation underneath), and for sound insulation inside stud walls - between rooms and against the neighbours. I used the previous lot to insulate the roof of a conservatory which was being turned into a garden room. If I was taking it to the tip I would borrow a box trailer, and not let it near the car. Ferdinand

A couple of days ago I said I was buying a plastic shed for storage and would report back. It is here and built now, and I am very impressed. The shed is from a company called Keter, and is their range called Factor (more expensively they also do Fusion which is prettier, and Oakland which can be painted). It incorporates a steel from which I can hang (14 st) and do pull ups (would not try if 18st). I went for a 8'6" by 11' (external) version, but there is a range of sizes. Internal clear dimensions are approx 6-7* less ie an 8x4 sheet won't quite fit across. I paid £699 (list price £1200, normal selling price is £899 from eg Wickes and Argos), which compares OK to my 2 most recent wooden pent-roof-workshop (ie big windows one side) 8'x6' sheds, which were £800 (new, built by supplier, included catflap, leaked first winter) and £450 (ex demo, built by supplier, did not leak). Pros of Keter Factor - Very strong. - Built by Handyman in under a day. He says he would like one himself for the motorbike. - Likely to be durable. Comes with I think a 10 or 15 year guarantee. - Shelves and brackets available in their system. - Double doors - in this one more than 4' wide. - Sufficient light comes in through the window and clear panel along the ridge during the day. - Probably relatively straightforward to dismantle and remantle somewhere else. Cons - I have a slight concern about damage to the plastic from sharp items. I may be wrong but I have a loose laid OSB floor in there just in case. - A shed not really (in my view) a workshop. - Not sure about attaching things to the shed itself. Personally I would use freestanding storage etc. I may just be being cautious, but I will not be testing what happens if you drill lots of holes in it. - As with most sheds, it will get hot in the sun. It was very hot yesterday, though there are a couple of vents. Notes - Requires a good base as it slots, clicks and bolts together .. ideally a slab, but I used heavy pavers on raked gravel since it will be a patio when the shed moves. Wickes and others also do a different type called Amber Skylight, which reviews far less well on various websites, and I would avoid. That Keter range is worth a look imo, if it matches your application. Ferdinand (Photos to follow)

I need to do a bit of CAD this weekend, and I am not currently up to speed with any package. It relates to a change of use application for an industrial unit, and my Planning Consultant has advised that a sketch plan on graph paper on this application does not look polished enough and may be an 'in practice' reason why the Council may refuse to validate the application and request more information. What I need to do will be: 1 - Pull in OS mapping purchased online as a layer/background. Currently I have this background as a PDF. 2 - Draw extra bits (eg car park layout). 3 - Have the appearance of a 'professional drawing' when printed out - Frame, Scale, Notes etc. I do not need exact precision on the drawing, just not to trip a Validation elephant trap. 4 - I might want a couple of library elements - eg row of oblique parking spaces - though such can be drawn. Can anyone recommend? Time to do the job will be short, since I have about 8-10 queries to resolve. Cheers Ferdinand

How do I dispose of a worn out pruning saw? I am thinking that wrap up in newspaper or cardboard and put in the general waste may be the way, but it has an 18" blade and could still do damage. Is it one for the Council Tip as a "separate"? Cheers

I thought this might be a useful thread to have around for the same question on different things.

I find that I don't need enough mint that I can actually smell it.

We discussed how to keep well insulated houses cooler during the heatwave on a thread last month. I think I have about the best solution for ours until I find a solar film suitable for the outside of our roof windows which will reduce the solar heating significantly. That is without the higher-tech solutions other members have installed. It is create a stack effect by opening a shaded north side window or door on the ground floor (eg in the shaded conservatory), cracking a roof window by 4-6". Then I can direct the (noticeable) current by opening certain doors. One corollary of that is that in future when I renovate houses by adding DG I will make sure that there are least *some* opening toplights and that they have a lockable "ventilation position", so that cross-ventilation can be set up in a secure manner if the Tenants are eg in the back garden or out, or overnight. Ferdinand

@jackI use mint, having no insect screens or mosquito nets. 4-6 sprigs (say 8-12") in a bottle or vase on the sill in rooms which are often most often open to outside. We have one in the conservatory and one in the kitchen. Strip the lower leaves, and these can be used themselves in several ways (look up on tinternet). When the sprigs grow mini roots they are no longer effective, so plant them back into the mint bed to build the stock and get some more. One lot will last 2 weeks or so. It makes a significant difference for us in the number of insects coming in so we have given a whole raised bed over to mint. I am guessing the mechanism is that the aromatic scent will deter insects from entering - which says you may need to try for a few weeks to see the difference. Try it and see. @recoveringacademic can have a mint pot in his winter garden :-). Other plants may also work, but none are so easy to grow. Apparently if you chew a mint leaf before going to bed it helps deter mosquitos, and perhaps your roast-lamb loving beloved will be even more passionate than usual. Ferdinand

So what happens in still weather ?

That looks like lovely stuff. A little dig suggests £45 per sqm or thereabouts. It seems to weigh about 1 tonne per sqm when used as cladding: http://www.woodtrend.co.uk/Cladding/IPE-CLADDING And there is space for appalling anti-Yorshire puns ("pronounced ee-Pay"). How long will it last without maintenance? F

Is that a potential bat roost if arranged as on the Grand Designs boathouse?

I considered doing that over a "peep wnidow" so you could see who was coming to the door discreetly. Like the look. Ferdinand

Ain't its simplest we could just use something fire retardant or resistant that we use in most self-builds. Cement board?

Build an upside down house :-), though that may be approaching the issue from the wrong end.

If you are tempted by the sleeper option then also consider sections of reclaimed telegraph pole, which will last as long and may be more inexpensive. Ferdinand

Two Three possible options are: 1 - Get your local fence man to make you some shorter ones. If he has a 1.2m mould all he has to do is put a brick or a block of wood in the end to make it shorter, and perhaps cut the reinforcing rods. The first time I used these my slab man got a mould in to make them, and has now added post repair spurs to his regular range. If I wanted them shorter, I would just ask. 2 - Cut the bottom off it with a grinder. If it is concreted or postcreted in then it should protect from water. (Any opinions to the contrary?) 3 - Make your own, then you can decide the length. That may sound drastic, but most of us have made things far more difficult. This is a video of someone making a post, and the only awkward elements of the process seems to be a) The finer aggregate and b) The vibration. The moulds are only around £60 from here, so just your dozen posts could pretty much cover the cost: Just thoughts. Ferdinand

Unfortunately as far as I know 1.2m is standard for these. You *could* just dig a deeper hole .

I will not be backpedalling, Mr @recoveringacademic. Me and my cocktails and my weekend BBQ will not, will not be moved. And I just ordered one of these from the excellent Lancaster Smokehouse up your way as my meat treats for most of the rest of the year, together with a large box of kippers. While it looks expensive, for a dozen gourmet items I think that is OK. Fairly good value imo. I was invited to fill the hole in the freezer, and I have done so. F

Can I throw one more suggestion in for now @daiking - Concrete Post Repair spurs are incredibly useful / flexible in this kind of thing. They give you a tough concrete thing in the ground and you can bolt whatever you want to the top in the ready made hole - whether a ranch style fence, posts to make something a little larger, or even a couple of brackets for a seat. I think they would be up to retaining 0.7m depending on the what is being retained, and how it is structured/built. At its simplest gravelboards could be wedged behind and help in by the mass. Near here we have a pub backing on to countryside (Carpenters Arms Darley Dale - recommended and pleasant) which has fenced their entire car park with a wooden field fence where posts are all bolted to repair spurs, which is excellent for a long lived but attractive looking fence or retaining structure. Ferdinand

]I can't comment on the amount of concrete, though I am just using a similar setup on the Little Brown Bungalow renovation for landscaping the front garden at a very modest height. Will ask the gent what he did.

Back on. So I'll try and dig up what I had ready last time in order to post it :-). It depends (of course) on what you are retaining - especially the height. I can confirm @daiking's paver battered slightly back arrangement from Paving Expert works well for 1-2ft. These pictured below are retaining a garden level which is about 12-18" higher than the pavement, and are standard 3x2 (I think) dimpled concrete pavers - 1970s version (as opposed to knobbly style 1950s Pressed Council Slabs). They were put in in about 1970 at the house I grew up in and still seem fine. I think one thing that might help clarify your options is to decide whether you want to do it in one step or two. I would guess that they are simply haunched in concrete. Interesting that they have not been disturbed significantly by the contemporaneous evergreen hedge (is not Lleylandii - something more civilised). Ferdinand

I would say to have a look at astroturf for an area - very good in a small garden or play area. I inherited some and I have been surprised. I was reacting slightly to the relatively open piccie posted by @Stones - which to be fair will look very different in a few years. Round here we still have various old hedges on our lane from when it was fields, and it is interesting how 6ft hedges are fairly denuded of small birds in the evenings, but the occasional 10ft bush may have a score of sparrows roosting in it. Then the Council trims its hedges and takes the bush down to 6-7ft and the sparrows all move down the road to the next one. For muckaway have you got to pile all your muck at the front, or can they reverse onto where your drive/garage are, and use their telescopic grab to save you all that barrowing? On your landscaping, I wonder whether using either some of your hardcore, rubble or subsoil to be a firm base for your garden buildup (and keep it out of the skip) would let you use a less extensive retaining structure. One other possibility is to use landscaping / soil retaining fabric - eg Geocell - on the surface or deeper down than usual to provide a matrix. Around here they sometimes used that type of layering to construct those pregnant-looking hills over old coalmines). I think a very early Grand Designs did that - the one built just off the traffic island with the water tower. They used it to retain a grass bank. (In case the Youtube time index does not work below, Kevin Mcloud being introduced to Terram and things in 1999 is at 37:28. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6zRMY0Lmqc&t=37:28 ) Ferdinand

I had a set of instructions for a plastic shed build to read today. It s a mahoosive Mechano kit and seems incredibly strong. Will report back. So I did it over an extended pub lunch.

I am a great believer in thickets for birds, especially occasional bushes which are 8-12 ft for roosting. We had a good clear out of our garden at home a couple of ears ago, and this year they are just coming back in decent numbers.