Home DIY

I just want to avoid mould in that room.
And sausages

Mould won't grow that quickly.

An easy way to tell if you have a mould issue is the presence of black spores on the window frames.

Moisture moves towards dry is my understanding. I’d get up there tomorrow see if there is anything obvious.

That drainpipe looks fairly new. In the first photo you posted you can see the pricing sticker, which is clean and white.

Getting round to that sill I posted before.
To strip the paint I was just going to try scraping it, but if any areas are well stuck is nitromors a no-no on stone? Small heat gun better? Or just scrape. (Kind of happier with mechanical only option)
I'm going to try and build up the bottom corner in touprelith f so then I'll repaint it after.

Also stripping a ropey wooden porch door frame, white gloss unknown age. Is nitromors better than sanding or heat gun when it comes to minimising potential lead fumes/dust?

You’ll be at either for absolutely ages if you use just Nitromors in my opinion. Sill will be masonry paint which may be very strong.

I’d try heat on both, and resort to Nitromors if there is residue you can’t shift.

Personally, I’d only worry about lead fumes I stripping paint was part of my daily job rather than DIY. Cycling in London probably does me more damage.

The crazed masonry paint may lift with a scraper while still cold. You can also get scraper attachments for vibrating tools (like detail sanders) which can speed this up too.

If it's stone, it might be relatively soft compared to cement. Scrapers can gouge out bits if you're not careful, and anything powered even more so.

It is (in my single will experience) slow boring work.

I don't mind slow boring.
I'm currently having some buyers regret with the non-diy people I got in to do the repointing after deciding it was too big a job for me. Ugh.

Heat gun, then sand the crispy bits off by hand. Don't forget to wear a mask when sanding.

As for the stone sill, you can get hand held carborundum brick cleaners from Axminster Power Tools, give it a good rub and the paint may be gone. I use them on very soft, old bricks for the house.

Axminster Power Tools

My late FIL appears to have kept these folks in business

Infra Red Stripper (Speedmaster Cobra). It really strips paint off stuff with the least fuss I've ever experienced in 20 years of doing the job. Buy one for the rest of your DIY life, thank me later.

It is expensive but it's well worth it.

Ta. I did a few hours today and about half done (door with two small windows either side) - just cold scraping using a smallish flat bladed thing I bought from a market a while ago and is one of my most used useful tools. It's not very good steel so both blunts and sharpens quickly. On the main frame the top couple of layers seem to separate from the grey primer, but the trims around the glass seem to just have white gloss on them, no primer, and I can't get into it properly. I'm a bit nervous to use a heat gun around glass, but I think I'll give it a go tomorrow, I've got a glass shield fitting... It's a proper dogs dinner of a project, the new paint will have to hide a multitude of sins.

I gave the sill a cursory scrape and patches come away clean, but under the top layer is what looks like oil-based gloss. It an effort to avoid buying new things (and waiting for delivery) I'll try the variety of scrubbing and wire brushes I have (carefully).

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okay, this is non-DIY, but looking for opinions on this piece of paid work (clue: I'm not happy). (it's half-done: still to be repointed. )

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looking for opinions

..schaut scheisse aus!

I no speak deutch ... but I google translated. yeah :/

What are they supposed to have done? It looks like removing pointing, With a grinder. From soft reds. Eeek.

it's halfway through a repointing job, but I'm pretty unimpressed with the amount of damage to the bricks - the faces are sanded off, as well as clearly widening the joints by cutting into the bricks. they will repoint on monday.

It looks like a lazy shortcut, which they're doing badly. Why they're sanding the faces tho...

the wall was painted, they used chemical paintstripper on most of it but it didn't budge on the reveals so they ground it back. originally I said I didn't want that so they did a small sample to show me - which looked ok - they then did two door reveals and the second one they've also taken too much off the bricks on the reveals. anyway, I'm pretty sure I didn't give them permission to grind the face of any bricks - they took it upon themselves to make it look 'better'. I'm not really used to this tradesperson lark and feel like a fucking fool for not making it really absolutely clear that not damaging the bricks is kind of a big deal for me. I also had stuff to do and go to work and that, so couldn't 'supervise'. the company name contains the word 'restoration' so I was hoping for better care. I didn't DIY because I didn't want to fuck it up :/
(also because it would've taken months/years etc)

it can go on the wishlist...

They look like they're fucking hopeless, sorry.

You can rescue the face of the bricks by rubbing them smooth with another brick of the same type. The joints are buggered and there isn't much you can do but fill them with mortar.

Are they repointing with lime or cement?

As for the heat gun next to the glass, you can hold a piece of thick cardboard against the glass, but don't point the gun towards the glass or you'll crack it. Try and sand the very last bit next to the glass, but try to keep the moulding sharp. It'll look crisp if the edges of the moulding aren't damaged by sanding.

Don't blame yourself, you're paying them good money and they should know what they are doing. Proper conservation grade builders, with the appropriate qualifications are hard to find. Anybody can set up a building company with the words "Conservation or Restoration" in its name and it's a licence to print money if you work with lime.

Is that a lintel we are looking at?

In fairness to them, they’ve had to but out the cement pointing because it’s probably too strong to bolster out. It will probably look fine when re-pointed with lime mortar or a weaker cement mix.

You should ask them what they are using for the pointing as suggested already above. Ready to mix lime mortar is cheap.

Yeah above the back door. I accept they had to grind the old cement out of it was too stuck to the bricks but would have expected them to be more careful about it. They are definitely using lime. As a company they only do brickwork and only using lime, and they came locally recommended.
My poor bricks :(