Search results

Thanks for this helpful info woody, I will keep it in mind when mixing next week

Thanks for your reply lostinthelight, The only real mixing I have done was a 5inch 11m2 slab by myself in one very LONG day! Lol I will probably gauge by doing something along those lines. Am I right in thinking you should add water to the drum first before cement and ballast to stop it from...

Thanks woody, I know what you mean otherwise air pockets and gaps will form. I will start with 10% water content and work my way up till it looks right

Thanks, although the ground is fairly dry at the moment. I suppose I will just have to see how its looking in the mixer

Thanks for your reply Mikey, well after hearing this I am glad I didn't fork out an extra £250 for the pre mixed C40! So as an example if I go with 50kg (fairly dry) ballast, 10kg cement. Any ideas how much water? One thing the cement does state is to keep the water content as low as possible...

Hello Jeds & Woody, Thanks for your replies. I was initially going to go with a 1:4 mix of ballast:cement, but judging by your replies so far it seems like an average would be around 1:6 ratio. I did see quite a lot of charts on google saying basically a 1:1 ratio of ballast:cement to make it...

Hello, I am building a garden room 7.4m x 3.7m garden room on 15, 20cm x 40cm x 40cm concrete footings that I have made formwork for. I will also be putting 8mm stainless steel rebar in them as they are quite thick at 20cm. Everything is set in place, levelled, placed on Mot type 1 and ready to...

Hi Rusty, thanks for your reply, that is a good point about trees in the city. Ideally I would like a slab but like I just said to Woody in this thread I don't see how one could be built as there are plenty of thick tree roots. You are right easy pads would definitely be cheaper and much easier...

Thanks for this information, with this taken into consideration it seems like a raft would be best, however I don't see how one could be constructed as there are plenty of thick roots in this area. Especiallly with the correct sub base depth

Hi Woody, Thanks for your reply. My main concern was covering the area which the trees have established roots and in effect starving them of water and nutrients, but generally speaking you don't think this is an issue for established trees? I was thinking that by having the garden room...

Hello, I am looking to build a garden room ideally 8 x 3.5m. However behind my fence there are a lot of tree's and bushes, keeping these trees healthly is important since they act as a screen between my house and a college building behind them. There is quite a big Oak tree that sits right...

Hello, I am building a shed in my garden. The stud walls are going to be made from treated cls, 16 inch centres and will be cladded with metal box profile cladding on 3 of the 4 walls. On the front wall I am going to be using wooden cladding as it's the only visible wall and the only wall...

Thanks, So you don't think sharp sand is advisable? I am assuming a standard building sand joint is about 10mm to?

Thanks for your reply, I have just put all the bricks in buckets of water! Maybe I'll let them sit a bit before using them so any excess water can drain off. Would you still use building sand just for a single course of bricks? I don't mind taking my time with it and making small batches of...

Thanks for your reply, Did you find that using quite a dry mix at 3:1 bonded well to the bricks? Also did you use a plasticiser? Thanks

Thanks for your reply, I thought about doing that but I will be left with a 25mm gap that will need filling. However that would be the much easier option. I have already bought the bricks so am hoping to go with that option and they will at least keep the whole frame off the ground, just need...

Hello, I recently laid a concrete slab for a shed to sit on top of, however over the longest length (5.5m) there is a 25mm difference in height. I know this is not ideal but I laid this in a day by myself which was quite the challenge. So to correct the height variation so the walls can sit...

Thanks for your reply, Access is not so much an issue as am planning to prefabricate the walls and bolt them together, also thinking to use pvc cladding so maintanence should be minimal.

Any ideas on spacing between shed and house? Thanks

So if I am not attaching it to the house I don't need buildings regs? Any ideas on how big a gap to leave between the shed and house for air flow?