Home DIY

Dude! If you'd spent the time I did cleaning the walls with a steamer, bleach and bicarb, you would be in no doubt they smoked on the bog. It was RAW.

I just had a quick look in roof this morning, but with a decent light and it all seemed very dry - both on top and below the insulation.

In fairness the roof does need the moss removing and the internal lining is a bit over the hill, but we had someone check the roof before we bought and they said it was aok.

Is it more likely that the whole unit is gone, or are they the sort of things that get blown fuses?

Cheers for the response btw :)

I've not tried them yet but you could check these guys out

https://www.cbjltd.co.uk/board-cut-to-size

My small bathroom (no outside walls, no windows, no extractor) is unsurprisingly getting a bit damp.

There's the fascia of a standard extractor fan in there (no mechanism or wiring behind it) which connects to a rectangular duct which runs right over our kitchen for about 5 metres and then finally terminates at the exterior wall above one of our windows. There's a grille on the outside of the property where the duct terminates but as far as I can see the duct is completely empty, no visible mechanics at either end.

What are my best options here?

Doing works to my own place and we have a similar middle of plan bathroom with no external walls/windows. Your duct run is similar to ours (length wise) and from my in-depth conversations with Vent-Axia and Nu-Aire is considered pretty long.

We ended up going for a Vent Axia ACM100 extractor fan which we paired with a speed transformer to boost when the light is turned on and a overrun timer to let the extractor fan run for a certain amount of time post light switch being turned off.

It is an absolute minefield so feel free to message if you need anymore information

A bit of speculation: is your damp patch close to the lowest point of the fan ducting?

A couple of winters ago I had a sudden brown water issue (doesn't sound right however I phrase it) staining the ceiling and dripping from the fan switch: water in the duct had pooled and then found a way out.

My best guess at the time was the cold duct wall (unheated roof space) was allowing moisture to condense before it reached the outside - a shorter duct and lagging (a roll of garden fleece) seems to have solved the problem so far...

That's a good point to check.

The run starts from the other side, but I'm not 100% sure on the exit. I know that ceiling leaks can be tricky sometimes as they don't always correspond with a roof leak.

The more I think about it, the more I think it might be condensation build-up under the paint.

The thing I'm unsure of is what to do after to dry it / strip it. And what paint to use to protect it.

It's a pain as we'd ear marked time to do "fun" redecorating DIY... not proper home maintenance.

I've had no end of problems with my bathroom ceiling fan, as the ducting goes straight up through the loft to a vent in the roof, so any condensation on the inside of the duct (which is shitty tumble dryer flexi-duct) just drips back down onto the fan, shorting it out. My second fan has now broken, and condensation drips out of it into the bath.

What's my best bet? Some kind of condensation-trap trickery, or installing a proper rigid duct and lagging the duct through the loft?

My wife used to use that guy for smaller pieces to make mosaic artwork on. He was very good in terms of service. No idea if the prices are good though.

Like I said in the first place, blag a b&q trade account. They cut it for free for the trade. If you give them overnight then they are very happy to cut a decent amount. Just don't go silly and ask for 20 rips on a board.

Leyland Super Leytex for me. Really good coverage. Can get away with one coat on bare plaster sometimes.

Oh, while I'm here, fuck Farrow & Ball. Apart from the general twattiness and price, I bought two cans of the same paint there the other week and they were noticeably different colours after stirring. Made me stand around in the shop waiting for samples to dry to compare and said that they "aim to get colour matches within 1%" which is utterly meaningless. Also, their emulsion paint is more like vinyl or acrylic, and didn't adhere properly to my base coat of Leyland emulsion. I used some weak masking tape on one area, and when I carefully removed it, it peeled off a big plastic-like strip of F&B paint. Just get it colour matched in Dulux super-matte and save yourself the grief.

I've used mdf cut to size for pieces of unusual thickness where I don't want to handle a full sheet. Very good service and the accuracy is fantastic. Delivery always factors into small quantities though. Builders yards are usually only £1.50 or so a cut, you have to keep a careful eye on them and don't forget that the outside edge of the board is best out of sight or trimmed off, avoid using it for facing edges.

Don't ever promise the person who chooses a farrow and ball colour that you can get it mixed in another base though. You might get lucky and get it matched, more than likely it will be disappointing. I insist on my clients providing the paint if they want farrow and ball, that way they get to deal with the problems.

Little green are good and have a good range but as mentioned above, dulux supermatt or leyland vinyl Matt are good enough. There are a lot of ceiling specific paints emerging that contain a lot more solids and resist roller streaks which is a problem especially on big basement ceilings with light from patio doors.

These vents at the bottom of our French doors fire a constant stream of cold air into the house. Can I remove, fill the holes and paint when we redecorate without consequence?

We did this, only used Johnson's - which I actually prefer working with to the also-wildly-expensive Little Greene paint which adorns much of our former flat.

I've just painted a room in F&B estate emulsion, over a dark grey leyland undercoat and the colour match on both tins was fine, and the coverage on the wall was fine too. And the colour is bloody amazing.

I usually use dulux diamond in small hallways, it cleans well and resists damage from suitcases/bags/Hoover etc.

If you want really high end paint Benjamin Moore is great, their range is very confusing but it ticks all the boxes in terms of application and end result.

Yeah go for it, assuming you like mould and spores in your lungs.

A lot of the trades have abandoned f&b. Too unreliable and their technical support is offensive.

Care to elaborate? As I have no idea what you are talking about...

Blocking trickle vents stop air circulation and allows mould to grow. Being around mould is bad for your health.

You know those stories everyone has about living in a shitty rented flat with a landlord that didn't give a fuck that it was full of mould and gross, the cause of that is 100% because the budget decorator they hired 10 years ago painted over the trickle vents on the windows. Every time.

Another vote for Little Green paint, really good range of greys at the moment. With regards to tinkering with extractor fans, don't forget to fully isolate whichever leccy circuit powers it because it has two feeds, one switched so it comes on when the lights do but another for the over-run. I think regs actually require a seperate iso switch/fused spur for extractors now but I could be making that up.

+1 to little greene. Our decorator had a massive rant about f&b before we told him we'd bought LG. He was a bit sceptical but said it was good. The absolute matt really doesn't like being touched when it's on the wall though. Feel like I might be touching up marks for years to come.

Another +1 for little greene

Thanks for the reply.

So if I terminate it properly, that's going to be sockets for power, 1 x HDMI, co-ax, ethernet and maybe one or two USB. Should be ok I guess.

If I'm doing mains electricity, do I need to get it checked and signed off by a pro?