The House Projects Thread

[Beany]

I don't, but guns are cheap and I know how to use them. I think that's my primary option in terms of simplicity and ease of fix.

[Jobbo]

Picked up my Titan SDS drill from Screwfix today

[integrale_evo]

Pretty sure you can buy ready made cement in tubs. Or at least premixed which you just add water to.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Pretty sure you can buy ready made cement in tubs. Or at least premixed which you just add water to.

Yes. Have used for a few odd jobs myself.

[Beany]

What do you do with the other 90% of the bucket once you've used a handful of it?

[Mito Man]

You keep it for a few years until you finally require it again, only to find that the humidity and old age has turned it into a solid block.

[Swervin_Mervin]

You keep it for a few years until you finally require it again, only to find that the humidity and old age has turned it into a solid block.

And then you use it as a weight somewhere, doorstop etc.

Its £10 on Wickes so not like it's much more if any cost than silicone and should last longer

[Simon]

Picked up my Titan SDS drill from Screwfix today

Good darts. Same as mine? 22 accessories etc?

Let us all know how you get on with the fence post.

I fitted the 2 new LED battens in the garage to replace the one failed fluorescent. It's like night and day with the old bulb. Pardon the pun. But 12 meters of batten doing 6500lm between them lights up the nighttime garage like daytime. In an ideal world I'd fit 4, but I need to see how the new garage door fits in first to see if it would hit them.

[Jobbo]

The £65 one from Screwfix, think it’s got 22 accessories. That’s the one.

Will take some photos as I go… It’s not strictly a fence post, think it was one end of a frame for growing plants up. The post itself is gone (that was the bit I was able to remove) leaving a few inches high stump of wood sticking out of what looks like a very solid foul waste pipe (concreted into it) which is then concreted into a massive pad below ground. I’m hoping the easy way will be to crack open the pad and get the pipe and wooden stump out in one.

[jamcg]

@@Beany cement is the way to go- I’d use some mixed cement rather than the gun stuff. You’ll need a pointing trowel too but they can be picked up cheap enough. If it’s a biggish hole then fill the hole with BBC a bit of cement first, then push a couple of pebbles or bits of brick into it and go over it again- this’ll support the cement so ghat is doesn’t just sag and fall back out. You’ll have to avoid using the kitchen drain until the next day to avoid washing away your patch no matter what you do

[Simon]

The £65 one from Screwfix, think it’s got 22 accessories. That’s the one.

Will take some photos as I go… It’s not strictly a fence post, think it was one end of a frame for growing plants up. The post itself is gone (that was the bit I was able to remove) leaving a few inches high stump of wood sticking out of what looks like a very solid foul waste pipe (concreted into it) which is then concreted into a massive pad below ground. I’m hoping the easy way will be to crack open the pad and get the pipe and wooden stump out in one.

Well the one tip I would make, also as per video, is to nibble away at it. You can't point it at the middle of a slab and expect it to crack it right open, but going in from the side reduced my 1ft cube lump of concrete to 20 or more pieces over the space of 20 minutes or so. Oh, and gloves, eye and ear protection goes without saying.

[jamcg]

Handy tip- take a standard drill bit, around a 8-10mm so nothing massive and drill holes allover it, reasonably close together. Doesn’t take too long to do but saves an enormous amount of time when it comes to breaking up with the chisel function. Not sure if that’s in the vid as I can’t be arsed to watch it

[Jobbo]

Hmm, I haven't found the edges of the concrete pad yet so I think drilling some holes into it around the pipe will be the way to go. Thank you both!

[Jobbo]

Thought I’d get rid of the concreted-in post stump today. I took some of your advice, thanks all

How it looked before:



Pretty unsightly and possibly dangerous, I’m sure you’ll agree. Here’s why I haven’t removed it previously - really solidly concreted in:



So I chose what looked like the most appropriate bit, a chisel, and got down to it:



I wasn’t working one-handed to take a photo there; it got jammed. So I took the drill off it and tried a pointy chisel bit to get it out:


Oh.

Running out of chisel bits, and having not had great success with them so far, I remembered the advice to drill holes. Thank you for that; it worked. In fact, you’d almost think a drill would work better for drilling, wouldn’t you? It was amazing at cutting into the concrete with the second largest bit. Success:



Drilling all round into the concrete wasn’t what finally freed it - that was from drilling diagonally into the post under the surface. Very satisfying. I’ve left the concrete pad there since it’s a few inches down, and put the dead grass back on top:

[Simon]

So... I'll take that as a win!

[Jobbo]

The drill was great. The two chisel bits stuck due to user error were a learning experience

[Mito Man]

Whilst some were removing concreted posts I was adding them. The very dry weather means the goat pasture isn’t growing sufficiently and I don’t want it to get overgrazed so I started expanding their land into the woods.

Fencing up the hill damn near killed me, for perspective the goat house is 4.5 metres tall at its peak and the hill behind it is quite a bit taller.

Anyway they seem to enjoy the shade and there’s a new variety of plants for them to graze on. I’m just hoping they don’t start stripping the bark off the trees.

[Rich B]

I was using the mighty titan today, drilling some 4 inch cores at my dads house. My tip for the day would don't stick your face anywhere near the drill when looking to see what it's bound on, especially if you plan on pressing the button...

...unless you want to go to a dentist to get your tooth put back where it belongs and be relieved of a substantial amount of cash! Doh!

[integrale_evo]

Finally seeing real progress at the barn, ie it’s getting built back up instead of pulled to bits

Trenches dug and lots of holes punched through the walls on the old brick part before a structural concrete raft was poured. Cracked walls strengthened, roof stripped.

Thankfully they seem able to reinforce a lot of the existing timbers and only replace what needs to be. The only real snag with this part was when they went to put a little over the large opening in the gable end they found the brick courses weren’t level, so ended up knocking down one side and rebuilding. The area above was badly cracked and had to come down anyway so didn’t really add a lot of extra work. Insulation and tiles started to go on.

Less good news on the old garage part. Despite the structural engineer at the planning stage being happy, the builder found the foundations far too shallow, and given there wasn’t any real history or character in that part to preserve it was easier to knock it down completely, which meant having to go back to planning…

Was a bit of a surprise to turn up one day and see it completely gone with no trace.










Hoping to be inhabitable by Christmas…

[DeskJockey]

More updates please! Kind of puts my update of "fixed the kitchen drain*" to shame

Looks like a great project.

* Paid someone to do it