Squaredy

5 minutes ago, Stere said:

Obsessive Tidiness Disorder or: How we can learn to stop worrying and love nature’s messiness

WWW.DOUGLASBOYES.CO.UK

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Why do we do it? It consumes countless hours of our lives. It must cost millions. Every hedge neatly trimmed, every verge...

 

You have a good point there.  The main ring road in my home city gets the verges and central reservation cut regularly throughout the summer and not only does it cost an arm an a leg it can only be done Sunday mornings as the road is simply too busy at any other time.  As I drive past it and see the gangs of men with strimmers and more gangs of men with traffic cones I do wonder that we haven't come up with a less costly way.

I sometimes wonder if they could simply reduce the cutting to just one a year.  Vast cost saving and maybe benefit due to wild flowers taking hold?  It certainly wouldn't be dangerous in my view.  Maybe a few bits would need to be trimmed more often to keep lines of sight clear, but for the most part it has no impact on safety - unless I am missing something.

10 hours ago, woody paul said:

Essex Suffolk  Boarder so a little to far for you I think.

Yes indeed; hopefully someone else will want it.

2 hours ago, woody paul said:

As a result of storm damage got a large cedar butt to sell for neighbour, it's 48'' butt end, 44'' top and 16ft long and clean. Right near road to hiab lift. 

Losted touch of merchants how would buy, anyone know of good buyers. 

I am a good buyer.  But you don’t mention the location!

You only have to look up the dry weight to realise it is so light it will contain very little energy.  Easy to dry though so makes good kindling.

And yes Leylandii is better firewood.

7 hours ago, Whoppa Choppa said:

Hi All. Thinking of letting out a former dairy which measures 70' deep by 30' wide. No electric, water etc, just a plain concrete floor. Tenant wants it for timber storage / light sawing. 

 

Absolutely clueless. 

 

Any hint of business rates on this is a killer I think. 

 

Whatya reckon?

 

Thanks.

 

 

Regarding business rates, make sure your contract with the tenant states he or she is responsible for any business rates payable.  As GarethM  said it may well be nothing to pay, but pass this problem (if it is a problem) on to the person who will actually be using the space.

I would also recommend getting professional advice regarding commercial tenancies.  You should probably make sure it is a license to share the area with you rather than an actual lease.  Otherwise you may well find you have inadvertantly given the tenant security of tenure, and can never get rid of them.  

2 hours ago, chopperpete said:

A matching army Harley Davidson motorbike in a crate would be nice too!

Dunno about that but didn’t we find a stash of crated spitfires in Singapore a few years ago?  I’m sure I remember seeing that in the news but can’t find it now!

For $50 each I would buy the lot!

2 hours ago, martyn said:

Full load as in a 25ton lorry load as cannot seem to find any local suppliers near to me thanks

Have you tried Eddie trading as valley timber near crosshands?  Not used him for a long time so he might not still be trading.

4 hours ago, Gabriel82 said:

@Squaredy ceramic tile stove is an old technology, swedes and russians used them for centuries(I think...). These stoves are simple,are made only of ceramics(the square plates you see outside) and 230x60x32 mm "bricks" wich will be fitted INSIDE the ceramic square plates you see outside, mud+sand ,some steel wires to hold it all together and no need for power(electricity) to run them. They do need good draught,so a good chimney. Never measured or wheighed the wood that is burned on one fire. But a 3-4 hour burn time from cold ,will keep the whole stove hot to warm for the next 10-12 hours. I opted for a blocking plate inbetween the actual stove and chimney. On windy days the draught can be regulated and when all burning is done and the stove is hot enough for the "user's liking" ,the plate can be closed to block all natural draught.wich is always present. A very important condition and test of the stove: it must have a draught always, regardless summer or winter! You get to the good chimney part, tall enough, big enough on the inside diameter, etc... 

I have friends with Wiessman gasification units that can burn anything ,inverted flame, etc... One paid about 7500 Euros just for the unit+fitting,etc... And when we load it up with dry wood and wood briquettes plus some bituminous briquettes from Ukraine(the GOOD STUFF,tried them myself) got it going ,temperature was up at 65-70 Celcius, everything seemed ok ,we went for a coffee, not far from his house. On return the damn thing extinguished itself ,whole neighbourhood smelled like coal... Smelled it from the car...

And it has double wall 316 stainless steel chimney that cost him a lot of cash again... Never figured out what happened then ,or next weeks... Nothing is defective as tehnicians confirmed but fire goes out once in a while(not always) regardless of fuel used... 

Needles to say I wouldn't wake up in the middle of night to relight the 10000 euros stove... 

He installed another central heating unit on natural gas since his house is too big and he "kind of" forgot about the Wiessman "episode"... 

Compare that to a ceramic tile stove that lasts decades built from new, burns almost anything ,doesn't need electricity fans or pumps and when it's broken you can rebuild it with just refractory bricks ,ceramic tiles some mud+sand... 🙄 Shocking to even think about it 😂 

And it stays hot all night ,or at least 10-12 hours. Plus it's a constant not too high "heat" when burning just dry hard wood. 

On my tests it will get a lot hotter on coal briquettes, wood briquettes or straight bituminous coal(no anthracite around to test it).

My opinion a ceramic tile stove is the best heating option if you don't have 500 square meter house or bigger. Even then, I still would live "small " in cold period, who needs 10-15 rooms 4 bathrooms, gigantic living,etc...

Found this video when I burned only hornbeam and birch. Got blue flame in the end from the remaining coals 😁 

That's why I'm curios how oak will perform in the stove when bone dry . 

Maybe I'll add some coal in there too just for fun

 

Fascinating, thank you.  Great video by the way.

23 minutes ago, Gabriel82 said:

@Squaredy this is how it looks, a ceramic tile stove ,small one,  burning wood briquettes , about to end burning .but still very hot. can't get it to make a better photo... 

Fascinating, thank you for that.  So different from anything I have ever seen.  This is where cultural differences are so interesting.

And I am guessing it does a good job?

1 hour ago, Mr. Squirrel said:

UK wages are crap but that's been done to death plenty of times on here. 

Of course if wages were higher it would mean everything we buy would cost more.  So, sadly the benefit of high wages largely gets lost!

The only thing that really works is to personally have high wages when most people have low wages.

4 hours ago, Donnie said:

Now then another post from me about firewood. 
 

Buying a venom splitter on Friday and was just wondering how much or how little there is to be made doing firewood. 
 

 

On a lorry load of hardwood at 75-90 GBP a ton delivered (what my boss is offering me) how many IBC crates would this normally fill?

 

This is me thinking of the future and seeing what you guys think. Will need to find a yard of some sort which I'm also unsure on the price per month of something like that. 

To answer your question about how many IBC cages it will fill - not as many as you would like.  Probably 35.  There is another thread on here where this is discussed in detail.

 So if you ignore the cost of processing, each cage will cost you £70 or so in unseasoned logs.  Factor in processing, drying and delivering and it is no wonder that so many firewood sellers simply buy it from abroad.

6 hours ago, Gabriel82 said:

@scbk no worries , it's sunday 😁 free day. 

For splitting I use this "thing" after many many wood handles axes broken and even a fiber glass idiocy of an axe... Got late that year with splitting and stacking wood...

So ,extreme measures had to be taken. 

A forged axe head plus 16 or 18 mm rebar were used plus a very powerfull 3 phase 380AC industrial welder used by an experienced welder who works in a big company,on a saturday. The result is amazing since rebar is flexible and the weld is quality. Nothing stands in this axe's way. This is how it looked when "new" freshly built. Now has some "bruises" 😁

And a photo  in the end with what grows naturally in my garden 

😎

Am curios how hard will oak be to split. So far hornbeam was the hardest,even wet/freshly cut. 

Will post more when I can. I'll be more carefull and show you the oak logs when they are unloaded!  I usually don't take pictures of this. Don't see the reason or have time to. 

I think you will find the oak best to split when fresh.

I am worried that you’re metal wood drying store will not have enough ventilation to dry the oak well.  
 

Can we see photos of typical Romanian stoves?  Sounds interesting.

1 hour ago, Dry Rot said:

To resurrect an old thread, has there been any movement in the disposal of old tree guards? I hired someone to remove a large number of guards on Scots Pine and Silver Birch plants as I got tired of seeing them over years. They should have been removed years ago and some were deeply embedded in the trees and had to be left. I now have hundreds of these tubes collected in old 50kgs feed bags taking up space in my shed -- and I appear to be stuck with them! Any ideas? All I can think is to dispose of them surreptitiously in small quantities over time which is hardly "protecting the environment and slowing climate change". 

I guess the only option will be to find someone with the right waste carrier's license to take them away for you.  They are fairly light so disposal cost should be fairly low, but of course the company doing the disposal have to make it worth their while.

54 minutes ago, Zaffy said:

Not sure if this is a plumbing question or a wood burning stove question.  Anyhow, this winter, lit the fire.  When the stove was hot, the water cylinder became very noisy, swooshing, kettling etc. and hot water rose up into the expansion tank.  I  was told back boilers can be repaired but not replaced.  Not had any joy ringing around.  Any ideas, thanks.  

Yes, you have managed to get the water too hot.  Does it heat radiators as well?

 If it does not you will have to manage the wood burner very carefully to avoid letting the water boil.  I would have thought the system would have some radiators in the system to help dissipate heat.

 More details of your setup are needed please.

2 hours ago, doobin said:

6" x 5" beams, either 3.6 or 4.8m. Douglas or larch. 10 of.

 

 i have both in my yard, what should I be charging per m for that section timber?

As Andy says it depends on how much you want the sale.  Are these beams that you sell lots of or are they ones you would be really glad to see the back of?

If I were cutting them for a customer I would charge £50 for the 3.6 and £80 for the 4.8.  What always worries me about long beams is they are rarely straight.  If the customer is OK with that then no problem.  But if the customer expects the beam to be perfectly straight 4.8m, then you could have problems.  Ideally have the customer inspect the beams first.

9 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

I was on those Network Southeast trains going to school in the 80s too, lots of jetwash and paint got rid of a lot of the brown but the same brake smells were there.

 

It's rarely discussed but on average electric vehicles are heavier (eg Tesla) due to battery weight and hence produce more particulate pollution not less, because of increased tyre and brake wear.

 

Its a bit of an own goal in the emissions standards to only measure tailpipe particulates, which with DPF AdBlue etc are already very low, and leads to the bonkers "clean" Bentley above along with huge "clean" BMW etc.

What you are missing though, is that the brakes get used a lot less in electric cars, so much less brake dust.  As for weight, you are correct batteries are heavy, but overall weight only about 10% more.

16 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Wasn't there a report that said the largest polluting thing in London was the tube.

Yes, of course the well known terrible pollution caused by electric trains. 

Actually do I know brake dust is a problem.  This is why they use wooden brake blocks in Paris (Poplar).

I used to go to school by electric (overground) train, and I was aware of how everything near the railway got covered by this horrible brown brake dust.  It was sort of hidden when Network Southeast was created in the mid eighties, but in the BR days it was horrible.

11 hours ago, manco said:

im sure most cars now are compliant.

Well I guess you have answered your own question - the policy has worked.

As for Sadiq Kahn - well he is a politician.

15 hours ago, Justme said:

 

Just seems a waste of resources.

However I can understand why in your case it was done that way.

 

Or build the inside of a few to spec off site.

 

Then assemble into a bigger structure quickly & clad later.

 

I sort of agree it seems un-necessary to have the steel container when such a good job is done of the log "cladding".  BUT, imagine the look on the face of some toerag trying to break in, and he discovers that underneath that lovely hobbitesque exterior is an impenetrable steel shipping container!

6 hours ago, woody paul said:

Is that 1 🦆 

Well not a mallard, but yes.

I wouldn’t say I feel smug, but I am a little smug.  No Turkey in this house, only cooking for six, so we always have duck.  In the oven at 11am, ready for twoish.  So easy, much tastier than Turkey, and all eaten today.  Bones on wood burner this eve.

35 minutes ago, PeteB said:

Morning All, very Merry Christmas- still in bed waiting for her to bring tea up and I have the Telegraph crossword ready too!

That sounded perfect until you said crossword!

 Happy Christmas everybody, hope you all have a lovely day.

4 hours ago, Con said:

Hi

What should I paint my chassis with? It's an 05 transit tipper, so I don't really want to go to town on it. Just something that requires minimal preparation and is not too expensive. 

Van has just had a bit of weld for mot, for the first time.  Just hoping I can slow down the demise a bit.

Thanks

Usually by the time wording is required for MOT it is too late to do much to slow it down.  Most of the serious rust comes through from the other side of box sections and double skin areas anyway which you can’t treat anyway.

 Personally I would just get the welding done as and when it is needed.  With luck you will get a few more years yet.

9 hours ago, manco said:

Try them, try them, and you may! Try them and you may, I say.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

I see you like green eggs and ham…