Home DIY

there comes a point in life where the notion of doing some types of DIY is just a false economy, one that stops you getting on and enjoying the benefits because of focus on the process.

True. I do need to level the floor, also - I've posted these before, but to re-cap I need to remove the screed at the end of the hall where it meets the sitting room, as the builders in 1935 made it rise to meet the level of the parquet:

I was going to cut the width of the floor roughly under the "Sidi" sticker on the level, remove the screed between that line and the sitting room, then use levelling compound to match the remaining screed to the base of the parquet in the sitting room.

Is more parquet going on top of the screed layer?

Yes, that red painted area is the hall, which is underneath in this picture:

Got you.

Does the whole screed layer slowly slope up across the entire length of the hall? Just wondering, if you only hack away a few feet of it at one end, will it not make it uneven at the point where the hacked-away section meets the not-hacked-away section?

I've never laid parquet, so possibly it's a bit like tiling, where you have a certain tolerance to work with.

No, the screed is level for 7m then pitches up in the final metre- which is the one I will remove

Ah, understood. Out of interest, how are you going to do it? I've bolstered out a couple of concrete fireplaces now (to re-level), but your job looks a lot bigger.

Cut across width ways with the diamond blade on the grinder, then SDS chisel and crowbar.

Genuinely thought the first picture was a slice of chocolate cake or tart with a bite taken out of the thin end, before I saw the rest.

Disappointed.

I need to get myself an SDS.

don't fuck around with half-arsed labour intensive methods, hire in a floor scabbler to level out the ramp and key the screed > http://www.astleyhire.co.uk/tools/products/concrete/floor-planer-scabbler-hire.html

Wow, that sounds like it'll be loud

Didn't know they existed, that does look like a faster route to a flat and keyed floor.

I could take back the exiting parquet ~30cm and then level to the screed which it sits on.

Opera singer vs Scrabbler.

I think paying for your downstairs neighbours weekend away would be a decent compensatory measure!

scabbler, not a word game - u moran!

I think paying for your downstairs neighbours weekend away would be a decent compensatory measure!

Could be a dead heat between that and getting a firm in to do the work then.

Rik vs Kirsty

yes, but what'll they use to level off the ramp and key the existing screed - penny to a pound of shit it'll be a scabbler/planer

What I meant was that the theoretical work men would do that in the week, whilst I (and presumably the people in the flat below) are at work, therefore there would be no need to invest in sending the neighbours away.

i.e. this might justify getting some workers in.

ah I see your logic - neighbours, yes as long as they're wage slaves and not those godawful drain on our tax and insurance retiree types..

I'd try using a burn-off knife. When cold the bitumen might come off in chunks, when hot it might scrape off like butter, so I'd experiment with both. Then white spirit and wire wool. Make a quick jig with blocks screwed into a plank to hold the sides and one end of each block, then you have a stop that you can get some good force against when scraping and can switch blocks quickly and easily.

Was it possible to get asbestos ceiling paper?

I can see wallpaper strip marks along the ceiling at even intervals like you would on wallpaper. Im assuming theyve used wallpaper on the ceilings.

On a side note, ive started peeling the wallpaper in my house. Lots of fun but i cant reach up to the ceiling to get it all off.

And i have had some epic bad dreams i think from the wallpaper peeler fumes.

found the bastard shit...

Anaglypta ceiling wall paper...