Home improvements - time the house had some TLC!

[JhnBssll]

Productive day today I've worked out how I'm going to build the steps up to the door so dug out the footings and laid some concrete earlier Once I'd finished and cleaned up I realised I still had some daylight left so whipped the breaker out to smash some of the old footings out around the drain. Again I was quicker than antipated so managed to get the new groundwater drain connected ready for the new guttering

Digging was tough again, so much rubble and ashphalt under the surface Oh well, at least I feel like I've had a good work out for today I need to do some reading now to find out what to backfill around the pipe, whether to bed it on sand or concrete or something else 🤷‍♂️

 

[Goldenretriever]

Should be bedded and covered with pea shingle

 

[irw]

Of course, this is where you now discover that pipe wasn't just doing the guttering, but also the bathroom...!

 

[JhnBssll]

Of course, this is where you now discover that pipe wasn't just doing the guttering, but also the bathroom...!

Or worse, next doors bathroom

 

[JhnBssll]

Bedded and backfilled the drain today, then spent some time on the soffit and fascia. I've finished and painted down the front and left eave now, right eave will be done another day. Importantly though I've done the bits that are hard to reach once guttering is installed, so that can go up next 😊 It might have gone up today if someone hadn't forgotten to order it

 

[JhnBssll]

With plenty of rain forecast over the next few weeks I decided it would be wise to spend the first morning of my holidays putting the guttering up

The current plan is to leave the original downpipe where it is, discharging on to the new porch roof, but add a second downpipe between the two top windows. This new downpipe should take the majority of the water, leaving the original one to deal with about 25% of its current load. I'm hoping this will prevent it from overcoming the porch gutter in heavy rain but if this isn't the case it will be relatively easy to remove it entirely and invert the fall to just use the new central downpipe.

I'm short one length of downpipe so I haven't actually cut in to the existing gutter yet but I've left an open end to connect it to. I'll pick up some more downpipe shortly and may get a chance to finish it off later if the weather holds

Next job will be to build the steps but that is also weather dependant - laying bricks in the wet is never a great plan This morning the postie left me a present - a box containing 6 LED half brick lights that I'll be building in to the steps at MrsBssll's request I'll connect them up to the same circuit as the wall lights so they all go on and off together, and I've made sure they're all the same colour temperature - 3000K - so they should match up nicely

 

[JhnBssll]

I've had a play with the new lights. I decided it would be a good idea to connect them up and check they all work before I make them a permanent part of the new steps They came fitted with a cheap and nasty IP54 connector box, one of which was deformed and clearly not watertight, so I've removed all these. They've been replaced with IP67 in-line connector which should make swapping them out easy when they begin to fail. They've supposedly got a 30,000 hr lifetime but thats only 10 years at 8hrs a day, and thats assuming they really achieve their estimated life. I'm guessing I'll be swapping them out before then and will be swearing if I've made it difficult for myself

Since the new connectors need a round cable to seal properly, and since I'm trying to make it easy to replace them in future, I've wired them with outdoor rated flex cable rather than standard twin and earth. I've crimped bootlace ferrules on to the ends of each cable so am confident they will stand the tests of time I've ordered a big IP rated junction box to house the chocblock connectors to keep them out of the way, this will end up above the new ceiling in the porch.

I've temporarily wired a plug on the end just to check them out 😊

Happy that they all work I then ran a cable outside and layed them out on the ground to look at them against the new downlighters...

Hmm. Not quite the same colour, at least they're not in the photo In person they're closer, but I'll try some yellow filter film behind the lenses to see if it improves things. They're the dimmest I could find, only 1W, but since they shine straight out they could do with dimming down further. The filter film should help with this too but I can play around with it until I'm happy... I'm hoping to run the cables tomorrow and start laying some bricks although I'm aware I don't have enough to finish the job so have just ordered another 40

 

[JhnBssll]

It was cold out there today I had to put my little gloves on to keep my fingers warm Anyway, I got the cables run through the wall this morning. I pulled the down behind the vertical cavity closer in the doorway, being careful not to disturb the insulation, then popped the closer back on...

I then drilled a few holes through one of the mortar joints and opened it up in to a slot and ran 4 of the 6 flex cables through. This was the lowest I could easily make the opening as the cavity is filled with concrete below that level, but it's low enough to be within the structure of the steps so will be completely hidden when they're built.

The other two cables I've left coiled in the cavity - I'll have to chop a couple of bricks out of the course directly below the DPC to fit the top two lights, I'll fish the cables back out then.

Next job was to clean the mud off the new footings and set out the brickwork. I used 3 spirit levels and a tape measure to get it square and an old screw driver to scribe the lines in to the concrete. With that done I mixed a barrow of cement and put the first course of bricks down 😊

I've called it a day there as the damp conditions combined with the non-porous engineering bricks mean the mortar will take a while to go off - I'm not skilled enough to prevent it turning in to a sloppy mess This course didn't matter as it'll be below ground level but the next 4 courses will be on show, albeit painted black to match the surrounding brickwork. Hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow

 

[JhnBssll]

I'm glad I chucked a couple of slabs of 4" rockwool over the fresh mortar as everything else was frozen this morning After I'd defrosted the remaining bricks in a bucket of hot water I used the then luke-warm water to mix some mortar. Hopefully this extra bit of warmth will help it cure, although temperatures aren't due to drop too low tonight. I've now run out of bricks, more due tomorrow so I'll try and get the steps finished over the next few days.

 

[Gunk]

Even professional brickies stay at home in these temperatures

 

[JhnBssll]

Even professional brickies stay at home in these temperatures

Sounds pretty sensible to me I figured worst case scenario is the mortar spoils, in which case I have a few bricks to knock down and rebuild. Worth a shot in my book

 

[JhnBssll]

I've just been back out and jointed them up. The mortar is definietly harder than when I laid them which can only be a good sign Back on with the insulation, I might chuck a couple of bricks in the oven on a low heat later and throw them under to keep things toasty

 

[JhnBssll]

I had a delivery of bricks this afternoon which allowed me to finish off the brickwork for the steps The "half brick" lights aren't half a brick wide, of course, so required some consideration and careful cutting of bricks to get them placed sensibly. I also had to chop out a few bricks under the damp course as I couldn't see an obvious way of cutting them in-situ without damaging the dpc membrane... Anyway, here are a few bits laid out before I mixed up the mortar...

I wasn't convinced the plastic housings would stay in place as the plastic is highly polished and the sides are angled so they had nothing to key them in... I decided to pop a few screws through the sides, after checking they wouldn't foul anything, to give the mortar something to grab hold of.

Then I mixed up some mortar, again with hot water as the temperature has been hovering around 3 degrees which isn't quite warm enough for the hydration process to work properly without a helping hand. Eventually I was left with this...

With temperatures dipping again tonight I put it's little coat back on, and this time chucked 7 hot bricks in to the voids to radiate some heat... I'll warm them up again in a bucket of hot water later 😊

More tomorrow if the weather holds 😊

 

[Gunk]

That light doesn't flatter the brickwork John! however good for you I don't think I would have been brave enough to try.

 

[JhnBssll]

That light doesn't flatter the brickwork John! however good for you I don't think I would have been brave enough to try.

No it doesn't my bricklayer friend likes to point it out when he goes past as well Apparently it's a sod to get brickwork to look good under a downlighter but it does irk me a bit, if I build a wall again I'll try harder 😋