Recent content by oakysmokyjoky

I've got a long tree pruner pole (4m,) and I'm going to buy a mini Mattock as that should break up things. Henry will be used for sucking duties!

Can anyone suggest a suitable hand tool that can reach in 12ft+ into a 50mm cavity to drag out a load of building debris please? All the crud there is not helping the cavity do its job. I need something like a thin mattock or a thick pick on a very long handle.

I've just looked at BR2010 online. It looks like its actually OK looking at 2C6/Table 3. For under 12m builds it says 290mm up to one storey then 190mm rest of height to 12m (so that is good for the main bit of the house), and 190mm all the way up for less than 9m...which the front bit of our...

Sorry, I suppose its 8 inches plus the cavity and a bit of render but its meant to be 15 and a half inches in total as a supporting structural wall.

I saw a black squirrel for the first time...but in Grand Paradiso NP in Italian Alps. Friendly little fella it was too. Not sure I'd want to build/demolish there though, but a great place for a hike.

OK. our house structure is **** poor. The undercroft garage for a house built into the hill has 4" walls (brick, 50mm cavity and block on edge) underneath the area I've shown red lines. But the main bit of the house sits on thicker non-cavity solid walls. Issues: Moisture inside both side...

So, the cavity is in the right place....but the outside leaf of the garage wall is also forming the structure of the wet pit. All the moisture in the pit is heading down and through the block wall. Is the cavity better to be empty or should it be filled with beads? Seems to be an mix of old...

yes - below PIR is a cavity that's been part filled by the insulation beads. I think this is making damp worse in the garage (coming from the soil pit). It doesn't help that the cavity appears to have been bridged with the render above the blocks. Its a right f'ing mess.

Hi. No extension. I assume the builder built the garage and house above it as a block...then built the sunken pit with staircase around which helps hold the rest of the house up (we are built into a hillside). back in the late 70s/early 80s - different rules then I guess.

Hi. Advice appreciated please. I am chopping out blown bricks and rebuilding the outside face of our house step wall. I find loads of cavity insulation in the wrong hole ...so between the basement garage wall and the wall/sunken pit holding up the steps to the house (the blocks on the right of...

'tis all done now. Cable moved, marked and protected. Now, about the wall. It's about a metre of soil and I think I'll put one of the thinner gabion baskets in there to make the corner. I have no wheelbarrow access so I think this will work ok. Any good suppliers out there please?

An update...14 months from when this started. Well we are nearly there. SSE has dug the trench, new cable in the duct and jointers coming Tuesday. No cost to me and no new easement signed. Finally I can get on and rebuild the wall without an 11kV cable in the way of my spade!!

@bernardgreen That duct - probably just put a sandbag on it ;) @Scally-Ho Top portion of pole - here's some images taken just now.

Another update. It's off to the local MP now to see if he can shake anything loose.... as SSE has gone dark/radio silence about all of this. I think they are waiting for our neighbour to apply and pay for a cable diversion so that they end up funding our garden's work...

Update. I've now dug out more greensand to make a trench and managed to core drill four 72mm weep holes. Perforated drainage pipe will go inside the holes with leaf guards fixed inside. I'll try and wrap pipes with geotextile. The pipes are bedded in concrete to try and steer free water to them...