Home DIY

It looked like this when we bought it and it was very closed to being demolished.

All the roof trusses had collapsed and were leaning wildly to the right. I guess they had been blown over one windy night in the past. It was a terrible mess.

Taking "Home DIY" to the next level!

Great work, bravo!

Can you take out the frame as well as the sashes?

The windows are fine, the sashes are painted but the frames need redoing. It's a big bay window so would be tough to take them out I think.

Once the sashes are out you can access the frame and surround very easily and in relative safety. I guess a bay window would still require some leaning out of the open frame. I use a piece of plywood to fill the empty space, secured inside by a couple of pieces of wood. That way I can work on the frame in the room and take the sashes somewhere more convenient. So far it's the best way I've found to restore windows. Of course you're probably not really wanting to carry out an exhaustive restoration so it might be overkill.

Whilst you have them out you can change the cords, add some draught proof beading and you'll have perfectly working sashes which shouldn't need work for 10 years if you use white gloss. Then when you come to repaint them after 10 years they should be in pretty good condition so it's a much easier job.

It's not a particularly quick job stripping the old flaky paint off, even then you need to have the weather on your side. I wouldn't want to be starting one now, having said that I'm halfway through a sash restoration at the moment.

If you strip all the paint off with a heat gun first, it makes it easier to take apart. Be prepared to do some carpentry if you are going to dismantle the bay and do one window at a time, putting it all back together as you go along.

It's easy to get carried away with the dismantling and you don't want to get things mixed up, or end up with a pile of wood and a gaping hole in your front room.

Take off the rounded bead on the inside of the frame and the bottom sashes will swing out into the room. The parting bead holds the top sash in place and it is nailed into its groove. It's easy to split the parting bead apart, so you need to go easy.

I'd leave the casing where it is and get on a ladder for a weekend, as it's held together with tongue and groove and its really easy to split off the tongues, then you're in a spot of bother. If you want to get at the weights, there should be a pocket piece on the stile below the pulleys. Once you've stripped the paint off the stile, you'll see it. It's likely to be nailed in place at the bottom edge.

Has anyone used X-TEX to remove artex from a celling?

Or any artex removal generally?

Our asbestos tests for both areas have come back - ive.

@hoefla These mini rollers are possibly worth trying if you are glossing a panelled door for only a few quid with free post. I've ordered some so will report back with photos when I get it done.

https://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Axus-Decor-Axu-Rkbln4-5060128795009-Blonde-100-Natural-Wool-4In-Mini-Roller-Kit

Interested in this...our asbestos tests came back positive too and we were told we would need to have the ceiling removed and a new one put in.
How does this stuff work?

Cheers @Airhead and @Aunt_Maud

Removal sounds like a lot of work, I think it will be prep as much as I can from the inside and then up a ladder for a day for a couple of coats of the Zinsser All Coat. Realistically I don't expect to be more than five years (and I can't actually see the back of the house) so I'm willing to sacrifice perfection for convenience.

We just skimmed over ours. Removal is excessive.

We have this window in our house which I think is original to its build. I quite like the stained glass and want to keep as is, however the whole thing is single pane and the beading for the bottom pane is rotten on the outside beyond repair. So I'll need to replace that but am contemplating whether it would be worth swapping the glass for a double glazed unit. Can anyone suggest if it would be at all meaningful in terms of heat retention? Or is it forever doomed because of the stained glass upper section?

Also how DIY able is it? Would the top half fall off if I remove the lower section? I suspect I'd need to make a new frame for the inside too to account for the extra thickness of the double glazed pane.

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If it really is beading outside that's rotten you should be able to pry just the thin beading that's keeping the glass in off of the frame and replace with similar beading. If it's a routed rebate on the outside you would have to remove the loose beading on the inside, remove the glass and you could then cut the moulding of the outside and replace with nailed on beading, replace glass, paint, job done.

While you're looking at that you could measure the rebates, beading and frame and work out if you can get a decent dg unit in there, maybe 6+6+6 (two 6mm sheets of glass and a 6mm gap. The thicker the unit the more likely it is to improve insulation of heat and sound. You should have around 44mm to play with, usually it's beading circa 12mm each, dg unit max 20mm. There are considerations putting a dg unit into a wooden frame and you need to make sure any beading covers the edge of the double glazed unit which is otherwise very ugly. That's usually the issue as taller beading tends to be wider. The other complication in that calculation is the dg unit should not rest on the wood, it's the primary cause of edge failure and 'blown' dg units.

In short with a bit of planning and some time you can do any of the things you want/need to do to that window. I can't calculate the efficiency loss of the top glass but it would certainly come into play. If it were my call I'd use a laminated glass, possibly acoustic laminated, use an acrylic putty though, linseed oil putty can seep between the lamination.

How does this stuff work?

A bit like paint striper. It softens it so it can be scraped off. That's about all I know.

What's attractive is the DIY element. I can scrape paint off and I can fill in cracks and paint. I can't easily plaster a ceiling.

Quick question.

For 37cm X 60cm shelves holding clothes, will 10mm ply be strong enough not to warp?

I could also strengthen it a bit if needed, but just trying to use what I've got rather than buying more shit.

You could glue two layers together if you want it to be stronger.

Just do a hidden support if possible.

Shelves in an alcove or supported on one edge only?

You could get the stained glass panels encapsulated into tripple glazed units, which looks good... although you'd have plywood fitted for a few days whilst they were made up.

As @Airhead said, your frame can probably take a DGU if your frame is thick enough for thinner beading/DGU/ moulding (or replacement beading). The edge sealing and spacer rods normaly intrude 11mm from the edge of the glass, but this could be more around the curved edges of the upper panels, so ask whats possible.

Although I'm interested why he suggested 6mm glass for a fairly small window, when 4mm is more common and would allow an extra 4mm of air gap. Likewise laminated for a fixed window with no obvious risk of you falling through it (low level or bottom of staircase), unless its just for increased security.

Anyone done any strap pointing? I think that's the right term; where it stands up from the face of the stone slightly.

I have a few repairs I'm tempted to have a crack at. Doesn't look too hard, rake out joint, push in mortar, trim back to joint edges. Sound about right?

Shelves in an alcove or supported on one edge only?

Built into an old cupboard and supported in four corners with little peg thingys.

Thanks @Airhead and @user69121 - You've given me plenty to think about.

Over that area and with four supports I reckon 10mm ply will be strong enough in general, but it would sag a little - I’d glue and screw/biscuit on a lipping if you can (taller than it is thick, say 25x15) and that should sort it. I’d do that anyway as thin ply can just as easily warp without any load on it at all!

Struggling to find an answer on the Internet.

There is one celling pendant light in our dining room, I would like to fit two pendant lights.

Tl;Dr is this a DIY job?

I've changed light fittings before. I'm assuming this time it will be a bit more complicated as I'll need to move the existing junction box(?) and add another, plus drill some extra holes,etc.

But is there anything extra in terms of what the electal system can take?

(Sorry for the inarticulate post, struggling to explain it)

Ps any good YouTube videos would help. Everything I'm finding is aweful US marketing shit.

In theory (if your existing lighting circuits are installed correctly) putting another pendant in the circuit should be fine in terms of load.
But things will get complicated by the switches. How many switches control the existing, and how many do you want once there’s another pendant installed?
If it’s only got one switch and you want to keep it that way then in theory it’s all straightforward.
Apart from ceiling joists. If your proposed location means that you’re traversing ceiling joists then you have to drill them - and that is often more easily achieved by lifting the floor above...
Sorry no practical advice, but those are some of the things that might influence your decision to DIY.

I've done this a few times. Simple if you want them ganged to the same switch; just run the neutral, switched live and earth (where applicable) to the new pendant.