Home DIY

small garden centres may sell singles?

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

https://www.londonstone.co.uk/stone-paving/sandstone-paving/ ?

(Note the selector between m² and ea for individual slabs.)

Loads of places are running low on Sandstone slabs though.

Google Nest doorbell

I thought this would be an easy upgrade to an existing mains-powered doorbell—I was wrong.

The doorbell camera footage from over the road helped get my attempted burglars a 12 month prison sentence—hopefully mine will be a deterrent to similar opportunistic crowbar attempts.

Keeping this out of the gardening thread as I don't think it's got much to do with plants...

Lifted concrete slabs from this... Concrete slab and plan to cut it back a bit and cover with artificial grass (yes I know) with foam underlay for a play area for incoming child eventually. May get around to putting in patio doors on to it at some point too.

Anyway behind that mess in the corner is a downpipe that probably channels 30% of the rainwater from our roof. Once I've got that wall fixed up I plan to plant in that border. Currently just flows in to the ground by the wall which is probably less than ideal so wondering if I should:

A) install a perforated land drain from the downpipe

B) install a horizontal extension to carry the water, say, 2m away from the wall then in to soak away/flower bed

C) install an ako drain across and below the back wall of the house (there's a small channel there, currently filled with gravel and crap) and attach it to the sewer inlet just out of shot in the first pic.

Also what to screed the slab with? Self leveling? Although ideal I want a small gradient to aid drainage.

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@hoefla @greenhell ta. Hadn’t considered stocks would be low, ta.

I plumped for option B and the house hasn't collapsed due to the ground drying out yet

Apparently it is installing proprietary internet hardware via stealth. At least in America...

Conspiracy thread >>>>>>>

Re using rain water is very green, and delaying its return to the water table helps mitigate flooding.

Both probably very sensible things in the coming decades.

How about a water butt?

Not much space for a water butt there unfortunately.

I looked in to soak away crates last night but it seems like they're governed by regs and would be impossible to position on our plot, but then again I guess who's going to know!? Not sure if a kind of make-shift soak-away would be governed by the same rules.

It does seem a waste to just chuck it down the drain, but then again we do get a lot of rain in the winter (wettest city in the UK) and clay soil might make for a bog, maybe both options B & C with some way of diverting the water to the ako in the wetter months. Something like this:

I need one of these, can anyone tell me a) what it's called and b) where I could get one?

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Today’s bit of scrap heap challenge. Make a wood store out of odds and sods.

The axe is SIC AS BRO.

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All that with an axe and a set of drill bits? Mad skills.

It’s a tap valve right?

Weird offset/eccentric leg is weird, is it a cam, does it turn another assembly in the tap?

Never seen one like it.
Do you know the age and manufacturer?

I must confess, I also used a hammer.

Also, looks better with wood in it.

And judging by the fact that it’s almost full, and there’s a lot more wood to go, I guess I’m building another one tomorrow.

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Lunns.net is my go-to for identifying, though not necessarily buying, tap and plumbing spares.

This diverter for a bath mixer looks close in terms of dimensions (you'll also want to count the splines), though given Lunns currently show a fuck off price of a grand, I suspect you'll be using it as a basis for further searches.

https://shop.lunns.net/bsm-cam-18-b54bmaa-b5415028xx05n-div35---bespoke-part-126279-p.asp

This one's a similar size too, and a touch cheaper - https://shop.lunns.net/bespoke-diverter-cam-018-b542301-div48-254814-p.asp

Alternatively once you're bored with the Lunns rabbit hole, take the old one into a plumber's merchant, and hope they're prepared to accept it as their problem.

Attentions now turn to the porch. The worst parts are the bases of the two uprights, which the previous owner ignored by sticking some mitred skirting around them. The porch as a whole feels solid, there's no movement, so I'm sure there's a core of decent wood in there. Question is what to do? Remove loose bits, wood hardener then build out with filler, sand and paint?

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Epoxy resin would be better. You could try to just get back to the core and add a new wooden surround using epoxy resin. That would be a good combination of durability vs price.

Alternatively cut the bottom off and replace with a solid piece of pine, or some pieced together. Joined with dowels and epoxy.

Repaircare is a good epoxy to look at. They have a lot of examples on their site.

I'd thought about chopping out the bottom and replacing, but it's a substantial tiled roof so would need some kind of acro-prop arrangement at least or else it would come crashing down. If I didn't think it would collapse due to my crack handedness, that might actually Be the easiest option. It will be painted anyway so whatever solution it is doesn't need to be "wood"

Googling repaircare gives a ton of options

It’s a tap valve right?

Weird offset/eccentric leg is weird, is it a cam, does it turn another assembly in the tap?

Never seen one like it.
Do you know the age and manufacturer?

Its a 3/4" BSP thread, so similar to a tap valve, but it's purpose is to divert water between a spout or a shower hose/head, so that prong raises or lowers a sort of gate to achieve that.

That it's bent is, erm, limiting its ability to seal properly. It's also been threaded at some point in it's history which I suspect doesn't help.

My crank puller screws in neatly though, so if you can approach the threads correctly there's plenty of material left in the correct places.

This is their site :-

https://www.repair-care.co.uk/

I've been using it to repair exterior wood for 10 years. You would save money by splicing wood onto the core and filing gaps with the epoxy resin.

Lunns.net is my go-to for identifying, though not necessarily buying, tap and plumbing spares.

This diverter for a bath mixer looks close in terms of dimensions (you'll also want to count the splines), though given Lunns currently show a fuck off price of a grand, I suspect you'll be using it as a basis for further searches.

https://shop.lunns.net/bsm-cam-18-b54bma­a-b5415028xx05n-div35---bespoke-part-126­279-p.asp

This one's a similar size too, and a touch cheaper - https://shop.lunns.net/bespoke-diverter-­cam-018-b542301-div48-254814-p.asp

Alternatively once you're bored with the Lunns rabbit hole, take the old one into a plumber's merchant, and hope they're prepared to accept it as their problem.

Mine is very similar but 20 spline. I had to count that four times, and that included fetching my reading glasses!

I’d definitely advise chopping off the damaged section and replacing with something more impervious to rot.
Any epoxy or patch repair is just kicking the can down the road.

some kind of acro-prop arrangement

You could build a collar out of 4x2 bolted together in a square around the big turned ball section and crib this up off the masonry.
Wedge it up to make it take the weight then cut out the rotten section.
You could build a shutter and pour a concrete base same size as existing timber.

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I did spot a couple of others with 20 splines ... Sure it won't take you long to find them!

Think the other dimensions on this are wrong though https://shop.lunns.net/lenok-bsm-diverter-cam-lb-d54pbs0108711-bespoke-part-252989-p.asp

Is the problem that it doesn’t seal or also that it isn’t working as a diverter?
If it’s just leaking you can maybe fix with some good pipe sealant and PTFE and a new rubber seal.
If the bent cam arm is also a problem could it be straightened?