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Years back I bought a Ryobi Expand-It petrol strimmer, and ended up buying a few accessories over the years. As the engine is a little past its best but the accessories are still in good order, and as I have a few Ryobi battery tools I looked into buying a new electric powerhead. Unfortunately...

I've built a workshop in my garden; construction is 4x2 walls sheathed in 11mm OSB3, then wrapped with breathable roof membrane, with battens and cladding yet to come. For 2 of the 4 walls, aesthetics isn't a concern - the building is in a corner of my garden and the neighbours can't see it. I...

I appreciate costs of everything have gone up in the last couple of years, but has cladding skyrocketed? I have a workshop to clad in my garden, and currently the cheapest of the cheap softwood timber shiplap is coming up at about £30-£40 per square metre... I'm sure when I looked last autumn...

Echoing the above, the reason being that the boiler is in one of two states at any time: "make heat" or "don't make heat". The thermostat being set to 25 degrees doesn't mean that the boiler goes into a high power mode to try and keep up, it simply means that the boiler will be in "make heat"...

Sometimes the simplest suggestion is the best I'll give that a go,

I'm running some conduit and have hit a problem I've never seen before... I'm using a Schneider box with the rubber grommets that can be replaced with a gland or bush, and I've found that the holes are slightly too large for the PVC bushes I've used in the past. On a 20mm hole or knockout these...

Writing this as the temperature has dropped to -2 here... So much for my "5 degrees for extended periods"! I think I'll go for the Beko, glad to hear some good experiences of them.

That's the "builders opening", and those bricks are very unlikely to contain asbestos. From the way the bricks were knocked about at the side I suspect a back boiler used to live there... If there was any asbestos, it left with the rest of the boiler. Is there a flue liner further up? As he...

Ah, that rings a bell. Freezers defrosting because the fridge doesn't need to come on.

Funnily enough it was a browse on AO that had me scratching my chin at how hard and fast this rating is: 24 models of chest freezer, but only 4 are listed as suitable for outbuildings. These were a pretty limited selection of 3 Bekos and a Fridgemaster.

I'm looking at chest freezers with the intention of putting one in my completely unheated workshop. The majority of fridges and freezers are rated for 10-43 Celsius ambient temperature, with a tiny minority rated down to -15. Now, I have previously told friends "careful putting that freezer in...

Thanks all - I've now ordered a heavy duty tarp from an online tarpaulin specialist that is specifically waterproof and multi-ply. Buy cheap, buy twice as they say! The EPDM was pretty expensive by comparison (I seem to recall it was about £500 for the rubber alone) and we've already had some...

I have built a large shed with a flat(ish) roof (1 in 35 fall). I have EPDM membrane for the roof, but watching lots of videos, I saw recommendations not to lay EPDM in cooler weather as the creases will never drop out, and as my membrane has been stored for a good 6 months I expect the creases...

As you live on a farm, do you have access to a telehandler either directly or via a neighbour? Depending on the size and weight of it, seems like a couple of sturdy straps to support it from the TH forks, near the top of the stairs, before cutting the wall supports and unbolting the floor...

Thanks, I'll get truss clips

I'm about to start on my new shed. The roof will be a flat roof with EDPM over OSB3, so needs a minimum fall of 1:80. I've designed the building with a fall of 1:40 to be more forgiving of any inaccuracies I build in. I was also planning to use upside down joist hangers tying the roof joists to...

I know this topic has sometimes caused disagreements... I've no dog in that fight, I'm just trying to make sure if I sell my house I don't have a ball-ache on my hands proving my shed isn't non-compliant. I am planning out my new shed/workshop. It's going to be a timber-frame building on a...

I've done just this - my house has a concrete slab straight onto grade, and the slab was cold as anything. I put either 6 or 10mm XPS (marmox boards, specifically) down in the kitchen, utility and downstairs loo and it made a significant difference in those rooms both to the warmth of the floor...

Thanks for that, I'd only read about it so was interesting to see it being laid - you can see when the excavator-mounted whacker is being used there's still some definite wetness and "squidginess" to the mix, so it's nothing like what I was thinking (dry mix down, whacker, water). Seems like...

I suppose if the outer concrete forms a hard shell from the misting, any subsequent water won't penetrate to the insides (at least, not in a useful timescale), which might be another explanation for the rock hard/crumbly nature you encountered. Whacking it might just make that issue worse.