Search results

We've just had an enclosed porch built and we would like to build a oak bench with some shelves for shoes underneath. Our first quote was over £1000 :-) so I'm going for diy. The bench will be bridging across some breeze blocks that make the porch foundation. The area of timber required is...

I drilled some holes in the bottom of the legs, and put some coach screws in, adjusted with a smaller and sat on some small bits of felt. The whole house is wonky so it work on everything from wardrobes to bedside tables. Normal screws for the smaller ones. :-)

Cut, dig and put some concrete in otherwise it will fall over. Quite easy to cut tarmac even with hand tools, even neater with an angle grinder.

absolutely, slice it, undercut to separate roots, roll back, top soil underneath, trample with feet,some root grow, roll back, tamp down, lots of water. No video required. Maybe some top dressing to help knit together.

Quite likely lack of sun rather than the soil. What's the drainage like? What's on the other side of those shrubs and which side of the garden are they on? I'd be tempted to cut them down and let the light in if they are the culprits for shadowing the garden. You may be able to attach some...

No but you could get agro. We went round to our neighbours to tell them what we were doing. They told us they didn't really like the idea, and we explained why we needed it. We agreed to disagree, politely, and then built. They came around recently and thanked us for discussing it with us...

We were worried about replacing tarmac with gravel for the same reasons. Gravel drive, no damp in the house. Guess it evaporates rather than gets stuck under the tarmac.

wrong time of year for lime pointing sorry. Late spring early summer best before it gets hot. It won't set.

Never store PVA glue with your multi-meter...... my wife found me....

I think... if he digs the trench and then fills is back with shingles it will still retain water and have the same effect as higher ground, both in water retention (unless drained) and splash back. If the surface of the shingles is lower as a result of the trench then that should be OK. We dug...

I guess it depends in the period you would want a return on investment. I 'invested' in eve home and made my money back in just under 2 years. We were also far more comfortable in our home as we could tailor the fuel to heat the rooms re required to a temperature my wife appreciated ;-) That...

Only 1 person in the house so the water probably didn't surface, 4 of us and 2 kids having a bath every day clearly tested the system.

Just as all of the above. It's a standard line.... That said, we moved in, 1950's tank, and to cut a long story short, it couldn't cope with the volume of water a family of four created mostly because the clay meant the soakaway was practically useless, so it discharged on the neighbours...

Just done a test patch on my new deck and it sat on the surface for 2 days. Give it a test. Mines untreated larch so may not be relevant.

OK - I went the GJD route. Impressed, but I have one remaining dilemma. I would like to switch a mains light from the expansion box (12V trigger). The light and the expansion box are 20m apart but cable routing is a nightmare. Are there any reliable wireless relays out there, 12V powered...

thanks all, I emptied a tin of total wood preservative because I had it..... straightforward. A few days later did a test patch of osmo teak oil. It's still sat on the surface wet, 72 hours later. I only headed in this direction to help with cleaning really. Going to leave as is now.

Brilliant, some great ideas thanks. Trouble is I've become lazy and keep looking for standard off-the-shelf solutions. Perhaps I won't go as far as a photocell, trany, variable resistor, reed switch and a bit of bread board aka school electronics project... the main thing is usability, which...

I hadn't considered microwave. I guess I could repurpose the internal switch to override the external lights which will be on PIR, and leave the porch on microwave. Thank you for all of the other suggestions.... I've been researching lightwave, but the switches are all suited to a modern...

Great thanks!

I don't think I've ever deliberated so much over something that should be simple.... We've just fitted an Oak frame and glazed porch. We will have a single light from the ceiling. One of the 2-way switches is in the house. I can't bring myself to run a 3 core cable up the oak frame alongside...