Home DIY

It looks like it was a space - suggesting the comma made me check though

Lots of Victorian terrace gardens are still all bisected here in Norwich, and our bit of the row have low chainlink fences still. It's nice. But then our neighbours aren't bastards (mostly).

Where I grew up the back garden fences were about 3' and you could look down the row of gardens, much nicer and communal.

I was having this conversation with a neighbour a few doors down, we have 6ft on one side and 4ft on the other, we get on really well with both and especially with the 4ft side. As you say it's nice and makes the garden feel open but our neighbours a few doors further down have had problems with their next door neighbours and are really happy to have 8ft fences!

Just you wait until you become a suburb of Even Greater London. :)

@TW thanks for the reply.

The outside ground level has been built up over time and the council own the pavement that is now there.

The property is ~1790 so its solid wall and the wall are very very thick so installing another air-brick might be a big task, although possibly the only option.

I'm going to get in touch with the council as other properties on the street have drainage channels to stop water ingress - not sure why our house wasn't done at the same time.

I want to put up a magnetic knife rack on the wall under my kitchen cabinets, but it'll be near some plug sockets and the previous owner's redecoration was done... interestingly... I don't want to drill into a power cable behind the wall. What's the best (and cheapest) way of finding the route of the cables behind the plaster?

The property is ~1790 so its solid wall and the wall are very very thick so installing another air-brick might be a big task, although possibly the only option.

It's not that difficult, and the fact that it's old makes the brick removal a lot easier - the mortar and the bricks likely quite soft.

Tapping the council up sounds like the way forward though - you don't want to be messing with your walls because of their cockup.

No more nails a baton to the wall, screw into the baton.

This shows permitted cable zones.

However if the electrics were DIY'd that may not be true...

Going on tiled area? Self adhesive strips from 3m are as good as screws if so. At least in our experience.

Yeah I don't trust the workmanship of the builders who renovated the place before we bought it (eg, when one of the toilets flushes the boiler starts up - so it's fed from a hot pipe). I'd rather try and detect the cables somehow and be sure.

More likely that you need a one way check valve between bog and boiler than it being plumbed to hot.

You want a stud / wire detector - google, black and decker do a decent one for 18 quid but prob can get cheaper ones

Sweet thanks!

Just you wait until you become a suburb of Even Greater London. :)

Maybe a Maschendrahtzaun might be a suitable transitional solution?

Please don't use a cheap scanner for this, borrow a decent high quality one.
Bosch scanners show live electrical wires. Worth it.
Cheap scanners are useless and unsafe.

I used VHB double sided tape for mine. It's going nowhere

Project garage is moving along nicely.

@TvH collected our trimetals storage thing today (thanks!), so managed to get some bikes on the wall.

With the cabinets at the back now organised, there’s SO MUCH SPACE.

Just need to build the workbench on the right hand side...

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@Soul - epic! Please say you live in Scotland...!

Nah - 20 mins outside Cambridge.

Very clean, nice work! I'm still in the 'moving boxes and assorted crap around in circles' phase of my garage tidying but managed to improve bike storage infrastructure a bit yesterday at least.

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You could probably fit a few more bikes in there if you tried...

Hehehe. Keep meaning to downsize but I never do... Also got these ceiling mounted shelves up today, should be good for skis, planks etc etc. Or if there's a sudden reversal of gravity we could eat dinner here.

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Having had a second quote of £7k (plus VAT 🤬) for our en-suite, I’m now considering carrying on with the DIY.
Anyone got a good idea for getting this DIY’d shower tray out? It’s two complete layers of tiles, rubber sealant and adhesive on top of plywood.
Smashing the tiles off is going to make an unholy mess and take ages to find the screw holes, would a grinder go through the lot without fouling? I can borrow a grinder or ripsaw from work.

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A grinder will almost certainly go through, but will fill the entire building with dust. Fouling the disc with sealant could lead to overheating and the disc breaking in a spectacular way - eye protection and a dust mask will be essential.
You might do better with an oscillating multi-tool and a grout removal blade to take out the first few tiles so a pry bar can be used to lever the rest off. I bought a cheap one for just this sort of thing and was surprised how useful it was - shaping tiles to go around pipework, making access points, and cutting out sections of rotten floorboard and splicing in a new section suddenly became straightforward.