Home DIY

So when there is condensation elsewhere then the ceiling is wet?
Was it just superficially repaired or actually replaced? If it was replaced and the loft insulation not replaced above, you'd have a cold ceiling, and then maybe combined with a less absorbent / shinier paint surface it could just be more prone to condensation, rather than a leak. Possibly.

Only that certain part is but they had a 'man' come round and have a look he said it's a cracked tile that the wind is blowing the water in the eves or something, the loft had new insulation rolled over the top.

I painted an old bathroom wall in satinwood as a quick fix and that was a nightmare for condensation

Anyone in the new cross area have a 15mm pipe bender I can borrow for a day or two this week?

We have some custom built MDF shelves in our new bathroom, and on the advice of our builder, I have just added some varnish to it to add a bit of waterproofing so we can put wet bottles etc. on them without it soaking through to the MDF.

However, as anyone with more sense than me could have predicted, the lacquer has just taken up some of the paint (water-based) that I put on the shelves last week, so the finish is pretty nasty.

What should I have used, and is there anything I can apply over the top of this?

Maybe some weatherproof external paint? You'd probably need to sand back a bit first.

How much should I be paying a locksmith to replace a Yale lock on a front door? It's not something I want to try myself

The finish of the varnish is alright, but what it's done to the paint is the problem.

Would some kind of spray lacquer have worked?

Hard to know. If you're set on a particular paint maybe contact the paint manufacturer to see if they do a waterproof paint in the same colour?

it's a ten minute job at most, but if you're in london town that'll equate to 'call-out' plus an hour, so say a ton

If you've got a replacement lock I'd be tempted to give it a go - especially if you're only changing the barrel. The only tools needed are a suitable screwdriver and possibly a pair of pliers. Google 'yale lock replacement' and see what YouTube suggests - at least take the screws out and cover plate off the existing lock to see if 'call out' plus an hour is worth it ...

Painters/Decorators/Builders.
Recommendations of SE London ones?

Kango the mother fuckers.

Painters/Decorators

My missus is as painter and decorator. PM for deets

Just replacing the night latch?

If you are in london, can show you what to do. Cost you a coffee or tea ;)

Maybe a hacksaw...

The last one I did had notches in the tail to allow it to be broken off to length - pliers or similar might be easier to find than a hacksaw and vise to hold the tail while sawing?
I'm thinking DIY using likely bike tools rather than precision engineering (cost of a coffee versus call out plus an hour)
I'd offer some real-world help (as you did) but Shropshire is probably a bit too far away...

#spam

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Stripped the '70s woodchip off the spare room yesterday. Most of the plaster is in good nick except for two patches: one where I took my eye off the ball and left the steamer on too long which resulted in a patch about 18"x12" of just the top payer coming away and another smaller patch which has always been f*cked and bulging out under the woodchip came away right though to the blockwork. That one requires a pretty substantial repair.

Anyone had good results doing these sort of repairs themselves? any twop twips for a good finish?

thanks for the offer but I think it will have to be a call out. On closer inspection it looks like the whole unit will need to replaced, complicated by the previous owners installing a london bar and then plastering over it into the door frame. They've also installed it all upside down so you need to turn the latch the opposite way to open from the inside - a big mess basically

How deep is the patch of plaster? Just the skim layer?

Should be pretty easy to cover with just a trowel (£7 odd at B&Q) and a small bag of multifinish plaster (a few quid).

Undercoat with Zinsser BIN shellac primer (Screwfix)? I've had good results with it various surfaces.

As rodabod has said a trowel and small bag of finish, make sure you soak the undersurface or substrate before applying or the skim coat won't adhere. Also, once trowelled on, use a wetted straight edge, a piece of rounded skirting is ideal, to get that flush level finish

Hello, first post in this thread, and probably my first time playing with electricals since I wired a plug in school 15years ago...

We're just in the process of moving and the dishwasher and fridge have gone into the new kitchen already, however the wiring is odd and there is no socket to plug them into. The nearest sockets are above the counters, and between the sockets and the appliances are a series of small holes through which I can run a wire, however the holes are far smaller than a plug and it would be difficult to drill them out to be any larger.

My proposed solution is to use a couple of old 13amp plugs (with wires) that have been cut from old appliances and thread those through the holes into the dishwasher/fridge cavity. I'll then wire one of these sockets onto the end to make my own home-made extension lead, and simply plug everything in.

Am I going to die? Is there anything important I need to remember/consider or will it all be ok?

This is only a medium term fix as I expect the new kitchen to be demolished and then rebuilt as part of an extension sometime over the summer.

Just had Sharps bedroom round (more for inspiration than anything else). They want £8K for fitted bedroom wardrobes, which I can't believe is what people pay.

What have others done? We're looking for one wall of wardrobes (roughly 2.5m wide by 2.4m tall by 55cm deep). Will most carpentry firms be able to do this sort of thing?

In the past I've just taken a normal extension, taken the plug off, fed it through the hole and rewired the plug at the other side.

I wouldn't plug them both into the same extension/socket though.