Recent content by PikeyDIY

New driveway and parking area to the front of my house, about 130 sq metres worth. Sandy soil, v. good draining therefore want driveway to be permeable. It's wholly a private driveway, so only light use, maybe the occasional delivery van. We have a digger and dumper hired next week for the...

or maybe Lafarge GTEC Renderboard with a Parex render, as that's the system that has BBA certification. At least it only took 2 days to rip it all down :lol:

It's going to be redone with Renderpro boards and a JUB thin coat render system, by different people - who hopefully know what they're doing! They have experience using this system, and they did an excellent job of our internal plastering so we're confident of a good result this time :)

Well, we decided to go with him in the end, against the advice from this forum. Barely a week after he finished, got paid, and left site - it all cracked up. :roll: Evidence from site showed he did virtually everything wrong - the mixes for the outer coats were too strong, the coats were...

The bellcast and angle beads are all stainless :) If we were doing this again I think we would use an external cement board aswell, to be honest. In fact, there's not a great deal stopping us changing to that system anyway. I will also look into that.

Permanently wet is underwater, as in a swimming pool. Intermittently wet is correct for an external wall. I'll make sure its the correct stuff he uses, if we continue to use him. Im pretty sure he only started at the bottom because he wasnt sure he could continue, so it would be easier to...

Well, a quick internet search reveals a BBA certificate for Unibond PVA adhesive for use in external conditions: http://www.bbacerts.co.uk/PDF/2695i3_web.pdf Bricks are laid stack bond, with BRC reinforcement tracks in each mortar bed. Perfectly ok :)

I passed on your concern that the 2nd coat wouldnt key to the 1st coat. He said he would use pva unibond on the base coat to bond 2nd layer in, plus a few scratches here and there. Is this a viable solution? Or is he still covering for not being able to do the 1st coat properly??

@stevethe spreader: £4500 was a rough quote, without even having seen the property, there's no guarantee that paying £4500 would have resulted in a better job anyway - or even that it would have been possible AT ALL with the mesh the way it is now!!! You're making enormous assumptions about me...

Everybody else has been quite helpful, so thank you for that :) I havent made any decisions about what we're going to do yet. We are looking at alternative quotes, the previous guy has left site but all his stuff is still here - including 2T of sand. I have said I'll ring him next Tuesday...

No it doesnt - why would I take a day off work to spend it shovelling sand and cement into a mixer all day, busting my gut - when instead I could be sat in my office earning MORE money than I'd be paid for being a labourer for a day??????? THINK about it :roll: That second quote is nothing...

I 'keep on about saving money'?? I have never mentioned saving money in the context of cutting corners or doing a bodged job - however I do object to spending over £1200 on unnecessarily specifying stainless steel mesh where it is NOT REQUIRED :roll: ONE part of ONE corner bead has been...

It's an option, we could put Tyvek on the mesh and then put another layer of mesh on, effectively making the first layer of mesh redundant but that doesnt matter if thats what it takes to get it right. Id be tempted to say just the double sheet of mesh would do it, personally?

It would cost more in terms of me taking time off work than it would save us on the cost of his labourer (£40/day), so that's not really an option. But good idea anyway, thats what I'm doing with our electrician (but he works saturdays :wink: )

That was his justification for needing three coats rather than two. He said to me "look theres no way I can scratch that, so I'll have to do three coats" So what you're saying is that his first coat should stick out more and then be scratched? What is a 'pr1ck' coat then? Im confused :oops...