And loo roll!

Don't forget water. And a bucket!

It's been a long road back to daily routines and normalcy in general. Heavy mental and emotional loads, and that finicky heated moment where you're almost but not quite out of the woods. Still getting situated after my company was bought out. They kept me and I got a bump, but it's very different from what I'm used to.

Kind of lucky that my wife hasn't started her new job yet, she took the kiddo to the Nothe Fort in Weymouth four times last week. He seems really fond of WWII-era stuff.

Now that we have a projector that's worth a damn, I've gotten back into Armored Core 6. Still stuck on the same level as before (CEL 240), but I'm showing some improvement. Playing this in 4K at 120" is almost unbearably immersive. The sensory payload is like nothing I've ever experienced, I was actually a little bit shaken afterwards. Good fun, but need to be in the right frame of mind for it.

We also went to a cute cheese and curd shop in town this weekend; Cherry Tree is a strong recommend. We got three types of interesting curd (key lime pie, lemon meringue, and carrot cake flavour) as well as a truffle gouda to go on a pizza I'm making, mushroom and sausage.

The pad thai and peanut satay from last week was good enough, but nothing to write home about. I don't have a recipe worth submitting, but I do recommend W2Kitchen's video about pad thai from scratch.

I do once or twice per winter. It doesn’t grow much, though.

Imo, it's always worth making the right mix for the job.
Am I correct in assuming that you want to do foundations around the outside, then have the middle be bare soil to plant into?
Rather than having a slab, and raised beds on top?

Around the outside, maybe dig 400mm down, put in 200mm of compacted MOT, and 200mm of C10 concrete mix.
And put some rebar in if you're feeling extra (it's not that expensive). Just remember that if you put rebar in, it is an absolute arseache to rip the concrete up afterwards.
Though tbh, unless you're really keen for the plants to root into the ground, I'd do a slab!

Do you cut your grass in winter? I haven't cut ours since October, it barely grows enough to warrant cutting it!

I’ve been intending to cut the grass, but I’m worried the lawnmower will sink if I try. It’s been raining that much.

Nice one on the run! Which marathon are you looking at doing?

Have you had a lot of rain by your way? It was absolutetly glorious on Saturday morning and afternoon; I decided to take the kids out on their bikes, get on the train into town, grab some food and go swimming. As we got to the train station it had clouded over, then as we were on the train, it started to spit. It was pouring down as we go off the train and made our way to get some food! Seeing as it was clear and quite mild when we left the house and the forecast said it was going to be dry, I didn't bring any coats with us!

It was OK thanks! Just busy with life stuff. Hopefully you can get your tooth sorted before your break so that you can enjoy it!

I'd bloody love a good solid couple of weeks off work with no responsibilities, it's a pipedream at the moment!

If you've got wind problems (😏) then the 1 to 4 with aggregate slung in to add strength will do the trick.

I live in Scotland's countryside. Very, very windy at times. As in it's difficult to walk at times type of gusts, and the rain can spend the day going almost sidewards not downwards.
And one of our sheds is built off paving slabs. Now, admittedly, I didn't build and I probably wouldn't have built it like it is, but it's passed the test of time all the same.
What they did was:
Plonk the slabs down. B Shuttered the sides.
Concreted over slabs to tie it all in and give it lateral strength.
Built the building and screed it down, then built around the bottom of the shed a little bit to stop any sideways sliding motion in the wind.
Wouldn't pass any building regs but it's been up for decades and it's still here.

Edit: you could probably do the above slab way with external self leveling compound, not concrete. Flatten, slab, shutter, self level, wait, build greenhouse and screw it down, put something around the edges of greenhouse to stop it from going sideways.

I think it would destroy itself. The ground isn't stable as the clay changes so much between wet & dry, so I'd be laying a large base under the slabs... in which case... no point in the slabs 🙂

Ah, good point, not thought of that. Thanks

It's not really the vertical weight so much as the force when the wind's across it - hell even the empty frame moves around in the wind and needed pinning down.

Good point on the postcrete, I'd not thought of it cracking in longer lines, will give that a miss then.

Yeah, I just don't have the experience to know if a 1-2-3 or a 1-4-? mix is right, or not, but at least you've confirmed it's not something completely different...

Thanks

Ok, now this seems like the answer I'm looking for.

I'd not thought of adding any spikes in, but seems like a good idea, it's amazing how much the ground moves and changes.

Thanks

I'm setting up the ceiling trapdoor with lots of Pistachios and beans for when the time comes when I need to hide my family up there.

brill, thank you for the advice!

Was relatively mellow. Staying at my mum's catsitting and work was pretty chill with it being half term allowing me to catch up on a lot of the busy work that doesn't get done in the usual hustle and bustle.

Topped off with a 30K run as ongoing marathon training that went really well. Always feels great to get one of those in.

Hot tip: get your tooth dry so it'll stick and do a temp filling with a bit of beeswax. Obv can't eat on it or anything, but helps a lot with the constant background ache

So advice from someone who has erected a few garden buildings. Greenhouses included. Particularly on a clay rich soil.

Use the pre mixed high strength stuff:

this stuff or equivalent

As the clay dries under the greenhouse it will shrink and you want the concrete to be able.to survive a few small voids. The 40kn stuff has never let me.down.

Also, If at all possible. You may want to drive some stakes (even rebar would help) into the ground before you pour over.

The more work you put in now the better. A solid base will pay for itself in the long run! DM me if you have other questions.

Why not just put some patio slabs down? Quicker and easier and if you find some second hand probably cheaper too.

A normal sized greenhouse hardly weighs anything. Digging footings etc seems like a complete ball ache and overkill.
Personally I'd flatten the ground. Paving slab it then build off that. You can even get paving concrete in bags. Slap it on the ground nice and flat, put the slabs on it, then either water with a hose or wait for it to rain. It's basically postcrete for slabs.

However if you absolutely positively must have foundations then the standard mix will be more than enough. The standard mix is 1 2 3, 1 cement to 2 sand to 3 aggregate(gravel etc).
Hell, for something like a greenhouse you could probably get away with 1 cement to, what, 4 sand then add aggregate to suit.

Will postcrete work? For a standard sized greenhouse then, yeah, within reason.
Bit bodgy, but it's only a greenhouse.
It's not designed to be laid in long lines so it may crack.
If I had to use postcrete I would get a shit ton of aggregate, some sharp sand, and add it to the postcrete mix to add strength, flexibility, and try to mitigate cracks.

However it would probably be cheaper to buy a wheelbarrow and rent a cement mixer for the day and mixing up normal concrete, then barrow it through the house.

Alternatively you could dig holes and postcrete. Then build 'stilts' off of the postcrete. Then build off of the stilts, which, admittedly, will take longer but should be cheaper.

I don't know the answer to your question but B&Q have quite a few DIY guides/videos on their website, looking there might help.

Had a weird week...

We had a load of work done on the house years ago due to nextdoor's house burning down and almost taking ours with it, but, our insurance sorted out a load of stuff... however... years later it turns out, if you try to put fresh paint on the walls, the previous paint just bubbles up and peels off.

So... after screaming at the walls in 1 room last year, I got a pro in to finish off the rest of the house...

This week he had to strip large chunks of paint back to bare plaster, let it all dry out and then basically build it all back up again.

We now have another fresh magnolia room instead of a grubby, slightly mouldy room.

But, seeing what the poor guy has to go through (when I drop off his coffee) to get each of these rooms done, man, hats off to skilled professionals.

Oh, and one of my best engineers told me he's applied for another job... no gripes with anyone wanting to improve their career, but man, I'm in trouble if he goes as the rest can't do what he does.

We have clay soil here, honestly I could put koi carp out in the lawn and they'd be quite happy out there.

I was thinking, maybe I could grow rice or something instead as a 2nd income...