Home DIY

Often the case. I'm usually dealing with the people who bought it from them, lived in it for a few years, moved out and rented it out and suddenly it needs fixing between tenants.

I have seen porcelain inserts that you can cut in and mount a tap on, but how you'd do that when everything is in situ would be a head scratcher.

If it's an under-mounted stainless sink I'd get a sheet metal fabricator to make a piece that can be stuck onto the worktop under the tap.

Sometimes the double holesaw arbors assist you to do stuff like that. Tap still has to come out of course.

I normally walk away these days, it's normally too labour intensive. People just want a quick fix.

I asked a while back about cookers and power supplies and have finally got a picture of the fuse box and socket.

Trying to work out if I can fit a cooker with an electric oven (requires 32A) or not. It looks like the cooker fuse is 32A but I'd guess that's the socket and hard wired.

(Excuse the mankiness, it's not my house)

2 Attachments

Are you in leyton / walthamstow by any chance? We have the same tiles in our kitchen and bathroom, clearly inspired by the Warner flats. Lovely tiles. We got a new kitchen and just cleaned ours up with a scraper.

It's not enough information to tell. Incidentally 32amp is a high requirement for a cooker. Somewhere you should have an outlet wired to that switch and the wire from the fuse board to the switch, then onto the cooker outlet should all be suitable for a 32amp fuse.

If you feel like relying on an installation that's clearly not been brought up to anything close to current regs especially regarding RCD protection anytime recently then you could make the assumption that your cooker will be fine wired to the cooker outlet.

Basically a professional would probably test the Zs of the circuit to check but it's likely they would find some extra work to do quite easily :)

Cheers. Most of the cookers with electric ovens seem to show up as 32A online.

I agree on the state of the wiring, the whole house is a bit knackered. I've been pushing for the whole house to be rewired and the cooker wiring can be done as part of that but it's not my decision (or my house).

I think I may just recommend a gas oven and leave it at that.

No, we're far West in Bristol.

Good to know yours cleaned up with scraping. I'm quite enjoying the craft ale bar floor look for the time being.

.. can anyone recommend a decent, but not too expensive ‘miniature compound mitre saw’ circa £100. I have about 30metres of scotia beading to chop up and edge/cover a storey’s worth of existing laminate flooring. Ideally saw needs to cut up to 6x4” in old money, for future projects in man cave..
Thanks

I bought one of these as a more portable alternative to my 12" mitre saw, I now use this more often than the big beast as it's just as accurate, much easier to move and robust. Only drawback is it's single bevel but still would highly recommend.

Thanks Bobbo that looks ideal for the jobs I have planned.

Depends on the size of the beading but this is a good tool for that job :-

https://www.windowware.co.uk/mitre-cutters-stanley-blade

Be careful if you use a saw, the breakout can be an issue. The beading needs holding steadily against the back fence with some sacrificial wood too.

This tool from Starrett is pretty useful :-

https://www.starrett.com/metrology/product-detail/505P-7

Surprising what a degree or 2 in a joint does to a mitre.

Our attempt:

1 Attachment

Loving your "bonsai"..

Yes, I've decided to pay someone, who is good at it. That is usually the best way.

It wasn't as expensive as I thought....

Regarding messy work, we are waiting until plastering/painting is finished before we sand the floors. (employ someone to sand the floors)

I guess if a careless tenant were to leave water standing behind the sink it would rot quite nicely without bothering them too much!

If you install something like this you tend to take care of it, sure accidents happen but you take some pride in the condition it's kept in. When it's a rental the tenants tend to accelerate the wear on any borderline design choices.

That's not to say all tenants are like this.

Not really the spirit of the thread but fair play :)

Haha very true!!

I've done a fair amount of the unskilled work myself. Ripping up carpets, removing all the staples, nails, carpet grippers ready for sanding. Stripping wall paper, cleaning walls and knocking off loose plaster ready for plastering. Also knocking through 4 fireplaces and unblocking chimney stacks was enough for 1 weekend.

I think part of employing other to do some of the work, therefore progressing when I'm at work. Helps me stay enthusiastic about having an uninhabitable house that I'm paying bills ect on...

Sounds like you are balls deep in diy. As a tradesman it's very hard for me to decide I've reached the end of my interest and get someone else in. Other trades are like "it's easy enough, you can do that yourself" and prioritise another job.

We had a new kitchen put in recently, the final job that I did was the tiling. Which was strangely addictive.

1 Attachment

You're weird (in my experience the only trade onsite weirder than tilers are scoffolders, but that is largely due to the amount of bugle you have to snort in order to become a scaffolder)

We've got a fireplace that we'd like to put in to where I've drawn the fireplace on the wall below.

The chimney breast seems to have been bricked up at some point, so it's just an opening of about 18cm deep, 60cm high and 42cm wide that I need to create.

What's the cheapest way I can create a nice big hole in the wall?

1 Attachment

Hire one of these.

Buy one of these.

Cut cut, smash smash.

You may however want to get the flue checked first. If it hasn't been used for a while get it checked to make sure it's still viable and not going to collapse or flood your home with smoke and or CO.

The chimney breast has been removed in the rooms upstairs so I think it should be alright - it's a fireplace for looks only. I don't even care what that says about me, I like fireplaces.

That angle grinder(?) definitely looks like something I'd accidentally off myself with.

Ok assumed you wanted to burn stuff!

With regards to the saw. You have to be a special kind of stupid to hurt yourself with one. The blade isnt sharp as it's an abrasive disc (there are bits of diamond impregnated into the edge of it, this is what does the cutting). However I wasn't being entirely serious as if you use it inside you will fill your lungs and the inside of your house with silicates and also probably deafen yourself. A wall saw or wall chaser would be better as you can hook them up to dust extraction and they're electric.