The heat, the heat!

[mjc55]

How is everyone doing out there?

 

SO hot today, managed to be on site 10 until about 5:30 but it was a very, very hot one.

 

Working inside, no way we could have been doing anything outside.

[SteamyTea]

I helped a mate out in his chip shop tonight.

Careful placement of 3 fans kept the temperature down.  Have known it to be 50°C for 4 hours.

So not too bad.

Edited June 24 by SteamyTea

[saveasteading]

11 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

helped a mate out in his chip shop tonight....3 fans

So it's you that is chucking all that heat into the atmosphere!

[ToughButterCup]

Working on the shady side of the outside of the house after about 9am. We both like the heat, SWMBO quite happily in her greenhouse (!) - I couldn't stand that.

Sleeping is OK - blinds down all day and veranda doors open all night. 

 

Workwear 

Running shorts : nowhere to put my phone - so my watch has separation anxiety every few minutes 

No built-in knee pads : we now need three kneeling pads - but I can never find one

No pockets : drill bits and screws line up along my lips - not long before I swallow one I expect

Sandals : no toe protection - suddenly very fussy about dropping stuff 

Angle grinder: sparks look like fun normally, until the hot metal chipping stream fizzes down your leg and some of them get trapped against your skin under the  sandal strap

 

SWMBO feels sorry for me - jugs of iced water

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

11 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

I helped a mate out in his chip shop tonight....

 

Ughhh @steamy, genuinely sorry for you this weather: my son's pub kitchen is hot even in freezing weather. Not funny.

[SteamyTea]

On 25/06/2026 at 09:12, saveasteading said:

So it's you that is chucking all that heat into the atmosphere

Recycling the heat.

We take gas out of the ground, combine it thermally with atmospheric oxygen, use the by product to make your fish supper, and allow the rest to eventually vent to the environment to cool.

Some of the waste ends up in the sea, slightly increasing the acidity, some gets absorbed by the local plant life where it gets changed to carbon based structures and oxygen.

Eventually, it all ends up back in the ground, gets buried by more of the same, and if the geology is right, turns into a gas to be reused.

It is hard to say what the excess released gasses have contributed to this week's weather, but there will be something.

 

What I do know is that compared to some other times when the weather has been similar, strategically places fans have kept the temperature 15°C lower.

Makes me wonder how much A/C or slab cooling is really needed in the UK. Maybe just better controlled forced ventilation will do the job.

Edited June 26 by Nickfromwales
typo

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

If the geology is right, turns into a gas to be refused.

 

Or reused.

I don't usually look that far ahead. Some future creature will analyse it and call it the chip shop gas well, from the "Humans  Age."

[BotusBuild]

I was prepping a  strip foundation for a retaining wall yesterday. Lost count of the number of litres of water I drank.

 

Finished it early this morning before it got more scorchio. No concrete until next week. Its just too effing hot and I can't be arsed watering it while it dries

[saveasteading]

3 hours ago, BotusBuild said:

watering it while it dries

It shouldn't dry at all. It hardens chemically , but drying weakens it.

A very light spray of water at most, then polythene over it, or hessian and then wet it.

After a day it will be hard and can be soaked but the concrete should be kept damp for a week, (and isn't full strength til 30 days.)

Then the small amount of free water can be allowed to evaporate.

[BotusBuild]

Yeah, maybe "watering it" was the wrong terminology

[sgt_woulds]

On 25/06/2026 at 09:17, ToughButterCup said:

Workwear 

Running shorts : nowhere to put my phone - so my watch has separation anxiety every few minutes 

No built-in knee pads : we now need three kneeling pads - but I can never find one

No pockets : drill bits and screws line up along my lips - not long before I swallow one I expect

Sandals : no toe protection - suddenly very fussy about dropping stuff 

Angle grinder: sparks look like fun normally, until the hot metal chipping stream fizzes down your leg and some of them get trapped against your skin under the  sandal strap

 

Shifting spoil at 7pm last night

 

I cut down the cheap cotton work trousers they sometimes sell in Lidl / Aldi just below the knee pad pockets. They work quite well as pirate pants; all the extra rips and tears just add to the ventilation potential and  I still have all my pockets and a hammer loop and knee pads. Cut upwards behind the knee for extra relief. Drives the girls mad...

 

Straw hat with built in solar power fan

 

Work boots was the worst bit. Last time I was in Hungary I found a shop selling steel toe sandals but didn't have enough pocket money. I'm deffo buying them the next time I visit!

 

 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

15 minutes ago, sgt_woulds said:

pirate pants

Do they show a black beard?

Or Seaman Stanes.

[Gus Potter]

Now is the time to really look after the materials you are using to build. In this weather if you press ahead you may be making a rod for your own back later.