Day job

I cut the slabs into 100mm strip so i can lay them around the edge of the patio for the mower wheels to run on as i dose not cut right up to the edge, just to make it easier for this lazy pair when im gone
 
 
Not to bad reckoning only 4 slaps from 270 left over 
Next il have to get the lawn into shape

Your patio is looking really good Blackbird

Started lifting a few slabs 6 i was not happy with and the others were loose, someone must have walked on them before the cement had gone off
 
 

You sound like a perfectionist Blackbird. Those slabs look really heavy.

I bet you've taken a break during this heat from finishing off the patio Blackbird? Or did you brave the heat?

Tony (SA) and I chatted last night about making 'Day Job' a high level topic. So here is what I have been doing for my Day Job after getting back from our Cycle tour of Suffolk...

Last autumn when the kitchen work was starting we discovered a portion of the floor had no foundation - just a few layers of tiles over mud. We suspected the moisture was because the North wall of the kitchen was not at all protected from water runoff from the back garden. A concrete walkway had been added which was in places above the damp proof course which was not helping.  A slice of that walkway was cut back and a trench cut to the base of the wall with the idea of intercepting the run-off.

I had added flashing to the lower portion of the wall but had not gotten around to installing the linear drain and tying it into the gutter drain.  The day job was to complete the project. 

This involved laying out the sections of the drain and adjusting the base of the trench to get a consistent slope. As the existing walkway was level along the length of the kitchen wall (albiet sloping down to the wall) this required planning for an increasing bevel along the length of the horizontal drain. I also needed to create an adaptor between the end of the linear drain and the side of the existing (complex face) of a ceramic gutter drain.  My measures were pretty good and only a bit of filing was needed to the print to get it flush with the ceramic. I then traced the inside of the adaptor against the side of the ceramic and then carefully drilled the perimeter and then smoothed that out.  That took several hours at a neck-hurting angle and an appreciation that so-called ceramic bits are consumables.

One of my put-it-off-till-later issues at the start was that my past projects were light on mixing concrete and mortar and doing finishing. This project upped my skills. I mixed concrete for the lower fill and let that set overnight. I then transitioned towards a mortar mix for the upper face and bevels.  Indeed, I was able to get a good raised bevel against the wall as well as an increasingly sloped bevel against the edge of the walkway (from flat at the far end to 35mm below at the drain).  I covered it all with a damp canvas drop cloth for 36 hours to gradually cure.  I then used plumbers matt on the joint with the ceramic drain. A water test showed that it does indeed drain nicely.

   

And a view from the horizontal drain into the gutter drain. Only the bottom half of the adaptor circle was cut through to limit risk to the ceramic ...

 

 

Thats nicely done Jon, what did you use to cut the into the gully because they usually crack and break every which way

Initial cut was started with an angle grinder by the contractor. The risk of kick back was considerable. I told them to go and do something else and I switched to a diamond/stone blade on a circular saw - the latter done very very vey slowly with eye and ear protection.  

When I saw what slope was required on the horizontal drain I decided that the concrete walkway needed some bevel as well, increasing towards the drain end. I did that with circular blade at a 45 degree angle - a bit at a time in multiple passes.  That gave me the angle for the bevel from the drain plastic to the existing concrete.

The consensus was that that part of the kitchen started out as the coal bunker and outside loo.  Classic lean-to roof etc. At least it had the same perimeter foundation type used elsewhere.

With the paving all done its time to start to grout all the joints, i was going to do it the same as its done in Cyprus with sand/cement grout but my son said they dont do it that way anymore they use special stuff thats easy to use and dose not stain the slabs, i thought ok ill try that
The first shock was the price, i looked online for what was the best recommended £41 a tub the second shock was how far it went
 
That small area has taken 2 tub's so thats nearly 90 quid for that and iv got the rest of it to do the same now