camelot-forum.co.uk

I know the Green Living Forum Folks used to post regular updates of what they were up to in a cafe/bar type place on the old forum.
so I thought I'd open one up on here, if that's ok?
(obviously - no excessive politics or religion, and bring your own snacks) We have a well stocked fridge with home brew cider, wine, and beer.

Pull up a stool and let us know how you feel. What you've been up to, where you're planning on going on holiday, how the grandkids are running you ragged, or whatever else takes your fancy that doesn't fit anywhere else in this lovely forum.

Cheers
(where's the Cheers, beer gif?!)

Enjoy yourself. So we're clear it's not "no excessive" politics/religion. It's zero tolerance on those subjects. If anyone can't help themselves in this regard they'll be banned.

Other than that, have a good time. I'll try the homebrewed beer please.

P.S I won't be explaining this further, I've got a busy life. If people don't "get it" on the zero religion/politics they'll be gone. Is that beer settled yet? Cheers!

ok, got it. zero tolerance on religion or politics.
you've been warned.

now where did I put the bottle opener?

I noticed today that my local boozer has a new dart board, which is nice.
my daughter has just finished being on 'The Green Team' at school, and got a certificate for her efforts.
I'm on a train back to Norwich.
Aston Villa were terrible yesterday!

does anyone have advice on repointing a C1900 house? I've been quoted £12k and £6k, but think both prices are high.
I could do it myself... it just might take ages!

I repointed our 1929 house - it was our retirement project

Observations - it is a DIY doable task, it can be satisfying, it will save you shed loads of money.

That’s the positive.

It’s mind numbingly boring, once you start, you have to finish.

Doing off scaffolding is relatively easy; off ladders

Insure your mortar mix is consistent to keep the final look consistent.

Before you start, consider the wall material type - we were lucky ( ) in that the house is built out of nice pressed/smooth red bricks, so I could clean ‘mistakes’ as I made them

It is doable, but really think about it, research it and be honest with yourself - took me about 3 months to do a reasonable sized detached lump of a house. Luckily I’d just retired so had it as my day time job.

Am I happy with my results ?

Absolutely - and it’s impressed friends, some of whom are ‘trades’

Would I do it again - hopefully not.

I did the side of our old 1901 house. It was a terrace.
Was quoted £3k to do the wall, 8m x whatever a normal house height is 4? 5m?!
This was back in 2014 ish though.

Next door was a scaffolder so i thought it easy enough to do myself with him changing the level of the scaffold for me, enabled some roof repairs and the cast iron gutter to be changed out safely too.
Raking out was easy as it was all original lime mortar. I repointed with a weak cement mortar mix. Not a job i care to repeat, ever.
As Bugtownboy says it is dull and time consuming but you do get into the flow quite easily.
How the trades do a wall like that in 1-2days turn around is beyond me. It took me all summer working in sections at each height for 1-2hrs a night after work.
If i didnt get a kick from standing back and admiring my own handywork, i would have gladly paid someone else to do it.

Worth buying your own scaffold tower i think these days if you are going to do it. Second hand go cheap enough but a 7metre high tower can be had under 1k brand new from some places.

Like everything pros, get on with it, DIY’s ponder about it, tidy up frequently don’t mix enough etc etc stop for a cup of tea admire the work, pros want paid and onto the next job.

I had a plot of land with a river wall, i treated it as work and did a shift, stopping once for 30 minutes for lunch and only after a days work, no kids back then so all changed now!

Is it too early for a Guinness? No! Three so!

AGT wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 8:25 am Like everything pros, get on with it, DIY’s ponder about it, tidy up frequently don’t mix enough etc etc stop for a cup of tea admire the work, pros want paid and onto the next job.

What do experts do?

I've knocked a month (March) off my lecky import. Photon nets are filling with kWh's.
Let the robots have our jobs...more importantly own the robots...hic..*..

There have been a few technology promises that never came to fruition. Augmented reality glasses for example.

I'm really excited about the Tesla robot thing, and hope it comes off, while at the same time a bit worried about what it means for society. Sure it'd be great to have a robot that can mow the lawn and fold laundry, but what about the people who stack shelves? Or who prepare fast-food? Or countless other jobs?

NoraBatty wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:49 pm
How the trades do a wall like that in 1-2days turn around is beyond me. It took me all summer working in sections at each height for 1-2hrs a night after work.
If i didnt get a kick from standing back and admiring my own handywork, i would have gladly paid someone else to do it.

Learned by FIRST getting the motions right, then the accuracy (taught where not critical, doesn't show). Specific example in Cheaper by the Dozen. The Gilbreths (a duo of "time and motion" engineers) are having some brickwork done. Frank Gilbreth thinks her will play a joke on the "brickie". "Say, that doesn't look hard. Can I try to do a few?" The brikie lets him, but instead of being surprised by the result immediately began laughing "You're not pulling my leg sir. It's many thousand bricks you've laid."

Yes, economy of motion. The thing is, a real expert makes something look really easy, but when you try it, it isn't. I was talking to a besom maker once, who chatted to me, barely breaking eye contact, while he went through the entire process of making a broom Looked really easy. I bet it isn't ! Still regret not buying one from him, I think he has passed on now.