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Hi folks, Planning on getting a patio laid some time soon - on a bed of 50mm mortar made with sharp sand and mixing SBR in for strength & stickiness. Anybody know if I need to (or should bother) adding a chloride-free frost proofer? Or will the SBR be enough by itself? I wonder if the SBR is...

When you say straw, do you mean like woodwool panels? See here http://thenaturalbuildingcentre.co.uk/lime/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/tiki-download_file-41-400x280.jpeg If so I would have thought you could just stick some water resistant plasterboard on using the normal adhesive?

Cheers guys. Reckon I need a whacker plate to get it looking good & well compacted? Or is it practical to do it just with a hammer and maybe a bit of wood?

I'd say not that much point in having it double skin unless you're insulating the roof & door too, as there won't be any real thermal benefit. Just uses twice as many blocks and takes twice as long. Plus you loose about 20cm of space all around.

Reckon those bricks were fine until he made the opening?

Personally I would just use hollow wall anchors. If you put one in every single hole of your TV mount, then for it to come down it would have to bring down about 2 square foot of plaster. That usually means about 20 of them - so they're only taking slightly over 1kg each... I've done it a...

Hi folks, I've got this strip of missing tarmac in front of a driveway. It got ripped up because there used to be a prefab concrete fence there which went under the tarmac. Tried getting a few local tarmaccers to come but none are interested so I'm going to have to sort it myself I reckon...

I would encourage you to have a go at rebuilding that yourself, it really ain't difficult, and it's a useful skill to have. If you do plan to, I'm sure loads of people will chime in with advice about novice mistakes. I would have thought the laying of the bricks is probably half a day or most...

Agreed on the rebuild. I can't imagine any possible way you can jack that up without it breaking anyway, it's too heavy. A smaller column could possibly be manipulated in some way but not that big thing. Rebuilding it will take very little time. You just need a little fast jack hammer gun...

How big's the post? I rebuilt one a couple years ago almost exactly in this situation, 2x2 bricks, 5ft high, took about 2 hours. Never laid a brick before in my life before that day. Turned out fine. Can't imagine any kind of bodge repair working out well. If you tip it over it might well...

Fake grass could be an idea?

In my experience the only problem with inaccessible underground drains is when they break. And that only happens when they're made of something **** like clay, or less so cast iron. Plastic on the other hand... meh... it'll be there in a thousand years probably. I doubt you can block a 110mm...

Hi folks, I'm preparing to lay a natural stone patio approx 30sqm, foot traffic only, part of it involves a 4m wide circle feature which is going to take 12 weeks as it has to be manufactured. I'm considering laying the 'rest' of the patio anyway, stopping a couple feet short of the circle...

Hi folks, I want to put in a small wall, similar to a planter (but not actually a planter), on a lawn, and render it. The render would be Weber coloured through stuff to match a nearby part of the house. Reckon I'll be okay to put a stop bead below the level of the grass tips (but above the...

The thing about pointing is, you don't know if you've cocked it up until two days later when the mortar dries. All of a sudden you realise you've smeared it absolutely everywhere, it's the wrong colour, etc etc. If I was going to do it, I wouldn't use a pointing gun, too risky. Lot safer by...

If you fill a cavity wall with blown-in insulation, does the insulation move moisture from the outer skin to the inner? Or in other words if the OP already has it, is this more of a problem?

Has somebody nicked your gully?

You may well find the concrete canopy is also the lintel above the door, cast in one big piece. In which case be careful that it doesn't end up knackering the brickwork above when you start smashing it up with a breaker. If I were you I would use a diamond grinder or stihl saw and carefully...

For god sake, now I'm going to have an awkward conversation with this guy asking why he's put stop plastic beads on external corners. God knows what excuse he'll have. He's stuck them to the concrete blocks using window mastic, is that okay?

Hi folks, I'm getting some external rendering done, and the guy who's doing it has been round and nailed stop beads all round in preparation. Thing is, he's used stop beads even on corners, cream plastic ones with about a 10mm lip on them. This presumably means I'm going to have a 10mm plastic...