All your Homebase are belong to... you! / The House 'n' Home Thread.
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That's probably porn hidden in it. Or maybe that only happened in the 70s and 80s. -
The mags are in the house these days. He gets dead ratty if he has to go all the way to the shed.
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He couldn't give two flying fox.
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His only vice always seems to lead him down the garden path.
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Time_on_my_hands wrote:Does the garage have any windows? If so, check them on cold days. If there's condensation on the inside, don't store books. If there's no condensation then the air's probably dry enough for them.
Garages are a bastard. My parents stored some of my college artwork in theirs (before they had it pulled down and rebuilt). Loads of my boards just warped.
No windows, double garage doors. I really dont want to give my books away plus some of the fiction stuff my son may want to read when he is older. I will probably put the billy bookcase up in the garage, buy some doors for it from ikea and pit silica gel on the shelves. Putting the books in plastic wont work due to the sheer number of books.
Thanks for the advice guys. -
Had some great news today which has really picked up my mood on this garden situation.
Had a builder come round today first of all to quote me for removing the shed, he takes a look at the back where the fence fell down and as I thought, it's more of a total subsidence of that back drop/earth-wall (and the drop is actually 10ft+). He said he can't put a fence there, I need a structural engineer, but he'll quote me for removing the shed.
Anyway, 20 mins later I get a text from him, £2.5k to remove the shed. Wtaf I says. Fucking chancer imo. Decided to go get some cans from the shop.
Walking to the shop I spy my next door neighbour (of foot-stomping funk window banging incident, if you'll recall). Anyways, I've never spoken to her before but think I can ask her if she knows who owns the paddock so I can speak to them about a) apologising for the mounds of earth in their paddock and b) ask them nicely if I can use their paddock to shift some dismantled shed.
She goes, 'oh, so your wall's fallen in too?' Apparently this exactly same thing happened to her about 4 years ago, including the resident fox family taking up home (she has a wartime bunker at the back of her garden that the foxes squatted in after the wall collapse). She knows the paddock owner and can put me in touch with them, and she highly recommends the builder she used to sort hers out, erecting a new boundary wall and making safe etc, cost her about £4k (I wasn't expecting it to be cheap).
So now I'm in a facebook chat with her, she's adding the paddock owner, and she's going to forward me the details of the builder/structural engineer she used and recommends to sort my problem out. I feel so much better about things now because this was really starting to weigh on my mind, worried about my garden collapsing.
Still, that quote guy, £2.5k +vat. I know it's a large shed with windows and a concrete floor, but fuckin' 'ell. I was expecting in region of £500 or something.
Got one more guy quoting to remove the shed on Monday, so will see that they say, then failing that will shine the Moot symbol up and prepare the beers.
Anyway, this is the second time since moving in that my neighbours have come to the rescue, bloody love where I live. -
£500 is about right. 2.5 can get in the bin. If you’ve got subsidence then I’m pretty sure that’s an insurance thing so they’ll probably pay to fix it for you too. Enjoy the beers.
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Ah I asked neighbour whether her insurance covered it and she said no, the boundary wasn't covered by hers, am going to call up on Monday and find out. Frustratingly, I just renewed my insurance last week and went for a slightly reduced cover (well, cheaper than my renewal quote for my previous insurer - still covered for buildings and grounds up to a chunky amount), seeing as I'd had absolutely zero problems in 3 years. Going to check the docs tomorrow and see anyway.
Cheers for all your help here btw guys, I'm not the most handy person with this kind of stuff so consulting the hive mind has been super valuable. -
Best thing with insurance is just phoning them. Sod looking through your docs, just call the claims line and explain the situation. It’s their job to decide whether you’re covered or not. -
500 for the shed is in the right neighbourhood.
The 2.5K guy just didn't want the job.Holding the wrong end of the stick since 2009. -
poprock wrote:Best thing with insurance is just phoning them. Sod looking through your docs, just call the claims line and explain the situation. It’s their job to decide whether you’re covered or not.
This. No way I could decipher a policy.Holding the wrong end of the stick since 2009. -
davyK wrote:500 for the shed is in the right neighbourhood. The 2.5K guy just didn't want the job.
Well with the impending Apocovidalypse money simply isn't worth anything anymore"I spent years thinking Yorke was legit Downs-ish disabled and could only achieve lucidity through song" - Mr B -
Aye I'm calling the insurance on Monday, just want to peruse the docs in advance, lest the person on the phone ain't up to snuff.
And yeah, I can't believe the 2.5k quotation, like I'd love to give a lol wtf get rekt reply but I'll just say no thanks have found someone else. -
We have a few trees in our garden that have overgrown a bit much. Think I may need to pay a tree surgeon to prune them back somewhat.
Anyway, I was wondering about suggestions for around the base of the trees. It's basically soil with some stones and the cats keep shutting there. Any suggestions on how to a) stop them and b) make it a bit more pleasant there? It has potential to be a nice little hideaway for the boy... I just don't want him covered in poo. -
Garlic, was the only thing that worked for me with neighbours cats"I spent years thinking Yorke was legit Downs-ish disabled and could only achieve lucidity through song" - Mr B
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Cats shit where cats wanna shit. You could try orange peels as they aren’t huge fans of citrus smells but the only thing that will defo stop them is if you reclaim it and make it a human space. That way they’ll go off somewhere quieter and do their poo’s there.
There isn’t loads you can do under trees and expect it to stay looking good. How big are the trees? How dry and shady is the ground? What were you wanting to do under there? -
Tree surgeons are not cheap but they do a job that we generally underrate.
Belfast Zoo does a roaring underground trade in tiger piss as a cat deterrent. Pun unintended.Holding the wrong end of the stick since 2009. -
Spikes. -
Get a load of snakes. Cats hate snakes.
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haha, should also keep Indiana Jones out of your garden as well"I spent years thinking Yorke was legit Downs-ish disabled and could only achieve lucidity through song" - Mr B
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Crushed gritstone is good option Tiger. 14mm>dust laid in two 25mm layers (lay 25mm compact then another 25mm and compact again) . Ideally you would lay this on a stone subbase base but if its in your garden and beneath trees I'd probably just go with a permeable membrane to stop the soil contaminating the stone. You might need to edge it off with timber edging 38x200mm pegged and that should sort it.
You tend to see it in country parks for footpaths but it's cheap, binds together yet still porous so good under tree roots. You also see it called crusher run.
Live, PSN & WiiU: Yippeekiyey -
nick_md wrote:Aye I'm calling the insurance on Monday, just want to peruse the docs in advance, lest the person on the phone ain't up to snuff.
Nick if the insurance decide not to pay up there might be a cheaper option that negates the need for the retaining wall, but it's totally dependant on your garden and neighbouring gardens suitability.
Basically if you garden is big enough you may be able dig back into your land and grade the collapsed wall and retained earth into a bank (max 1:3 slope). You can then put a fence back along your boundary at the bottom of the slope.
The downside of this is you reduce the usable space in your garden (unless of course it's south facing then it becomes a nice sun trap).
You could steepen the bank further to a 1:1 slope using a geocell which would reduce the amount of wasted space :
http://www.boddingtonsonline.com/products/grass-ground-reinforcement/ground-stabilization-slope-stabilization/typar-geocell-for-slope-stabilization.php
Which you can then fill with soil and plant up.
If you can get someone with a mini digger around the back and depending on the size of the garden it would be miles cheaper than building a new retaining wall and backfilling.
Live, PSN & WiiU: Yippeekiyey -
Bloke came round, quoted me £600 to get rid of the shed, have used him before for other labour bits in the house, much better than the £2.5k I was quoted from the other guy.
Also of note, the dead rats have disappeared from inside the shed. My man Mr. Fox. -
Fantastic"I spent years thinking Yorke was legit Downs-ish disabled and could only achieve lucidity through song" - Mr B
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