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Ludgershall change for Tidworth


TheQ
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Good news I came back with 20 standard size thermalite blocks to build the railway wall

Bad news, I went for 100 blocks, according to the builders merchants there's a national shortage of them they don't expect any in, until June!! A search of the internet confirms this!!!!

Bad news most of the blocks are allocated for the patio not the railway. I must finish one section of the patio by mid June.

Good news the cat got another mouse this morning

Bad news we found her playing with the squirrels this afternoon.

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I spent the most of the day building the mini wall round the raised patio area and concreting the last of 3 steps. That left just three blocks for the future railway wall.

After that I carried on digging the trench for the wall foundations, hopefully that section of digging will be completed tomorrow. I need about another half dozen Barrow loads of soil for the must finish area of the patio.

So if i can't find more standard blocks soon I'll try to get more foundation blocks in and carry on digging.

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TheQ said:

Good news I came back with 20 standard size thermalite blocks to build the railway wall

Bad news, I went for 100 blocks, according to the builders merchants there's a national shortage of them they don't expect any in, until June!!...

I've heard something about this before but they always seem to have them in stock in my local B&Q. Do you have a store local to you? Might be worth a try.

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BQ had a small quantity last time I went and got 20. But they are £1.87 each unless you can get a full pallet of 72 which brings it down to £1.42 per block. All four of my local BQs ( which are 20 - 30 miles away) are showing out of stock and not available for delivery ( pallet loads).

My local builders merchants you only have to buy 10 to get the £1.42 price.

Roughly to complete the walling on the section I'm working on, including non railway stuff I need 130 standard blocks.

To complete this entire, garden area, which is about 20% of our garden, I think I'll need around 400 blocks.

One other adjoining section of the garden, about another 25% , will eventually ( when time and money are available) be built up into raised beds for fruit and veg about 2 blocks high . This area will use maybe 1000 blocks and may get an extension to the line.

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Sunday, I carried on digging the trench, but after a couple of wheelbarrow loads I felt distinctly Ill / dizzy and had to sit down. After a while I pottered about a bit doing some trim on the alleyway. Then i tried some more digging and with a 5 minute sit down between each Barrow load I got enough to fill the must do part of the raised patio (about ten loads in all) the trench is all but at the railway shed now. It's not to the full depth in a couple of places due to tree roots and a stump.

By then my back was really complaining, so further trench digging was given up on. So I hammerited a metal framed bed settee which is being evicted from the mobile home ( we inherited it when we bought the place). It will sit on the raised patio when there is enough space for it. I when that was done I started on the park benches mentioned elsewhere.

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I had space left for another 20 what are you worried about? :D

But seriously, these are lightweight aerated blocks weighing a mere 17.5kg each so 40 X 17.5 = 700 KG.

The unladen max carrying capacity for a 110 Landrover is 1098Kg so taking my weight off 115Kg(ooops) I have 983kG available for loading.

I also loaded them as far forward as possible to spread the weight and keep some weight on the front wheels. This meant they were five high at the front in the middle ( I do have a partition between driver and load) reducing to a single layer at the back behind the axle.

I was still extremely cautious going round corners!! and kept my speed down, I've only drum brakes at the back...

Do you know that if you just keep shovelling and fill the back of a landrover up to the pickup level with a heap of sand it weighs nearly 1.5 tons load :shock: now that is interesting!!! :shock:

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  • 6 months later...

I've not made any notes on here for sometime mostly because there has been little to do with the railway happening/ most work has been going on behind the shed and mobile home. Thats the top of the map shown earlier, it becomes a jungle during growing season and "it was decided" that some thing had to be done, so a concrete path has been laid down part of it (to be extended). Meanwhile other talks came to the decision the shed isn't big enough!!!!!.

So a 9ft by 10 tin shed has been bought and has been constructed at the back (top of map) 90 degrees to the original shed but set back towards the field on the right of the map so there is only 18inches overlap. Last weekend I assembled the floor and lined part of the walls with polystyrene (dabbed and daubed on) this when complete will be lined with ply, then a work bench built down one side and storage shelving down the other. This should clear the main shed enough to get some work done on it over the winter.

The Biggest problem is the corridor between the new back door to the shed and the tin shed, there is a telegraph pole in the way, on which is the box with the electricity meter on it.

So I'll be building an L shaped corridor, then you've got the double pitch roof of the main shed and the double pitch and different height of the new shed somehow I've got to do a roof which joins all this together. That I haven't worked out yet...

Going home via Screwfix tonight I need a lot of sealant to fill all the gaps between the box section corrugated roof and the level eaves beam. This close to the sea, horizontal rain isn't unusual.

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May I ask what adhesive you used to fix the polystyrene to the corrugated steel? I have a lovely metal garage which desperately needs insulating. I tried several adhesives without success. Do you use the 1" or 2' batts that come in something like a 4x2ft size, or something different. In my Summerhouse, I used two layers of polystyrene veneer that has made a huge difference.

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Screwfix no nonsense non solvent grab adhesive.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-11665502-grab-adhesive-solvent-free-white-310ml/87451

I buy it by the box and use it for many jobs including building extruded foam baseboards for a exhibition layout I'm working on.

The polystyrene will then be covered in plywood which will be screwed either to the shed or to the back of the benches I'm fitting.

Note you have to use solvent free or you may melt the polystyrene.

Some of the poly has been up 2 weeks, but most of it up one week so far with no sign of it falling off. At the moment it's only subject to what ever the outside temperature is.

I have also used the same glue to hold 1 inch 2ft by 2ft poly tiles on the roof (OSB3) of the wooden shed and they have been up over a year without problems.

I've used 1 inch 4ft by 2ft-ish batts as they neatly fit the shed framing, I just put two splodges on every time the ridges came inwards to the poly, about a foot from the bottom and a foot from the top.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

A  bit of a gap, but I have been busy.

The tin shed has been entirerly lined, and one wall shelved  / work benched. The other side is being left clear for the moment to store wood for the main shed.

An L shaped corridor was built between the two sheds and a new doorway cut through, much clearance of the model railway workbench area has been done which revealed two more dead rats and a hole they had eaten through the floor.

An old sash window has provided a window and and old front door has been fitted . The corridor has been completely built of left over decking,  wood, fittings, doors /windows left over from other works. Just screws were required, lots of them...

 The roof as expected was a pig to build, and is complicated hence, the roof of the corridor is temporarily covered with plastic until the weather is good enough to finish the roof properly, the Plastic survived Doris OK

Some thought was put into the wireing, when I realised that we were in danger of overloading  the shed mains on a garage distribution unit .  So a new larger distribution unit has been fitted to allow two ring mains and as a byproduct two lighting circuits.

 The Electrical thought was 32 Amp ring main,  

 3kw Heater her art end of the shed, = 12 Amps-ish,  

 3kw Heater my model railway end of the shed = 12 Amps-ish, 

 then SWMBO turns the kettle on and another 12A ,

 This plus 3 fridges and a dehumidifyer on one ring was just  little too much!!!

There is just a 20ft straight cable to fit and one ring main will be complete, the other ring will cover the model railway work bench and the tin shed. The Second ring main  should have six or seven Double sockets on it.

I have a dozen 4 ft fluorescent light units that have been waiting ten years for me to reach the point of fitting them. This should occur on Saturday, giving more light to fit the second ring main.

 

 Further surveying has been done outside and work will soon recommence for building the railway wall / viaduct.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Another long gap since my last post,

Mostly because I've been very busy on other things. SEE personnal journal,

Another section of trenching for the future railway foundations was excavated by shovel and the soil also went in the the patio fill.

Due the undergrowth beyond the railway area getting high, it was realised the wall / viaduct will make the garden bit, seem very enclosed. So the design has been altered slightly, so there will be more viaduct and less wall. Just as well there is still a shortage of breeze / foundation blocks and the prices have gone up considerably..

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

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