Perception of the hardness of brick is often at variance with reality

[Martin]

They did in 1957.

[Huge]

I was quoting Ian Jackson.

[Martin]

I was speaking from experience. Of course, they didn't have bin liners in 1957.

[The Medway Handyman]

Memory Lane!

[The Medway Handyman]

My current house is exactly like that. Obo nails bend!

[damduck-egg]

Some on here will have visited the Black Country Museum and seen the Iron houses relocated there.

they must have been the scene of many a cursing session over the years or giving the job out to some unfortunate employee. Asbestos insulation inside as well originally.

For those unfamiliar with them the construction is done using Iron panels bolted together in a similar fashion to those used to build large water tanks seen in many industrial locations for the past century and a half or more.

G.Harman

[Bill Wright]

Aye and if yer got hold of one you treasured it. Our family had a plastic bag. Only a small one mind, but it were ours. It was said that Aunty Grace in Newcastle had one, but I don't know if it were true.

Bill

[The Medway Handyman]

Luxury! We used to dream of plastic bag.

[nemo]

Dreams? You had dreams?

[The Natural Philosopher]

nah. you do work not with an SDSs but with an angle grinder and oxy-acetylene torch :-)

[PeterC]

I put up a couple of roller blinds for a neighbour yesterday. All 8 holes were into the concrete lintel (I remember those from when we moved in and had to use a Rawltool!). The Makita 18V combi managed OK, but the speed had to be high so I changed the battery half way through. Used a 4mm drill for a start. One hole was just deep enough, the debris flow almost ceased, I took the bit out of the hole and there were bristles of metal on it - lucky I didn't need to swap to HSS!

[Martin]

Not a lot else to do in the gutter in those days.

[Lobster]

Oh definitely. I was attaching a TV aerial cable to a 1900s red-brick house the other day, using cable clips: I was able to get them into most of the bricks, but not some - it was like trying to hammer into steel blocks!

David

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Eeh, hand made they were. Painstakingly sewn from the finest plastics by Polly, Ethyl and Leena of the Barnsley Bag Welders Co-op.

[Bill Wright]

No need to mis-spell the poor girls' names. It works as Polly, Ethel, and Lena.

Bill

[jgh]

I find the biggest problems with stone walls, as the inside tends to be raggedy underneath the plaster and often as not the grain runs in the wrong direction sending your drill or chisel off in the wrong direction.

My party wal is actually the /external/ wall of the house next door that this house was built up against. I discovered what used to be their front door step at the edge of the floor at the bottom of my stairs.

JGH