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I'm having the same fight, but last year set up a compost bin to take care of the garden and kitchen waste. It's no good for hedge clippings (200 metres of garden hedging produces a lot of clippings) or for meat scraps (attracts vermin) but for everything else that will rot and the birds won't eat it works very well. After a year we are now getting top grade potting compost out of the bottom. It's amazing how quickly it goes down after you've filled the bin to the brim.
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A free black plastic sack per week?
Blimey, I must be living in the wrong area. Unless something has passed me by (distinctly possible)we have to buy all ours.
Agree completely about the councils' unhelpful attitude though, and in particular with regard to the extortionate cost of the removal of green bags.
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Well HF you get the choice . Pay by the sack or by the council tax impost. The truck that collects and takes the sack has to be paid for as does the driver. At least pay per sack fairly treats the people who do not produce any green waste.
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Sorry, L'escargot, wouldn't really want wheelie bins.
Wheelie bins are fine if you've got somewhere to keep them and they can be wheeled from that position to where the dustcart is going to stop to empty them. In an area where most houses are terraced would you really fancy wheeling a wet, dirty, smelly bin through your house from front to back on collection day?
Or having them sit outside houses on the pavement all week?
As for them allowing you to discard more waste, an adjacent council which has wheelie bins has now introduced a second bin for recycleable waste, a good idea in principle. Only problem is they now collect the two bins on alternate weeks so the residents have to not only remember which bin is due which week but also have to put up with waste sitting in them for up to a fortnight, must be very pleasant in the summer!
We have bags, black for waste, pink for recycleable material. I keep two plastic dustbins, one for each, on collection day simply take bag out of bin and deposit for dustcart to collect. Bags stay dry and undisturbed by vermin and so long as I remember to allow 5 minutes to put it out in the morning the cats and foxes don't have all night to rip them open.
Cockle
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Cockle,
You said it!
We currently have;
One black wheelie bin for household rubbish - every two weeks.
One brown wheelie bin for garden rubbish - alternate 2 weeks.
One box for bottles and tins - every two weeks with Brown bin
One bag for newspapers - every two weeks with Brown bin.
After a public holiday, the days might change - what I do is to look outside and go with the majority, on the very crowded pavements.
If we mistakenly put something wrong in a bin, it is taken out and left on top of the bin - like a smack on the wrist - my wife put 6 birthday cards in the household bin on Monday - these should have been in the paper bin, so were taken out and left on top of the bin.
I suppose I should post this in the JOKES link, but our rates went up about 17% last year for this service.
Matt35
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You're likely to end up with wheelie bins eventually - Government targets for recycling are putting the pressure on all councils to get moving. Even my old council in Watford (nothing provided as per HF's experience) eventually started recycling green waste.
Up here in South Northants we now have the twin bins plus recycling boxes as described by others. Biggest pain is the collection for "conventional" waste is fortnightly - OK at this time of the year but back in the heat of summer 'twas a bit unpleasant.
Bottom line is that I spend less time taking stuff to tips and recycle more than I used to - so for me the pro's of wheelie bins outweigh the cons.
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Not really a question, more of a warning.
Many of you have come to know that excellent chap FiF on this Forum.A modest chap indeed. However this Forum may well be inundated with posts from him as work on the A.1 Motorway in his home area has unearthed what could be a relative, many times removed, and his form of Transport.
Watch out for
Classified: Well used Chariot, Registered 500 BC for sale
Discussion: Which current vehicle would you bury to survive to the year 8475?
Technical section: How do I re-shaft a 500BC Chariot?
tinyurl.com/xi1e
DVD
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Blood and stomach pills!
We always wondered what happened to Uncle Albert!
My concern is what will happen to the Pontefract cake mines!
Not to mention the rhubarb caves!
Ecky thump!
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Discussion: Which current vehicle would you bury to survive to the year 8475?
BA Concorde not motoring I know but FWIW there it is.
===============
Technical section: How do I re-shaft a 500BC Chariot?
Are the nearside hub nuts left hand thread? Critical issue to be able to give you an answer.
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>How do I re-shaft a 500BC Chariot?
I know just the guy for this job!
You are not going to believe this but...
My best mate is, amongst other things, the MD of a company here in Jordan called "Roman Army and Chariot Experience" who are building replica chariots for racing in the Jerash Hippodrome.
Check out their website www.jerashchariots.com
This is the same guy who spent 10 days with me travelling out from Holland to Jordan in my G-wagen.
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Rochdale Council has decided to stop collecting refuse from 14000 homes on unadopted roads on the grounds of cost. It still collects recyclable materials though, but there's no point in signing up to it as they only collect plastic, not metal or paper and even then only certain types of plastic so you still have to make a trip to recycling centre - utter madness!
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I have recently moved to Braintree (not quite adjacent but close) and have had delivered in the last week two wheelie bins (along with labels for writing your house number on, which you then stick on the bin - no indelible marker supplied so hopefully not too many people will use water soluble ink).
In the grey one you put non recyclable household rubbish - collected on alternate weeks, again we wait to see what it'll be like in the summer although the instructions did state that the waste should not be put directly into the bins, but nor should it be put in larger style rubbish bags as this can make emptying the wheelie bin difficult. They suggest using supermarket carrier bags (not a problem for me but where does that leave people that take their carrier bags back to Sainsburys and get 1p per bag reused off their shopping bill?).
The green one is for organic waste, but not branches over a certain size, to include stuff like leaves, grass cuttings, vegetable peelings etc. Well, I already put all that sort of stuff in the compost heap and my new house has two well made wooden composting bins. The council do also suggest that you could put this stuff into a composter for your garden and subsidised composters are available for about £6. The contents of this green bin are collected on alternate weeks to the grey one along with all the other things for recycling - i.e. seperate bags of textiles, paper - magazines, direct mail etc. but not newspaper, that's to be put out seperately tied in a bundle with string - and tins. Bottles are not collected, you have to still go to the bottle bank with them - why I don't know.
We have been supplied with a calendar to show what's to be collected when and enough clear recycling bags to last us until the next century, gratis.
It will take a few weeks to get used to it all, where we used to live we had seperate rubbish and recycling collections and they only collected paper, tins and glass & you could mix the last two up in the plastic container they gave you. And in our road we had to have the bins sit outside on the pavement all week or put them in our small front gardens, which often included steps so wasn't an ideal situation for the less able. One near neighbour had their front garden re-done and included a specific wheelie bin keeping area to make life easier.
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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Is there anyone in the Backroom who is in the Building Trade or can advise me from their own experience?
Some months ago a local firm replaced the felt on my garage roof. I am 100% satisfied with the job they did.
In the meantime the felt on flat roof at our Church hall has ceased to keep water at bay. In several places there are little ‘molehills’ in the felt which has duly split…..hence the ingress of water.
I asked the same people to inspect / advise / quote. The following is an extract from their quotation:
“Prepare and prime asphalt, cut out blisters and seal. Supply and lay a 4mm polyester high performance torching membrane, top surface finished in aluminium solar reflective paint , felt-in a torching membrane green mineral finishing to edges”.
I asked why they were not proposing to remove old felt (which looks in good condition, apart from ‘molehills’) and was told that (A) it would bump the cost up considerably and (B) leaving it in place would provide extra insulation.
I know these people do a good job but am uneasy about them simply sticking a new layer on top of existing material.
What do you think? Is this an accepted practise?
Your advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
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oap,
not in building trade, but on house mother used to live in,with flat kitchen roof, she had these "molehills" as well. local *builder* she got to repair them told her that it was caused by laying the previous felt over a damp patch. his remedy, which lasted several years(until she died and house was sold)was to simply cut the blistered area back to soundly attached area, re-tar about six inches around this area and attach a "patch" which was rolled (with a sort of large wallpaper seam roller) firmly in place.
billy.
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OAP, Your post says the roof surface is asphalt - this is important because it makes a big difference.
If it is truly mastic asphalt it is quite normal to repair blisters and leave it in position with a solar protective layer. You can tell if it is hard asphalt by giving it a tap with something like the handle of a screwdriver - it will sound hard.
I have to say, it is unlikely to be asphalt and is more likely a felt based bitumen membrane. Give it a tap. If it gives a dull thud it is membrane. Or look to see if you can see the joints between sheets. If it is a membrane it is less desirable to leave it in place.
In any case, flat roofs are a lot more complicated than most people think. Surface blisters and damp decking boards are most often due to moisture vapour condensation from below rather than penetrating water from above. The vapour causes the membrane to blister and fail which in turn lets in rainwater - i.e. the primary cause is the vapour and water ingress is an effect.
What job you have done really depends on circumstances. It is a perfectly valid economic decision (and I say that as a professional) to have a cheap job done and extend the life of a roof by a couple of years - as long as you pay cheap money and fully understand what you are getting. The problems occur when you pay for the top job but get the cheap one, or you pay for the cheap one but expect the top one. the key to getting building work done is to understand what quality you want, pay the right money for the right quality and then make sure you get what you paid for.
OAP, what cost were you quoted and what is the surface area? A top quality job should cost about £75.00 per metre.
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OAP, I realise you may not have access to the roof to check on the existing surface. You could try asking the roofer if the existing surface is 'mastic asphalt' or if it is a 'felt based membrane'. They should know.
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Thank-you 'billy 25' and 'jeds' for your replies. I apologise for delay in acknowledging which has been due mainly to illness in the family.
I asked the Builder about the quality of existing covering and he says that it is mastic asphalt which in view of your second paragraph, 'jeds', is good news.
However, as I tend to be a belt and braces person (not literally!), I will carry out your suggested tapping test before giving the go-ahead.
Again...many thanks.
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Sorry, L'escargot, wouldn't really want wheelie bins.
wet, dirty, smelly bin
Cockle, wheelie bins are only smelly if you put food waste directly into them. If you use a pedal/swing bin liner, and also a wheelie bin liner (which will last for several collections if you fold it over the edge of the bin) then the wheelie bin will remain perfectly sweet-smelling. I know this from years of past experience.
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L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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>> Sorry, L'escargot, wouldn't really want wheelie bins. >> >> wet, dirty, smelly bin Cockle, wheelie bins are only smelly if you put food waste directly into them.
OK, you might be able to get rid of the smelly bit but if you are in a situation like mine then they must get wet and dirty standing in the back yard, certainly in weather like we're having now, and I really don't want a set of tyre tracks across my kitchen floor, lounge and hall carpets every week.
The only alternative would be to leave the bin, or bins, parked out front; not only would that make the street look even worse than it does now but the local 'lads' on their way home from the pubs and clubs would have a whale of a time with them, I suppose then we would be expected to chain them to our drainpipes!
Sorry, but in my sort of area rubbish bags, kept properly and deposited for collection a few hours before the dustcart is due, are the better solution. I can quite see that, in the right areas, wheelie bins could be the better solution, just for me, I'm afraid, they aren't. Horses for courses.
Incidentally, while I'm in a 'green' mindset, I am informed by the local council that using supermarket carrier bags as waste bin liners is not the thing to do. I always thought I was helping by recycling the carrier bags as bin liners but, apparently, bin liner plastic is designed to degrade in a landfill site whereas carrier bags are not and will last many years longer, hence not welcome.
Cockle
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Mmmm when we had bin bags we could chuck them in a vehilce and drive them down our lane to the road where the Bin Truck would collect. We went over to wheelie bins about 6 years ago. Problem now is that it is difficult to load it (whe full) into a car boot so I've had to buld a trailer to tow it down the lane. Complicated. All garden waste is disposed of in an enviromentally sound way (i.e. piglets next field but one eat anything and everything.)
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