We had the sticky polystyrene balls blown into our cavity on an 80’s build house a couple of years ago and it has made a big difference to warmth both in winter and staying cooler in the summer. We have just had one incredible wet winter / spring and no problems for us with water tracking across from the outer skin.

The only thing I would mention is that the balls only stick a little bit so if you were to try and put them in an open cavity from the top then any wind would have large amounts of little grey balls siling away into the garden. it really isn’t difficult to have them blown in after the work is done.

If you are building a garden room to a standard where it will be used for more than 10 years then I would want a better form of foundations. If the wood rots out it will be pretty much impossible to correct it once built.

I did mine with breeze block pillars but a common method is to concrete in big metal threaded bar to support the wooden floors. It needs more threaded metal bars but easy to get it all level.

Just to be clear they are planning to walk / climb the actual 3 peaks but using road bikes to cycle between the peaks.

In straight tensile pulling 1 M5 (grade 8.8 bolt) will take over 1100kg so your not going to break any bolts. I can’t actually find the tensile pulling force for a rivnut but it is going to be way more than 24kg. The thing you have to contend with on the car is the forces coming and going (pulsating) and the flex in the undertray. I would have thought you would have to make the undertray very stiff and heavy to be strong enough to be supported in only 4 points. Most car undertrays I have come across spread the load over more like 12 fastenings. Normally the leading edge is very well supported and down the sides with less fasteneres on the trailing edge.

There is also the forces generated by hitting an object or a speed bump etc. Why would you not reuse all the original mounting points.

Thanks for all the comments. Yes I surf and ski. It has been pointed out to me that I muscle around my on piste skiing very well but lack agility when it comes to loading unloading etc. I also just feel heavy on my feet when walking down rough ground scrambling etc so need to boost core strength but definitely want to try some sort of jumping, hoping, skipping excersie.

Some of the older petrol cars are ULEZ compliant, diesels almost certainly not and also a ULEZ compliant diesel adds a whole other level of complication to diagnostics and maintenance.

Yes definetely, especially if you can buy something with 1 fault to fix. I got an 08 V70 for £500 autumn last year with a dead center console. It did need 4 new tyres to pass the MOT but the dead center console was only a hard to find fuse. All in I am about £1000 with the tyres a service and a new MOT.

Johndoh you seem to have all the bases covered. My kids lost there paddle (it sank) in the summer. As there main form of entertainment is jumping in and trying menouvers that end in falling in the paddle spends quite a bit of time in the water. A height adjustable paddle will float for a good while but eventually water can get in and it can sink. This is both expensive and could leave you stranded. I have now attached a roofbar surfboard protector with a fabric cover to the paddle and it does an admirable job of keeping the paddle a float, can be slid into different positions to suit different height paddlers and very easy to remove if I was going for a seriouse paddle.

https://www.chelstondirect.com/northcore-surfboard-roof-rack-bar-pads-43cm-pair.html?msclkid=0795906f973a11e8885ef5f94669e63d

Not necessarily, my girls love using one between them. We have offered them another but they just love climbing on and jumping off. They have very little interest in actually travelling anywhere on it.

Thanks goldfish thats what I thought now is just the decision weather to replace with another vented cylinder which I can do myself or upgrade to an unvented cylinder which I would need a plumber to do as I am not certified for G3 stuff.

I went to see Cut Capers & Samantics at “The David Hall” in South Petherton (middle of no where in Somerset) it was amazing. A 9 piece band crammed onto a tiny stage in a converted chapel, the crowd were well up for it. Amazing gig.

I was with Autoaid for many years called them out a couple of times and they were very good. Only reason I stopped is our car is too old for European cover so moved to a Nationwide Flex account that covers us for Europe travel as well.

Just sold an octavia that had run out of MOT on Facebook on monday for £400.

Guy picked it up and drove it straight to garage to get it fixed and put through an MOT.

Tried to sell it on Ebay when it still had a few weeks MOT left and just got lots of people agreeing to buy it and then not showing up or paying.

Banks didn’t work near high tide on Sunday particularly well, as awlays was getting really good mid morning yesterday when I had to get out to go to work.

Weekends like the last one make all the crap conditions the UK throws at us worth while. Surfed sunday afternoon in 20 degree plus sunshine with big clean waves and Monday morning at Westward Ho in the fog but just as clean. Bigger than forecast definetly and monday there were sets of 15 or so big strong waves with a tiny lull, got caught inside a few times and spent most of my energy on just surviving. Was so foggy on Monday you couldn’t even see the waves form the waters edge just able to hear them. My arms are like spaghetti today.

Let us know Jedi how you get on, unless you master it first time in which case you can keep it to yourself. Nobody needs to know a mountain biking & surfing god.

I started in around 1995 at Polzeath my instructor was called Wailin (stick thin with bum length blond hair). I wish I had secummed to the fact that its the only thing in life that makes me truelly happy years ago. I have had 2 courses of intermediate lessons over the last 2 winters and it has made a massive difference to my ability and made loads of friends as well. Staying surf fit is difficult unless you can surf at least once a week but there are lots of things you can do to help.

Get some lessons for sure. I don’t think it really matters which beach you get the lessons, you will only be in the white water and at this time of year you should be able to find space at most beaches. 7’6″ is small for your first board. 8’6″ to 9′ is going to get you onto more waves and be more stable giving longer rides. More time stood up gives more time to learn and practice. Pretty much everybody buys there first board too small. Rent a bigger board and see what a difference it makes. Enjoy and have fun but it takes so long to get really good, you just have to enjoy the journey. I am 20 years into surfing and have come to the conclusion about 18 months ago that I have to move to the north coast of Devon, its going to be another 18 months untill that can happen due to school age kids.

We are off to Serre Chavelier for the first time at half term looking forward to a change of resort, driving down again fingers crossed for lower temperatures than last year.

So I have now joined the club. Managed to get a V70 2.4D5 manual for the crzy low price of £500 drove home the 100 miles with no problem. Car was absolutely filthy inside and out but after a good afternoon it is now approachine presentable. It has quite a few scratches on the bonet (looks like a cat slept on it regularly) a really bad paint repair on the rear wing that has crazed (checked inside and no actual panel damage just a bodged paint repair). I am waiting on a Mongoose cable to arrive so I can get Vida on it to try and track down the comms error for the central part of the dash. Rear subframe has a good layer of surface rust on it which will need dealing with in the next few months but seems pretty solid. I am firmly in the camp of cars are a tool to take you amazing places, while lugging lots of kit, hopefully reliable so it doesn’t need to be perfect just look presentable and not be rusting away.

RustyNissanPrairie. Is this the Vida download you were thinking about https://volvodiag.com/. I can’t see anywhere where it mentions the cable type you need? Is it a specific cable or just generic.

Mazdarati, spoke with the garage they have scanned with generic software and it reports Climate Control Module comms failure. Picking it up on Sunday so will take it from there. Looking forward to it, wanted one for ages but have had 2 skoda octavias that have litteraly not put a foot wrong for the past 4 years. Will probably get a copy of Vida and go from there, will let you know how I get on.

So I am looking to buy an O8 plate V70 2.4 D5 I went to see it and had a good look over it. I am a good home mechanic I have been doing all jobs on mainly VW and skodas for the last 20 years. The V70 has been parked up for a few months as the sellers are emigrating. It drives well, couple of bits of paint work that could do with tidying up but not rusty. Its done 190,000 miles it needs a new drivers seat as the leather is ripped but thats quite easy and is perfectly usable while I wait for a good replacement. It was already cheap but they jump stated it and fitted a new battery and now the stereo and central control panel is now dead, no lights nothing works no AC, ventilation fan reversing sensors. I agreed to buy it based on them getting a garrage to fix it, the garage are saying they need to send a module off to be repaired which puts us out of the time frame to buy it before the seller leaves the country. I have negotiated buying it for £500 as is. My internet searches have lead me to beleive that it could be the CEM module, ICM or IAM. Is it a parts lottery or should diagnostics be able to tell which part has failed. If so do I get a garage to diagnose or do i buy a lead and a copy of Visa. I will talk to the garage that has been looking at it to see if they pinpointed a specific module?

I have run a double burner coleman stove for the past 16 years as our family stove at least 3 weeks a year. I have always run ours on a good quality super unleaded and it runs fine. It is super hot cost’s pence to run. 2 week family camp for 4 with loads of cooking uses a 2 – 3litres of petrol so around £5. I also have a coleman apex single burner stove that is more like 25 years old and still runs perfectly like a slighlty heavier wisperlite. Again super dependable and cooks very fast, no problems with gas freezing when its cold. Coleman still sell spare parts and seals for all of there kit as far as I am aware.

I am very impressed with the Garmin Instinct Solar, it has about 25 days battery,can do activity recording, basic maps. Seems very rugged, the screen is well protected by a good bezel. I got a refurb from Garmin with 12 months waranty for around £115 about 3 months ago.

Molegrips you need to get yourself to an automotive paint company most can mix paint into a rattle car. Most big towns or city’s should have one. Should be better quality than halfords and they should recognise the paint code and have a swatch that they can hold upto the car to confirm it is the right colour before the mix it.

I can definetely enter as a skins competitor its an option on the sign up sheet and all waivers and confirmation about training in similar temp water ticked and filled in. I do have wetauits for surfing but a swimming wetsuit is very different, thinner and more stretchy. wouldn’t want to swim 4k in a regular or surfing wetsuit. I can buy a swimming wetsuit I was only trying to do it without to see if I could and also to limit the enviromental impact of another hobby, neoprene is pretty terrible for the enviroment. I am not really worried about eating and drinking but will try taking a little water and sugar on half way through. Last night I went for a swim in the sea was hoping to get to between 2.5K and 3K but it was really rough from a strong wind all day and ended up feeling quite sea sick so need to work on that.

I had forgotten my ear plugs which I normally wear (surfer’s ear is horrible from friends expreinces) apparently ear plugs can help to limit sea sickness. Thanks for the interest and other comments guys.

If the sea keeps getting warmer it is going to be hard for me to train in the correct cold water, currently at 18 deg C at the moment and should rise for the next 2 months.

Walowiz 3.3km in just over an hour is a much faster pace than me at the moment. I average 2:15 per 100m I am looking for 1:30 to 1:45 for 4km presuming that I slow down a little as it goes on. Its actually 2 x 2km laps so there is a chance to have a drink and a jelly baby which I will have to experiment with to make sure it actually helps. The temperature will mainly depend on the weather hot and wind free air temp I know I am good for over an hour in the predicted water temp which is between 14 and 16.5 degrees as its a bloomin chilly reservoir, if the air temp is cold and windy thats when I will struggle. Had my first experience of jelly fish stings last week, hard to stop the mind over thinking it but actually just like a nettle sting.

Slightly different tak on the thread but I took my girls 11 and 14 to see Harry Styles at Coventry last Tuesday. They have seen loads of live music and been to at least 1 music festival every year of there lives but really nice to be able to see them develop there own taste in music and see there first big stadium gig. Was an excellent show, great stage and screens that really gave every single person in the whole stadium a great view. Never seen screens on the sides of the stage before for the crowd seated almost behind the stage. The screaming was a little hard to handle at times but every single person there seemed to have an amazing time which was so nice to see. Late night on a school night going there and back from Devon but you only regret the things you didn’t do.

I converted to wearing Vivobearfoot shoes to work about 2 years ago, As others have said I did have slightly tender feet after a lot of walking while getting used to thew lack of padding and flexibility of the sole. All this time I have continued to wear a standard very stiff 3/4 season leather walking boot. I have just bought a Vivobearfoot Tracket walking boot that is incredible. I have so war walked upto 15 miles in a day on very rocky trails and the soles of my feet were a little tender but the comfort and lightness are incredible. Will have to wait another 6 months or so to test how good they are on a cold wet boggy dartmoor or weather I need to revert back to the old stiff boots for winter when its very wet.

I am about you weight and surf a 9’6″ long board. A lot is dependant on fitness (surf fitness is quite hard to build without surfing a lot) The bigger the better to learn on I would say a 9ft Foamie as a minimum. You could rent one for the first few times. You don’t say how local to a beach with waves you are. If you are going to get in reasonable often then an 8’4″ bic is a good board to progress onto. If its just for the odd holiday I would get a decent quality foam board and stick with that. Modern soft boards are very good now.

I have been made redundant twice, neither were voluntary got a couple of month’s wages both times. Worst part was new jobs sprung up from out of the blue both times didn’t even get 2 weeks without work. Both times new job was bette than the last. grab the money and run, enjoy yourself for 6 months, spend 6 months looking for a job and bank 6 months money.

I have patched lots either inside or outside in my time. I found it best to make the patch diamond shape so there was no flat seam on the top to leak.

They are brilliant tents. As a youth group we camped for many many weeks in them. Our stock of them died about 15 years ago the fly sheets would eventually get sun bleached to the point that they couldn’t be patched effectively. Kids are pretty rough on gound sheets and zips as well.

I did love the way that the particular shade of orange made it completely impossible to see what colour something was inside them. It was a complete lottery to what colour clothes you had put on inside one.

I have used Indio boards and they are very good for a mass produced board. A surf instructor friend used to run a surf school in France that used Indo boards, they are tough and surf well. All that said volume is your friend, 8ft is the minium length of board to start to learn on and I would always recomend something larger to make quick progression on. I am heavier than you but I surf a very big 9’6″ longboard. Have tried lots of smaller boards and always come back to my old big long board. Unless you are monumentally surf fit (its very hard to be surf fit without surfing several times a week) the thing that limits your progression is being able to catch lots of waves in a session. Big boards with lots of volume make it much easier to paddle out and catch waves. I have been surfing for 20 years and would only class myself as an intermiediate surfer. There is no way I could surf anything as small as the DAB Fish. I have messed around on the Indio banana and that was the smallest board I have successfully surfed but it is over a foot longer and has 50% more volume than you are thinking of buying.

The other thing to consider is that buying second hand is much better for the planet and you will feel much less pain when you ding it, which you will. Also if it does turn out to be too small a board you can sell it for what you bought it for without making a loss. There is a really good market for second hand board in south wales and they are cheaper than southwest england.

As you already have a 3 year old there will be a minimum of 4 years age gap between your 2 children. In my mind this is too larger gap and makes it a little bit more like having 2 single kids. My experience is that over 3 years gap and they wont play much. This might make the decision to stick with 1 slightly easier.

We had ours down last summer, 1980’s detached house. Hadn’t done it previously because I was worried about the damp scare stories. Turns out that our cavity was on the larger side of normal (or so the operator said). Wehad the polystyrene balls installed with an adhesive to bond them together. It has seemed to make quite a big difference to both unwanted solar gain in summer and also to keeping a more stable warm temperature in winter. The temperature drops slower when the heating is turned off. If its really cold we have the heating on in the morning probably takes an hour to get the temp up from 15 deg to 19 and then it wont kick in again during daylight hours on a sunny day as the solar gain is enough to maintain the temp. Very happy with it. We do have roughly 300mm of loft insulation and did new double glazed windows the previouse year. We are located in Devon so benefit from relatively warm climate but very wet. No signs of increased problems with Damp.

I am pretty much level, generally eating better and healthier but there has been cake in the house all week after my daughters birthday.

Down 0.5Kg which is pretty good as had my Daughters Birthday at the weekend. Very happy and cutting out lots of the Christmas Rubbish makes me feel better inside even if the weight loss is tiny. First time I have joined the Chub club so hoping the weekly weigh in will keep me motivated to keep at it and make it the norm.

I am in this year for the first time, need to loose a good bit to feel much better for life in General need to loose a stone ideally.

I used this for the same thing as you cliped it to the outside of the house and put in a duct going underground to the garden office.

https://www.kenable.co.uk/en/networking/network-cables-reels/outdoor-ethernet-reels/8535-external-cat5e-outdoor-use-copper-ethernet-network-cable-reel-utp-50m-black-008535-5055383485352.html

Has been fine for the last 2 years, I was advised to run 2 cables and terminate both and then in the event of a problem can just swap over. I think even the best CAT 6 cable will have a shorter life than armoured power cable etc.

https://www.kenable.co.uk/en/networking/network-cables-reels/outdoor-ethernet-reels/8535-external-cat5e-outdoor-use-copper-ethernet-network-cable-reel-utp-50m-black-008535-5055383485352.html