Back when I had to swap out a mixer valve I had the worst time trying to get everything off until someone suggested soaking it all with some vinegar in a spray bottle. Everything came apart much easier after a few minutes!
Right now, we just have to fill the 30cm wide gap at the back and navigate between our neighbor's plants, we'll be done this week, it's not really worth getting a small excavator just for that job.
The plan is to completely fill the slope up to the entrance, and dress it with granite boulders. We will then need a much bigger excavator to move that around, at least 4 to 6 tons. We found a guy who can come on his free time with his own excavator, definitely getting work done with him for the bigger earthworks.
Op, do you just hate fun? most of these are pretty cute or funny and just because they're not the most efficient design doesn't mean they're not allowed to exist?
That looks really awesome! I's hoping you'd not stopped posting, or given up on the project when you hadn't posted in a while. What a fantastic curved ceiling!
the Monday when my "weekly" post was due, we had 2 additional layers done, but it was very same-y and not really worth posting, so I thought I'd hold off until we finish the whole thing.
Not using it at all would be better, sure, but if you don't have that option for whatever reason, reusing it is the next best thing. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
You raise a great point about comments being seen as a counter by default. And if you try to give a disclaimer in your comment (like saying you agree) you still get downvoted for some reason. I'm very cautious about participating in any serious topics because of this, jokes, one-liners and sharing (unimportant) personal experiences are pretty much the only safe comments.
Come on over to Beehaw, where we don't have downvotes, then!
It forces people to actually take time and effort to disagree with you, rather than just hitting one button, and somewhat unsurprisingly, that deters a lot of "drive-by" negativity.
Dunno if you're German or Austrian or something, but in Vienna there is a Ziegelmuseum whose curator studies the history of bricks, how they were made and used and whatnot. They have a long list of brick makers in Austria, when they were active and so on.
If you're in another country, they could maybe help get you in contact with a historian local to you.
Could help you learn more about your mystery brick.
I'm in Germany yes, that's a good idea, thank you. The person who sold us the bricks took them out of a building in a village near Karlsruhe, he might know more about the story of that place, we definitely plan on sending him pictures of our construction and we shall ask if he knows more.
Are the gaps between the bricks there for a reason? I would have thought the support for the arch would have come from them touching more then just the mortar.
Oh yeah good question! That's not staying like that. According to the building theory books I read a jointing in an arch can be anywhere between 5mm and 10mm of mortar inside (1/4' to 1/2') and up to 25mm outside (1 inch)
The empty space will be filled completely with mortar next week. It was a huge mess when laying the bricks vertically against the wooden formwork, we noticed how ugly it looked when moving it off after laying the two first slices.
The plan is to use some kind of piping bag and inject the mortar precisely in the gap, then smooth it uniformly. There are different shapes, we haven't decided yet which one we will use:
and some powdered iron oxide to give a darker tone to the mortar, we like it better with the color of the bricks. When all this arrives, we can continue
Ding Ding Ding! :) Wine racks, shelves with crates for flower bulbs, potatoes and other root vegetables... Which will mean we have to secure the entry, our (lovely) elderly neighbor has already mentioned coming over at night for a drink ^^
But it will probably serve as a tool shed for the coming year until we have the rest of the garden levelled and laid out, it's the first of many projects, we will come back to it for the aesthetics (lime render, floor tiling, door, outside cladding...).
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