Home DIY

Cheers Rob, had a quote for around 1500 which was way too much for me. Not sure I’ve already mentioned that. Might just paint them. Ordered that sander a page or so back either way.

Might just paint them

Yup.

Rang virgin to ask about cable i pulled out, their response:

"Is the phone working ok?"
Yes
"Is your tv and broadband working ok?"
Yes
"Then it's not something you need to worry about right now "

Fixed!

It will have been an extension

I want a really fucking great cordless power drill, good enough for any household to heavy DIY - what do I buy? budget is whatever it takes to get something great that never leaves me feeling under-drilled, that doesn't pack up after two years.

Any good brand* lithium-ion 18v hammer drill. Should be loads of deals around just now. Go for one with two high amp-hour batteries.

*makita, Bosch blue, dewalt etc. If you want the secret one that tradesmen will be puzzled by then jealous of, Panasonic.

Should I expect to pay £400?

Assuming you're not after an sds drill or anything then something like this or this will be more than you'll ever need.

Actually yeah, budget allowing, a separate impact driver is great.

Nah, £200-£300 for a decent set I’d say, but I’ve not looked around in ages.

I use a Milwaukee 18v drill and separate driver.
I have a ton of Milwaukee tools.
In Canada trades are about 40% Milwaukee, 40% Makita, 20% Dewalt. Dewalt has a new line of 20v tools that are very good. Most tradesmen have a lot of matching tools and batteries though, so a new line is slow to catch on.
The only Bosch I see anyone using are the big SDS drills and laser levels/layout tools. Bosch owns those categories.
Re secret tools, don't get anything odd you can't get serviced locally.
A tradesman needs his tools to work.
That might be why you don't see a lot of less popular brands. Stick with companies that have good support.

Cheers guys. Why would I not need an SDS drill?

Depends on what you want a drill for but SDS drills aren't great for if you just want to put up a shelf or a new picture hook because they're fucking massive and heavy.

If you end up needing the SDS function, you're best off getting one of the ones I linked to then a seperate corded SDS drill for when you need that function.

If you don't drill massive concrete all the time one of the smaller machines soul suggested should be plenty.
Nice drill bits also help.

But then the 18v Bosch blue Akku sds things we had at my last workplace are a lot of fun.

A big SDS looks cool but try carrying it for an hour.

No one mentions Festool?!? If budget is not the issue then they are the great. The CXS is perfect for all day long small drilling and screwing with the larger units covering anything else. Then there's the centrotec system which helps combat runout and you're set. I've been using mine professionally for over 10 years without a problem.

No one mentions Festool?!?

Seriously though why not HILTI ?!?

I really wish that I'd bought a daka-daka to accompany my cordless drill, I'd follow the advice above and get an impact driver/drill pair.

Get the dewalt drill @Soul linked, will do everything you need with comfort bar chasing through concrete.

Awesome, thanks. I consider myself edumacated on teh drilz

Cheers all.

Get the combo, you know it makes sense.

Where can I get 81mm ceiling rose light fittings, a la these. We have a couple of plastered in fittings with no covers, all the other ones in the house are 81mm diameter which does not seem to be standard.

This. The DCD778 is a fine drill.

The 996 if finer... but you can play that game forever.

SDS is a must if your putting holes all the way through a wall (cavity or cross bonded), or chasing brick, or just chiselling brick / cement / plaster.

100% this.

I'm (coming to the end of) renovating my house and combo dewalt drill and impact driver set is the best thing that ever happened to me.

I also have a Makita SDS for drilling through walls for waste pipes etc.

So I've just noticed that my felt roofed extension has a 50 50 mix of gravel and cat poo on it. Literally hundreds of cat shits of all sorts of ages nicely mixed and buried with the gravel.

Does the gravel serve any function? Can I just sweep it off and hope the cats find somewhere else to shit? Or what else can I do? I have two cats myself, but I think it's the neighbours cat as mine like to come home and shit in a box rather than outside.