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Any recommendations for a car security / electrical engineer based in and around SE London? The immobiliser on my defender is taking its job very seriously. Willingness to do home call outs would be a dream. Thanks
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Hi Kieran - good to see you!
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We'd originally hoped we'd get away with £120k, but after getting the keys and starting to poke around underneath the many layers of wallpaper, laminate flooring, carpet and 60s chipboard paneling it rapidly became clear this wasn't going to cut it. Cue a couple of years of saving and scrabbling and we went out to an architect with max. budget of £170k (this is for a three-storey mid-terrace). They did some great looking plans (in hindsight, too great looking), went through planning and got it all signed off but when it went out to tender everything was coming back around double (even with cost engineering). No way we could justify (let alone afford) that, so ripped up the plans, ditched the architects and stripped out all the complex, structural work and trick glazing and focused on getting the bare bones and detailing right.
Really happy with how it's turning out now, just wish we hadn't wasted so much time/money with the architects as they were impossibly ambitious with what they thought we'd be able to achieve with the budget, and some of their early decisions/recommendations that we did carry over have ended up costing us as they required non-standard sizes (sometimes by only a few centimetres) which has meant we've had to either amend details late on in the process or otherwise specify bespoke where we might have got away with off-the-shelf had we been aware of it earlier (I'm looking at you, pivot door).
Long story short, choose architects who have a track record in projects the same size as your own and stress test the plans with a contractor as early as possible to avoid getting burnt. If you're going to go ahead without an architect (as we are now) you'll need to prepare to spend what seems like every waking hour stressing over every individual detail in order to make sure it all comes together in the way it looks in your head (TBC on whether we've managed that).
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Long time lurker on here and the "own your own home" thread. Currently about 2/3 through work on the wreck of a house we bought about 3.5 years ago in SE. Feel like it should be mandatory to do the whole thing in miniature before trying the real thing. Learnt so many lessons (most of them the hard way). Def bit off more than we could chew when we bought the place, massively underestimated how much it would cost to do up, got burnt working with an architect who seemingly had no clue on how much the works would cost when it went to tender so had to scrap approx. 6 months of work and go back to the drawing board and very quickly realised when we started strip out that there was absolutely nothing worth keeping so ended up taking it right back to four brick walls (which makes you wonder what you paid for) - but hey, it can only be up from here, right?
Anyway, this is really a long and convoluted way of getting to my actual question: does anyone have experience of using microcement / beton cire as a finish for patios, steps and garden walls? Seems pretty cost effective but have some residual concerns about how it might be affected from frost given it's only 2-3mm thick. If we hadn't already poured the slab up to the threshold I'd be nicking the brutalist gravel board idea from @chrisbmx116 ...
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The ti frame turned out to have a crack in the chain stay (alas) and went to @knowthejo for nothing, on the off chance he might be able to resurrect it. Sorry to disappoint, and pray for a swift recovery.
Andes still up for grabs.
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I've got two 90s/00s Saracen MTB frames that I've been meaning to build up but just haven't had the time. Collection only, SE London.
#1 '90s Saracen Andes - 17.5" C-to-C
This would make a great pub bike, kid-carrier or general runaround. Great metallic turquoise paint with hot pink foil decals makes this probably the best colour-way Saracen released. Frame is chro-mo and in good condition, with two small chips to the top tube. Decals starting to peel but otherwise all there. Comes with free on-trend flat bars and cantis, and everything else you see in the photo. Please note that the forks probably don't have much/any life in them and there is some surface pitting to the stem. Bonus mystery pedals included. £85
#2 '00s Saracen Kili Ti - 19" C-to-C
Raw titanium Saracen Kili Ti frame, with V brake mounts. A real do-anything frame that was my primary mountain bike for many years. Not been ridden for some time and has been slowly gathering dust in the corner of my room. Got to be the cheapest way into a titanium frame at £125
Happy to answer any questions/provide additional photos on request.
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Clearing out the garage and come across this. It's a late 90s/early 00s Saracen Killi Ultra titanium in bare titanium. I haven't had a chance to measure it but I'd guess it's around 19 or 20". Not really the market here but anyone got any idea how much would be reasonable to ask for it?
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Did not compute das as momentarily distracted by full fisherman waterproofs being sported by the lady immediately in front of me. Will pay more attention in future.
It's got a factory fit LR one, plus an after-market Clifford G5 alarm, which has its own immobiliser (which was fitted before my ownership).