Grrr, what a scutter.

[Dave Baker]

Trying to make the block paviour patio a bit more presentable before the weeds growing in the cracks turn it into a jungle. The joints seem to be well pointed with mortar but the accumulation of years of dust which has turned into hard compacted soil is what the weeds and moss are growing in. I've been scraping the joints out with the corner of a hoe and then brushing with a stiff broom but it's a miserable job. I've got 20' wide x 60' long to do and the just the first couple of feet took nearly an hour. I'm wondering if a pressure washer might be a better idea.

[fred]

In article , Dave Baker writes

Chemical castration is what you want, get some pathclear type stuff down then scrape up the bodies. If it comes back then re-dose as many times as required, buy from an agricultural supplier if it's getting expensive.

I use a 5 litre sprayer for this sort of thing, basic lidl item but toolstation/screwfix have them too for a little more.

[harryagain]

Plus get yourself a power washer. Cleans all the crap and algy off the surface and can clean the shit out of the joints too.

[The Natural Philosopher]

kill them with weedkiller and then PW.

[Bob H]

I use domestos or some other strongish bleach from a watering can, and go all over my block paving. That usually kills all the moss and weeds, then after a few days I go round with a sharp pointy thing I taped to an old broom handle to scrape out any and all the dead stuff. Then I power wash it to make sure it IS all clean. After a day or so I then brush in the proper dry sand, and that usually does me for a year or so.

[Johny B Good]

When I first saw the thread title, I thought "A Red Dwarf Reference!". When I read the above, I was a little disappointed but I suppose you could try and acquire a 'Scutter' or two and give the job to them. :-)

[fred]

When I first saw the thread I thought " Thats a word I haven't heard used i n a long time"

It used to be a derogatory term, term of abuse, as in " He's a bad scutter" meaning hes a bad egg or worse.

Actually a litle Gogle produced this from the Urban Disctionary

" a scutter (if you're from England) is someone who doesn't wash, has no jo b but sits on their stale asre watching trisher/kilroy all morning. They us ually sport an huge collection of gold jewellery (purchased from Argos) and call their children- babby as apposed to baby. "

[Johny B Good]

If you'd read down to definition 7 you'd have seen the "Red Dwarf" reference:

========================================== scutter Derived from the program Red Dwarf. A scutter is the hoover that comes out at night to clean the ship. This was then used to describe the people of portsmouth. scutters crawl the streets at night picking up crap of the kerb. ==========================================

The fact that it was only 7th in the ranking is more an indictment of the UK education system in regard of cultivating interest in the hard sciences and hence, Science Fiction (not to be confused with Science Fantasy) rather than a true reflection of the quality of the TV series in it's use of 'science' for comedic entertainment.

I knew I'd be in a minority in making the "Red Dwarf" association. :-(

[Gazz]

i keep getting the idea of buying one of those robotic vacuum cleaners, then making a lightweight cover for it in the shape of a scutter, be great to see peoples faces when it trundles into the room, but i am afraid most people nowadays won't know what it is :(

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not taken Dave long to pick up the dialect. But as with a lot of Doric, it's a remarkably good word.

You could always go further:-

It's a real scunner this scutter.