Home DIY

homemade-modern.com/

That's a really good site. Thanks.

Extension progress. Old extension now demolished. New extension has broadly similar dimensions as original. Foundations set in concrete around 1m deep. Soil pipe replaced as it was leaking. Loads of roots growing towards it as it was damp, but they weren't the cause. As it's a solid floor, it's been taken down a couple of feet. We've had an air brick installed (see 4" brown pipe) to help ventilate the dining room sub-floor as it has some signs of damp). This will be levelled and tiled. End wall will have a large casement window and sloping roof will have a large velux.

Bricks are laid out on foundations just to show roughly where they'll go. Engineering bricks for first few courses (will add DPC too) Danish bricks on outside skin to match existing, 100mm cavity, then blockwork on the inside. Fairly standard.

Lidl has an offer for sds drill with 3 year guarantee.

Flipside is Ihave been able to get parts from Plumbing Trade Supplies without issue.

Thanks, I'll go and check my local branch on the way home and see if they've got it in.

Right 15mm olives will not clamp up on 14mm pipe and I have lost the ability to solder two bits of pipe. Suspect french copper is thicker than english.

Bit of a bodge but could you pack it out with PTFE tape?

My soldered joints no longer seem to be able to hold (french is higher) water pressure. New copper pipe, cleaned the joints with stainless steel scourer, used some english flux, used english solder, changed that to use French solder. Heated the joint and let the solder run in to the joint. Left it till cold to touch and the fuckers seem to leak usually after about 12- 24 hours.

Yes, no idea.

Ended up getting a hotter flame by getting this http://www.leroymerlin.fr/v3/p/produits/poste-a-souder-bigaz-rothenberger-roxy-eco-kit-plus-110-l-e66663

Didn't leak for 24 hours.

Also could seem to get compression joints olives to compress properly, the olives seemed twist. Not sure why.

@dangeek when I had my boiler fitted my plumber was working full time for a housing association and they'd done a lot of research on which boilers gave them the least hassle and it was Vaillant. I've now had my Valliant installed for 15 years and I've only had 2 issues. Both issues, it transpires, were the same cause, sort sort of blocked pipe inside the boiler. Had to be drained and manually cleaned, long term fix was a magnaclean.
It's a system boiler with a mega flow so different to a combi.
I think Vaillant have some deals on warranties at the moment, some boilers with 5 years and some with 7 years.
Good luck it is minefield choosing one.

Thanks for the advice.
My experience with our last Valiant boiler was the same. We've never lived anywhere long enough to really test it though. I'm hoping that this house will be home for quite some time though.
I think I'll ask the plumber about the equivalent valiant model.

Note that cheaper boilers give a deal to number of boilers sold in a month for free crates of beer, fleece jackets and such like.
So may be given priority to their advantage not yours.

This was using 15mm olives on 14mm pipe and being careful.

Had issues sealing pipes as the flexi pipe threads were realy bad. Ended up using fernox.

I did and that cured the problem.

But taking them apart and reinstalling them was a ballache.

I tried using the search but didn't know how to word it - we're leaving our flat soon and need to do the usual filling in small holes and patching up paint - does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this as painless and cheap as possible - especially worried about colour matching paint.

Mrs IP and I took a two day round trip up to the DIY-kitchens (.com) showroom in Yorkshire and were glad we did, very impressive. We'll definitely be buying from them once we've got the design nailed.

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In 25yrs of property maintenance I've never found an easy way to match the paint. Sometimes it's easier to get a close match and paint the whole wall. Check the cupboards, loft etc. to see if there's any old paint first though.

If you want quick and easy filling something like Toupret Redlite might work.

What made theirs the best? I've just had some door samples through from them today.

If you can somehow remove a sample then B&Q can analyse it instore and make you a Valspar mix.

I often then paint the whole wall with the close match, it's rare that you will be able to patch with a scanned colour.

Another tip is use a small roller if the walls are rolled, paint brush otherwise. You can paint an entire wall in minutes with a small roller. Patches first then 1 coat on the whole thing.

Unless you fill screw holes carefully, wipe the excess off with a cloth then dab in a tiny amount of fresh paint of a close match. That would probably get past most exit inspections.

Quality and choice. Have a gander at the picture I previously posted and you'll see they tick a lot of boxes compared to the competition. The fact they come completely constructed should help massively with a DiY install.

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Assembling the cabs is easy. Pre assembled are a little more difficult if you have pipes in the "wrong" places. Self assembled you can take apart to cut holes in. Pre assembled are more rigid but that's not really an issue when you fix them to the wall/each other/worktop. In general cabinets are the least of your diy kitchen worries, they do look decent though and the end result will probably look a little more solid/collect less dirt if the joints are well made.

I also like that the cabs aren't peppered with loads of bracket holes inside, just the internals you spec.
Our kitchen extension starts on the 12th so we're holding fire until the steels go in and we can actually stand in the space before we pull the trigger. I'll be putting the pipes and plugs in so I'll only have one person to blame if shit doesn't fit!

The 32mm system can be quite useful, especially to installers. But yes, it does make the insides look a bit messy. I'm usually more concerned about soft closing drawers and hinges and all the other mod con fittings that make a kitchen nice to live with. Hafele catalogue is your friend if you want to go full custom.

Our kitchen was all Hafele, it's nice but pricey. And I hate their bins.