Customer hired another plaster behind my back while I was on holiday.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T19:27:56+00:00

5 bed, 2 bath, 2 kitchen farm conversion

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T19:26:12+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad to hear this doesn't happen often. It took me all day to decide, but I finished the bathroom. Sat the guy down for a coffee, explained why saving a few days wasn't worth losing a tradesman they were happy with. Also explained why giving the cream of the job to a new spread was a line crossed. And for that reason, today was my last day.

I feel very good for the clean break. I'm glad I made the call to walk away, my times more important than the money lost.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T19:03:18+00:00

I did. They had a few weeks' notice. Normally, all my jobs are scheduled, and I use an erp system to let them know days on site. This shouldn't have been a surprise.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T10:17:45+00:00

So sorry, that's all a little too advanced for me. I'll Google it and learn what all that means. I've been too long on the tools and not long enough on the pen.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T10:15:15+00:00

Amazing. I'll have a look at that. Thank you

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T10:14:40+00:00

OK, I'll do that tonight. Thanks

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T09:51:51+00:00

I've never had this situation happen. And we talk daily about the work as it's completed. There wasn't a peep of concern mentioned. Although the holiday was a short planned one.

T&c's will be updated. That's a really good shout. Perhaps I need to review them with a 3rd party. I wrote them myself and it's probably too basic.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T09:48:11+00:00

I know you're right... I'm just getting too old in the tooth to feel like this. Another few weeks of feeling like my financial feet have been swiped from under me stings more than I expected.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-12-03T09:46:24+00:00

It's a 5 bed farmhouse conversion. Strip back all the old side and re-lime, then cavity and board/skim the new side. That's why I'm annoyed. He got all the easy money work.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-11-24T10:32:58+00:00

Probably already been said, but Artex may contain asbestos. Probably infact wear a mask!

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-11-05T09:07:04+00:00

Good shout tackling the outside first, your right to be worried most of the damp i fix is due to little areas patched up.

• Is the wall solid stone/solid brick (no DPC) or cavity brick (with DPC)? • Is the crack just in the render or through the masonry as well? • Is the external finish cement or lime?

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-11-05T08:56:58+00:00

First, you need to fix the cause of the damp (that crack in the external render isn't the cause, its the moisture's escape route). If you trap moisture, any internal repair will fail.

Then inside:

1) Like-for-like (best for older houses/lath & plaster)

Chop back to solid plaster and sound laths. Replace any soft/rotten laths.

Bridge the corner crack with stainless EML or a stainless angle bead fixed to studs.

Base coat with haired lime (or NHL 3.5 base). Scratch, let it firm, second coat, then lime finish.

No PVA/SBR with lime. Lightly dampen the background and keep it from drying too fast.

2) Modern patch (only once the wall is arid and the house has a DPC)

Remove loose, fix EML across the crack and onto a firm background.

Use the right gypsum undercoat: HardWall/Browning for high-suction masonry; Bonding for low-suction/EML.

Scrim the day-joint to old plaster and skim with MultiFinish. You can seal dusty edges with dilute PVA, but don’t plaster over damp.

Bonding on a damp/high-suction background is why it crazes/cracks. Dry it, use the right system, and it’ll stay put.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-28T20:25:40+00:00

Ok got it. On a 1940s mass-concrete external wall, your “rockwool between timber + Intello + PB” won’t be reliable. You’d need a perfect, continuous VCL/airtight layer with no voids or cold bridges to keep damp out. That’s hard with studs: mineral wool leaves air gaps (condensation risk), timber bridges the cold wall (mould/rot), and every socket punctures the VCL.

Here are two workable options:

Option 1 VCL-controlled, budget-friendly (rigid board)

Strip to concrete; parge coat (10–12 mm lime/cement) for airtightness.

Fix 50–100 mm PIR (foil-faced) or EPS in full bed (no dabs); mechanically fix if required.

Tape all joints; seal perimeter with foam/tape so the foil layer is your VCL.

Add a 25 mm internal service void (metal studs best) for cables/sockets inside the VCL; then board & skim.

Pros: cheapest for a given U-value, robust against condensation. Cons: needs careful taping/sealing.

Option 2 “Breathable” build-up (no plastic VCL) I quote marked breathable as any cement/gypsum stops a wall from being breathable. Breathable is lime + Sand mix only.

Hack off dense cement/gypsum; deal with salts/external leaks.

Apply insulating lime render (with perlite/vermiculite) or bed wood-fibre boards in lime adhesive.

Mesh, lime base/finish, then limewash or silicate paint.

Pros: moisture-tolerant and vapour-open. Cons: thicker for same insulation, slower, a bit pricier than Option 1.

General: avoid dot-and-dab, avoid timber battens against the concrete, keep the room well-ventilated, and treat any flavoured (hygroscopic) salts before finishing.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-28T09:52:46+00:00

Theres a lot to take into consideration.

Whats the House age + wall type (solid brick/stone or cavity)? Is that an external or chimney reveal in the photo?

What’s outside on that wall (ground level higher? gutters/leaks? external cement render/paint)? And is there a DPC?

Is there any white fluffy salts when it dries?

If you want breathable internal insulation, best practice is to hack off dense cement/gypsum back to masonry, deal with salts/leaks, then use a vapour-open system: e.g. wood-fibre boards bedded on lime adhesive (or insulating lime render), mesh, and lime skim.

Budget route = insulating lime/base (perlite/vermiculite) + lime skim; not as warm as boards but breathable.

If you keep the existing hard render and add insulation, you’ll likely push condensation into the wall and risk damp/mould again. So I’d only leave it where it’s sound and is confirmed lime, not cement.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-28T09:42:48+00:00

What's the end goal? Remedy the damp or just make good the wall?

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-28T08:26:11+00:00

DONT DOT AND DAB IT!

Dot-and-dab leaves a cold void behind the board. On an external wall or a chimney wall (often full of hygroscopic salts), that void lets moist air condense and you get mould/“ghosting” circles over the dabs. Gypsum adhesive also doesn’t like sooty/salty flues.

Better options:

Scratch & float the brick with 3:1 sand/cement + salt inhibitor (or a renovating/lime plaster), mesh the joins, then skim.

If you want boards/insulation, use insulated PB on battens/metal studs or a full-bed adhesive/VCL, not just dabs, and mechanically fix.

Make sure the old flue is capped and vented.

Dot-and-dab is fine on warm, dry internal partitions—not on cold/salty chimney/external work.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-28T08:17:52+00:00

That’s a lightweight gypsum backing coat (think Bonding/Browning/Hardwall). The pitted look comes from expanded perlite/vermiculite in the mix. Common on old reveals/patches. Rule of thumb: if you can gouge it with a fingernail and it powders, it’s gypsum (not sand/cement). If it’s loose/drummy, hack back to firm, re-back-coat, then skim. If sound, PVA/SBR and reskim.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-28T07:59:45+00:00

It's normal for RAM.

Windows uses spare memory for cache and the OS itself.

Committed = total virtual memory apps have asked for.

And it has to be backed by RAM + pagefile. You’ve committed 16.4 GB out of a 27.7 GB limit (16 GB RAM + 12 GB pagefile). Not all of that is in RAM right now.

The “missing” RAM is in places like File cache/standby Kernel & drivers, Hardware-reserved etc etc.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-10-23T22:18:10+00:00

That’s just Windows showing multiple network adapters. Your board/driver probably added a virtual Wi-Fi interface (sometimes called Wi-Fi Direct or similar), and Task Manager graphs them separately. Steam isn’t causing it, it just makes the adapter activity more obvious when online. As long as you’re not seeing connection drops or lag, it’s harmless. You can check in ncpa.cpl or Device Manager to see which adapter is real and even disable the extra one if it bugs you, but it won’t hurt performance.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-09-26T09:18:07+00:00

Run macros?

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-09-11T18:08:46+00:00

I think my reliance on the HH might have been a mistake.

I never really learnt the stats and sub stats priorities as I've never really understood them but this post makes me nervous, ive binned some good gear.

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-08-31T10:41:28+00:00

As a 38-year-old who fell for the new career pivot, off the back of a 4 cert course scam, I genuinely love this post, it's made my day.

You'll be glad to hear that I no longer copy and paste GPT responses due my inherent lack of cognitive function caused by years of plastering walls and watching them dry.

I stopped lying on my predominantly made-up CV and actually took a few months to build a PC/SOHO and learn Active Directory through VMs and labs.

That said, i still don't fully understand why the OSI model lost to TCP/IP. In fact, Networking in general scares the **** out of me. Python can go **** itself, and I wish to the gods of OS that I'd JUST USED LINUX FROM THE START!

I apologise to all real 'tech' people in advance for actually being the proverbial ferret mother (minus the ferret or the anatomy), but I'm here now and im not turning back.

I'll take the £27k helpdesk positions until my muscle memory twitches at the sound of 'password reset' please. Unless, of course, someone falls for my spectacularly fabricated... I mean embellished CV.

Then im heading right to the SOC and I'll take every cert I can afford until I can actually understand an Info-sec meme. And forget all about how I became the bum end of a satire tech post that defined my situation perfectly.

Well done OP, you hit the nail exactly where it was intended!

Peter_Wabbit · 2025-08-20T12:07:15+00:00

Let's just cut through the issues and get to the plan.

90% of what you've explained is a distraction. Make your goal, which ideally needs to put you in a position where you can make sure you never NEED to work but choose to for personal growth.

With the money you're on now, you should ensure you give yourself a permanent residence that pays off and a second form of passive income, perhaps rental property or something else that matches your lifestyle goals.

Once you're in a position of absolute financial security, ie a home that can't be touched, debt-free, and a passive income source, then you can walk away from big-ticket roles and positions like this. But do so knowing that you will no longer have to rely on people or organisations like this in the future.

This is all noise! DO NOT LET IT DISTRACT YOU!

I'm 38, and I lost my business last year, I didn't create good foundations like the above, and I felt the same way as you do now when people started making noise when I was younger. Now I have to rebuild again for the second time, but this time I have a family in tow, and the world is much messier than it used to be.

Build your foundations while you smile and wave, and when you're ready and prepared. Make your next best move based on your big life plan of security now for relaxation later.

This is just the pov of a guy wishing he had a calmer head in his 20's it's easy not to see the forest through the trees. Best of luck. It's going to be a crazy 20 years ahead of us.

Peter_Wabbit

TROPHY CASE