Dude, Where's My house(s)?
Discussion
I hope you all had a productive weekend, mine was not quite as productive as I had hoped. but still managed to get a couple of small jobs done.
I cleaned up some brickwork and cleaned up then painted a corner of the house that I think is letting in some penetrating damp.
2 pictures in 1... look at my bricks, and... what should I do with this oak door? Sand it and oil it? Any recommendations?
I cleaned up some brickwork and cleaned up then painted a corner of the house that I think is letting in some penetrating damp.
2 pictures in 1... look at my bricks, and... what should I do with this oak door? Sand it and oil it? Any recommendations?
Another update from living in an old house - Last night, a scratching noise appeared at the wood burner. We have had a couple of fledglings kamikaze into windows over the last 2 days, so we assume a baby bird has gone down the chimney. It was late, and I thought, perhaps naively, that it might find its way out overnight. A fire toolset had conveniently been ordered the day before and was due to arrive the next day.
Morning arrives and the occasional scratch has now developed a squawk. it's getting angrier. With the kids packed off and at school I covered the area with old sheets and started dismantling the wood burner. I got to the stage where I could see past the baffles and was greeted not by the baby bluetit I had envisioned, but by a great big angry crow.
The plan was for me to lower the upper baffle and for the missus to catch it in a towel, then redeploy the Coloeus monedula (Western jackdaw) outside. Alas, the best-laid plans ended in screeching from both our new feathered lodger and our intrepid chimney sweep. (Me).
The crow decided to make a pitstop at the library before flying out the window. Fortunately not headbutting it or pooing on anything.
Now, how to re-assemble and clean a wood-burning stove.
Morning arrives and the occasional scratch has now developed a squawk. it's getting angrier. With the kids packed off and at school I covered the area with old sheets and started dismantling the wood burner. I got to the stage where I could see past the baffles and was greeted not by the baby bluetit I had envisioned, but by a great big angry crow.
The plan was for me to lower the upper baffle and for the missus to catch it in a towel, then redeploy the Coloeus monedula (Western jackdaw) outside. Alas, the best-laid plans ended in screeching from both our new feathered lodger and our intrepid chimney sweep. (Me).
The crow decided to make a pitstop at the library before flying out the window. Fortunately not headbutting it or pooing on anything.
Now, how to re-assemble and clean a wood-burning stove.
RustyMX5 said:
That door isn't an easy thing to sand in situ. Certainly not if you want something that looks neat. If the majority of the varnish is holding then perhaps lightly scrape away the bits that are flaking and apply a coat of varnish there. Once fully dried, rub over the whole door and apply a couple more coats of varnish. That's just my opinion though.
Out of interest, why would it be hard to sand in situ? just the angles? It wouldn't be that difficult for me to take off, although I suspect it's very heavy.Fast Bug said:
I've had good results with Osmo's product line. It's not the cheapest, but seems to be holding up well around my house so far
The oil woodstain stuff? I'm assuming it's ok for oak? I would be tempted to use the clear finish. but would need to get the door very well sanded first.Updates on ground clearance. or lack of.
This weekend was all about getting access to the land, if nothing else then I wanted to be able to walk the perimeter, I think I almost achieved this.
So far my efforts have been limited to a petrol strimmer with an oversized brushcutter attachment. I have made good progress but it all became too much for little chopper. First, the handles started to fall off, and then bits of cast metal sheered off. I fixed these with bolts and new holes. but it was not enough to keep the little chopper in the game, the engine finally seized up.
After the ceremony, I went and found someone who would rent me something a little bigger. Enter big chopper.
Absolutely useless!
I don't have pictures of the brambles, but it essentially rode up them insted of cutting them. I did manage to clear a reasonable amount, but it was so hard on the machine that it started showing signs of breaking. That, and wrestling it about was starting to hurt.
So I turned its attention to the fields... and it was equally as useless. this is about as far as I got.
Little chopper 2.0 is on order.
This weekend was all about getting access to the land, if nothing else then I wanted to be able to walk the perimeter, I think I almost achieved this.
So far my efforts have been limited to a petrol strimmer with an oversized brushcutter attachment. I have made good progress but it all became too much for little chopper. First, the handles started to fall off, and then bits of cast metal sheered off. I fixed these with bolts and new holes. but it was not enough to keep the little chopper in the game, the engine finally seized up.
After the ceremony, I went and found someone who would rent me something a little bigger. Enter big chopper.
Absolutely useless!
I don't have pictures of the brambles, but it essentially rode up them insted of cutting them. I did manage to clear a reasonable amount, but it was so hard on the machine that it started showing signs of breaking. That, and wrestling it about was starting to hurt.
So I turned its attention to the fields... and it was equally as useless. this is about as far as I got.
Little chopper 2.0 is on order.
Happy Jim said:
I’ve just about killed a rough cut mower (spinny roundy blade) and am thinking of getting a small walk behind flail mower - might be better?
The walk behind was supposed to be a flail mower but was a spinny blade. I might have just accidentally bought a tractor that comes with a topper/flail mower. hoping it's the flail type and not the spinny blades. it's big anyway, so it cant be any worse than the walk behind one.LooneyTunes said:
Surprised you found that useless, it looks very similar to ours (which we really rate). My teenager cleared a load of scrub/brush with it the other day and it was going through 1” thick 6 ft tall saplings without difficulties…
It went through the brambles and brush ok if it could get its teeth into it, but they were so dense, it just lifted the fount up. I could wrestle with the machine to get it to chomp in and get them down, but I was breaking it, and myself in doing so. It also left the little things that brambles do to trip you up.In the fields, it either stalled out trying to eat the rushes, or got clogged up eating the grass. the blades were blunt, so I put an edge back on them. Didnt make much difference.
It goes back tomorrow, and hopefully, the new (old) toy I brought will arrive.
For anyone still looking, it's been a busy few weeks. new tractors, cutting trees. roof repairs, scaffolding and burst water mains.
A full update will be on its way in the next couple of days.
in the meantime, I have had my 2nd electric bill, and it's a scootch higher than I would like. Punching in at around £500 a month. We do not have electric heating.
Since I have uncovered some space in the fields, I fancy putting in a wind turbine. Companies offering this service are eye-wateringly expensive, so I want to have a crack at this myself. the catch is that I also want to have a feed-in tariff. I wouldn't mind having some solar as well. this, unfortunately, means it needs to be a certified "professional" install.
So, how about this as an idea? I get one of those companies to bung a few pannels in a field and hook them up to the mains, with a certificate. I then extend the solar with more panels, bigger inverter and add in a wind turbine myself.
Would they catch on and wonder why my 5kw solar system is pumping in 20kw in the middle of a dark windy winter night?
A full update will be on its way in the next couple of days.
in the meantime, I have had my 2nd electric bill, and it's a scootch higher than I would like. Punching in at around £500 a month. We do not have electric heating.
Since I have uncovered some space in the fields, I fancy putting in a wind turbine. Companies offering this service are eye-wateringly expensive, so I want to have a crack at this myself. the catch is that I also want to have a feed-in tariff. I wouldn't mind having some solar as well. this, unfortunately, means it needs to be a certified "professional" install.
So, how about this as an idea? I get one of those companies to bung a few pannels in a field and hook them up to the mains, with a certificate. I then extend the solar with more panels, bigger inverter and add in a wind turbine myself.
Would they catch on and wonder why my 5kw solar system is pumping in 20kw in the middle of a dark windy winter night?
hidetheelephants said:
I don't think you can get an domestic installation that exports more than 5kW, I forget the details but the numbers don't add up or it becomes non-domestic/commercial and the DNO starts asking for telephone numbers rather than rational sums of money. I expect it's covered exhaustively on the Solar panel thread.
A bit on the low side given that lots of folk will sell me an 8KW system. Still, something else to think about. If I'm capped at 5kw, then I might as well just do it myself and put in a big electric boilerSheepshanks said:
Yes, that's a pretty insane bill - is there an immersion heater bubbling away somwhere? Or some acreage of electric underfloor heating? An EV on constant charge?
I have some dodgy electrics in some outbuildings that I need to investigate. But I think most of the usage is the 3 big dehumidifiers I have running almost 24x7, trying to dry this place out.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff