September: Damp proofing & drains

Congradulations to those who guessed 'damp course' to my mystery question. It's almost too embarassing to admit, but I did forgot to add some rubber, having made an effort to remember and rushing the laying. Now I need to sort that minor issue. I'm drilling 12mm holes through the mortar coarse to inject damp proofing
Here's the creamy.. mmmm.... creamy... smooth damp proof. The science bit is, it's called something like silicane, mixed with other funky chemicals. Previously, to inject a damp proof seam would mean using high pressures. Now that we have chemistry under control a little more, I can just gun the stuff in and it'll osmotically disperse it's self through the mortar. It's a lot like moisturing cream, but barely just solid, and very greasy. Think, moisturiser mixed with Ciff pan scrubber. You really want a cartridge with a long pipe like nozzle for this, since the crappy one they included barely goes into the hole and you want to inject it right from the back of the hole, not the front like I had to; it oozes back out before filling the cavity and you need to jabba the hut it in with a stick of some description

I injected not one, but two layers of mortar, since I didn't have anything else to do with it :P

Not long after, you can already see the patches dispersing

Drains... and I can only pray to himself that this is one of the last times I have to spade through the clay (I know there are some more jobs waiting, but I'll try making that a group effort). I needed to dig both these up as the one on the right was far, far too high up, with the pipe it's self sticking up out the floor. The drain on the left was previously against the kitchen wall on the left, but now needs to be against the utility room to catch water from an unborne downpipe and a garden tap. Drainwork is easy, the only bitch is the digging. Just make sure it's either flat or on a gradient. The latter is only important when poos will be traversing it's length. A 2.5 degree gradient is all that's required for smooth progress down the length, and the bends come with those gradients built in; e.g. 97.5 degree elbows

I discovered the builders had left the drain on the right so far up because there was a small pile of concrete that must have spilt out when they poured the base of the garage. I set about removing enough to clear the drain with the DeWalt hammer and an SDS plus chisel

Then I core drilled a 50mm hole for the waste water from the sink and washing machine that'll eventually end up in the utility room

These rachet choppers are amazing. It did struggle a little with 40mm waste pipe but got through it eventually. I'm wearing gloves to keep all the soot black grease from the SDS drilling off the neon white pipe

This is why B&Q is full of dicks. Last time I was in there they were all wearing cowboy hats, how fitting. Peel resistant stickers on plumbing parts that'll be on display. Oh, and as I discovered, acetone messes up the surface when you try to clean them off. I mean, damn.... come on....

Regardless, John conquers with some solvent weld. I also fixed that drain pipe so now it empties directly into the gully, instead of half assed splashing across it

The damp proof cream has almost bridged the entire length after a day

I've used a 16mm drill bit to drill a hole for the 15mm copper pipe the outdoor tap will need, but it won't reach all the way through the cavity wall, so I'll need to drill on the other side as well. Here I'm using a smaller diameter, but very looooong, bit to drill through and mark the position on the other side, then I'll widen it with the 16mm bit. This bit was left by the roofers. The rest are coming out of a cheap SDS plus set I scooped from ToolStation, very handy. It includes a bunch of steels, bits from something like 4mm to 16mm and a whole load of chisels and gouges for chipping tiles off, splitting screeds, running wall chases (the channels mains cables run down wall in; mains is known as t&e, or twin and earth, due to it having two power conductors and guess what, an earth :) and piercing tougher junk

Part one of a garden tap, the through wall feed, mit 1/2" thread for a tap

Do the tap up tight, mark the holes, drill (7mm for my plugs), remove the tap and screw it all up. When you tighten the tap up with a wrench, it'll probably end up horizontal now you can put more force on it with the screws in place. If so, just undo the screws, rotate the base plate round one set of screws, retighten and refit the tap. Instant 180 to the floor

THAR SHE IS!

I finally ditched the Heller bit set after the magnet came out of the quick release bit holder. That was the icing I was secretly desiring anyway. I discovered the adaptors (both Heller & Wera) jam when the impacts from hammer action push the adaptor right up against the chuck. By jam, I mean, I can't eject the bit from the adaptor. That's just annoying when you're knealing down, but up a ladder, it becomes a MAJOR issue and is quite dangerous, as you fight the bits out with no hands free to stop falls. It happens regardless of any brand I've tried (Heller, Wera & nameless, the Bahco ones probably do it as well). What confused me is that heller also included masonry bits in the quick release format, which means they must have known it'd be used with hammer, but not bothered to remedy the adaptor issues. I expect it'd be as difficult as adding a rubber washer, but at 18.50 a set, I'm not fixing it myself. The Wera bits are nice, I expect only Bahco compares, but I've also ordered a set of Wera hand-held drivers, so I want some brand uniformity. I opted to risk some $$$ buying Wera's own diamond coated bits. These are about 2.20 a bit, but rounded over bits cause far more trouble than they're worth. Now they need to outlast the el cheapo bits with no coating whatsoever, by a good five or ten times in lifespan. Something about the way they mesh on the poziheads seems more solid, perhaps that's my pocket chatting and reassuring it's self. Time will tell

My god... I finally have my own toolbox. Shame it only holds a few hundreds worth of gear and not a mitre saw, circular saw, airless spray gun, grinders, nail guns and thus on.... But even still, it's so nice to have tiny bits like driver heads exactly where I can find them and get on with the job. Every man needs a toolbox. Any man without a toolbox is a DIY noob, and probably not even a man... siree yea.... `.^P

The box is much bigger, this is just the top half. I'm using it to keep me hex keys, laser range finder, some sweeeeeeeet Knipex / Trace Elliot pliars (the best cash can buy, highly recommended by John), a punch down tool, wire strippers, snap and seal tool, various Wera bits and the adaptor and a stripper; but only the boring wire kind