BIG MAC

Sorry just twigged that my previous post could be read as next time we would be in France  2010 rather than that is when I intend to move permanently.  Doh. We will next be there on the bikes at Easter I think. Regards,  

Pretty much as our learned friends have said albeit  you can have some success counter battening with timber also. I prefer the metal channel but sometimes simply screw through ply packers and the side of the channel to get a fixing. Its important to set out your perimeter channel level and at the highest common height where inserted channels will not foul the lowest part of the joists in the lower part of the ceiling then simply slot your counterbattens in and crimp them prior to forming your mechanical connection. Counterbatten creates a nice void for you to run electrical contaiment etc in and the metal channel is less likely to twist compared to its timber counterpart.

Hi,   UK for now however we will be France bound hopefully 2010

Why not prepare the door, etch prime then paint with hammerite?

Hiya, We do head down on the bikes a few times a year will give you a shout next time if you want? we are usually found at www.foc-u.co.uk BIG MAC

Depends what you want really although a clear preservative may work over wood thats been treated the way suggested.

leave some old iron in a pail of water use nails chain anything like that then when water is nice and murky (Say after a fortnight) paint the raw wood with the water, this should accellerate the aging look and give the silver hue you refer to. Please note this will only work on raw untreated wood.

Put simply a nanny state is a nanny state its not the power of the bike its the brain power of the pilot. I am all for super-licences for those who wish a 100bhp + licence with a stringent accompanied test and also higher penalties for law infringement. ie longer bans for unsafe riding and a de-motion to a lower class licence when getting a ban from  the higher class, the only way back by re-test. Motorcycling is a joy, if someone want a zillion horsepower and is able to control it then let him IMHO of course.

Err errr nope its not a handbag bikers bike, just well looked after its managed Porstmouth to Glencoe in 8 hours and went down to Le mans 24hrs last year. I will be over on it next week and its had about 13000 miles worth of winter and summer use. I do wash it if its been wet and douse it in WD40 and thats all it gets. I never ever use washing up liquid though always cheap car shampoo. That Ducati in green is verde sexy!

I believe bluebottles don't like mauve

Whats a Griffe then? I have a load of switches etc bought cheaply a while back and sure as oeufs are oeufs  they will have griffes

Remove old lid cut some ply to size of old lid + 4" each way and place on top of tank, screw some 4x2 to the rear in order to join ply panels if need be and provide rigidity. lay some dpm over the ply then screw some 4x2 round the edges to form a 4" upstand. place some small pieces of paving slab in the bottom of the tray in such a fashion as to form 1 1/2" spacers arrange so tha they can support some steel reinforcement fabric. paint timber edges with release agent (cooking oil may work at a push) Fill the tray with concrete cover with plastic then tamp with a piece of timber slightly wider than the tray. Allow the concrete to go off for about 4hrs then carefully remove plastic and trowel the surface smooth with a steel trowel. Leave covered with damp hessian for about three or four days (As you have cast in situ it could happily stay there for ages) once you are ready its eay to lift the mould and carefully turn out the new cover. then up to you which way up you put it if you want handes simply use some plasic pipe with a wooden block screwed in side it then attached to the ply so that the pipe sticks up in such a fashion to create a hole right through (Missing the mesh) once all the formwork is removed you will have a nice cover with holes for lifting irons, if you want to block holes just use the appropriate sized stop end for the pipe that was the mould. Hope this helps.

Hows this for a possible solution to your problem there are semi-rigid plastic mats designed to be used on top of wooden floors which are to be ceramic tiled. While these mats are used for their slight flexion the idea being that ay residula movement in the timber once screwed down will be masked. The mats however are plastic therefore may provide your dpm and tiling solution all at once?

I have watched some of them riding they aint all that compared to British motorcycle cops IMHO

Thanks Clair,   Is this like a 'real virtual' French recipe?

Hi Guys Over in Augus intending to do as much repointing as I can to our stone built house. Our walls are 500mm thick stone witha rubble and farmers cement infill with what looks like a coarse lime based mortar where the pointing remains. I guess using cementitious mortar would be the wrong thing to do? I do like the look of the yellow tinged mortars used locally is this achieved by using sable  jeaune? If some one could give me an Idea of a suitable mix and the correct name for materials required it would be much appreciated. Thanks,

I was intrigued to read some quality ranting in another thread and the assertion that a vast amount of British trades men are idiots. New build housing stock in the UK is required to comply with the Building Regulations, Construction companies are required to comply with HSAWA, RIDDOR, CDM2007, RIDDOR, and a whole raft of legislation and compulsory procedure...Yet still we build houses get them certified and occupied NHBC Guaranteed etc.....not too bad for idiots. It's a joy to watch a craftsman at work (I am a qualified plumber) I choose not to earn my living at my trade due to injury sustained in a bike crash but do keep my hand in. I like to see other trades doing what they do best and enjoy the learning experience, I would find nothing more off-putting than having a skilled man telling me how much he was  earning doing it..frankly I wouldn't give a monkeys although I could imagine their French counterparts thinking they were round the twist, surely there's more important things in life than the size of your wad? I like the friendly advice and support offered on here by many and don't feel the need to know whether they earn loadsaloot or not, it's none of my business.

I am toying with the idea of completely removing the roof from my hangar and replacing it with what I can only describe as a cruciform construction ie where it currently has two gables introducing another two in the pitches to create four gables two of which will ajoin other buildings two of which will be glazed inside the barn I want to create a mezzanine with the glazed gables forming floor to ceiling picture windows. Has anyone on here attempted this kind of thing and do they have a CAD detail that I could adapt? happy to pay costs if reasonable....saves me re-inventing the wheel. Maybe an idea to have a library of standard details on here that we could share I would be happy enough to shove my drawings on once I have them for the benefit of those who wanted to cut'n'shut them. Maybe an Admin could tell me if this could cause problems?  

I am toying with the idea of completely removing the roof from my hangar and replacing it with what I can only describe as a cruciform construction ie where it currently has two gables introducing another two in the pitches to create four gables two of which will ajoin other buildings two of which will be glazed inside the barn I want to create a mezzanine with the glazed gables forming floor to ceiling picture windows. Has anone on here attempted this kind of thing and do they have a CAD detail that I could adapt? happy to pay costs if reasonable....saves me re-inventing the wheel.

It's simple enough when putting in door linings to plant timber inside the profile of the relevant studs, this greatly increase the rigidity at the vulnerable points and can be further fixed using metal angle brackets if for example fitting a double leaf door set with spring closers. I haven't used a French crimping tool yet, any nice person got an appropriate linky to one? I wouldn't know it if it landed on my head!    

La Rue thats really useful ta!

Apparently the victims father knew how his son had died but had not told them th gory details as he thought them too distressing. Then Blunderstrom comes along bumping his self important gums............

I would suggest lining the excavation with Jablite or cellotex...clean cast with a compression medium to allow for expansion and contraction in the ground, you may also want to consider a geotextile to prevent tree root ingress. Cast floor first leaving starter bars to wire your vertical fabric to once floor has gone off shutter walls ( extensive cross bracing required) introduce some cement slurry as a tack coat prior to your pour. It may be possible to use waterproof concrete. in which case cast floor as suggested ( Normal phosphate resistant concrete)  and allow to go off cast walls in waterproof concrete, strike and remove shutters , screed base with 75 mm waterproof concrete. Should be extremely solid.

I think New Team do an in line flow switch and single head pump you may be able to use the flow switch to operate your lift pump I hadn't thought of that crude but effective probably.