Home DIY

I've spent the week doing my daughters' two rooms up. Tearing down wallpaper, sanding, putty, sanding again, masking, painting, new wallpaper etc. I'd forgotten how boring and exhausting these things are.

Edit - Angle grinder and being very careful. I hate clueless diy wankers.

You used a angle grinder on a plastic pipe? FFS use a saw and avoid all the hot work permits.

Whoah that’s gorgeous.
The lamp, that is.

Didn't have any decent saw blades, the two i had had snapped. Was using a disc for plastic.

Not solvent welded these pipes, have but them together and sanitary silicone so any future issues unbolt the toilet and all can be pulled apart. Wish I had some fernox stuff but..

Back to the washing machine chat. It's still stinky. I've smashed hot washes and the citric acid.
I might just get a new seal, move to powder, and remember to descale when I descale the kettle. And do the dishwasher too.

Have filled the washing machine, via the draw, to 3/4 full in the drum adding soda crystals.

I have this shower, just used it and cold water kept coming out after I'd finished.

A visit to the loft established there was just one pipe feeding it.

In the boiler cupboard there is a hellish nightmare of pipes, switches and mystery items.

My understanding is that this black box controls the shower, and indeed by half turning the valve on the top pipe, the shower stopped.

So, is it likely that the black box has a faulty washer or could the electronics be faulty? Just bang in a new box and all good?

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Idk about the rest of that spider web but the red thing is a pump for the radiators I think. Doesn't have anything to do with the tap water.

In more light DIY news my 11 yr old has apparently chosen to signal swingers.

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The grundfos thing is a central heating pump.

At a guess black box is the shower pump, when you turn the shower off is the water as powerful as when the shower is on or is the water coming out at a low pressure?

I wanted a long sideboard with minimal fuss. Everything I found was £5k upwards. Sod that. Made my own. Just over 8ft and around £250 to make. And it floats.

I’ll be putting a couple of drawers underneath which should be hidden when you’re standing up.

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That’s really smart looking, laminate and marble?

Excellent skull placement. Sideboard's alright I suppose 😉

bows head in admiration

Edit: is it a solid monolith? I really hope it's solid. Only there to keep the skull on.

thanks, appreciate it. it's a solid lump of granite and marble...

wish it was, it's all courtesy of Ikea. I built it with 4 kitchen cabinets, two long vertical doors I cut down and rearranged the hinges and the top is a marble look kitchen top. I drilled two 1" holes in the top and pressed in some stainless tubing so I can run cables down to keep it all tidy. you can just see them poking out at the back.

Excellent hack in that case.

Love a good ikea hack, here's my finished billy bookcase ikea hack

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Both nice hacks. It's in the details.

In the boiler cupboard there is a hellish nightmare of pipes, switches and mystery items.

Just re-read your post, made me chuckle. Classic feeling for any DIYer.

I felt with that by removing every last inch of the plumbing which was in the flat when we got it.

Just relying on a standpipe in the road now?

Anyone with shower experience, I have one of these brackets to ‘simplify’ attaching a shower bar valve later on.
Unfortunately I need the horizontal pipe to go through 24mm of wall material and 18mm of escutcheon and the non-threaded section is only 36mm long. Where do I find the missing 6mm?

A) cut 6mm off the escutcheons - I’m not massive confident they’ll end up even or unscratched.
B) the wall is two layers, 12.5mm and 11mm so I could cut a window (rather than just two neat holes) into the inner layer and move the bracket out. In my head this means more chance of the seal between pipe and wall failing (11mm of contact instead of 24mm) but perhaps that isn’t really an issue?

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You mention that the escutcheon are attached? Having fitted one, the escutcheons are there to neaten the installation around the pipes coming out of the wall so removable.

Yeah they’re only held on with rubber grommets, they’re just too deep. I’ve gone with moving the bracket out for now, will see what the plumber thinks.

Can anyone recommend a way of dealing with this.
It is an arched window that had the original wood frame painted over with white emulsion which after years of condensation/mould has deteriorated to this.
It is dry now and the wood feels intact and secure.
I am going to paint with anti mould paint eventually but I want to get the preparation right.

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Erm, first remove all paint then remove all poreous and soft wood too see what you’ve got.