u/Pete7eire

In the process of widening our driveway entrance by a few feet. Front wall is already cut. Pillar is made of mass concrete, so plan to use a digger to move the pillar and join to the cut wall. Pillar will be set in a bed of concrete foundation and tied onto wall with brackets of some sort. Any tips on what type of brackets to use or any other advise? Thanks

I have a 40" Castelgarden twin cut hydro, 17.5HP briggs & straton engine. Bought it about 5 years ago 2nd hand. Last week while just finishing cutting the grass, it was cutting and running fine, but the blades stopped engaging. It was due a service anyway so I called my lawnmower guy, who services it and who I had originally bought it from.

It wouldn't start when he was coming to pick it up, so he checked the oil and noticed there was loads of petrol mixed in with it. Turns out the shut-off valve may not have been shutting off properly and thus allowing some petrol to leak in...This is the only explanation I can think of... although I had checked the oil about a month ago and it was fine, and had only cut the grass once since then, last week.

We also noticed at the same time an issue with the PCB board being a bit loose and faulty. This probably causing the blades not engaging. So he took it away to see what he could do to fix it...

Now he has called me to tell me that the engine won't start due to lack of compression caused by the petrol leaking into the oil. This resulted in the pistons running unlubricated and the bores getting damaged (?). The engine is completely ruined and needs to be replaced. Will cost €600 all in for a replacement 2nd hand b&s engine. It was working fine last week though, so I am just a bit surprised that it could have gotten so badly damaged that quickly.

Also the PCB board needs to be replaced costing another €200 or so. This I can understand as it does explain the blades not engaging and the battery not charging properly at times.

So, it's going to cost me €800 just to get it up and running again. Not sure if it's worth it or what to do....any thoughts on the whole thing? Advice greatly appreciated.

P.S. I would consider getting an electric robot mower but garden is a bit of a mess...drainage sink hole has gotten blocked and there is water pooling above that...robot would get destroyed. But that sink hole issue is a story for another thread some other day. Need to figure out what to do about lawnmower first, thanks in advance 😄