House and Gardening Ideas

House & Gardening Ideas

1. Faulty Tubtrug

If you leave your tubtrug out in the garden the most likely outcome will be failure of one or both of the handles due to degradation of the body material from exposure to UV in sunlight. One solution is to create new handles as shown in the photo using 6mm polypropolene rope and supporting washers. Drill two 5/16 inch (8mm) diameter holes about three inches (75mm) apart and thread the rope through. The cut ends should be fused together using a lit match and then tied in a single knot. Polypropolene rope lasts typically five years in UK sunlight.

If the material around the handles has split then silver coloured Gaffa tape is an ideal repair medium. Clean and dry the surface before applying one or more layers of the tape. Gaffa tape is also ideal for making temporary repairs to cracked glass panes in greenhouses (the last ‘temporary’ repair survived for some five years before the pane of glass was finally replaced with a plastic pane.

2. Leaky Hosepipe

One side of our garden was shielded from the rain by a very large tree in our neighbour’s garden and was therefore much drier than the rest of the garden. My solution to this problem was to lay a hosepipe along that area with 1/16inch (1.6mm) holes drilled every 2 feet (600mm) or so and feed the hose from a water butt or outside water tap. If the holes become blocked after a while then connect the hose to an external water tap for a short period of time - the water pressure will clear them. When required it is left running for an hour or two from the water butt after the sun has gone down to minimise evaporation in very dry periods.

3. Kitchen Stools

These started out with a natural wood finish seat which did not match our new kitchen colours so I removed the old varnish with a scraper and some sand-paper, painted them with two coats of bright coloured acrylic paints, rubbed them down to remove any brush marks and sprayed them with two coats of matt acrylic varnish which is very hard wearing.

To get a smooth and level edge between the black base and coloured top I used a ‘Lazy Susan’ rotateable spice tray to support and rotate each wooden base.

4. House Insulation

As our pre-WWII house has solid walls there was no cavity to fill so we have had those walls clad in external wall insulation approximately 67mm thick which was then covered in several coats of an acrylic render. The immediate result was a 25% reduction in our annual gas consumption.

We have also insulated the two inside garage walls adjacent to the house with 50mm thick foam insulation placed between 50mm square vertical wooden supports spaced about 600mm apart to which a covering of 12mm plywood is then fixed providing protection to the foam sheets and support for shelves, hooks for tools etc. The wood surface may be painted or left plain.

5. Oversize staples

I make these by cutting and bending U shapes about 3 - 4 inches long and 1 inch wide from old metal coat hangers and use them to pin down the small plantlets at the end of strawberry runners or similar onto the top of a small pot of firmed down new and damp compost until they have rooted which usually takes 7 - 10 days. The staples corrode very slowly and will last quite a few years until they become really badly corroded. Keep the compost damp and once the plantlets have rooted they can be potted on or planted out in a garden bed for the following year. Clean and dry the staples and put them by for another year.