Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2017
- Posts
- 9,205
- Location
- Beds
I'd say a paving slab or two should sort that spot out as a very quick but solid solution.
What "man jobs" have you done today?
- Thread starter jaybee
- Start date
Thank you, that was what we were leaning towards. It's also trying to fill in and around there that doesn't look appalling (skills or lack of) but I'll take sturdy over looks for the party. Alternatively, something like this might be alright too.
Thank you, still got the reel by the way. Let me know if you still want, no worries if not.
Edit - should have asked. So gravel/bricks underneath, nice and flat to lay the paving slabs?
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Nice work on the clearance, my only concern is that lots of the weeds will still grow from underneath the newly laid turf. You'll need to keep an eye on them to stop them taking over.After a week in Ireland, the three of us went to task on the scrap heap behind our garden in preparation for a party. Moved at least half a ton of rubble, rubbish, glass and roots. However I need to figure out an easy solution to steps from the gate to the back and remove the weeds to the left. Good team work though.
Ideally you'd cover the soil post weed removal with some sheeting for a while (weeks apparently) before turfing. I didn't do this last time and the weeds are poking through now. Pain in the rear.
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Definitely still want it --- my London days are all over the place at the moment. I may be around next week if you have days booked in already?
Thank you, all quite new to me and definitely should have started this sooner. The amount of weeds and their roots we removed was insane, always assumed we slowed them down a lot but not completely removed. Problem is leaving it too late, I need that area to be usable for the party so don't have time for the sheet or at least leaving it for weeks before laying the turf. Party isn't far away so hopefully we can properly address afterwards.
No worries and I should be in Mon/Tue next week but quite flexible
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Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Nov 2002
- Posts
- 7,705
- Location
- Under the Hill
Almost finished laying some (14) oak sleepers. Finished guttering. Rescued a hedgehog.
Pics of sleepers? I am thinking with the winter die down of the garden and whilst its not too cold, I may be able to frame some of my borders a bit better with it.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Nov 2002
- Posts
- 7,705
- Location
- Under the Hill
Sure, will get some up. May need to add some more. Have also moved in 5 tons of Cotswold stone.
Kitchen/Diner/Lounge cleared, ready for the ceilings to come down tomorrow (asbestos removal)...
Old corner sofa dismantled and taken to the tip - did offer to put it in front of the house for the rest of the estate to use, but it was too old and knackered, even for them
Old corner sofa dismantled and taken to the tip - did offer to put it in front of the house for the rest of the estate to use, but it was too old and knackered, even for them
Theres a couple of guys doing a "man job" of drilling a hole in my next door neighbours wall to put a cable through for broadband and I have never seen anything like it. They have hard hats, full safety harnesses, knee pads, goggles, a dust mask and they even secured the ladder to the wall with an eye bolt... Meanwhile the window cleaner is flying up and down his ladder on the street in shorts and T shirt.
You only have to fall once...
Original plan:
How it turned out ~18 months later. No idea where I got this surge of energy from but so glad to have this half constructed carcass out of the workshop!!!
Just need to fill the holes/paint it with some Bedec MSP/fit some skirting. Instead of doors (original plan) I am going to use salvage floorboards (y).
How it turned out ~18 months later. No idea where I got this surge of energy from but so glad to have this half constructed carcass out of the workshop!!!
Just need to fill the holes/paint it with some Bedec MSP/fit some skirting. Instead of doors (original plan) I am going to use salvage floorboards (y).
They were like 5 rungs up... I'm well aware of needing health and safety at work having worked in the trade for 20 years. All that safety gear including a harness for going up a few rungs to put a single hole in a wall is ridiculous.
How much should they wear, explicitly?
must admit we have openreach booked in to upgrade to full fibre in a week or so, was surprised that they specified that they would be using anchor bolts to hold the ladder and making good after???
when they did over the road a couple of months back the female openreach fitter when up the ladder 3 sections fully extended (maybe 30 plus feet ) no anchors and off the pavement next to a road. bigger ones than me
))I started on the weekend, but I've been meaning to get some garden lighting sorted and have been looking around for just some good quality but cheap low voltage lights and thanks to ProperDIY (love or hate his YT channel), when he mentioned Wickes sell the Ellumiere range at very good prices (and I have a localish garden centre having ridiculous offers on them), I did the 'man' thing of starting out buying a £45 starter kit (4 small spots, 12v 80w power supply (can do 18 lights from that) and a load of cable/connectors), went to fit those on Saturday morning and realised that in actual fact 4 won't touch the sides, so went and got another starter kit (cheapest way to get 4 spots and it comes with extra cables/power supply as a spare!), so that's 8 spots.. Then decided that this nicely lights up all the planters but now makes the courtyard and side of the house look a bit underlit, so went and got 2 of the Bollard lights, those worked so well, I'm now going to get another..
So 8 spots, 3 bollards, countless extension cables later I've spent £200, and already 3D printing some wall brackets to hold the Bollards out from the wall of our extension to provide gentle lighting of each side of the house/extension.
+
So far I've just screwed the small spots to the bottom of the fence panels to illuminate the (to be replanted) hanging pots and we'll have large planters in front of each spot shortly, this year we are working on the garden, it's a nice blank canvas at the moment, a nice 50cm brick edged zone with slate goes right around the periphery, perfect to rest some sleeper based multi-level planters, then I'll place each spot in the planters or something along those lines!
I've already just loosly placed 2 bollards to see how much light they produced at night and they are perfect for gentle area lighting.. for flooding an area with light I am looking at LED solutions along the entire soffit of the rear extension.
You can get a cheap £12 ellumiere light sensor that goes inline, but will be integrating control with some Shelly kit I use so it'll be a mix of switched, timed and light/motion triggered.
The spots are heavy duty plastic and feel very robust, the bollards are metal and very well constucted, all come with spikes and screw mounting options, the cables and T-pieces are all modular, so you get 1m, 2m, 5m and 10m cables, you can join those in any combination, add in T-Pieces at any join and it's just simple waterproof screw together plastic + o-ring connections.
The bollards the Mrs wants on either corner of the extension, 30mm from the corner, this will give low level area lighting to the front and side of the extension, so I've quickly knocked up a bracket that bolts to the bottom of the bollard (they have an M10 threaded hole) and will stand the bollard off the wall (will screw to the wall) and is designed to sit on the gravel which will support most of the weight.. If I can't get it to be perfectly upright, I'll have to make a second discreet stand off bracket that I'll glue to the bollard 1/3 of the way up to give it extra support, but I'll see how it goes! I could incorporate 2 of the left over spikes from the spotlights on to the bottom of the bracket to push in to the gravel just to give it some extra rigidity:
So 8 spots, 3 bollards, countless extension cables later I've spent £200, and already 3D printing some wall brackets to hold the Bollards out from the wall of our extension to provide gentle lighting of each side of the house/extension.
So far I've just screwed the small spots to the bottom of the fence panels to illuminate the (to be replanted) hanging pots and we'll have large planters in front of each spot shortly, this year we are working on the garden, it's a nice blank canvas at the moment, a nice 50cm brick edged zone with slate goes right around the periphery, perfect to rest some sleeper based multi-level planters, then I'll place each spot in the planters or something along those lines!
I've already just loosly placed 2 bollards to see how much light they produced at night and they are perfect for gentle area lighting.. for flooding an area with light I am looking at LED solutions along the entire soffit of the rear extension.
You can get a cheap £12 ellumiere light sensor that goes inline, but will be integrating control with some Shelly kit I use so it'll be a mix of switched, timed and light/motion triggered.
The spots are heavy duty plastic and feel very robust, the bollards are metal and very well constucted, all come with spikes and screw mounting options, the cables and T-pieces are all modular, so you get 1m, 2m, 5m and 10m cables, you can join those in any combination, add in T-Pieces at any join and it's just simple waterproof screw together plastic + o-ring connections.
The bollards the Mrs wants on either corner of the extension, 30mm from the corner, this will give low level area lighting to the front and side of the extension, so I've quickly knocked up a bracket that bolts to the bottom of the bollard (they have an M10 threaded hole) and will stand the bollard off the wall (will screw to the wall) and is designed to sit on the gravel which will support most of the weight.. If I can't get it to be perfectly upright, I'll have to make a second discreet stand off bracket that I'll glue to the bollard 1/3 of the way up to give it extra support, but I'll see how it goes! I could incorporate 2 of the left over spikes from the spotlights on to the bottom of the bracket to push in to the gravel just to give it some extra rigidity:
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