Squaredy

2 hours ago, Clutchy said:

One of the guys dropped a peg through this roof, leaving a small hole. 

Whats the best way to repair/seal? Would fiberglass work? 

One more option open to you (as it is very near the lower edge) is to simply insert a steel corrugated sheet under the cement (or asbestos) damaged piece.  You might need to remove one or two fixings at the very lowest edge (with great care as it is clearly brittle) and then slide the steel sheet under and right to the end and support the upper end with a 3X2 or similar fixed at an angle between existing purlins.

Just take great care as this could become a very expensive full roof replacement job if the owner is the sort of person to see this as an opportunity to get something for nothing.

9 minutes ago, PeteB said:

Wasn't that a Morecombe and Wise gag?

The Two Ronnies did it.

1 minute ago, JDon said:

Is there a way to only have the combi boiler just to solely heat the water in the tap/shower/bath? I'm not really clued up on how this all works. 

I guess you could have two totally separate systems - use the combi boiler for hot water only and have all the rads plumbed in to the back boiler on the wood burner.  But then you wouldn’t even be able to use the combi in the morning before work.

 Also you need to search old threads as I think there was one recently about woodburners with back boilers.  It seems there are very few available these days.

2 minutes ago, JDon said:

My log burner is upstairs so only heats half and the downstairs is freezing in the winter so yes. 
 

How much money are we talking?

 

Yes it is a combi boiler. 
 

I have unlimited access to free wood as I am a cutter in forestry so would be grand. 

I know someone who did this about ten years ago and it was over ten grand, but I assume this included the new log burner.

 Is it not feasible to fit a second log burner downstairs?

1 hour ago, JDon said:

Currently have a log burner and I am looking to hook it up to my radiators and still use the central heating if possible for hot water in taps and showers. 
 

Any suggestions for doing something like this and suggestions for a new stove would be grand. 
 

i will be paying a fully qualified heating engineer to do this and not doing it myself as i dont want to turn my living room into a bomb

You need a suitably qualified person to advise you what is possible and does it work out for you.  Assuming your existing central heating is a combi boiler then the way to link the two is by using a thermal store, which is a significant investment itself.  Otherwise you have two incompatible systems - combi boiler system is high pressure closed loop; wood burner with boiler will be gravity fed with a header tank.

 It is worth thinking long and hard if it is really worth it or if you can make the log burner heat lots of your house by opening doors etc!

7 minutes ago, ABtrees said:

Every spring seems to bring something new ............... never seen one of these before (and still haven't - I'm in the UK atm !).

 

Mrs B's poor quality pic on her i-phone

Very beautiful.  Do you know what it is?

As far as I am aware a very high proportion of the really old trees in the UK are trees which have been coppiced or pollarded.  It is generally accepted that with trees such as oak and ash it actually extends the lifespan.

Might be best to ring it up and sell the rings to wood turners.  Milling such a stem is a nightmare, especially if the tree has been dead a few years.  Those knots will be as hard as iron.  

Spring has finally arrived in South wales.  Loads of insects flying around today - way more than yesterday.

3 hours ago, Oaken Lad said:

Hi, I live in Wales and we have a large, old oak near our house. I noticed today that squirrels have made/enlarged a hole in the flattish middle of the tree, where the main branches grow out and water can collect, and 3 young squirrels emerged from the hole. I don’t much like squirrels but my concern is that water hasn’t/doesn’t slowly rot the tree from the inside to enlarge the hole made by the squirrels. I’m considering putting sand into the hole and then a large stone on top, in the hope this would reduce the water damage and slow any internal rotting. Is this a good idea, could sand damage the tree? The oak’s about 400 years old and I want it to outlive me… Any comments gratefully received. 

Veteran oaks often become hollow, and this is not necessarily a problem.  To extend the life of the oak most likely a bit of reduction is likely to help it.  You won’t stop rot inside the trunk. 

 Post a couple of photos and see what other Arbtalkers think.  
 

8 minutes ago, Chegz said:

Looking to fill Thursday and Friday up this week, all irrelevant tickets 

 

East Midlands area but will travel for the right job 

 

 

So can you clarify exactly which irrelevant tickets you have?!

Yes, Cherry.  The bark is a dead giveaway.  The light colour wood is sapwood, the dark wood is heartwood.  In other words the dark streak is simply the natural colour of the timber and not a fault at all.

 Some timbers are poisonous (eg yew) though I doubt it would really cause a major problem if used in a kitchen.  After all many household materials are poisonous if you ingest enough of them.

 The classic timbers for use in the kitchen are beech, sycamore, maple.  I know plenty of chopping boards etc made from oak and ash also.

Maybe a better response might come from an online support group for people who have this type of stoma.

 You never know someone on this forum may have knowledge of this, but if so they haven’t seen the post yet.
 

Presumably the answer would be similar to many activities that could create dust.

14 hours ago, Clutchy said:

Indeed, and the battle to keep my company going, in my opinion, is worth £90k a year to me for 2 x teams 

 

Or ill just take £50k a year as a contract climber (if I was) or more likely, back to my office job which would pay the same (50k), if not more with way less hassle, and I haven't got the worry of a wage bill every month

 

Perhaps I'm on my own when it comes to placing a high value on the stress, extra time and capital investment etc of running my own tree business 

I suspect what you are up against is what many business owners find over the years - that having all the financial risk, stress, commitment and effort doesn't always mean earning good money.

I have known people who employ dozens or even hundreds of people who one day jack it all in and go freelance, or even just get a PAYE job somewhere and say they are much happier.  It is horses for courses. 

Running your business may be the future for you but you will have to make it happen and make the figures stack up.  And there could be times when someone working for you just doing his or her job and going home at 4pm earns more than you.  And they won't have to deal with the crap that you do.

Only you can make it work as you want.  Or maybe it never will work as you imagine - plans in business have to keep evolving, and sometimes head in a direction not predicted.

However you move forward good luck; and even if it doesn't give you what you want in the long run the experience should prove invaluable.

12 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

So guys I have finally sorted the issue with my planner and it was easy but I now have to own Nobhead of the year award as the only thing wrong with my machine was Me I put the blades in the wrong way round so thats why I own Nobhead of the year well unless somebody else does something better that I did.

We've all done it....  Well that is what I tell myself...

6 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Definitely overloaded

Why does anyone need that much vanish?  Unless it was on offer of course…

1 hour ago, petercb said:

Because he wants a wood? Wants to do his bit for the environment? We wanted some woodland and ended up buying our neighbours 129 acre site. We had no forestry experience but we have learnt over the last 25 years or so with support from FC etc plus Arbtalk! We don't know it all but we have improved the woodland (paws) without ravaging it. It is a joy to see the dogs mercury, bluebells, primroses etc. spreading back throughout the site. Have planted 1,000's of trees to do our bit for the environment having done our share of trashing it in the past!

When life gets stressful working in or just enjoying our wood relieves a lot of tensions. Have organised walks so that less able people can enjoy the wood and have allowed people work experience. Also allowed a friend who had a bad car accident freedom to drive around the wood on the 4.5 miles of concrete rides to regain driving skills to enable him to get his licence back.

Some of the reasons why we bought our woodland with no experience.

Sounds like you have done a great job of managing your woodland.  It is a shame so many woods are simply neglected areas of farms that the farmer sees as an unproductive part of the land.

My local authority remove the woods from farms when the lets come up for renewal as the farmers do nothing with them.  But guess what?  Now the local authority do nothing with them.

22 hours ago, andrewmiskin said:

Some one I know has purchased a woodland about 6 miles from Bridgend. He has no previous forestry experience and is looking for the best / easiest way to carry out thining. Could anyone advise / recommend any contractors who would be able to carry out this work. From what I have seen it's mainly western hemlock. There are no permits applied for as yet as still assessing options. Would it be better to sell as standing timber or pay a contractor to carry out the work? Any advice is much appreciated.

Why does someone with no forestry experience purchase 80-90 acres of woodland???  That sounds a bit like me buying a jumbo jet!

22 hours ago, andrewmiskin said:

Some one I know has purchased a woodland about 6 miles from Bridgend. He has no previous forestry experience and is looking for the best / easiest way to carry out thining. Could anyone advise / recommend any contractors who would be able to carry out this work. From what I have seen it's mainly western hemlock. There are no permits applied for as yet as still assessing options. Would it be better to sell as standing timber or pay a contractor to carry out the work? Any advice is much appreciated.

If you or your acquaintance hasn't already, it may well be worth speaking to Coed Cymru the timber charity.  Unless I am out of date they give free advice on woodland management and marketing in Wales, but also they are an excellent source of contacts.  If you can get hold of the officer who covers your area he or she will almost certainly know a number of local contractors.

Hell yes.

Been milling lots of sycamore recently, most of which is nice, but today we had this.  Hope these colours and markings remain as it dries.

44 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Tulips are really the jewel in the crown of spring flowers. Daffs are all well and good but a bit monochrome.

Stuck a few quids worth of assorted bulbs in November, then you get this..

Very nice indeed.  

But if you think daffs are monochrome you are buying the wrong daffs!  You should try going on holiday to the Isles of Scilly in spring in the nineteen seventies - then you would see how amazing daffs can be!

This is all very harsh on the original poster.  I think he should buy the equipment to mill the logs; then he just had to build a good stack with spacers neatly positioned between every board and some roofing sheets on top with a large weight on; then wait for them to dry for a year or two; then advertise on Facebook or similar; then spend many hours showing customers the boards; and he could make maybe a couple of hundred pounds.

 When he has done this if it goes well I would suggest digging some earth in his garden and sieving it and sterilising it to sell it as top quality topsoil.  Not only is there money to be made here as well, but if he digs up any large stones these could be sold as building stone and it is a double whammy.  Come to think of it this might be even more lucrative than milling the birch.

 Actually maybe the best bet is to buy the right equipment and extract oxygen from the air.  Buying oxygen in cylinders is really pricey these days, yet I have been breathing it in for over fifty years and it hasn’t cost me a penny.  Serious money to be made here I am quite sure.

1 hour ago, eggsarascal said:

they’d let me fill a carrier bag

I seem to remember that when petrol prices were going up a few months ago a customer was actually filmed trying to fill a carrier bag with petrol....

I have for many years been under the impression that the rules on filling cans with diesel are rather more lax than those about petrol.

But today I was told at a Tesco petrol station that my diesel containers are not legal.  To be honest they may well be right, but I want to get to the bottom of it so I know I am doing the right thing.  Since the new rules came in a year or two ago I no longer have red diesel delivered, and the easiest and cheapest way is now to buy it at the forecourt.  I only fill two 25 litre containers at a time, and only about once or twice a month.

Do they have to be metal?  Do they have to be marked as made to a certain standard?  Or is this only for petrol?