So There I am Looking Out Over Hadrian's Wall..

OnlQQker · Sep 24, 2022

When I notice one of those new lodge sites.
A bit like the old caravan parks but way more modern.
Composite cladding, plastic ridged rood tiles, double glazed french doors etc.

So me being me instantly loses interest in the old Roman wall and trying to work out if it was actually built to keep the English in and not escape into Scotand, as the drops towards the Scottish side seem extremely steep.

I must admit I was immediately took back with the Groundworkers on site, They are extremely friendly, totally unheard of in my day!
Anyway I noticed all of the cables/gas/water/sewage etc as this was all being run into place at this time.
I thought with the concrete slabs that they were casting I would probably insert steel so as to create a large Earth mat and to stop the potential of the concrete cracking because it was mistakenly built over an old Roman tomb that hadn't been unearthed yet.
Though I could see tt rods sticking up on the ones not yet finished, these were in the centre and not cast through the concrete I couldn't find out from the owner of one of these lodges the electrical sign off ZE readings. Though the owner had 6 pages of report the only reading it gave was the RCD trip time of 39ms.

The only reason I'm wondering if a steel concrete mesh frame would give a good ZE reading is because I am thinking of moving up there, though if I had took my kt63 with me I could of found this out for myself.
But it was something I completely forgot because I didn't expect to see lodges being built the other side of Hadrians Wall.
Well worth a visit if nobody has ever seen the wall and Carlisle itself is full of amazing buildings and History.
Just don't take a femail with you, you'll never leave the shopping centre as it's rammed with shops and quirky other things!

timhoward · Sep 24, 2022

I lived in Carlisle for over 10 years. I loved it. As you say lots of history, amazing scenery on all sides, Scotland is beautiful, the Lake District is a short drive away, and the North Pennines countryside to the East is also stunning.
Most of the lake district tourists stop at Keswick and don't venture into the North-East fells, and there are some great days out in that area where you only meet the locals!
I haven't ruled out retiring up there.

(I wonder if the lodge site you noticed is the one some friends have just moved to, out of town on the Wigton Rd / Orton Grange on the A595.....)

littlespark · Sep 24, 2022

Lodge sites all over the place.

Pre-made in static caravan factories. Built in two halves, bolted together on site then clad in whatever material is allowed.

The concrete slab should have rebar metal grid through it… like you say, to stop it cracking… and at least static caravan ones have metal hoops embedded each corner to chain the chassis down.
Lodges are maybe heavy enough not to move in high wind.

BTW, the Scottish side of the wall has land mines and is patrolled by big hairy men with guard-haggis.

OnlQQker · Sep 24, 2022

Amazing people around that neck of the woods. Because I am not very well travelled and the only place I have ever been on my own is La Gomera, I honestly never stopped to think people could be so different in the very country I was born into.
These lodges have hottubs fed by a 16 amp mcb, nothing in the lodge is over 20 am. SWA in trenches ourside, these look like they are dotted up to meters around the park. Workmanship looks pretty spot on, Cooker only pulls 0.8kw.
And works just as quick as these things they sell that could power a small hamlet and cooks exactly the same!

This is my first experience with the new green ̷c̷a̷r̷a̷v̷a̷n̷s̷lodges that seem to be sweeping the country at a great rate of knots.

And that brings me to the reason for my post. As I was nosing about looking at the countryside from the patio deck I looked down and saw one of these rather expensive fibre glass hot tubs.
It was not level with the decking so I went underneath, it was built on some timber framing that I looked at and thought it would take my weight for a few months, but then start sinking into the clay.
Then I thought don't say anything, but it will sink down to the level of the patio at least, the weight will do that once filled,
then where it lips over the decking it will pull that with it and the whole caravan shortly afterwards.

But in the 3 inches of water (75mm-7.5cm or as wide as my hand with fingers together) lay a very still dragon fly, and I automatically swooped down with my hand and cupped it out. Whether it lived from that point on or not I don't know, but I like to think it lived whatever happened!
Anway within that swoop I felt 36v, I say 36 volts without any testing equipment because I used to fit electric fences around Tomlinsons place in Murlsey to keep foxes away from ducks. Tomlinson was the father of 2 kids in the original Mary Poppins, the banking fella who wore a suit and acted the clown.
He was also in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Herbie, Wombles and a load of other crappy things that I never watched as a kid cuz I always hated the bad bits they felt they had to stick in these films. Witches, child snatchers, ferocious animals etc etc etc .

So he told me how they all ended, cuz I never got that far with films, and they all ended on a positive note he assured me, with the person watching it being programmed with fear from a very young age.

Now deep down I don't think me and him liked eachother, so much so his dying wishes were that I did the music at his funeral with the church filled with famous people.
But it all went stupendously, and that's the first and only time I played in a large audience of that degree!
He knew I didn't mix with people, he called me anti social (whatever that means)

So about the 36v in the hottub, it's certainly enough to send you into a situation where your feet disappear over your head, and your glass of margarita ends up all over the place (smashed) because you've just dipped your toe into the hottub

This person I've become friends with I wouldn't want to see hurt himself as he is as clumbsy as f**k

littlespark · Sep 24, 2022

I recall when we had people put decks on their caravans on site, the installers didn’t fix the decking to the caravan at all. Totally self supporting.

Caravans move in the heat, so need an expansion gap… just in case.

Didn’t stop one of our know-it-all owners construct basically a pvc greenhouse to the front of his van, screwed down to the deck, and fixed to the van…. Knackering the outer skin of the van in the process I should add.

First summer with his new sun room, that he had proudly erected himself… and he wondered why the plastic “glass” panes were flexing.

OnlQQker · Sep 24, 2022

littlespark said:
I recall when we had people put decks on their caravans on site, the installers didn’t fix the decking to the caravan at all. Totally self supporting.

Caravans move in the heat, so need an expansion gap… just in case.

Didn’t stop one of our know-it-all owners construct basically a pvc greenhouse to the front of his van, screwed down to the deck, and fixed to the van…. Knackering the outer skin of the van in the process I should add.

First summer with his new sun room, that he had proudly erected himself… and he wondered why the plastic “glass” panes were flexing.

Understandable...

I had a chat with the heating engineer, and I was always under the understanding that the last meter of copper adjoining the combination boiler should never be in John Guess or plastic fittings.

And though the gas had a brass copper straight compression joint, the flow/hot water/expansion all went in directly in the one meter of 22/15mm copper pipe.
However the cold mains and return (loop filling pipe) had 2 john guess fitting tee's which though would not hurt on the cold water side they were a bit of a concern on the Return pipe.
And though the heating engineer rightly said that John Guess fittings can work periodically at temps of 114 degrees max, John Guess themselves will admit to only every now and then.

But the boiler will surely never hit these sort of temps and the boiler makers would not put a bit saying 'IMPORTANT keep 1 meter of copper to the boiler' in there instruction manual.

I understand the movement side of all this, and that can also be eliminated to a very fine degree with more blocks, chains and possibly the use of a mig welder. As well as reinforcing the internal timberwork walls as these are only 47x47mm par timbers which aren't brilliant.

Last summer I turned an old worn out upvc conservatory into an extension which now looks like a 30k extension. It has a u value of 0.11 thanks to second hand cellotex which can be purchased cheap as chips at Peacocks auction house in Bedford.
The whole job cost peanuts (except for the plastic roof tiles) and is good for another 80 years, I used cement board as the wall and rendered it the old fashioned way, not with these new systems which seem to fail and the manufacture blames you, the weather or how you're applying it.
By calculating the weight of the glass panels taken out this compensated for where I added cement boards. The roof I decided to go for the plastic tile system for lightness, but I just look at it and think it looks to plastic.

Chicken wire (not the really cheap stuff for chickens as it rusts) lasts for donkeys years as screed reinforcement, even in slight moverment conditions. Thanks to lime added within the mix as well, though I do use a couple of these waterproof liquids in the mix, leigton buzzard sand is extremely important as well..
Jewsons told me that's what they call it, Leighton Buzzard sand. And my mate Tom was the manager there, but he's at Edmundsons managing there now! Not sure what Jewsons in Carlisle will say when I ask for it, probably rendering sand, which comes from Heath and Reach which is Leighton Buzzard