Hi Kerri, Pipe perfection is 100% correct - your initial idea will not work as a U-bend is not practical for solid waste. However there is always more than one way to skin a cat, you may be able to install a pan with a macerator and run the waste up through the ceiling then into your stack work outside. The other option may be to change your plans and look at putting in a P trap or skew pan, and running it through your wall and tying into your existing external stackwork. This may require up sizing to 100mm PVC rather than the 50mm PVC that you currently have. Or once again replace that 50mm stack with 100mm pvc and run it through the wall and to the new desired location. I hope this helps - a bit hard to give you the perfect solution without being able to inspect it for you. Best of Luck! The Doctor.

I believe the look you're after was a traditional flooring in French country gardens and suggest a similar effect could be acheived using the same method as for exposed aggregate paths and driveways ie the stones are mixed into concrete and spread out to create the floor (including drainage) that you need and then, before the concrete is properly dry the surface is rubbed with a stiff broom to expose the top of the stones and then sealed..Depending on how wide and thick you need the area of flooring a concretor could do this for you, or in a small area with solid existing concrete floor you could try sticking the stones down very closely together with a suitable tile glue, add a thick cement grout (to help hold the stones in place) and brush to reveal more of the stones to suit and seal.. check out "exposed aggregate paths" for specifics

Hi everyone, need some advice. We are building a new home and we have a decent space near the alfresco where we plan to have an outdoor kitchen. We requested the gas pipes and water connection to be installed nearby where the kitchen is going to be. However, on the plan we thought the pipes were on the ground. We visited the house today and discovered that the builders installed the pipes on the wall inside the alfresco, not on the ground, near it, which is where we wanted. We will talk to the builder tomorrow but are trying to think ahead in case the cost to fix this is too prohibitive. Do you have any suggestions of how we can hide the pipes? Not sure if I made myself clear but basically we now have 3 pipes coming out of the wall and one water pipe coming from the ground but all inside the alfresco, and we want them outside where the kitchen will be. Thanks in advance!

@dreamer Ha, I was embarrassed by how messy this pic was, that's why I didn't put it in the initial post. Yes, the power lead is absolutely gone - we just moved in a couple of weeks ago and everything in the wrong place! Thank you for your concern :) I was pretty sure that the measurements didn't allow for them to be side by side, but I'm going to look into that. If we can do that with enough airflow underneath for the ventilation, that would be a good solution. The patio has a roof but the left side of the photo (where the very overgrown grass is) does get wet in rain, so not sure if the side by side machines would work for that reason too. @Kate Yes, it's exposed on the side. We just wanted to find a laundry solution at this time - we are also planning on updating the kitchen and bathroom this year, but had initially thought that we would do that by just updating cabinets/appliances (and just re-siliconing and freshening up the bathroom). We are not against a bigger renovation but obviously have some cost limitations and are trying to do what makes the most sense.