First-time house renovation

andrew-b

stolt wrote: »

Are you putting your shed up on your own?

No i'm going to get shed company to put it up for me. Still need to go visit the shed company to discuss but when i spoke to them on the phone they said they could install for £50 because i'm local - definitely worth it IMHO. I could probably put up the walls of the shed myself with a hand or two from OH but the roof would be the big problem for me.

Delivery though is on a pallet roadside (not sure if i can convince them to move it to the back garden) then i have to treat all the panels before i get them back to install. It's modular with 3 foot wide sections so should be relatively easy to handle.

Anyway hopefully will order it this week. Could actually have done it this morning as we were nearby on way to return some timber to wickes (was going to use to make an edge around the shed base but changed mind).

Also had to return our rotary washing line from homebase..we'd had it 3 weeks but only just got round to actually using it yesterday. I'd already tested it and found a bit difficult to lower but when OH went to bring washing in yesterday it wouldn't budge ..took a joint effort for about half an hour until we managed to lower it! Fortunately i'd kept the packaging so we took back this morning and customer service reluctantly gave us our money back.

andrew-b

Maggie, the ecobase comes at a price..£5.99 per tile at Simply Garden Buildings (would recommend - is sent next day direct from Swift Foundations who manufacturer it) which is the cheapest place i found. But has advantages over paving slabs or concrete. Also if we ever move i'll probably take shed and ecobase with me!

On bifold doors it might be worth considering that they restrict the opening width an inch or two.

With not using garage footprint..probably makes things easier in some ways and your not relying on the foundations that are already there and might not be ideal for supporting extension above (usually building control want a trench dug to inspect existing foundations if your building on top of. Often easier/quicker to start again anyway rather than making the best of what you've got! Would be a good idea to have a look at neighbours too...to get ideas to copy or ignore!

On moss ...you really ought to get yourself a lawn scarifier (think i saw them on offer at screwfix? may be wrong)..which my Dad claims was his idea but he didn't patent it! Black and decker bought out an electric lawn rake shortly after he'd walked in a shop and said "is there such a thing as an electric lawn rake"! Some more expensive cylinder mowers you can get a scarifier cartridge to replace the blades.

Or better treat with moss killer (suitable for lawns) or lawn sand and then rake/scarify later. See "Lawn Expert" by D.G Hessayon for all things lawn related - library or buy. My Dad usually gets a couple of dustbins full of thatch & moss off his lawn most years.

Is noticeable not having any planes flying here too. We are close to manston airport though to one side of the runway but usually get alot of helicopters and small aircraft. Was actually a helicopter around yesterday and one small aircraft so not sure if they were air ambulance or coastguard or what. Wonder how many people will buy a house today and then later find they are on a main flight path!

Must go get on..need to cut grass before i do anything else. Then it's either concrete breaking or fence painting..the latter feels more appealing right now!

jimbugalee

Morning all! Sounds like you all had busy weekends

I did some planting out in the garden and waiting for boyfriend to make me some containers to grow carrots in out of the pallets we have. Also knocked the plaster off the office to be walls. Dust everywhere! Found some damp which isn't great but we have already had one wall treated in the back so calling the same ppl out to have a look at it.

Stolt - am I being silly?! What are those cage things in the picture up against the flower bed?! Garden looks fab btw ... super jealous!

Where is the cheapest/best place to buy sheds? we really need a bigger one to put tools etc in but they're soooooooo much money!

aliasojo

stolt wrote: »

That looks really effective. Are you pleased with it all or is there anything you're not happy about? Do you think you picked the right 'version' now you see it all over? It looks very level but are there any dips in the ground that are more apparent now? Would you have been able to do it yourself do you think, now that you've seen the chap work with it? Is the join visible and how do you stop it parting at the join?

Sorry for all the questions. I just really want to do this but I'm not one for quick decisions. :rotfl:

Btw, I like your table too.....where from? If you don't mind. :D

stolt

jimbugalee wrote: »

Stolt - am I being silly?! What are those cage things in the picture up against the flower bed?! Garden looks fab btw ... super jealous!

QUOTE]

Thanks, the cages are called gabions and they are normally used to on riverbanks or roadside verges to keep earth from falling. used them previously for pond in our other house, going to fill them with cobble stones and raise the flower beds behind them.

stolt

aliasojo wrote: »

That looks really effective. Are you pleased with it all or is there anything you're not happy about? Do you think you picked the right 'version' now you see it all over? It looks very level but are there any dips in the ground that are more apparent now? Would you have been able to do it yourself do you think, now that you've seen the chap work with it? Is the join visible and how do you stop it parting at the join?

Sorry for all the questions. I just really want to do this but I'm not one for quick decisions. :rotfl:

Btw, I like your table too.....where from? If you don't mind.
:D

yeah really happy with it, its so much more easy to manage, and it will mean the kids will be able to use the garden more especially when the weather is bad as there is no mud. Its pretty level as its had 9ton of sharp sand and sub base underneth it and then wacker plated down, the garden flows down towards the extension and across the garden and i couldnt loose all of that but i did my best. yes you can definately do it yourself, i just wouldnt have been able to do it all myself in that timeframe, the cutting etc but its certainly something you can do yourself with any problems, as they forgot the last section (being delivered today) I have to glue that in place and you put a 1ft wide table with green glue down and its just a case of marrying the sides up, not tight together leave about a 1cm gap between the two and the gap just dispears, its amazing. On that picturethere there are 4 strips glued together, and once the glue goes off its rock hard. In a previous house we went for the straight emerald green look but i'm glad that we chose this more natural version (would have loved the thicker version) but coudlnt afford it.

table If i remember was from heals, I cant remember as I bought it last year and never managed to get round to fitting it as the builders we with us for so long the whole garden was a mess.

Go for it, you wont be dissapointed, someone at work reads my blog and he came in this morning and is going to get a quote for his, i should have asked the shop for commission!!

jimbugalee

aaaaaaaaaaah I thought they would be the gabions but didn't know what those were either! I get the idea now .... good plan

latecomer

Gardens are starting to look good folks. We had a good weekend - builders came on saturday and took down all the scaffolding ready for collection. We had lots of OH's relatives round including BIL but I decided we should just stay in the house to stay out of their way. they finished it in about 3 hours and then we got on with clearing as much rubble and earth as we could fit in the skip which is now completely full. We then had a BBQ outside despite the odd drop of rain and rapidly falling temperatures, just great to be able to get out into the garden again.

Yesterday was all about tidying up. Took 4 car loads to the tip which cleared most of the wood and rubbish inside and a lot of the remaining stuff outside.

Scaffolding was being uplifted as I left for work this morning and I believe the porta-loo should be done today too. The builders said they would be in touch as they left - I expect another demand for money in the near future - but they still dont know about the structural report or the one coming from the architect etc. And thats before we get to the dormers and flat roof not being correctly constructed etc.

ukmaggie45

andrew-b wrote: »

On moss ...you really ought to get yourself a lawn scarifier (think i saw them on offer at screwfix? may be wrong)..which my Dad claims was his idea but he didn't patent it! Black and decker bought out an electric lawn rake shortly after he'd walked in a shop and said "is there such a thing as an electric lawn rake"! Some more expensive cylinder mowers you can get a scarifier cartridge to replace the blades.

Or better treat with moss killer (suitable for lawns) or lawn sand and then rake/scarify later. See "Lawn Expert" by D.G Hessayon for all things lawn related - library or buy. My Dad usually gets a couple of dustbins full of thatch & moss off his lawn most years.

They were supposed to do lawn scarifiers in Lidl last week, but when OH went there they hadn't got any. Possibly he went to the wrong Lidl as a new one has just opened.

Can't risk any sort of herbicide as am somewhat chemically sensitive - too risky for me. Besides, if we killed ALL the moss it would be mainly bare earth rather than lawn!

I don't think the lawn's been properly looked after for some years now - only been cut fairly regularly. And us walking all over it in the snow and frost prob didn't help! Only excuse for that is there isn't a path across the lawn. We might put some dropped pavers in so it doesn't get trodden down so much.

andrew-b

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

They were supposed to do lawn scarifiers in Lidl last week,

Yes i think i saw that in the lidl email. Though i'd probably get a Bosch one from screwfix or wherever is cheapest.

Well this afternoon got the grass cut and a bit of hoeing, lots of sweeping up as everything is covered in dust from my groundworks then painted the couple of fence panels where the old shed was. Got a second coat to do tomorrow though i suspect i'm going to run out of the cuprinol Ducksback paint i had left over from a couple of years back. The panel that was green was soaking up the paint really quickly so i used alot more than the other unpainted panel.