Home DIY

Also, should I bed the "bead" (it's big, but it is holding the glass in) on putty, or add putty last to seal where the glass meets the wood, or forget about putty?

Round this way, in outer north west London,
skips without locked tarpaulins are treated as community assets.

Thanks. It's a job for tomorrow now as it was sunny here, so I've been at the BMX track all day.

What sort of softwood is it?

The 'redwood' ('Scandinavian Pine') supplied in timber merchants should be OK for a repair. Put some hardener on the cut edges perhaps. Spruce ('whitewood') would just rot.

This is the closest profile I can find, it says Redwood Pine so I'll give it a go, ta.

slap on some proper lime render

No dpc = lime mortar so, good that you know OPC has no place here.
That de-rendered brickwork looks pretty good to me.
Good enough not to bother re-rendering? Point up with lime putty?

That copper thing.. is that maybe an anti slug measure?

I would go with stainless side up, trial cut and see how ragged the edge is. There are so many different jigsaw blades and jigsaws it's hard to know what kind of result you'll achieve. I'd be pretty confident with my own jigsaw and one of the many blades rattling around in the bottom of the box. Don't forget the tape though and check that your jigsaw base doesn't scratch through it if it's masking tape you use.

If you feel like investing in future diy efforts you could use repaircare, they have a starter kit that includes everything you need to get started and it's becoming the darling of the window repair community.

Had the guy in this morning, he didn't even disconnect the gas, just swung the cooker round enough to get round the back then took the whole back panel off to access the element bolts.
Le sigh, oh well at least I know for next time!

Worth £65 not to have to get near the grease! Unless of course you had already cleaned it for him.

Hah that's a job for the MIL next time she pops in.

So, tiles...

After my experiences with plumbing I've got a plumber coming in next week to replace the boiler and the shower (in doing so it'll bypass the water tank, and a bunch of other benefits).

I'll also ask him to fix the gap in the floor tiles. Any ideas what search term I could use to find a match for these? 150x150x20 if it matters.

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Quarry tiles.
Edited to add: they generally come plain so might be hard to match the finish, which might be from a worn down sealant. You can use linseed oil I think, or proprietary tile sealant.

Got one of these mixer taps, bastard's dripping like torture. Replaced the top set of o-rings which stopped the water that was leaking out the top (good), but that didn't solve the dripping. Can't see how to get at the tap washers at all (assuming that's what's failing). Any ideas. BTW, I have a brand new spare one (was 'over delivered' with the kitchen. 'I confess...' thread, etc.) so wondering if it's an impossible repair I'll swap it out.

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Amazing, thank you. I suspect the finish is many years of neglect tbh! Getting fairly close to the colour will suffice; there will only be a few of them and they'll be under the sink (you can see the gap in the back left of my photo).

Something like this should do: https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/earth-stone-quarry-tiles-rustic-earth-red-tiles

According to this diagram there is a grub screw holding the levers on

https://www.central-servicesuk.co.uk/section.php/57/1/olympus

Ah, good spot. Right, need a little mirror to see it. Cheers @Aroogah, will check back in with the result.

It will almost certainly be a small allen key fitting. Do not lose the screw, I speak from bitter experience.

Top tip, put the plug in before dropping the grub screw down the plug hole (everyone learns that one at some point).

That link seems to go to 300x300 ones? You want something like https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/traditional-quarry-tiles-traditional-red-quarry-tiles

Underfloor heating questions...

I'm about the rip up the floorboards in my hallway and downstairs bathroom (which runs off the hallway), replace with a ply subfloor and fit a Karndean vinyl floor on top that runs through both.

There's a large radiator in the hall and a small towel one in the bathroom. I want to get rid of both in an ideal world, and replace with a wet UFH system.

Here are my questions:

1. Can I fit the UFH system to the existing rad pipes but regulates the temp so i don't burn my feet?
   
2. Are there any systems that integrate into the subfloor to keep the floor height as low as possible?
   
3. Will they work with the adhesive for the vinyl floor?
   
4. Am i mental?
   

I can have a stab at a couple of them... seeing as I have just had wet UFH installed and will be using Karndean

1. I beleive not, you run your UFH through a manifold and separate thermostat, so would need a direct line into boiler
   
2. No idea, we laid ours in 65mm of screed which is the best system as you then heat the pad
   
3. Yes, but you need special adhesive
   
4. No... Maybe
   

Cheers.

I've found Ambichipboard which looks like it could be installed in as little as 28mm which means i could see a total install height of ~33mm max.

I've done a bit of creative googling and apparently i could do something to connect to existing rad system by introducing a mixer to bring in lower temps but it's all a little above my head for the 10 mins of reading i've done so, if anyone has more info, i'd appreciate it!

Glad to hear i might not be totally mental.

1. Won't burn your feet if heat is well distributed.

2. Where necessary, we lowered joist height by removing material from them. However, for most, we replaced joists entirely and built up with 1" marine ply to a height that would level with existing floorboards elsewhere once tiled.

3. Dunno

4. A lot of jobs you have to come up with bespoke solutions. Keep thinking about it.

Why wet? Electric has lower buildup. Will you be insulating under the subfloor?