What "man jobs" have you done today?

The last five days have been spent digging and laying a patio.

It was 32c for two of the days spent digging. I really chose the wrong week.

Nearly finished now though....
 
IvanDobskey said:
The last five days have been spent digging and laying a patio.

It was 32c for two of the days spent digging. I really chose the wrong week.

Nearly finished now though....
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Here's to hoping you weren't as silly as me and used sunscreen!

A week after the fact, I'm mostly peeled but the sun burn pain was immense for a few of the days!
 
Matt O'Brien said:
Here's to hoping you weren't as silly as me and used sunscreen!

A week after the fact, I'm mostly peeled but the sun burn pain was immense for a few of the days!
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I burn badly in the sun :( so I made sure I slapped plenty on.

I started off using woefully inadequate gloves though. By the time I got myself some heavy duty ones, the damage was done and my hands blistered to hell :(

Job is now done apart from some stones around the edge. Will post some pics soon...
 
Just had neighbour round to help me put facia boards back on summerhouse.

Re felted it on top of old felt - not that there was anything wrong with the old felt it's just that erectors used a staple gun to hold felt down - I can tell you staples rust and water gets down staple holes. - So this layer of felt is glued down and a few 13mm felt nails under where the overlap is.

If you buy a shed or summerhouse and can specify roof board thickness don't have 12mm as shortest felt nail is 13mm and you don't want nail points inside.

Going out now to slap a coat of paint on boards.
 
I'd say they look clean enough! What did you use to cut them? Did you hire a big petrol saw?

It's on my list to redo our back yard. Not sure whether it'll be this year or next though.
 
Marvt74 said:
I'd say they look clean enough! What did you use to cut them? Did you hire a big petrol saw?

It's on my list to redo our back yard. Not sure whether it'll be this year or next though.
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I was a little nervous about cutting the slabs to be honest, but it was the easiest part of the job.

I bought a Bosch angle grinder and a diamond edged disc. All I did was cut a groove on both sides of the slab, then whack away with a bolster chisel and hammer. They split perfectly along the groove every time :)
 
Ooh interesting. What sized angle grinder? I recently bought a 4.5" cordless one but not sure thats really going to cut it. Although we're planning on using those slate effect slabs which i think are only quite thin so might be ok.

I'm debating whether to lay a sub base or just use stones/sand as you have.
 
Marvt74 said:
Ooh interesting. What sized angle grinder? I recently bought a 4.5" cordless one but not sure thats really going to cut it. Although we're planning on using those slate effect slabs which i think are only quite thin so might be ok.

I'm debating whether to lay a sub base or just use stones/sand as you have.
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It's a 700w grinder with a 115mm disc I think. I was totally shocked how well such a small device cut into the slabs. Kicked up a fair amount of dust though, so did the cutting under my car port with a mask and goggles on.

I dug down about 10cm, then laid about 5cm of limestone before pounding it with a 10x10 hand tamper to compact it. Then chucked some weed membrane over it and finally a layer of sharp sand on top. I used some bits of wood that were about the depth of the sand layer to screed the sand level. Then whacked the slabs down on top.
 
Thanks, i was thinking i'd have to use a powered compacter unit but those hand tampers look like they'd do a decent job.

How come you're not pointing between the gaps? Would sand not wash away whenever you powerwash them?

How long did it take you to do?

Think thats it for my questions!
 
Marvt74 said:
Thanks, i was thinking i'd have to use a powered compacter unit but those hand tampers look like they'd do a decent job.

How come you're not pointing between the gaps? Would sand not wash away whenever you powerwash them?

How long did it take you to do?

Think thats it for my questions!
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It took far longer than I hoped :( It was 32c on several days of hard digging. I think in total it took me 5 full days of hard work.

I dug out a total of four tonnes of earth. You wouldn't have thought that much would come out of such a small area.

The slabs are butted up to each other so no room for a mortar joint really. Some fine sand will do the job.
 
Marvt74 said:
not sure thats really going to cut it.
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divuk83 said:
Yeah, it's just a load of 2 inch strips of ply glued/clamped together, then planed/sanded and then I rounded over the edges with the router. Legs are nothing special, but I got to use my kreg pocket hole jig for the first time, very impressed with it. I really like the look of the edge grain of ply.

Dave
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@divuk83 - Wich pocket hole jig have you got? I've seen a few Kreg ones, the good version which is around £120 (similar to the Trend one Screwfix do), and then i've just seen this

https://www.manomano.co.uk/drill-ac...er_id=537135&gclid=CKiOp8qI3tQCFdqp7QodjgcFMQ

Trying to decide if these small versions would be good enough, combined with a quick release clamp..
 
I have the R3, which I think I paid less than £35 for off the rain forest store. The kit comes with a few of each screw, but you will almost certainly need to buy more screws almost straight away as I think you only get about 10 of each size. I just use a quick release bar clamp and that seems to hold it in place fine.

Dave
 
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