Day 823: Pour some concrete on me

This fireplace 'aint fit, Scott, c'mon get on it
Lookin' busted up just like it was blitzed 
Lookin' like a mess, like a dog's breakfast
Demolitions done man, time to invest

Razzle 'n' a dazzle 'n' a flash a little light
Put it back together, Scott, make it right
Sometime, anytime, make it nice and neat
This little fireplace needs some concrete

So c'mon, take a bag, open it up
Add some water, mix it up

Pour some concrete on it
Ooh, 'cause it's way too rough
Pour some concrete on it
C'mon, get it level and stuff
Pour your concrete on it
Just can't get enough...

We're getting a wood-burning stove installed. Mostly for aesthetics but it will add a bit of warmth to the house too. Everything is ready to go. Chimney is swept and inspected and all good. The only thing remaining is the lousy base. It's rough and crumbling and probably not a good starting place to rest the stove hearth on. So on comes the concrete.

Now the question is, how much (in kg) would you guess this requires?

The first step is to add some SBR to make the cement stick to the substrate and not have all the moisture sucked away before it dries. I'm sure this is factually incorrect - but it seems that you use PVA for plaster and SBR for cement for roughly the same reasons. 

Then on went the cement. This is the ScrewFix "No Nonsense" brand which I've had luck with on other products so worth a try. 

It went on fine, just not as much coverage as I expected. I ended up putting 15 kg of the stuff on and still had a lot of filling to go. As the result was also not as flat as I'd expected it to be, I thought I'd give floor leveller a try. This is the U-Can brand from B&Q. Floor leveller goes on like a thick custard and uses gravity to flatten and make it level.

Rather than provide you with a lousy how-to, please check out the video here. So inspired by the hairdresser, off I went to level the recess. Yes U-Can!

And there you go, a level floor. I should mention that the first time I poured, I discovered that there wasn't a good seal in one of the corners and the custard like mixture leaked away on one side. The first result was actually less level then when I started. The second attempt worked as expected however.

So total pouring to get this thing filled

15 kg of concrete

15 kg of leveller

30kg. 

No wonder my back hurts. But at least this thing is proper solid now. On with the stove which, as I type, is getting installed .. stay tuned.

Day 786: A re-launch and an apology

As 2017 rolls to an end, it's time to reflect. Reflect on all the great things done in the year and all the things not done .. such as updating this blog!

I haven't been sitting idle, I just haven't been blogging (almost as bad). So over the holiday, I've got things back on track and caught the blog up on all the happenings of H2 2017. I've turned off the Facebook updates while I've been doing this to keep from spamming everyone's feeds. It's back on now so you'll once again see links to the best DIY-on-a-Victorian-semi-in-Subirbiton website on the Internet (at least I hope so, if not let me know who is stealing my thunder)

But please read through some of the old posts. My work is like a fine wine .. my recollection of the activity gets better the longer it ages.

So my new year's resolution is to blog more, get my readers back and keep things interesting. This year, I may even try posting some videos.

I've also been told by the site management that my project delivery has been very unprofessional - late, not well communicated etc. If Care was paying me, I'd have been sacked a long time ago.

To step up the professionalism of the work, I've created a project plan. Somewhere on the links to the right, you should see a link to a Gantt chart showing what we've got planned and how we (erm .. I) are doing against the plan. Few things in life are certain, but one thing that I can guarantee is that in 365 days from now, nothing will have gone to plan.