Re: Home and garden projects
 

:unsure:

I was going with Common Language Runtime.

But google served up a limescale product!!!

:ohmy:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

:nod:
The R is for remover.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...d49a269d9b.jpg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

What does it do that plain vinegar doesn’t do, in terms of limescale?

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Quicker and better I believe. But maybe that depends on the build-up :unsure:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I use vinegar on the inside of the electric kettle, maybe once a year. 100% cleans it, it looks like new. True, you have to leave it a few hours. But, since it’s a food product, I know that all I have to do is rinse it out two or three times and I can safely use the kettle. I wouldn’t like to use that chemical cleaner on the kettle in the same way.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I double checked with my MIL who has also used vinegar.

Apparently she's used it on kettles and coffee pots. She's 86 this year and still going strong. :lol:

She even uses it for her dentures :nod:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

If I had dentures I’d do that too.

Availability of vinegar is one of my pet peeves about Britain. In the US, and I’m sure Canada too, they sell it in supermarkets by the gallon, and it’s cheap, I think about $3 maybe? In England, it comes in cute little 568ml glass bottles for £2 or £3; so much more expensive. Why the difference? I think, traditionally, Americans do a lot of food preservation, canning fruit and veg. The British just go to Tesco for their food. Also, though, vinegar is hugely popular in the US for cleaning, showers, kitchen sinks, kettles, etc.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

It does tend to be white vinegar here. Quick comparison on Walmart Canada, 4l white = $2.47 and 500ml malt = $1.47 (500ml is the biggest size for malt ....well, the only size) :blink:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Here is an idea for anyone needing a side walk. I wanted to build a sidewalk from my house to the Gazebo I built. I didn’t want a concrete truck on property or pay for a crew to wheel barrow from street plus the other labor costs. I poured in easily managed four foot sections from 80 lb bags of concrete mix mixed with hoe in wheel barrow. Two short rebar stubs were placed between each pour to tie together. The entire framing used cut pieces of two by fours with a total of three 8 foot boards needed for entire project. Another big savings on material costs. Each pour required 4 to 5 bags. Project was done at my leisure over 5 months.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...3cb338f45.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...3aec32b1e.jpeg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I thought my recently finished sidewalk was my last concrete project but Benny our dog needed a house at the end of the cable run I made for him. Big enough for house plus outside pad/bed. Some wood framing and 14 bags of 80 lb concrete mix was my work yesterday. Will later stain dark brown like sidewalk and place some two inch river rock around perimeter.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...2ccf59008.jpeg
The dog house is bolted down to hold in place.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...62ea50279.jpeg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

The path looks great, and Benny is a lucky dog.

I need a path similar to the one you have cast, but I lean towards paying a contractor to lay it for me, unless I decide to lay a concrete brick/ block path instead - a shallow excavation, compacted rock/ gravel, then lay out the blocks. It would need edging to stop the edge blocks drifting away over time. The materials would cost me more, but I would be more comfortable doing that than the pressure and intensity of mixing and laying concrete, not to mention the short term effort.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Pavers look good but require a lot of ground prep. I have never done any but have watched a few videos on how to do them. I had enough stain left over from sidewalk to stain the dog house pad.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...3f380a214.jpeg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Different kind of project...but I'm considering DIY termite protection.
One thing with US is that most of their houses are made out of wood. (Having learned nothing from the 3 little pigs).
We recently bought a house and the inspection revealed no termite activity but some historical damage. Local contractors charge $700 (!) for the setup and then $99 per month for maintenance, which seems insane.
Research suggests that treatment (for active infestations) is very involved and best done professionally. Involves digging a 6" trench around the house and pouring in a ton of chemicals. However, monitoring/prevention seems somewhat easy - just bury some bait traps, check them periodically and sub in poison if you detect any.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

That would be a good DIY project. I sure a lot of good info/advce online. For DIY advice on many subjects check out diychatroom. I use them a lot. You can ask a question and usually get a lot of responses.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

There is more than one way to deal with the risk of termites. You have described the "bait method", but I favour the "quarterly treatment" method, which has the advantage of also dealing with other nuisance insects, including, but not confined to: ants, centipedes, millipedes, and cockroaches.

Locally (NC) it costs less than $100/ quarter for a quarterly inspection and treatment, or about $140 for a basic annual inspection and treatment, which is sufficient to catch termites before they do any damage.

As with the bait method, you can do the quarterly treatment method yourself. The chemical used by contractors is called "Cy-kick CS", which is widely available, including from Amazon, and is safe and suitable to be used (liberally) around your house perimeter, inside around the floor edges, and in the basement or crawldpace.

Whichever method you use, bait or treatment, contractor or DIY, you should check periodically around the edge of your home, including anywhere that brick, concrete blocks, or slab concrete (floor and foundations) is on/ incontact with earth to look for "earth tubes" which the termites build to provide access from the ground into your home, and back again as they must go underground to access moisture to live. You can Google pictures of the earth tubes, but they are very distinctive and hard to miss, about the size of a straw.

I found some once, shortly after we moved here, and hadn't set up regular inspections and treatments. The tubes were in the garage, connecting cracks in the floor to the bottom edge of the plasterboard wall, then I had to pay for the "trench/ drilled holes (in the garage)" treatment. Now I spray quarterly, but still pay for the annual checkup for my own piece of mind.