Owning your own home

cant see there being anything wrong with the new set up but I can imagine the elbow underground taking it into that drain would potentially get blocked quite easily, though once the downpipe got cut I guess you could see where it was blocked.

I think this was the problem as to why it was blocking too easily.

Plus moss from the roof means there's a risk of big clumps.

Now I'm thinking about it I should have got him to buy some sort of cover for the top of the down pipe.... Although that may just result in water collecting.

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Here mine , can get blocked up as there is a pipe at the bottom with tight bend that heads off to main drain running along side of house . Splashes up and wets wall when the rain is heavy so not sure I would recommend

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Right by where the interweb comes in :)

anyone else want to share their downpipe?

if it makes you feel any better, I had to kind of DIY this same thing last winter but on steel downpipe to the hacksawing took ages. Also the compacted sludge was for almost 2 metres. The elbow now just chucks water and moss all over the place. I'll sort it all properly one day, maybe.

You could cut into the pipe to form a rodding point and rod it from there.

You could also jet the drain; I know you've tried a hose but proper drain jetting is higher pressure.

Thanks. This does make me feel better.

Anyway hopefully it's resolved for now ahead of winter.

Right by where the interweb

Wet Interweb is good. That's why there are so many subsea cables.

Given that it's deep winter and you sound like you have the lump sum, I would be putting it to work straight away by maxing out your isa's for this year and next. That would be 4 x £20k (assuming you don't have one).

Watched this bonkers house get built, inexplicable Victorian prison window facade: https://www.chestertons.co.uk/en-gb/short-let-property/gb/street/kenmure+road+e8/hea239605

It's just been let for a flabbergasting £9K/month... for a 90sqm 2-bed. Who does this kind of shit?

Fucking hell, it's the same size as our flat. I might suggest we move out for 12months and build up a rainy day fund from some daft cunt with a spare £9k/month.

Yeah, but bills included.

It’s still hugely expensive.

A fool and their money…

Looking at getting a new, red brick garden wall (front of the house) built. Quote that has come back is for a single skin wall. I'd have thought a double skin wall was more usual for that unless I'm missing something.

Also, anyone any thoughts on how much ripping up crazy paving and putting down a concrete base and ~ 20sqm of paving for side return and patio would be?

How high?

Our ~1m wall. Is single with some... ummm... columns(?)* every few meters.

It seems perfectly solid. Although the guy who built our drive did manage to knock one section down with a digger.

*this makes it sound very grand!

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You're shorter than I had imagined.

Single is fine, but might look a bit rubbish at the front, IMO walls need to look robust in the most obvious places, then you can have coping stones and caps on the top etc like a proper wall which just look right. You can get away with singles down the sides.

When we DIYed our front we planned to do single skin initially but frankly it looked a bit weak and we then doubled it up like a real wall.

Our ~1m wall. Is single with some... ummm... columns(?)* every few meters.

Piers, my man, they’re called piers in this context.

Also, anyone any thoughts on how much ripping up crazy paving and putting down a concrete base and ~ 20sqm of paving for side return and patio would be?

20sqm is a lot of paving. It’s half the size of a London flat. It won’t be cheap. But the majority of the work isn’t difficult. Hire an SDS drill ,have some weekend fun and smash up what there is, pop it in a skip. Dig out a little and get some fresh concrete delivered to pour into the space, you can buy it online delivered to pour per square meter directly into the space. If you want nice paving you can pay someone to do that bit. But perhaps easiest to just re-pave on top of the current crazy paving?

Irl people do tend to say I look taller than I actually am. So it makes sense that the same thing would happen online.

Cheers and @Jameo

Probably something like 1.2m high I'd guess, will have a pier or two. There is a curve in the wall to join the two sides (end of terrace) which may be part of it. I've asked the question of the builder as I'm fairly sure I requested double skin.

Realistically I'm not going to have time to do paving myself, a few levels need sorting out and drains tidied up.

You can single skin easily at that height but as mentioned it’s going to look a bit weedy. Double skin will obviously cost double in terms of materials…

I'd contest the looking weedy comment.

I don't love our wall or anything, but all the houses which have walled areas have the same or similar single plus pier setup.

For a taller wall I think it's a fair point, but at a low height with caps I really don't think it does looks weedy. Imo it's in proportion.

For me the bigger aesthetic consideration is single means you need capping. Whereas double could also have a brick top.

Yes fair comment. I was referencing an average 3 bed Victorian terrace. If all the surrounding walls are single skin then it’s not going to look incongruous.
You can still cap a single skin with bricks laid vertically.

I can't remember if I've already asked this.

We're looking to get a new kitchen installed - has anyone got any recomendations for a kitchen fitter around Sheen / SW London?

I could do with some advice.

We've been in our place for two years now and last week the council resurfaced our road. This has revealed an issue that had completely passed me by somehow - that we don't have a dropped curb leading to our drive. Now that I look at photos from before the resurfacing (see attached) it's glaringly obvious that when the previous owners had the drive done sometime around 2015 (based on historical street view images) they added a tarmac ramp from road to curb.
Is this something that should've been flagged in the survey or questioned during the conveyancing process and searches? Obviously I should've clocked it, but didn't.
What to do next? Should I be searching to see if any application was ever made? Or if there had been would that have come up during conveyancing?
Or do I just have to crack on and shell out for an application asap? How big of a deal is this?
Cheers

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