Octopus Energy have introduced a scheme where they allow you to use electricity at certain periods which they reimburse you for, as hot water heating is our largest daily load, it made sense to fit a smart switch to this as normally the water is heated by the gas boiler, this now means I can suspend the boilers and turn on the heating element.
The smart switch is a remote way to turn ON or OFF the Immersion Heaters 3kW element, the smart switch is rated for 20A and by touching the faceplate, manual switching is possible.
I used a double dry lining box which has a depth of 35mm to accommodate the smart switch, I also incorporated a 20A double pole isolation switch for maintenance.
Wiring was very straightforward, power in and load out, no earth connection is provided on the device, but I used the one on the maintenance switch.
Before installing the unit, I powered it up at the table and connected it my eWeLink mobile App, to do this I ensured the phone was on 2.4GHz WiFi and the device connected perfectly.
The App allows me to set timers to ensure I don’t exceed the allocated free electricity periods, I’ve also set up notifications when the switch operates as a confidence check, its early days, (13 Nov 23), but I’m hopefully this will last.
The details are:
Smart Switch for Electric Boiler, FORNORM 20A 4400W Water Heater Switch Timer Controlled by Amazon Alexa/Google Home, APP Remote Control “eWeLink”, 2.4Ghz/Neutral Wire, White
Homemade WindowBridge across a1900mm window reveal in action, securely fixed to the ladder and with a couple of convenient sliding ‘snap hooks’.
Problem to solve
Cleaning the gutters and upstairs windows has always been tricky with ladders, as I had to try and get the top of the ladder wedged between the top two courses of bricks and underside of the soffit, the problem was compounded when I had Air Conditioning installed and the pipework trunking used this area over a bedroom window.
At the front of the house, the top half is painted render, so I had wo wrap the ladder with a towel when cleaning the upper window so I didn’t damage the wall paint, the WindowBridge sets out to solve this problem, safely.
Looking online, the only alternative was a ladder standoff clip on bracket which I already have but don’t feel 100% safe using, I did message a company who made a product called Windowspan, but received a weird email reply and checking with Companies House, the company is registered as dormant.
This left no option but to make my own, which I’m calling the WindowBridge.
Build
This is a very easy project to build with parts readily available online, the finished WindowBridge weighs in at 4.8kg, I opted for a heavy duty 45mm x 45mm aluminum slotted profile as this was the first one I had built, I wanted to avoid any sag in the span when the ladder was loaded.
A 4 channel profiling for chosen for use with M8 T-bolts to give me total flexibility of any attachment fixings in the future although other profile options are available.
The finished length of profile used is based on the maximum opening that I needed to bridge, in my case it was 1900mm, therefore, the length of the profile in my project was 2100mm giving a 100mm overhang at each side, with the addition of the wheels, the overall length is 2160mm.
I bought 2200mm of profile and cut a 100mm test piece from this using a Screwfix cross cut circular saw, this saw was also used for cutting the brackets giving a neat cut, details of the blade are in the materials list.
Wheels
75mm diameter, ball bearing, rubber wheels were attached to the profile by M8 high tensile steel bolts, the bolts fastened into nylon locking nuts embedded in the profile.
I opted for rubber wheels to give a level of sideways slip resistance and also they are kinder to a painted rendered surface which I have at the front of the house.
Test off-cut of profile showing the center casting, using a 12mm cobalt drill, I drilled into the center just deep enough to accept the M8 nylon locking nut so its flush with the face of the profile, make sure you clamp the profile securely as it will ‘snatch’ when drilling.
The nut is an ‘interference’ fit in the drilled hole, so the use of a hammer is needed at this stage of the build.
Test piece with the nut installed, this is a really solid fixing, the completed wheel assembly is shown below:
Ladder Attachment
I used two pieces of aluminum unequal angle brackets to secure the WindowBridge to the ladder, one bracket for each side of the ladders external side rail, the brackets were attached to the profile by two M8 ‘T-Bolts’.
I drilled a 8mm hole in the center of the smaller part of the bracket and with the ladder in-situ, drilled though the ladder side rail to accept the M8 x 50mm bolt which uses wing nuts for ease of assembly.
Another method would be to pass a length of M8 treaded bar through the ladders hollow rung and brackets to avoid drilling the ladder, for me it didn’t matter, but its worth consideration.
The aluminum I used for the brackets was not ordered, but picked up on the day from the factory in Leicester, so I don’t have any details other than dimensions:
I should have made one of these years ago, no more precariously positioning the top of the ladder or over-reaching when cleaning the windows.
The most expensive item was the aluminium profile, the rest of the items were relatively inexpensive.
Cutting aluminium needs the right drills and blades to give a decent finish, I have included in my parts list tools I purchased to help me.
I could have made the WindowBridge slightly shorter in length to reduce weight marginally whilst still allowing a reasonable span across the window reveal, but overall I’m really happy with it and it is manageable to use.
I bought a previously used Qualcast Classic 35s in 2021 for £40 complete with Scarifier Cartridge as a project and after replacing serviceable items and sharpening the blade, the mower performs really well, the problem was getting hold of a replacement throttle cable for my 1999, Type F016C80961 mower.
The outer cable is damaged at each end and the inner cable is ‘notchy’ due to kinks, so I set about trying to find a replacement and constantly drew a blank.
I did buy a new cable off eBay on the off chance it would fit my make of Qualcast mower, but the outer was too long and although it had the correct ends, the lengths of the inner cables weren’t long enough to work.
After watching YouTube for ideas, I decided to make a new throttle cable.
How to make new cable
The cable I’m going to modify was described on eBay as ‘Throttle cable fits some Qualcast Suffolk Colt and Punch Mowers’, the cable cost £6.58 and was 910mm in length.
Using a Dremel with the cutting disk I reduced the 910mm cable by 230mm to 680mm after first removing the inner cable.
I did buy some 4mm plastic cable ends for the freshly shortened cable, but they were to wide to fit inside the throttle levers recess, so I prised off the chrome cable ferrule from the off-cut and used the shank of a 4mm drill bit as a former to get it back in shape as it was misshaped after prising and made do with that on the new cable, (you can easily get 5mm metal ferrules, but 4mm ones are really hard to get hold off for some reason).
Now the outer is cut to length, I threaded the cable back in the inner, not forgetting the adjuster for the carburetor end, the inner cable was then pulled all the way until it stops, the inner was then marked 60mm from the end of the ferrule.
Again the Dremel was used to cut the inner cable and the individual wires were ‘splayed’ slightly to allow greater surface area when the lead is added to the mold.
Next step was to make a casting mold for the throttle lever, the cable nipple has a diameter of 6mm and a thickness of 3.6mm, in my scrap box I luckily had an off-cut of aluminium which happened to be 3.22mm thick which was fine as its the diameter which is important rather than the thickness of the nipple.
A 6mm drill for the hole ensuring that it was deburred reducing the chance of the lead sticking to the mold.
Using a Junior Hacksaw I made a cut wide enough for the cable and half way through the aluminium, this is where the splayed cable will sit for the casting process.
The cable is put in the mold and the two pieces of aluminium are then clamped together with mole grips.
With the cable degreased with ‘White Spirits’, the jig was fixed to the vice and the mold then fully filled with flux, (soldering paste).
The casting lead used was for holding plants down in an aquarium and readily available online from £3.99 per pack.
Using a gentle heat to the mold, I melted the lead stick, (not solder), into the mold and let it set when full.
After natural cooling, I unclamping the aluminium sheets which formed the mold and the cable nipple came away easily, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
Installing the new cable in the mower, everything works as expected and if you are stuck for a replacement, give me a shout and I’ll help if I can.
Manuals
I’ve added some information on my model of Qualcast mower which you might find of use, I’ve scanned some so apologies for any handwritten notes on them.
I bought a Flowzone Cyclone 2.5 battery pack sprayer and I love it, however I did experience a battery issue and the company were superb in sending out a replacement.
The issue I experienced was that the battery power level only indicated a red flashing LED after being on charge overnight, the battery test is operated by pressing the orange battery symbol and all green LEDs should illuminate after changing.
I did offer to send the faulty battery back to the supplier but they were happy for me to dispose of it, so I thought I’d open it up to see what’s inside.
A T10 x 50mm Torx security screwdriver was perfect to remove the four securing screws, the screws aren’t security ones, but it was the only one I had in the right size.
A cool feature of the battery is that the low voltage charging transformer lead plugs directly into the rear of the battery, no external charger is needed.
The battery pack contains 5 li-ion rechargeable 3.7v type 18650 batteries, once charged the voltage per battery is 4v, testing each battery in turn, it soon became obvious which one had failed as its voltage was 0.37v and the end cap showed signs of discolouration, not sure what caused this, maybe the battery compartment door wasn’t double clicked closed and water got in, I don’t know, but I’m very careful to make sure everything is dry by the battery just in case.
Above picture shows removed dead battery and the new one in-situ, battery cell replacement was quite difficult as the cell connections were spot welded on, and cells were interconnected, fortunately it was the end cell that needed changing so I peeled off the spot welded tab and unsoldered the tab connections on the PCB and this gave me enough room to get the old one out and the new one in.
Once the new battery was in I used some liquid flux, tinned the tabs and cell connections to make the heat contact on the battery as quick as possible using my Weller 100w soldering gun.
Everything works which is a result, also I have 5 battery’s left over as I had to buy 3 lots of 2, pity they don’t sell them individually they cost £20.62 but I do now have a spare, so can’t complain 🙂
I’ve not done anything to my front lawns, other than mow the grass. This year (2022), I thought I would invest some time in trying to get them looking better without the weeds and moss, by the way, I’m certainly no lawn expert!
After treating the lawn with a moss and weed solution and after scarifying and aerating, I needed to level out the surface of the lawn by using a Top Dressing comprising of a sand and soil mix in a 70:30 ratio.
Their are a number of tools which can be used to spread and level the lawn, these are a Drag Mat (or variant), and a Lawn Lute.
Manufactured Lawn Lute, the one pictured is made from Stainless Steel and costs £130
The cost of a manufactured Lawn Lute can be well over £100, so I decided to make my own.
Dimensioned cutting plan of my lawn lute.
The tools needed were:
Welder
3.2mm 6013 Welding Rods
Angle Grinder – Metal Cutting Disc
Tape Measure
5.3m of 25mm x 25mm x 3mm Mild Steel Angle Iron
2.2m 25mm Galvanized Conduit
25mm Galvanized Threaded Coupling
Hinge assembly
The construction was fairly straightforward, once the angle iron was cut to length, the outer frame was welded and then the internal cross pieces were added.
The cross pieces are welded so that the ‘V’ is on the inside, meaning the ‘sharp’ edge is in contact with the ground when in use.
‘Old Faithful’ – Weldmate 140 Stick Welder.
The hinge was made by using a small length of angle iron with the ends cut to allow a flap to be formed, this was then bent over and welded, 6.5mm hole was drilled in each end to the hinge and this was then lined up the two other lengths of angle iron which sit on-top of the cross pieces.
Once all ‘square’ everything was welded into place, the last step was to weld a 25mm coupling onto the hinge, as these are galvanized I needed to grind off this coating due to the fumes when welding.
The handle is a 2.2m length of 25mm galvanized electrical conduit which screws into the coupling when needed, but unscrews for easy storage.
The cost of construction was £44
Welding rods (I did buy a big box for other projects) – £22
Angle Iron – £12
Cutting discs – £10
Coupling and conduit already had
If you do zoom in, please don’t crucify me for my poor welding 🙂
I laid my first block paving path over 20 years ago at a different property, so I knew the basics when we needed to give my existing path a makeover.
Broken flags due to delivery lorries delivering materials.
We knew it was going to be paving blocks, but the colour and pattern needed to be worked through. We did know that only pedestrian traffic would use the path, so the block thickness only needed to be 50mm.
Looking online. the colour of block which is in sympathy with the house brick is Buff, Wickes turned out to be the most competitive at the time of purchase.
Block Setout Plan
Drawing a plan, gave the overall number of blocks required and we went for a very simply laying pattern to reduce block wastage to an absolute minimum after comparing laying options, (my previous attempt used a ‘Heringbone’ pattern which looks really nice but is very cut intensive and generates a lot of waste).
Materials
After ordering the pave block, I needed the following:
Concrete edgings
Metal edgings
MOT1 hardcore
Sharp sand
Kiln Dried sand
Skip
It was time to get the shovel out and get rid of the old path!
Yellow arrow indicate lighting cable duct.We decided to widen the path to allow for a bench as this is a sun trap in the afternoon.
Once all the path was dug up, it was time to run a string line out for my straight edge, the width of the path isn’t that critical at this point, as I can take space from the lawn to add width.
Concrete edging cemented into place, taking time to follow the string line for both height and straightness.
Getting the sand level correct
Once the edgings had set, we laid MOT1 and used a friends ‘Wacker Plate’ to compact this, before applying a 50mm layer of sharp sand.
My spirt levels height was the same as a pave block (50mm), the base sand was compacted and I used two lengths of 25mm galvanised electrical conduit as runners which were embedded in the sand.
The level was then used to scrape the sand using the conduit as rails, adjusting the depth until the sprit levels top edge was 10mm proud of the edgings top, this was to allow for the bricks compaction at the end of the laying process so they lay flush with the edges.
Where the blocks butt up to the lawn, I used Corten steel edgings, as these are very thin, strong and will last for decades.
With the blocks laid, the ‘Wacker Plate’ was again used, after a liberal layer of kiln dried sand was added, to vibrate the sand into the gaps and effectively ‘lock’ the blocks in place.
The lawn was then reseeded, hence the mesh.
One good thing to come out of this apart from a path, is that the house builders had simply filled an air brick hole up with gravel which was below the paths grade, so hidden.
This was sorted very quickly with a new air brick installed, but the builders should have known better, but the quality of construction in certain areas is questionable!
Conclusion
The weather was very kind to us when we were doing this project and their was no rush, so it turned out to be a pleasant job to do, still physically hard work, but it does look good for an amateur job, (although I do say so myself :-))
It all started so innocently, I thought I would give the post supporting my porch a coat of paint, so armed with a blow torch and scraper I started to prepare the post until my scraper sunk into the soft wood at the bottom of the post 🙁
At this point I could have stopped and simply painted over the rotten wood, but as it was a nice day I got a screwdriver out and explored the extent of the rot.
This ended up being quite extensive.
I scraped out all the dead wood and tried to figure out how it had rotted, the post is inside a galvanized shoe, and all I can imagine is that water has sat in the shoe and ‘wicked’ up the post and rotted it.
Once it was back to decent wood and left to dry out, I used Ronseal exterior wood filler over a number of sessions to make good and finally sand down and give two coats of gloss.
Once painted up it wasn’t a bad job and I was really pleased with how it turned out.
Rolling the clock forward 4 years and as my first retirement project and in the March 20 lockdown, I thought I would spruce up the front of the house starting with painting the post, so out came the sandpaper.
Once I started to rub the paintwork, it was obvious that the wood was soft in areas where the filler wasn’t previously and it was at this point I decided to bite the bullet and replace the post.
The unknows were how is the post secured at the top and at the post base also could I replace the post with little or no damage to either the wall or the UPVC barge board and cladding.
The two thing I knew was that the porch will need support once I remove the post, and the second thing was that I’m rubbish with wood so splicing into good wood on the exiting post was out of the questions.
Very little information exists about the construction method used to support the porch, hence this blog to help others who have a rotted post problem.
Before starting I sourced and bought all the materials which I thought I needed.
The replacement post was a Stop Chamfered Porch Post 2100mm x 95mm x 95mm and bought online from RMJM Joinery Ltd and cost £56.97 including shipping.
The part number is SCPP2100 and is engineered timber meaning it is two pieces of wood laminated together giving a high strength, warp resisting, structurally sound post with no knots.
I bought a couple of used Acrow props of Facebook marketplace for £20, which was cheaper than hiring and started to figure out how I was going to do the post swap with minimal damage to the UPVC facias.
Checking the online forums, the general consensus was that getting the polytop pins out which hold the facias on was impossible without damaging the soft surface finish.
I ordered a small number of 30mm and 65mm polytop pins from ebay for £5.70 and looking for replacement UPVC cladding, I couldn’t believe my luck that a wholesaler who sells to the public was based in the town.
AJW Distribution had everything in stock I needed to replace anything I would damage, also they were very friendly and helpful.
I started by removing the guttering and porch roof tiles so I could figure out how the post is attached at the top, trying to save the UPVC was futile, so off all that came too.
Before the post was cut, the porch was supported by a substantial diagonal brace and bricks enclosing the base of the post removed. Using a nail puller, the nails at the top of the post came out easily, leaving the post to be cut and removed.
Nail Puller
The post base was seated in a galvanized shoe, once the soldier bricks were removed it exposed that the shoe base was sitting about 10mm off the second course of the brick wall.
Once I pulled the shoe out of the wall it exposed a locating spike which must have been sitting on the third course of bricks and all the weight of the porch was being transferred as point loading through the spike to the bricks below, a really rubbish construction.
Checking online, it look like the shoe has been modified as the base of the spike should have had a plate attached to spreads the loading, but I might be wrong.
The picture below shows the shoe fitted to the new post, the spike had been bent during original installation and I can only assume this was done in order to get the post level and true vertically.
Picture showing galvanized shoe on new post
Once the post was cut out, it was quite a job to get the residual wood out of the shoe to allow me to reuse it.
The picture shows the post damage over 300mm up from the base where I made the cut in removing the post.
The new post was an ‘interference’ fit into the shoe as I didn’t want their to be a gap allowing water to ingress between the post and the shoe, this meant I used a big hammer to knock the shoe over the post, it certainly wont come out in my lifetime 🙂
Fitting the new post back was very straightforward, once measured and cut to length, the post shoe spike was located back in the gap in the wall and the top of the post securely bolted at the top on both elevations.
I had packed the shoe base with mortar as it was being installed to spread any loading. I had to get two new bricks which unfortunately don’t match the existing (London Brick Company, Honey Buff), but I kind of like that as it shows the post has been changed.
In the picture above you can see a strip of masking tape, this is covering a piece of 15mm copper pipe flattened into an oval shape which goes under the shoe and will act as a drain should water try and collect at the base of the post again.
The finished job, I replaced all the facia boards and cladding, including adding cladding edges, which was a significant improvement on how the house builders finished the porch, the overall cost was less than £150.00 including undercoat and top gloss paint.
Not much to look at once its all done, but I know it will last another 20 years and hopefully longer.
This is a short blog on the process for constructing a Carsare Grande Log Cabin from Dunster House. I dealt with the Bedford branch as its the nearest to where we live and took a trip to look at the build quality and also armed with a tape measure, confirmed some dimensions, Samson the sales representative was very helpful and non pushy which made the visit very relaxed.
Background
The garden was overhauled in 2006 when we first moved in and we were very pleased with it, but over time the maintenance became a burden and we only functionally enjoyed it for a limited time over the year, so we decided to make better use of the space and explore options.
Not sure which family member suggested a outdoor building, but it made sense and so the seed was sown.
Research
Research included all aspects of an outdoor building, this included compiling budgetary costings, proposed purpose, design options and what permissions are needed.
So it quickly became obvious that a home gym with a recreational space was the preferred option, the gym would need plenty of room for equipment and be tall enough to stand in with arms lifted, the rest of the space would be for games and seating, looking at my gardens available area, a 6.5m X 4.5m outbuilding would fit.
Checking with the UK Planning Portal, outbuildings are a permitted development (Class E) as long as certain conditions are met, the key criteria that I needed to meet was below, (my answers in bold) –
1 Purpose – Incidental to the enjoyment of the dwelling house. (YES) 2 Over 50% of the total area of the curtilage used. (NO) 3 Any part forward of the principal elevation. (NO) 4 Single storey. (YES) 5 Total eaves height restricted to 2.5m is within 2m of boundary. (YES) 6 Listed building. (NO) 7 Verandah, balcony or platform over 0.3m. (NO) 8 Microwave antenna. (NO) 9 Less than 30 square meters floor area. (YES) 10 At least one meter from any boundary. (YES)
The outbuildings construction is not stipulated in the Guidance, however, I’m no builder, so the option to buy a prefabricated kit seemed a good idea.
After quite a long time online looking at different vendors and weighing up the pros and cons, we went for a 6.5m x 4.5m Dunster House Carsare Grande, 45mm thick timber interlocking walls, non insulated.
The following files relate to the Carsare Grande we have:
We decided as the cabin will not be a habitable space or used as an office, their was no need to have insulated walls also we didn’t take up the additional expense of roof insulation or gutters and downspouts from Dunster House as part of the purchase, more about this as bit further on.
Implementation
OK, now we know what we are going to have, what it’s for and how much its will cost, the next bit is the base the cabin will sit on, here we had three main options, all of which required a level of excavation works and spoil disposal, I excluded simply building it on top of the existing grass as I want it to last!
Option 1 – Concrete Pad, The recommendation is that the base should be 150mm thick, as the cabins footprint is 6.5m x 4.5m, the foundation slab, needed to be bigger than this, the amount of concrete works out to be 4.46 Cubic Metres, and as the plot is 25m from the road, the concrete would have to be pumped as using wheelbarrows would need 50 trips and that would incur additional waiting time costs for the cement mixer driver and knowing my luck, the cement would have started to set before I had finished! also the cost for concrete, rebar and pumping made this unaffordable, putting aside the fact that restoration of the garden at a future time would be expensive.
Option 2 – Concrete Block or Slabs, Heavy manual handling and these would need a foundation and getting level would be difficult over such a large area.
Option 3 – Plastic Pro Base – This sits on a bed of pea gravel with a weed control sheet under the gravel, each base grid is physically interlocked into place and the spaces in the Pro Base grid are filled with more gravel to give stability and add to water drainage, this was the option chosen.
The base was marked out to give the required minimum 1 metre distance from the fences, this worked out perfectly as its enough space to comfortably get around the cabin to build it, apply stain and maintain it afterwards.
In total we used 4 bulk bags of 10mm pea gravel for the cabin base and the base dimension is 7m x 5m. The cost of excavation plant, labour, skips and base materials cost ~ £1350, so make sure you budget for this! To get the base level we used a laser level with remote detector, this was perfect for our needs, good value for money and easy to use. The model number is Firecore FIR411G and was bought from Amazon.
Dunster House
As mentioned earlier on, we went though to the Bedford showroom and when we got home placed the order using the online portal, this was very easy to navigate and the order tracker was informative. The lead time on the Cabin was eight weeks which was good as it gave us some time to prepare the plot, but after just three weeks we had a phone call asking if they could deliver, at which time we hadn’t even started preparing the ground!!
On the revised delivery date the cabin arrived, I paid for a two person delivery and the guys were very helpful and placed all the parts, of which their was loads , onto an area I had laid out. The parts come off the lorry in no particular order, so some sorting out is needed afterwards, my Cabin is made of two distinct sections and these sections need to be kept separate to avoid mixing up the parts.
Oh, one tip, on the ordering portal you can track the delivery on route to you, don’t believe its accuracy and wait for the order to arrive in case you think it will be OK to nip out 😉
The Build
Tools I recommend you have in advance are:
Spirt Level
Pencil
Rubber Mallet (I used a white head type from Screwfix to avoid marking the wood – Part Number 2472V)
Drill and wood drill bits (3mm, 6mm & 8mm)
Impact screwdriver
Flooring Clamp (Screwfix – Part Number 932FT)
Step Ladder
Adjustable spanner
Tape Measure
Right Angle
Hammer
Tube felt adhesive and applicator gun
Stanley Knife and spare blades
Wood Saw
The first job of the build is to identify the parts, this starts with the floor timbers, as the cabin is made up of two cabin bolted together, you have two lots of instructions and the floor timber spacing’s are different, this will mean that the floorboard screws will not follow a straight line throughout the finished floor, my OCD would not allow this, so I had to take apart the floor timbers and make sure that were all in line. Not a big job, but as its the first thing to do, undoing your work is a bit demotivational.
The walls progressed quickly, simply slotting into each other, a bit of persuasion with the mallet helps to ensure the wood interlocks. I opted to have the window on the left of the door as you look from the outside, the reason for this is that we wanted a seat under the window which would be in a corner and the door would open with an internal wall on the right enabling the light switches to be easily operated without walking across a dark room to operate the lights.
Dunster House provide spare parts, so it may look like you have bits left over from the wall build, but this is intentional which was unexpected but welcome as we did have a couple of lengths with a twist in them.
Once the walls are up, roof joists tie the gable ends together, this is the only doggy part of the build, as for a moment in time, the gables are unsupported.
With the roof joists in, the next step is to board the roof making sure to use the roof boards and NOT the floorboards, they are different dimensions, so if you start cutting roof boards, your doing it wrong!
The construction guide says to leave a 2mm gap in the tongue & groove for expansion rather than have each piece butted up to each other, what we found was that as the wood had been outdoor for a while it had started to twist, the only way to get the boards to engage throughout their length with the next piece was to use a flooring clamp to pull the pieces into shape, this worked really well, but took ages. It was important to get this right as the boards are the cabins ceiling finished surface.
The kit comes with a under-felt plastic barrier and felt shingles, an extra Dunster House offer is roof insulation for £858. I decided to install my variant of this warm roof system which cost ~£250.
The first step was to install a vapour barrier on top of the roof, once this was done, a 25mm wooden baton was secured all around the perimeter edge of the roof. Due to planning rules the building cannot be over 2.5m high, this limits the thickness of the insulation to 25mm, hence the insulation is the same thickness as the batons.
With the insulation boards cut and fitted to shape across the roof with the reflective side upwards, I used aluminium jointing tape to seal the boards, the insulation was then covered by 9mm plywood and screwed down, the roof boards are 19mm thick, so 50mm screws were used, but not driven too hard as I didn’t want them to show inside the cabin ceiling.
The plywood joints and screw heads were covered with a waterproof tape and a waterproof membrane was rolled out on top of this. I tried to used the plastic sheet which came with the cabin kit, but it was impossible to get it to lay flat, so this was discarded and I used Protect A1 Roofing Underlay from Screwfix.
The last item in the warm roof process was to installed the roof felt shingles and affix them with the supplied galvanised clout nails.
The Tip for cutting felt shingles is to change the blade after 4 cuts maximum and to clean the blades between cuts with White Spirts. The shingles go down quickly and I had a pack and a half left over, so they do give you plenty.
Once the roof is complete, the boards for the gutters and end boards go on. Dunster House wanted £330 for the rainwater kits which included water butts, I bought the same system parts from B&Q for £150, if you keep the receipt you can take unused parts back for a refund which worked really well for us.
Floor
Once the cabin was watertight we could focus on getting the floor down, the cost for an insulated floor was £300, so like the roof, we bought the materials from a local builders merchant and saved money. I fixed small blocks to the side of the floor beams to keep the insulating board off the floor and allow an air flow, the insulation boards were cut with a saw, and pushed into place and all joints sealed with tape or expanding foam where needed, before the floorboards were screwed down, we used the flooring clamp to get the wood to fit in order to get the finish we wanted.
Finish & Interior
I bought the wood stain from Dunster House and applied two coats as per the recommendation, the stain dries very quickly and runs easily, so take your time as the finish is worth it. The stain is a quality make and I couldn’t find it cheaper elsewhere, 2x 2.5l tins is more than enough for at least two coats of the cabin, windows and doors.
The double doors need door hook & eye stays to keep them open, these are a lot cheaper online than from Dunster House.
I undertook the electrical works, this involved digging a trench to carry 1x 25mm flexible conduit containing 3x Cat5e data cables and a Coax cable for the TV, also in the trench was a 6mm 2 core SWA for power, inside the cabin I used a 6 way consumer unit with RCBO’s. For ease of installation and future expansion if needed, I used dado trunking around the complete perimeter at low level, I was advised that the wood will move with humidity, so the trunking is fixed to one length of wood and not screwed to bridge separate lengths. All electrical bits came from TLC Electrical and they are my go to supplier. Within the dado trunking is partition separation between the data and TV cable and the power circuits.
The cabin has a WiFi Access Point as well as hard wired tap points for flexibility.
Lighting is by 300mm x 300mm LED panels, 4 on each side of the cabin, 8 in total.
Time to Relax
Floor tiles were fitted as the plain floorboards got too dirty with all the construction works, the tiles were good condition used ones and bought locally from Fuller Gray Carpet Tiles.
The only part of the cabin I didn’t do was the installation of the Samsung split unit Air Conditioning, this has the facility to heat or cool, this was sized to give 5kW of cooling or 6kW of heating, this method of heating uses less electricity for the comparable output than using traditional heaters.
We are very happy with the quality of the cabin and the all year round usable space it has given us, I would recommend this to anyone.
2023 Update including SX70 Application Tips
Finally got round to a job I’ve been putting off since 2019 and that’s to reapply SX70 Light Oak wood stain, it took one person with a 11/2″ brush 13 hours in total and used 1.5 litres of stain.
I remember when I first used SX70 that I made some mistakes applying it, so I thought I would list the equipment and method used for a better finish this time.
Equipment
White Spirits
11/2″ Paint Brush
Paint Kettle (1ltr)
Blue Roll/Kitchen Roll
Stanley Knife Blade
Method
SX70 when stirred has the consistency similar to water but not quite as runny and stains by evaporation of the carrier solvent, which is fairly quick, therefore it is essential that any splashes, drips or runs are wiped off before the stain dries, don’t be tempted to brush it in.
Decant the stain into the paint kettle, the stain goes a long way so don’t go filling it to the top, and used the stain from this and not the tin, also don’t pour any unused stain from the kettle back into the tin, use it all on the cabin.
Stating the obvious, but start at the top and work down, BUT only stain one length of wood at a time, and try not to overlap to the next piece, when you have reached the end of one length, start the next length.
Don’t leave a half stained length, do the complete length, or none is my advise.
Brushes and paint kettle are cleaned with White Spirits (£4.99 Screwfix).
After staining and your ready to clean the cabin windows, use the Stanley Knife blade to scrape across the glass, its surprising how many small stain drips dry on the glass!
Tenuous link to weather with this one, when we first moved into our house in January 2006, every time the dog came back in from being in the garden, she would have wet paws even if it had not rained for days as the land just did not drain as it is made up of very heavy clay with a thin topping of soil to allow the grass to grow, the only course of action was to improve the drainage.
Garden as it was when we moved in, first job was to put a gate into the fence so the mini digger can get in.
Work starts on installing the land drains.
All trenching done.
Drains installed and back-filling.
Top soil added and ground rotovated.
Patio base going in.
Beginnings of the bin store.
Patio going down.
Edgings and raised border going in.
Turf going dawn.
Completed patio.
Patio area, note the gate in the fence used for the digger access.
This was one of those jobs that you thought it was a good idea at the time, once construction started and things didn’t go as planned, I wished I’d never started it and the only way out was to spend your way out!
April 2011 was day one, the plan was to sink a vehicle inspection pit into the drive so that when it’s not in use, it would be completely covered and therefore unnoticeable, the pit had to be narrow enough to take the small car we had (Fiat Punto) but robust enough so that when our 3.5t motorhome was over it the walls didn’t collapse with me in it, also it had to be the correct height that I could work under the car or van comfortably and the right length that I can get to at least half of the underside of the van without it sticking out across the pavement (sidewalk for US visitors).
Planning
First stage was to confirm that planning permission didn’t apply, which it didn’t and secondly that there were no buried services that could stop the project, I did lift manlids to check the direction of pipes and wrote to the gas, electricity, telephone and water utility companies and all came back ok, the only thing I had to move out of the way was the armoured conduit which goes to the outside lights which was easy as I’d fitted it.
If the pit was nearer to the house or impacted on the house footings, Building Regulations may have come into play, as it was the pit was over 4m away from any external wall, so no issues.
Design
One the dimensions were decided on, I started researching the reinforcing steel bars and type of concrete required, from this I drew a rebar plan which gave me the quantities of steel and concrete needed.
I did explore using a ‘tanked’ construction and simply digging a hole and sinking it in, what bothered me was the high water table we have here and if you google ‘hydrostatic pressure’ their are examples where swimming pools have simply been pushed out of the ground, not a good look!
I opted to use 18mm plywood to make a ‘shuttered’ form even though the wood would be wasted, on balance it was still cheaper than hiring in bespoke steel panels from a local supplier.
Build
The following series of pictures show the construction from the marking out of the hole to the finished pit, I mentioned at the start about things not turning out as expected, I made a flawed assumption that after the hole was dug, I could get away without propping the sides (I know it was stupid!), anyway fortunately I wasn’t in the hole at the time, but the sides caved in, now the problem this presented was that the cost to fix this.
The cost escalated as I would need a JCB rather than a mini digger to scoop out the spill due to the now extended boom reach required, also I would need two more 12m2 skips at £110.00 each, not to mention the additional backfill to make good the sides where the clay had slid from, all in all a blinking nightmare, so, do I fill the lot in and cut may losses, ore spend out of it, well the rest is history and a year later the credit card was finally paid off :-).
Outline marked out
Two skips ready for the spoil.
Mini digger and driver ready to start.
First trenches dug, one to pick up the power, compressed air lines and sump pump delivery pipework to a drain, the other trench was for the 6″ vent pipe to the base of the pit.
Main pit dig started
The driver did a very neat job.
All dug out and ladder down for inspection.
Completed Holes, the brown pipe is from the fresh air vent stack.
All done – spot on digging job, brown pipe is for the air vent and the Black tube is for the submersible pump to pump the pit out as their was no intention to make it waterproof.
Big Problem!
Everything was going so well until the sides collapsed due to the clay drying out.
Pit sides caved in the day after it was dug as I didn’t support them, the ground is heavy clay which slipped leaving a overhang, this overhang was soil and hay as the land on which the house was built used to be a farmers field.
Workaround
So, change of plan, I decided to build the steel work outside of the hole and surround it in shuttering ply, and have the digger lift it into the hole……
Start of cage construction
Lin looking happy to help
JCB with longer reach than a minidigger to clear the collapsed hole
Side shuttering ongoing
With the cage lowered in, the base was concreted in with a raised ‘kicker’ lip created by formwork, this enabled the wall plywood to be pushed against this, supporting the base of the wall section.
As I didn’t know the cubic meterage of concrete required, I opted for a company that mix on site and you pay for what you use – Cardinalis.
Wall shuttering in place
Rebar welded to angle iron edge protectors
During the wall shuttering, flexible conduit was installed for pit lighting, power socket and compressed air line.
During the shuttering of the access end wall, I drilled holes in the plywood and pushed in waste pipe, the holes left when the form is stripper will be for the Step Irons, also you can see flexible conduit sticking out from the garage which will bring power and compressed air to the pit,
Stripping of the forms, very exciting part of the project, three separate pours were used, the first was the base including ‘kicker’, the walls were then shuttered and the second pour was for the walls, the final pour was to build up to the finished level and form the lip for the wooden sleeper pit cover.
The picture shows the fitment of the removeable sleepers and the ‘Step Irons’ down into the pit, the Step Irons were cemented in the holes with a high strength/ rapid set mixture.
Fluorescent lights being fitted to the walls of the pit, however, due to the damp atmosphere, these were removed at a later date.
First job was to repair a broken molding.
All finished, with the pit boards on and lightly covered with gravel. everything blends in.
Update
Move the clock forward to 2022, some 11 Years after I initially built the pit, the motorhome had well gone and I’ve changed my car so their is no need for the pit now, however, it has come in very handy in an unexpected way.
I have re-seed my front lawn and these needs copious amounts of water to keep it healthy, as we are on a water meter, I turned my attention to the volume of water in the pit, this is made up of ground water and surface water getting into the pit.
It turns out that I have approximately 4476 litres or 1,182 gallons of water storage on my drive, so I bought a pump and no more metered water on the lawn :-), plus I have now linked it to my my lawn irrigation system.
An added bonus is that the pit will refill due to the local high water table, and I have bought a stopple for the rainwater drain, this means that rainwater from the roof will, instead of going into the surface water drain, it will use a redundant ‘pump out’ line from the pit to drain, as a ‘fill’ line’ instead.
The other thing to mention is that the original wooden pit cover swelled and rotted so needed replacement, I used 125mm sleepers and had the sawmill cut these to 1160mm which is slightly shorter than the original sleepers, hopefully this will leave enough room for expansion should they swell in the future.
The cost of the sleepers from Brigstock Sawmill was just under £300.
A blog about stuff that interests me or I have done.
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