Home DIY

I have a wallpaper stripper in Leytonstone which you can borrow. However, check if you actually need one as in my experience you are wasting your time unless it really requires it. A wet sponge is faster. A perforator can be more useful than a steamer.

Top tip: if you ever come across Victorian varnished wallpaper then spray a mix of ethanol (or meths) and water 50/50 onto the surface. Slightly flammable, but I can’t find anything else that will soften it.

In areas you are walking under them 8ft clearance would be normal ceiling height. Above tables you can have them significantly lower. In olden dayz it was quite normal to have a 1ft cord from an 8ft ceiling but everyone walked about with their head lowered anyway because timez was sad.

#doyourememberpendantlights

Spraying walls with ethanol! Amazing.

I’ve borrowed a spiker thing and ordered some DIF so we’ll see how that goes.

Shed build, Part I: The Overthinking it in Sketchup

All 2x4 studs (4x4 skids on the base), 18m treated floor, 19mm OSB walls & roof, 18mm shiplapped cladding.

The roof will (eventually) be slate tiled, and there will be a ground anchor (probably a Y-Anchor) through the floor into concrete.

All hinges will be secured with coach bolts, and the lock will be a big old bar. Which means I'll probably stick a load of cross-bracing in the walls too.

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Wood floor x-prts: unfinished oak floor was installed yesterday. I had to apply a coat of hardwax oil in dim light at 10pm last night. I knew there would be streaks and spots and there are. Have access to a buffing machine but not a proper floor sander. Will a course then fine buffing pad even things out before I apply a second coat? Or have I fucked it forever?

Why not make the entire facade one big double door?
At that size it's almost just a big closet. :)

Yeah, does it have to be that small?

What are the laws out there about safety for workers on rooftops?
I'm lucky, our place is a one story bungalow with a shallow slope, so twice a year I just climb onto the step ladder at the back porch, hop on the roof and clean the gutters from on top by hand - takes about 20 minutes.

She gunna knock yer bieks over

Whatever they are they presumably don't include two 'lads' with no safety gear, one holding onto the ladder at the top while the other skids it along the concrete floor outside to move to the next section. She acknowledges she was a bit stupid to let them do it but she was flustered and just agreed. I wonder if they did next doors at all and were just driving past with a ladder they nicked from somewhere, saw our gutters and chanced it.

Who would agreed to be kept in there like that? This seems ill thought out and fairly unrealistic.

The way I figure it, the smaller the door, the more secure I can make it, and the more resistant it will be to being kicked in.

I may make it taller, however, and have the double header wall frame also act as the door header.

I'm also going to need to redo the cladding so that there aren't the skinny little bits at the bottom that you can currently see.

Who would agreed to be kept in there like that.

She knows what she's done.

Sounds plausible.

The way I figure it, the smaller the door, the more secure I can make it, and the more resistant it will be to being kicked in.

If you hinge the door at the top, it'll keep you dry while you manouver the bikes.

Make the whole face one big door so the forces will pass into the sides of the shed rather than the face of the shed. It'll be easier to add some braces to form nice strong triangles in the sides, than trying to strengthen the wall surrounding a small door.

Kitchen cooker hood minefield is doing my head in. Need to decide and purchase something before the week after next.

Kitchen currently has no extraction. Recirculating is shit. It's a small terrace kitchen, but I cook with woks and griddles and that so do need a good suck. Lowest noise possible is important. Can't go straight out the wall because of the next house over.

The two possible routes I can envisage are either up through the boiler cupboard or all the way across, through the wall and the bathroom and out the exterior wall there.

Is this too long a run of ducting for the average hood to deal with?

If I go up through the boiler cupboard, I'm presuming I could use an inline fan, because that's already what's been proposed by my handyman for improving the bathroom extraction.

The ~2 million nearly identical hoods available, all with confusing and differing specs, prices and dubious availability are confusing the shit out of me.

Halp.

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Needs a Turd to conform with LFGSS Sketch Spec (ISO2018-LFGSS12.285.295 [Amended])

Complete oversight on my part, fixed

I miss rep...

However. If you want low noise then hiding an inline fan somewhere outside of the kitchen is the way to go.

But... The more powerful and more silent the fan = More money.

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I'd get a new saddle mate, that one looks uncomfortable. Nice big garden you've got too, I'm guessing you live somewhere on the Mongolian steppe?

@Aldersbrook get another plumber round.

Unfortunately I'm in King's Lynn, so not much help with Wickes recommendations. I fit the kitchen myself over about 10 days. They wanted 2-3k to do it. Only took as long as I had to move a few taps and waste pipes. All of the units are basically flat pack furniture so really easy to do, just need to follow a few basic rules.

Anyone installed coving before? Hints/Tips/Tricks?