Recent content by stuart45

I've never taken mine off, so don't know how easy it is to remove.

Mine's had regular use, and is still going strong. I've always had Belle before, but thought I'd this one a go when the gearbox packed up on the Belle. The build quality doesn't look quite as good, but for the price I'd say it's a good mixer.

Screwfix do one similar to the Belle for less than £300. I've had one for over 7 years now.

I can't remember ever laying a 5N block.

It's probably lime run off. It looks similar to efflorescence, but being lime when it carbonates it can be harder to remove. It's quite common with engineering brick walls, as the bricks send most of the water into the joints rather than absorbing some. Free limes are a by product of the OPC...

Yes, looking at the photo a bit closer the low level ones are below a tap and drain, so it would be worth checking the ground isn't getting soaked in that area.

The brickwork above the window looks like it's dropped a bit due to a lack of a lintel.

You are correct in your thinking about the compression of the bed joints, as they are normally quite full as well. The cross joints, on the other hand, are often only half filled. Also, as the walls expand and contract small cracks go into the joints. Add to that that when the bricklayers get...

The vertical joints are the cross joints. The horizontal ones are the bed joints. Cross joints are are called the perps.

Interesting idea. I've never heard of anyone smoke testing a cavity, but I'd guess it would find any weak spots. It's generally the cross joints where penetrating damp gets through first. BRE did some tests on cavity walls, and found that badly built ones with half filled cross joints allowed...

To answer you question on demolition, I'd just fill in the cross joints where the mortar's washed out. Looks like it's been covered with hessian, which is fine for frost, but you need plastic as well for rain.

Doubling up on blocks laid flat is actually a standard method on site on 9inch walls. On party walls for example it bonds into the cavity walls better. Also it's said to make less chance of the blocks cracking. However, for face work, single bonding does look better.

I was asked by a customer to put up some blinds she got from Dunelm a few years ago. I reckon at least have of them snapped the heads off before they were even fully tight by hand. I suppose the difference years ago was that the correct sized clearance and pilot holes were used, so even a slot...

It's untrue. First rule with those goods is throw away the screws and use decent ones.

Phillips screw heads are designed so that the Phillips screwdriver will cam-out (slip) if too much torque (power) is applied. The reason is that this prevents the risk of the screw head being twisted off by a power tool. This can be helpful, because if the head breaks off, a screw is very...