Home DIY

I'll advocate for cutmyplastic.. Ive ordered from them a few times before, and not only have they been great, but on more than one ocassion (once on a Sunday!) they've looked at my order, second guessed a problem with my project I hadn't forseen, and called to recommend an amendment to save hassle down the line.

Now that's service!

@TW you installed a green roof on your shed- IIRC? Was it a total PITA? What kit did you use? Rough cost? How’s it looking now?

Seen those thermal imaging camera - brand I've seen used the most is FLIR - bit spenny

You can hire these @hoefla from some hire shops. E.g.
https://www.jewson.co.uk/p/flir-i3-thermal-imaging-camera-JTH07250

I need to get round to it because although they generally did a better job than we thought they had, the builders who refurbed the majority of our place a few years ago (before we bought it) (on the cheap) put plastic central heating pipes in the walls.

I've already drilled into one and I need to find the rest. Plan is open doors/windows on a cold day, turn heating on full, use camera to find where they go.

I need to do this while it's still cold so I should get onto it. I don't know how long you want one for but you can hire for a weekend and a day would do for me if you wanted to save some cash by sharing. I think most of the hire shops I found when I had a quick look a while back were in your direction.

The LP111 looks to be water OR heating having no functions labeled on the left side of the control panel and CH4 terminal being unused

I've done 2 - one on my bike shed, one on my garden office.

The layers are pretty much the same on both:

1. waterproof layer
   
2. geotextile blanket
   
3. reservoir sheet
   
4. substrate
   
5. gritty soil mix
   
6. plants
   
   

With the bikeshed (4m^2 ish), I did it all from scratch, including planting out the seedum. It loos really good - photos in Summer, when it's in bloom.

It's very low maintenance, but there are some things that I could have done better (had I known about them!) - such as the need to stick down the waterproof layer, as it stretches and contracts a lot, which pulls it away from the upstand. I also need to re-soil some bits, and re-plant, to account for plants that don't thrive so well, but also because cats and squirrels, and at least one owl.

The garden office (25m^2), I bought pre-grown mats, as planting out that much would have been completely impractical. It's not had a summer yet, so I don't know how good it will look. However, it has survived a winter, and looks fine for it.

It uses much chunkier / deeper reservoir sheet, and there is less variety in the plants, but otherwise is pretty much the same.

Come spring, I will go up and plant out some more variants (transplanting from the bike shed, which I will replace with spare sedum mat that's just lying on the lawn at the moment).

Carrying a few hundred kilos of substrate (bagged myself from a builders bag) was "fun", as was carrying up the rolls of matting.

Rough costs:

The bike shed must have been £150 - £200 maybe?

The garden office, £750 from Sky Garden (who I would buy from again). I paid more overall for pebbles, just to pretty things up a bit more.

Oh, cool. Tbh I wouldn't wait for me, it'll be next winter... I'd planned to get a thermal imaging survey from SELCE, to get some interpretation with it, but not sure what's happening with that now. The thinking about the phone attachment one would be for general curiosity, before/after type comparisons.

Perfect, thanks!

That is for a combi, heating only. You need another one to do both.

Best plastic pipe cutter? Need something that’ll do PVC conduit, 25/32mm MDPE, 41/43mm waste, 15mm water pipe etc.

I’m tempted by the Knipex Bix but I’m not sure if that style (rotate around pipe cutter tater than plier cutter type) will struggle with MDPE’s thicker walls.

I'd normally look at Rothenberger for plumbing specific stuff but I think the Bix is one of the new products from Knipex that looks pretty convincing.

I still use a hacksaw for the larger stuff but I have some Rothenberger plastic cutter for the 15mm water pipes as it keeps the ends neat.

In case anyone cares I did this swap this afternoon. The back plates were exactly the same so I didn’t even have to rewire the new one in, just pulled off the old facia and put the new controller on the old wiring plate. So simple

Thanks for the advice @Howard and others

second this. Very good experience on my part

If you find one thats class and lasts let me know, so far ive yet to find one thats good long term.

I use a hacksaw for bigger stuff and cheapo ones from screw fix for 15/22

I’ll probably go for the knipex. I fell down a hole where Mister Worker had them for cheap, until I realised they’re based in Italy, excluded VAT, and postage was weird and expensive and I wasn’t sure if I’d get stung for tax again on import.
Keen to get some knipex water pump pliers too.

Will report back once I’ve actually bought a set.

Knipex cobra's are brilliant although my dad hates them so it think its horse for courses.

I like the Cobra's too. Easy enough to spend money on Knipex though pretty much anything of theirs comes in useful sooner or later.

They've released some new slip joint pliers that are only in stock for hours at the moment 82 02 200 (rubber handle version).

Good Lord avoid Valspar paint from B&Q. Very thin with an awful finish. I have wasted two weekends now trying to redo our front door. Three coats of zinzer and it still looks like it was done with a child's watercolour set.

Dulux samples ordered.

How do I identify the cross section of some twin & earth being used for a light?

It's flat,~9mm wide, ~5mm thick

Is that 1.5mm^2?

Yeah was curious about those. They look handy, but I don’t need them, yet.

It’s usually embossed on the sheath (which is normally infuriating to locate/read).

Just measured some scraps I have and:

1+1 = 7mm
1.5+1 = 8.5mm
2.5+1.5 = 10mm

Nice one - thanks.

Depending on manufacturer it’ll vary tho. What’s it for?

An 20W LED strip light and a 15W LED bulkhead light- I need to reposition the existing cable, as it risked being snagged when I use the (shed) ceiling joists to store stuff.

It was put in by a proper sparky, so I'm planning on using the same cable (the difference in distance will only be a few feet)

It’ll be drawing 0.15 amps at peak, so 1.5 is vastly sufficient.