Home DIY

You'll hear different opinions on this. If you're going to be putting a couple of coats of paint on there, though, I would stick a mist coat on. The mist coat should reveal any rough bits you need to work on further. After the mist coat then apply your usual two coats of paint

The main reason new plaster requires a mist coat is it's absorbency. If the wall paper paste has already sized the wall it won't be as absorbent as fresh plaster. You probably have patches of wall unsized and some with paste residue on though, so as Vanneau recommends you should try a mist coat and see what kind of problems you have.

Good point about the mist coat highlighting rough bits. You can lightly scrub over these with a sanding block before the final coat.

You don't need to get rid of the nice old doors when you fit fire doors, just store them somewhere until after the building has approval ;-D

Ok, fitting cables in runs under dot and dabbed plasterboard, talk to me about it.

I've a phone cable that I want to protect, and ensure that it can be removed/upgraded easily, and some other cabling that needs recovering (as the original cover has come off as the plaster over it was hacked off).

I'm most bothered about the phone cable, as I don't want BT digging plaster out of the wall to repair a faulty cable later, I'd much rather have it safely cased into something so it can be slid out as needed, but I'd also like to do this with Cat6 cables that I'm putting in as new so that if I ever want to re-pull them, it's as easy as possible.

It should be ok and I would put tubing in. And leave loose rope for the future pulling. Keep the secure so u don't lose them

You can get some nice flatish tubing now that might work better for u

There will be white PVC trunking in a plethora of shapes, sizes and lengths that you could fit in some sort of channel behind the skirting.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a building surveyor? I'm in South East London.

ducting is your friend.

We have just recabled a whole house. Cable is cheap, just put ducts in and throw double the amount of cable you currently need in there, worst case you can just use the cable to pull through better cable if needed...

We spent ages thinking about wheat cables we were going to fit and even ended putting in extra cat6 to run our TV over, with the aim of using HDMI to Cat6 conversion kit.

Silly little question:

I have lost one of the wheels that the lower shelf/tray/drawer of my dishwasher runs on.

Where can I buy a replacement? I'm reluctant to spend a fiver delivery if I get one online.

Send a very polite email to the manufacturer talking about how much you love your dishwasher. Give model number and serial number details and a photo of the other wheel.

Odds are they will send you a free one if they still make it.

Good idea. Tx

Or be a Maker® and carve one out of ULDPE.

Used Charlie a few times - he's a good man http://www.mactaggart.co.uk/about-us.html

Slightly indulgent perhaps but Ive just had two skylights installed in my bathroom so I can have a bath and look up at the stars. They chuck in a lot of light too.

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@Aroogah - where did you get the spare ones for our old machine?

Online and had to pay for postage. e-spares I think.

Nothing wrong with skylights in the bathroom - we have one in ours and the light quality is much better.

Ive already got a window in there but I have this thing about skylights. I'd put the damn things everywhere if I could.

Skylights in the bathroom are one of my favourite things, easiest way to clear an overly steamy room as well.

I got one on eBay for 4 quid in the end.

I'll try the sycophantic email next time.

@ffm @hamrack

This conversation came uo at West Beers last night,
but lets open it up to the hivemind

Securing large timbers, maybe 'rail sleepers' for raised beds.
https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/search/q/Spax
or
https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/categories/timco-in-dex-heavy-duty-timber-screws
versus say
https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/categories/stainless-steel-hexagon-bolts-a2-din-931-fasteners
or
https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/categories/stainless-steel-hexagon-head-coach-screw-a2

so screws that cut their own bores,
vs,
guide holes, washers and nylock nuts

Other large dimension timbers are available
other suppliers of fixings are available.

Edit; Item 2 added at suggestion of @ffm

I would go for coach screws, with a large diameter countersunk hole cut with a forstner bit just large enough so the head sits flush or just below the surface.

These were the ones I mentioned.