Thanks all. After much deliberation I’ve gone for the large frame. Hopefully it will be fine. If not, you’ll see it on the classifieds!

I’m just about to press the button on a Tempest, but at 5’11 I’m right in the middle of medium & large sizing so would appreciate any STW advice!

My mtb’s have always been 18/medium and fit perfectly, but my Ribble road bike is comparable to a large in the Tempest sizing, though this does sometimes feel a bit of a stretch.

I think I’ll go for the medium, but what d’ya think?

We routinely test any property that we’re going to be working on built pre-2000. No exceptions.

If you are getting somebody in, then its worth having a localised refurbishment & demolition survey done, where they will sample everything that could be a potential ACM, including accessing ducts, ceilings, voids etc.

In a property built in 79 it could, in theory still have old Marley floor tiles or asbestos bound bitumin adhesive lurking beneath carpets & underlay.

I know what you’re all thinking… How could i possibly let this beauty go? However we don’t have any pets in our home as we’re at work during the day & just don’t have time to look after a bear.

Shown here with and without its kitchen-roll cloak.

It’s hard to put a price on something like this (especially when my Uncle didn’t include a receipt) so I’ll let it go for free but ask the lucky recipient to make a nominal donation to Cancer Research instead.

You can buy mine for £900 😉

(and mine hasn’t fallen off the back of a lorry)

Oranges.

Dealing with an established dry rot outbreak is a bugger, and you (your neighbour) will need to expose all of the potential hiding places for the mycelium as it tries to find fresh timber to feed off before you have a fighting chance of eradicating the problem.  It wont be quick and it wont be cheap.

I’ve inspected a house in that there London this week which has a dry rot issue affecting floor joists, sash windows, skirtings and a staircase over four floors, and the costs are already well into six figures.

My only advice would be to try and get everybody in the block to agree to appoint one experienced building surveyor to manage the problem and you split the costs.

Yes, you should.  Tyvek or Proctor roofshield or similar would be fine.

If its dry rot caused by a slowly slowly drippy drippy leak, then its whats known as a ‘gradually operating cause’, which, to cut to the chase, will be a chuck out in insurance terms.

I haven’t been yet but I think there is a new 5k family orientated walking / cycling trail through the grounds of Kingston Lacy.

The website says its free for National Trust members, but non members have to pay the usual entrance fee.   Now I’m not suggesting anybody should skip the whole £15 entrance fee business, but I did happen to notice the new trail passes right next to the drove road off the Badbury Rings road and is only separated by a low wooden gate.  😉

Somebody flipped a courtesy car from a garage onto its roof in my office car park a few years ago after cutting across a parking bay with a retractable bollard in place.  The bollard bent to a perfect 45 degree angle before the car rolled straight over.

I used to cycle that stretch occasionally when I lived in Sale.  It’s entirely do-able.

It gets quite muddy at times, and your biggest hazard is likely to be riding over fishing rods or joggers with earphones in.

As said above, bits of it are quite nice.  You may also get occasional sprint training in around Stretford 😉

Standard 4 bike Asgard here, hidden away inside a timber shed.

Its just big enough to squeeze in 4 26″ bikes (2 with bars turned and pedals removed), 2 kids bikes, a chainsaw and hedge cutters.

I’m happy enough with the security aspects of it, especially as the shed is connected to the house alarm.  As said above, the sheet metal would make a loud noise if you tried to force it or cut it.

Nothing is 100% secure but this feels safe enough.

Definitely get the drains checked, and are there any trees nearby?   Also do you know what the soil type is?

It’s highly unlikely your house would need underpinning based on your description.   At worst you could be looking at some minor crack stitching, but you can buy packs of the helibar kits from Screwfix for about £50 so I’d consider that before getting your insurers involved once you have ruled out drainage problems.

We got a set for my daughters sixth birthday last year.

The walkie talkies are fine for the kids to play with, but we have discovered that in addition to our local skip hire company, she occasionally hears the comms from a motorbike training school who obviously have radios between the instructor and the learners. As she can talk back to them, the potential for lolz are immense

Usually the person who has suffered the loss (in this case the tenant & their landlord) need to claim on their insurance, and their insurers will seek to recover the costs from the insurers of the policyholders whose flat had the escape of water.

What did your insurers say? Most policies cover the cost of trace & access, including making good any damage caused as a result. You would normally be responsible for replacing the failed section of pipe though.

Michael Cycle is your man (Qwackers on here). He guides there for what seems like 11 months a year, though I think he’s back in the UK right now.

Great place, amazing riding. Make use of the bike shuttles and guides to make the most of your time there.

A34, M40, M42, M6 Toll, M6. job done.

Maybe leave half an hour earlier to clear Cheshire, Skem, Preston etc before it starts to get busier around 4 ish.

As another Building Surveyor I’d also avoid against it.

The beads have a tendency to settle & slump over time causing cold spots at high level, leading to localised pockets of condensation & black spot mould to the inside face of the walls.

The blown fibre type can snag on the wall ties causing moisture to be held on the metal ties leading to accelerated wall tie corrosion.

The cavity is there for a reason.

£1200/m for the ground floor & £1000/m for upper floors + kitchen & bathroom costs on top.

^^^. Yep I have that same beach tent and its spot on for light to moderate breeziness. Big enough to wedge a sleeping 1yr old in a pram into whilst sleeping too.

Can’t go wrong for £12…..

Hi OP,

Not received an email from you so I’ll drop you a note now. Let me know if you don’t receive it?

OP, I’m a chartered building surveyor, and coincidentally I commute past Southampton every day.

I’d gladly call by on the way home from work one evening next week to give the house a once over to see if there’s anything untoward going on that could be contributing to the problem.

From what you’ve said so far, it does sound like it could be a humidity related issue. Getting rid of old carpets also sound like a good idea.

I’ll PM you my details.

I’m a project manager currently working on some care home refurbishments, and some of the high-end providers have fall mats (pressure pads) as well as other kit inc pendant alarms, nursecall systems etc.

Econoguard supply a lot of the homes, though I don’t know if they deal direct with private individuals.

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I’ve had the first email from SI confirming approx start time (12:30-1pm) but nothing as yet with the confirmed time.

Manchester Evening News website has a couple of tweets suggesting it was a gas filled balloon inside the arena that had burst?

Fantastic project, I’ll be following this one with interest.

Out of interest, did the nursing home hand over an asbestos register with the sale? (fire lining to lift shaft!?)

Are you sure that doesn’t need planning permissions? I built a raised balcony on a project for work a couple of years ago and had to apply for planning as the new deck was over 300mm above external ground level. I can’t see how this is any different.

If your car or house is damaged, you claim on your insurance, and its up to your insurance company to decide if its worth them going for recovery against the party that caused the damage (or their insurers).

Thanks, will give it a try.

I need that some of that in my life. Which product did you use?

First world problems and all that….

If you are putting scaffolding on your own land that could reach the Network Rail boundary should it fall, they will need you to not only provide design calcs from your scaffold company, but they may also request a secondary independent verification of the calculations, all at your own cost.

Don’t expect it to be cheap, and don’t expect dealing with Network Rail to be quick, easy and free of frustration.

Have you considered moving house? 😆

I was after a second hand sofa, so after selecting ‘ending soonest’ on my search, one of the first few items caught my eye and was infact fairly local, and it was only on a 99p starting bid. The photo just showed the sofa against a white background.

As there was only about 30 seconds to go so I made a snap decision to bid £1. I won the auction, and on re-reading the description imagine my delight to find that I’d just bought a minature sofa for a dolls house 😳

Depends where abouts in the country you are?

If you are in Yorkshire, the costs are fine. If you are in London you can treble them.

Sliced through the incoming electrical cable to my house with a mini excavator

Get in touch with the Bogtrotters. Quite a few of them have kids into biking who are around that age who ride in the lakes.

Ive just finished extending our house, doubling the footprint up to 110m/2. I took out the old timber suspended floors & replaced with new concrete slabs with 100mm celotex over, then a liquid screed with UFH pipework within.

I used Wunda heating to supply all of the kit. You can provide them a drawing and for a small charge (think it was £50) they design the layout for you.

The entire kit cost about £1100 for a 6 pipe system. I fitted it all myself, and my electrician wired it in with a new Nest thermostat.

Everything seems to be working well, and the heat levels in the house are spot on. the difference between the heat on the inwards loop is only about 7-10 degrees lower than the flow, so the boilers not having to put much effort in either.

I lived in Longton to the south of Preston for a couple of years & went to college there.

There is an established travellers site in the centre of Preston next to some UCLAN student halls, and I remember at the time the travellers complained to the council that the students were lowering the tone of the area 😆

Prestons not quite the armpit of the Northwest. Go along the M65 and see Nelson for that.

We moved back down to Wimborne 2 yrs ago after a long spell in’t North. Great area to live in, not much gradient though on local rides but stunning scenery.

Traffic is pretty bad across Bournemouth, Poole etc, though I commute to Winchester every day which brings its own joys, especially the caravans in the summer 👿