Home DIY

Are people who have sanded their own floors popping skirting boards off or just sanding up to them? Can you get close enough for it to look good?

I removed all of mine, the job was a small kitchen where edges could easily be seen.

Hmm y'know when you know that something is what you should do!

Picture yourself with your morning kombucha staring at the periphery.

I didn't remove mine. I used a Bona Mini Edger which can get you right up to the edge.

Just a bedroom above the kitchen. I think the reason for wanting a window above it is to make it slightly less dingy in the hallway (approaching kitchen, see photo below) and also to give more of a sense of space as it gives you a sight-line across the ceilings through the house.

That's the thing, it's very smooth where it's flat, but the boards themselves are in really bad nick - lots of bits sawed and replaced and what have you. But I think that additional layer is the one - I've just bought a big tub of gloss, that should be enough for two coats in our undone room and an additional coat on each of our finished rooms. Do you have any pics of yours?

My morning involves a 30 second shower a 20 throwing on of clothes and a rush to the bike shed.

There's a slightly odd void at the hallway side because there's a structural beam which stretches through the house, and that's about one foot away from the doorway. That makes it more dull as a result.

Interesting idea with those Luxcrete blocks. Between my living room and dining room it has a 50's-style beaded glass which I guess also spreads light to some extent:

So, I'm still not absolutely sure what's best to do. I'll probably add an additional lamp in the hall anyway, but still wonder if adding some glass above the door might improve it at all. I'm re-plastering anyway, so any work I want done should be down now I suppose.

Looks great! Need to find the Northern equivalent of that hire place now and set some days aside!

Anyone had experience cutting cork floating flooring?

Leytonstone, East London. Boiler exhaust is straight out the wall as I'm end-of-terrace.

I'd get rid of the door, but it's imprtant to keep kitchen smells in, I suppose.

@rodabod something like this looks like it could work?

Good call. Thanks.

Just dropped far too much money on probably the wrong size/quantity/type of timber for my deck. At least I get some new toys out of it. Found a cordless impact driver and cordless saw that both take the same batteries as the drill my dad bought me for my 30th.

I took ours off, but not just for sanding - we had the whole floor up to insulate underneath

Any SE-ish recommendations for someone to repair uPVC and replace wooden sash windows with uPVC sash windows?

A few people at work (all in SE) have recommended this guy: http://gpbarker.com/index.php?pid=1&sma=home

Not used him personally though...

Cool thanks -- will look him up.

what innovative flooring option am I not thinking of? Top floor flat, wood's too noisy, cork's a bit retro, carpet's not easy enough to clean. does good vinyl exist?

Wood might be an option if you can get the subfloor rigid enough: then you can have a floating wooden floor with absorbent rubber underlay to reduce footfall noise (wish my upstairs neighbour had done this... grrr.)

Yeah, surely an engineered wood with some sort of insulation beneath it? Or just replace the floor with a trampoline. That cold be fun.

Impact driver is a game changer. I've just used mine for the first time whilst doing over 30m of fencing - I can't figure out how I lived without one now.

I'm in the very early stages of planning a deck. Did you use an online planner to figure out what you needed? Also interested to hear what you bought and where from?

Rubber?

Yes, knife to stop the cork from tearing then hand saw