Home DIY

Wooden handles are nice, fiber reinforced plastic is generally a lot easier on your hands though. But if you’re not using it all day it probably won’t be make or break.

defo hard on your body but I think when your older

I can believe this, after a particularly intense weekend of DIY I'm feeling stiff, broken and glad of my desk job this morning...

Why damp specialist?

I am also wondering this!

Imagine at parties (if they ever happen again)...

Ring doorbell

I don't understand the problem they are solving

My brother retrained as a plumber (with all the training amd gas etc.).

The challenge is getting work, it would seem, rather than the work itself (although being good at that will no doubt benefit the other).

My brother retrained as a plumber (with all the training amd gas etc.).

Yeah, i was going to message you. I remember when he stayed with us when he was training?

That was the opposite of what I was told! But I think a normal person chopping wood for domestic use won’t find out because you might be out there for an hour or so

I have this set https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-log-splitter-set-3-pack/48279?tc=UA1&ds_kid=92700055262507126&ds_rl=1244066&gclid=CjwKCAjwtdeFBhBAEiwAKOIy55j_MRQgT2nBRR4M7IyusdcZVu8kk6lqulY825gonQLi4BOMx5BUBhoCJ58QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Seems to cover all bases - the log grenade thing in particular is amazing at splitting big knotty trunk sections.

It means that we will hear the door from the back garden etc. And also the security aspect of the ability to see who is at the door.

+1 grenades are super useful.
and also +1 to buying axes. gives a ridiculous surge of mandorphins.

I've played with a few of them (wasn't particularly keen on the Ring interface, always seemed a little slow and unintuitive). My general takeaway was that those that used your phone for a screen were a faff. By the time you'd got your phone out, unlocked it and opened it then an uncomfortable amount of time had passed. I far preferred something with a dedicated screen.

I get that but by remote screen, I presume you mean a fixed screen which wouldn’t really suit our purposes.

Oh yeh those lil grenade dudes are great

Something like the Ring with an Echo show or Nest with a google hub would do it and still have the option of appearing on phones or whatever.

If possible I'd definitely try and have a play on someone's first. I expected to like Ring but just something about the interface bugged me.

I’d like to get a look at one in situ but, currently, I don’t know anyone who has one. Hence the post here. Thanks for the advice.

I have had a Ring and replaced it with the Google Nest equivalent.

I use it as I have an office in the garden, so it is handy for me to be able to hear the door bell in my office (it rings on my google home) and if I am feeling really lazy just speak to the person at the door through the doorbell if it is a delivery etc.

Only reason I switched from Ring to Nest was the fact that I use google products elsewhere in the house and unsurprisingly Ring and Google do not play nicely together.

Only thing I would flag is that there is a lag between someone pressing the bell and you being able to talk to them, which comes down to speed of the app plus the speed of your internet, the lag for me is about 10 secs which is within the amount of time that I think is acceptable, but much more would get annoying I think.

Google nest has face recognition built in, Ring didn't when I had it, but not sure if they have introduced it now. I thought that might be a handy feature if it meant you could tell it not to notify me if I walk through the door, but I have yet to work out how to make it do this, so it is mainly a gimmick that means my google home announces who is at the door when someone presses the bell.

What's the cheapest and easiest shed base for a cheap 6 by 4 prefab? Area is currently grass and level to the eye.

Used paving slabs. Ebay, gumtree, FB marketplace

Is that really easier than a plastic or timber base?

Only in that there's no real construction required. If the ground is flat enough, just chuck em down. If there is some fettling required to make it level, you'd have to do that regardless of what you use and 6x4 isn't going to take much effort. The plastic ones I've found to be a bit brittle. Either the sections themselves or the tabs that interconnect them, are easy to break. Timber laid straight on to the ground will A) need to be constructed (cut and joined) and B) will rot away in a short space of time. Slabs would be what I'd chose, but that's just me.

Just had a quick look on FB Marketplace and there are a few people in various bits of London that are giving slabs away. Although, the true cost is having to use FB Marketplace.

FB marketplace is ultimate shithouse, I find it the worst and seems to have the worst people selling and buying stuff on it but free is free.

Thanks for the insight. I will ponder on. I’m not tech savvy and we have a couple of Alexa type things in the house which I have no notion about - my wife and daughter seem to use them for things. Simple suits me!

Where can I buy small amounts of uniformly sized rectangular sandstone paving slabs?

I don't (think I) want a 'pack' as I'm just laying a gravel / stepping stone path