Home DIY

The concrete looks fairly old and cracked. If that was me I would use a sledgehammer or perhaps a club hammer for closer control and break the concrete up and also lever it out with a crowbar or prybar.

+1

I'd msg around and see if you can borrow a sledge hammer, then see what happens.

If it turns out to be really stubborn then get one of those massive Titan SDS. But it doesn't look like a huge area.

We’ve also got cracked concrete in the 2-foot-or-so between the house and wall/street, few weeds growing out of it and generally not very aesthetic - if I were to smash it up, what’s the go-to to replace it with? Shiny new concrete? Gravel? Whatever as long as it doesn’t breach the DPC?

You should sow erigeron into gravel

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Yep heavy hammer and crowbar will have that out in an afternoon.

I can't write a lot as
a) I don't know what could potentially go wrong
b) I can't tell how to put right what could potentially go wrong
I also don't feel a proper picture as to how much ground you want to take out..
But that ground definitely helps keep up the walls - they probably have 'happy' cracks in them, an additional movement over time of 5mm from dropping the ground (their stability) may make them 'unhappy' ..
I've definitely seen gas service pipes placed in positions you'd never dream of nowadays.
However the concrete does look very thin ~1" the corner cracks could be where to start lifting, it may come up in one piece - if it's looking thick I'd stand back and have a head scratch

I’m really stuck with this one - it’s so simple, I don’t get what could be wrong.

This joint is the waste from the washing machine, more or less as recently installed by the plumbers. They hadn’t routed the left hand one under something, so it had to be disconnected and reconnected.

I’m not 100% sure it didn’t drip before, but it does now. Only a little bit, but it’s all brand new so obv shouldn’t be dripping on the also new wood floor.

I’m going to try adjusting the exact position of the jubilee clip again, but I don’t get what I could be doing wrong.

Ideas on a postcard, please and thanks

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If at all possible, I'd replace the whole thing with a single, new, long length of the grey waste hose. You could use the existing hose(s) as a guide to pull the new one through from one end to the other - think internal cable routing with a bit of cotton thread etc. Disappointing from a brand new install!

having just looked into this task, I can see why the plumbers didnt offer that route - looks like a total nightmare (worth noting it was plumbers doing the sink waste etc, not someone delivering and installing the machine)

Take the joint apart and put it back together with some Fernox LSX and you might save yourself the trouble of rerouting it all properly.

Getting round to wiring up the fuse and new socket and I've just noticed a nick in one of the cables.

I could probably cut it down, but it might be quite short. As its only one small nick, can I wrap it with 125° shrink wrap? I also have electrical tape in different colours too.

I also have compact connector wago things, so I could always extend it that way to, if it's too short.

It's really fucking annoying.

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Electrical tape or cut and join it with a straight Wago.

[https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WA2411.html?

Good that you spotted it though, they can cause shorting issues and shocks in some cases.

Cheers. Didn't realise these existed. I've only seen the wedge(?) shaped ones.

You're right, I'm glad I saw it. I'm a bit prang about the cables in the trunking/wall now. But I'm almost certain this is from the excess wires being crammed in the box to keep them tidy till I got to this job.

Decided as they were being connected to the supply I'd cut them off.

When I wired the other socket I came across a good college tutorial where the dude said, although it was counterintuitive, it was easier to fit longer cables in a box than shorter ones. I tried it his way and found it much easier than the time before. He said length of the box + 70mm.

I've also decided this is a daylight job, so will hook it all up tomorrow. Will make it quicker too, as an amateur I find all the careful measuring up, trimming, etc. to be the longest part.

It's pretty much the same for professionals. You do get quicker at it though, especially getting the screws back in for the front plate.

The training I had they suggested the width of your hand poking out of the box. Hopefully you've put rubber grommets in the holes the wires pass through, that's a requirement and can save a lot of problems.

Another suggestion the teachers I had made was to bend over the end of the conductor as it makes it much less likely to slip out of the connector when you tighten it. I don't do it but it does work if you find that a problem when you're wiring sockets and switches.

This was the video I used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ97M42rzfI

I put grommets on my two boxes, but unfortunately couldn't retrofit them to this existing box where they're were missing. I probably should have tried harder or added some sort of lube, but didn't want to introduce anything that could cause issues. It's survived a good number of years as is, so 🤞... I guess the problem is they can nick a wire and then you have a live wire potentially touching a metal box. Maybe one for the backlog.

I've wrapped it up this morning.

All the tabs had been lifted which made getting the front plate back on impossible. I managed to push the bottom two flat and remove a bit of overhanging plaster, and now everything is sitting nicely and working.

Now need to do some touch up painting in my lunch.

Everything takes so much longer than you expect, doesn't it!

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I just did this and replaced with gravel, now looks nice and neat.

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Empty nester syndrome has lead us to focus on redecorating the eldest son's bedroom which was painted satin effect Chelsea royal blue when he was a teenager.

He's now 32 and left home over four years ago and we have decided to cover this over with something a bit more neutral.

There were various holes and cracks in the plaster which required filling and sanding first especially around the window. But a bit of patience with multiple layers of filler and sanding lead to a smooth finish. I also covered over a socket blank plate which had no wires behind it with filler. It now matches the rest of the wall as if nothing was there.

Next the satin paint was a pain as the whole wall had to be sanded to allow the next coat to go on.

Also the royal blue required three coats of white undercoat before we finished with two coats of polished pebble (light grey).

A new bed to complete the effect and overall I'm pretty pleased with the outcome and more importantly so is Mrs Idle.

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I replaced an old double socket with a new socket with USB ports in to make the room a bit more 21st C friendly

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I forgot to take any pictures of the before situation but the sealant around the edge of the window frame was black with mould so I scraped that out, filled the gap and then resealed and it looks a lot better now.

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We have even emptied out the built in cupboard and are repainting this which shows how long it is since we last painted here. Currently deciding whether to keep this or paint over it.

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I've started installing our IKEA kitchen. Been triple measuring where to put the rail, how the cabinets will line up on the first wall etc because it's all wonky, finally get it in a position I'm happy with, do a test hole + plug to test if it's strong enough, the second hole I drill is right through a bloody electrical cable. One I've just spend the last week plastering over and know exactly where it is and right above the socket so not even hidden. Urrgh

Classic...

I’m not sure it is supporting the walls. I think over time it’s been concreted and paved a few times. This is the neighbours for comparison.
You’re right about the gas though, that’s something that I was wondering might crop up too.

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A fair amount of what I said was with page 1741 in mind (I don't know how that ended). You're clearly after something different. And I am being pessimistic but foundations footings maybe almost non existent (distance memory of reading regs introduced ~1903), my only other thought was if the ground is of a type (clay) that would be prone to drying and having deep cracks that the concrete covering would have been added to prevent that..
The new image does show that the concrete might be a much greater depth- I think to start, Id be looking at trying to preserve the concrete 8" away from the house at 45° down and away = an angle grinder..

Is that a dpm at the gravel level? Shouldn't there be a gap?