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Ferdinand

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Everything posted by Ferdinand

  1. Ferdinand
    Huh? If it is in use elsewhere such reports should be available off the shelf, surely? Does he mean spread of fire on the outside? How is this different to eg wood or plastic siding cladding? F
  2. Ferdinand
    Edited.
  3. Ferdinand
    Let me also fly the flag for raised patios, which are as cheap as chips if the situation warrants - especially if you have (or build as part of your house base) a slab in situ.
  4. Ferdinand
    Yep. Also we have antislip paint which seems to work OK. Yes expensive, but mine (Cuprinol) came as a Wickes BOGOF which mitigates the £25 per can. For a decking that high you *must* have a pond and a plank, Blackbeard style.
  5. Ferdinand
    Why not put some fibres in? They are designed to prevent cracking. And it is annoying me (sorry) - could you remove the extra p from the title. Ferdinand
  6. Ferdinand
    It depends on your planned setup and your personal involvement. What is your planned setup? E.g. MCS or not? I think you would end up with a company per discipline ... not many PV suppliers do plumbing for e.g. You may be asking this question too early and need to DYOR first. F
  7. Ferdinand
    A couple of questions about the Automist water mist fire suppressor. 1 - Is Automist still essentially a monopoly for mist systems, or are there any alternatives? The cost of the head seems eyewatering, and for several floors each or one or more rooms prohibitive. 2 - What do they call it in Germany? Ferdinand
  8. Ferdinand
    Yep. Always free real coffee and nice little packets of biscuits here, plus a free bacon sandwich van on Wed and Fri mornings !
  9. Ferdinand
    45% off Reisser at Howdens Had a postcard through the door this morning saying that Howdens have 45% off all Reisser screws until I think the end of March. You need to be trade, and this is the Mansfield branch. Ferdinand
  10. Ferdinand
    Edited to remove vile anti-Norfolk slur.
  11. Ferdinand
    Do some Googling for brick Grp cladding. There are a number out there.
  12. Ferdinand
    To reemphasize. The look is critical - it could be made to look like a fake rock in a fishtank or the fake stone edges to one of those grp ponds. So very important to go and look at a real example. I might even argue for cladding your garage first to sanity-check it. I guess one downside is that when people tap it it may sound "plastic". Ferdinand
  13. Ferdinand
    Yep- that one looks like London Stocks. On GRP, well made it should last 40-50 years, and to make it well is simple. Our family biz used to do this occasionally as a special. In this application, the obvious problem I can see is that those segments are so small that you may end up with an obvious tessellating pattern. If they are that small they really need 5-10 slightly different 'tiles'. The only way to be sure is to look at one they have already built and be sure that you are happy. Fire wise, GRP is OK until it goes, then it GOES. But it will take something very very hot to set it alight and take some time. We used to make spiral staircases from it, and they were allowed to be sold. Ferdinand
  14. Ferdinand
    Decisions have consequences. As per the other thread I painted by pay window tops with anti-climb paint to prevent the lead being stolen. Now my window cleaner is reporting that there is are small amounts of sticky residue (really just a texture and a slight blackening) appearing on my "oak-grain" upvc windowsills, where rain is picking up something from the (Blackfriars) anti-climb paint. This is 6 weeks later, I think I need three things: 1 - A cleaner to get this contaminant off. Any recommendations? 2 - Perhaps a coating - a barrier cream for upvc - so that it can be cleaned more easily. Again - recommendations are welcome. Would I want something like polyurethane or a physical barrier? 3 - Any indication if this is likely to continue long term. It is not a huge problem (my frames are fortunately not white), and a spring clean post-winter would probably do the job, but I need to be able to clean it back should I ever sell it. This might argue for fibreglass over the lead rather than anti-climb paint if anyone else does this. Thanks Ferdinand
  15. Ferdinand
    (Off-topic.) Many areas of the world have not banned CCA, eg in the USA I think you can use it for foundations but not for picnic tables or climbing frames. There seems to be some work around suggesting that the risks have been exaggerated (see Wikipedia). And Cresosote is not banned. Though you may not get stuff quite as usefully 'orrible as the byproducts of the gas works. AIUI Creosote is merely restricted to the trade and may not be advertised to the general public, and is not allowed in domestic settings plus some other bits and pieces. You can buy creosote pressure treated fenceposts with 25 year guarantees (and also utility poles) for use on farms etc There are fencepost brands such as Fence and Forget. The EU has a habit of banning things without adequate evidence on occasions, and not taking the level of exposure (rather than the existence of exposure) into account, or ignoring if a very small number of people are affected, driven by powerful lobbyists imo abusing the precautionary principle. The latest victim I have seen was the traditional perfume industry. Now that we are escaping I wonder if any of this will change. If I were doing a self-build in the country with a 'paddock' I would be very tempted. But most of my fences are for tenants, and I do not play games in that situation. Though if for example I was renting a field I might use it if allowed after an analysis / risk assessment. Ferdinand
  16. Ferdinand
    I thought EXIF rags could be edited at will?
  17. Ferdinand
    Watching Building the Dream and his suggestions are what people on BH get in the first 3 messages. TV is learning.
  18. Ferdinand
    @IanR Streetview shows a slab in about 2009, which may count as a start.
  19. Ferdinand
    It sounds as if Planning are doing what they can. A complaint could be anonymous but could perhaps only put persistence in their project. An alternative complaint could be about nuisance. Think very carefully before doing this. One of my (single, female in this case) tenants had a neighbour who used to put in a vexatious complaint about dog barking every year - essentially the Council "we have an obligation to follow up but cannot tell you who complained for dataprotection reasons" (*) procedures meant that they provided a free third party harrassment service. I referred that to the Community Safety team for harrassment in the end to push back a little but it went hardly anywhere. My T was distraught, and it was tough preventing her family from sending the boys round. Is there leverage with his open sewer, Natural England or the EHO or Health and Safety, and sensitive newts? Would there be an regulatory reaction to the sewer if the EHO saw it while in search of rats that somebody had seen? Though I think it may be the way to concentrate on your own house and readdress if still a problem when you are done. Ferdinand (*) The claim is a pile of pish. They could rewrite their procedures to treat repeated unresolved complaints as vexatious, and possibly even their DP rules so that names could be revealed.
  20. Ferdinand
    It worked that time . Thanks.
  21. Ferdinand
  22. Ferdinand
    In late 2015 on Buildhub I had a thread about removing a Huuuuge TPO Poplar Tree. http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/16624-removal-of-tpo-tree-after-branch-fall/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eygMw9JE9tY This is an update. The Council forgot about the replacement, but the neighbour did not :-).The Council recommended "oak or beech". And we talked about replacement trees including Turner's Oak. So I will be putting a standard tree in this spring, looking at something narrower than the 15m branch radius of the Poplar but with leaf colour interest and a mature height of perhaps 12-15m, by which time I will be in my coffin ("Here lies Ferd, who was alive and is now derd. There is no more to be serd."). It is prominent on a corner at the entry to a 100+ house housing estate. Options are: Quercus Robur Fastigiata (upright common oak) Quercus Robur Fastigiata Koster (narrower and a little faster) Quercus Palustris Green Pillar (upright red oak which goes red in autumn on the correct soil) Pyrus something something Chanticleer (medium size ornamental pear which goes bright red in the autumn) All are hardy as it is an exposed site. I think I am looking at option 3 or 4. Cost will be about £200 delivered for an approx 8cm girth 3m tall tree. If anyone has any comments they would be welcome. Ferdinand (How to embed a video?)
  23. Ferdinand
    That got right up my nose.
  24. Ferdinand
    Not yet. But when I was 11 doing Duke of Edinburgh in the peaks, I was too curious about a stand of wire wound into a corded fence. "What's that?". Thud.
  25. Ferdinand
    I still can't decide whether this is a wind up by Mr "My tackle is as big as a 6 pack of Walkers Crisps. Honest." But if you try to do that you *must* have a watertight conditional purchase agreement in place *first*. Otherwise you gift somebody 10s of k in the value you add to their property, which they can exploit as they will.
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