Home DIY

The chemical silicone removers do work, but, are not the sort of chemical I woukd want to use domestically.
Mechanical removal can be complete.
I have a 'garden' chisel, bought cheaply from Toolstation/Screwfix to use on flat surfaces.
I'm also a fan of the range of Hultafors knives referenced above. Had I known of them before I bought the above mentioned chisel, I think I would have bought one of them.

To prevent them from showing through the floor, there's the chance that either the gap between countersunk screw head and floor will show once it's been walked on a bit (or glued down etc.) or that the screw head will be slightly proud (in which case filling will show it up). I guess movement or swelling would be a secondary consideration, especially since it's always worth figuring a flood of some small type every 10 years of occupation, accidents do happen!

I've used the type that Aggi has listed, for the little money they cost they are well worth having in your toolbox, wouldn't recommend it for that job though, it's amazing at enlarging the holes for downlighters.

The best method I've come across so far for silicone removal is a multitool (Fein or similar) with a thin slightly flexible blade from Fein (not the long one), it's designed for the job and it does it so much faster it's not even close to any other method.

Then clean up any residue either with Soudal silicone remover or CT1 multisolve (or both). I've never used WD40 just because it's oily and smells wrong in the bathroom!

You might scratch a plastic bath or shower so either be careful or have some cutting compound standing by and polish the scratches out.

Never heard of that before. One of these?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-adhesive-lacquer-sealants-scraping-blade-52mm/2497p

I've never used the erbauer one but it does say it cuts sealants. The fein one is £7 odd from Axminster and looks like you would have to misuse it to need more than one in a diy lifetime.

https://www.axminster.co.uk/fein-flexible-scraper-starlock-508756

Of course that's star lock which my current machine doesn't have so I guess that's a reason to have to buy a new one!

As noted though, just don't go crazy and scratch everything to pieces. If you need to do it on a ghetto budget then use a Stanley blade with some duct tape on the back. That is painful though in comparison with the multitool.

Planning to put a scaffold board up the full length of the wall in our living room. Conveniently its just under 13ft so a scaffold board should fit with minimal trimming.

Hung all of the brackets this morning, and plan to put timber laths on the walls it meets at either end for additional support. As I was drilling the holes I noticed that it's mainly just drywall it's going into (drywall/space/something harder and more brittle than drywall, but not sure if it's block).

On a scale of one to certainly, how likely is it to pull my wall down once I put the board up and start loading it with bric-á-brac?

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If it is just in drywall ( that’s plasterboard right?!) I would be wary of putting any weight on it at all, likely just to pull through, I would be tempted to use some Gripit fixings, they are rated for 93kg per fixing for the largest ones, so could probably get away with smaller than that, I have hung heavy TVs off them with no issues.

My concern with those is that they are literally just held onto the plasterboard, whereas at least screws go into the block behind the plasterboard

They do, but they are strong...

Could you just throw some longer screws in and get further into the proper wall?

Yeah tbh longer screws is what I have been considering, the ones in it are 45mm screws, and the last 5mm or so on every screw was pretty hard work to drive in. That, plus supports at either end make me think it should be ok, but at the same time I don't want to come home from work to a crushed dog/everything on sideboard, and half the wall pulled down

you could try something like corefix screws?

Could you not find the wooden studs and screw into them, that would be an improvement!

+1 for trying to line up with studs, but as has been said, specialist plasterboard fixings can take a hell of a lot of weight.

Is it and internal or external wall? How old is the property?

It could be dot & dab onto breeze block - which is a ballache to hang stuff on.

Maybe screw into the brick behind, with standoffs to get some solidity.

If it's stud, then screw battens across the studs, and hang the shelf brackets off those.

They do, but they are strong...

Plasterboard isn't though...

After some pondering, I've decided I'm going to try and stick back (after trimming) some of the tiles I removed from next to the window (the narrow strip on the left where half are missing).

The stuff behind it is pretty crumbly and uneven (which is why they all came off in the first place). Any suggestions on the best way to reattach the tiles? Cheers

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The stuff behind

What is it? Can you dig out the crumbly crap, fill it, then just use normal adhesive

I'd guess at cement. It goes a few inches back so I don't really want to go down the rabbit hole of starting to scrape it out and going further and further back and ending up with a massive hole.

go down the rabbit hole

DIY is one big rabbit hole

Looks like lime mortar to me could be mortar or lime plaster I would leave in place and give it a few coats of Unibond or similar PVA mixture to bond it together then retile

Its an exterior wall and it could well be dot and dab.

Good shout on lining up with the studs, i should have done that in the first place rather than trying to evenly space the brackets across the wall. Best get the filler out this eve! Glad i done this before painting the wall!

Next question, our hot water cylinder appears to have 2 power sources, one is just a normal fused switch, and the other comes from a timer. Is it normal to have 2 power supplies going to a boiler like this?

I assume it's so we don't have to mess with the timer when we want to heat water at unplanned times?

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Cheers, it's a late victorian house so that seems a distinct possibility. I'll give that a try. Any suggestions on how much to water Unibond down by, the internet appears to have wildly differing views.

Are you on an economy 7 tariff by any chance? If yes, one will be wired into off-peak circuit, and the other onto peak-rate, the idea being to heat up the water off peak (lower immersion heater) and should it not last long enough, you have the option to heat up during the day too with the upper heater.

If you're not on Eco7, no idea.

Correct, i am on eco7, that makes perfect sense, thank you!