Home DIY

Follow the instructions for mixing quantities to the letter. Mix a small amount to begin with and see how far it stretches. You need to have a light touch washing the excess grout off as that determines the grout depth in the end. Once the tile are covered in a very thin layer of excess grout (like a mist) you don't need to keep washing, that will come off when it's dry unless your tiles are very porous. I find the bucket with a roller on top that you can run a sponge squeegee over very helpful, otherwise you have to rinse the sponge by running it over the edge of the bucket.

It's a craft/art so you need to develop a technique, unfortunately that takes practice. You determine the grout depth and consistency by feel with the sponge, you can vary the results depending on the type of sponge and how wet you keep it.

Butting in here, are there any extra considerations if the tiles are a textured finish? I have to tackle this job sometime soon.

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The lining paper went on about 100x easier after pasting the paper rather than the wall.

I used the Gardz as well and there are no bubbles or wrinkles.

So we were all set to paint, then when we started, realised that the 2.5l tin of paint we'd bought was very obviously not the deep green-turquoise colour we'd ordered (see below).

My dream of having completed, painted shelving by the time I return to work tomorrow has died. But instead, we've stripped the rest of the room and will paint it all at the same time now.

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That's great progress anyway. Looks very good in the photo. Don't worry too much if you get a bubble when you paint the paper, it will shrink again when it dries. Are you priming the shelves? Hopefully you were able to paint all the walls with gardz, it will make painting them much easier. Bear in mind you might need more than 2 coats for an opaque dark colour. It depends on the paint manufacturer but I would be reckoning 3 coats on the walls.

Pasting the wall works fine if the paper and adhesive type match and the walls are very well prepared and sized. Otherwise belt and braces is to soak the paper a bit, you find with larger areas that the seams tend to dry out faster when you're pasting the paper.

Yes, you can have a fun time getting the grout off the surface if the texture doesn't agree with a sponge. If you're careful you can usually use something a bit tougher but you should probably try on some spares to see how easily it comes of the surface.

I also think it looks like beech. I'm no expert, but that was my first thought and the other replies have convinced me.

Anyone need a couple of lengths of wall-mount (pigs ear) pine handrail? Tried to mount some up our stairs and gave up as it's a pig of a job. Don't want to see it go to waste. Wouldn't mind a beer in return.

Fwiw, the lidl plunge saw is more than decent if you get a better blade. It's almost worth the price for the track alone.

Also used a Makita one and it's better but, for me, not 3x times the price better.

I was about to say that the titan one from screwfix is also totally worth it's price tag but it looks like they don't sell it anymore.

If you're thinking about the lidl one, it's worth checking out a video by Peter Millard on YT about it where he does a pretty in depth review of it and some tweaks to improve the track a bit.

Thanks. No spares unfortunately as it's inherited but I'll test on an innocuous area

Anyone need a couple of lengths of wall-mount (pigs ear) pine handrail? Tried to mount some up our stairs and gave up as it's a pig of a job. Don't want to see it go to waste. Wouldn't mind a beer in return.

I've also got some bits (roughly half-sheet) of ply of 2 x 12mm WBP and 1 x 18mm Marine. Too good to scrap, happy to pass them on for a few quid. Pick up from SW, roughly zone 2.

Forgot about these. Probably a good idea for a DIYer. Although bear in mind that there is probably a reason why the titan on has been withdrawn. Track saws a were originally designed to cut worktops which puts a lot of stress on the gear box and motor. The cheapest way to reduce the cost of making a power tool is to make the gear box out of plastic (or metal with a large amount of plastic parts) and put a less powerful motor in them meaning that they are more likely to fail when pushed. Despite the fact that the tools are made to a price the titan stuff generally has a good warranty so if they are replacing it all the time they were losing money hence they withdrew it from sale.

As I've said upthread plunge saws are great I use mine all the time at work. But you can do everything you can do with a plunge saw with a circular saw and more, plus they are cheaper so you can buy a better quality tool for less money. As an example; when I'm cutting rafters for a roof it's much more efficient to have one circular saw for each end of the rafter I'm cutting so I have two identical saws for this purpose, both can be used with the rails for my plunge saw both are more powerful than my plunge saw and the total cost for both of them was considerably less than my plunge saw.

In that case do you reckon it’s worth me getting the adaptor and rail(s) for my battery Mikita? I’d sort of assumed it was track saw or nothing and planned jobs accordingly...
Need to trim 10-15mm off the bottom of a door which would be much easier with a track!

If you're just doing a handful of jobs like the door, just clamp a straight edge in the right place and run the circular saw along it.

Those Makita battery saws are great the only downside being you have to buy the adaptor to run on rails. Still It would certainly be a lot cheaper than a new plunge saw and rails. Or as @fizzy.bleach says if it's just a couple of odd jobs a clamped down straight edge would more than suffice, takes a bit longer to set up though.

if it's just a couple of odd jobs a clamped down straight edge would more than suffice, takes a bit longer to set up though.

It does! I made 2 alcove cupboards out of MDF using the factory-edge of one board to rip along the length of the other with a battery-powered circular saw. It definitely does take much longer if you want to get stuff perfectly square, so a pro would obviously get a track or table saw, but I found I could cut boards to about +/- 2mm width along their length.

FWIW I am a pro and having a tracksaw makes little difference to how long I take setting up a cut

Its a question of practice and knowing your tools. Once you get the offset dialed you still have to take as many measurements and check as many times to ensure that your tracks are in the right place and the marks you have made are consistent. I don't cut with my tracksaw without clamping the rails as even with the grip strips they still move - something I learnt when cutting expensive MFC that cost £250 per sheet, an expensive mistake I had to absorb and one I won't make again.

As I've already said in this thread an MFT or similar system combined with a rail (not necessarily a plunge saw) will speed things up much more than anything else when you need to make accurate, square and repeatable cuts. With an MFT you set up your stops and rail and then you can cut the same sized piece over and over again and it will always be square and always be exactly the same size.

Edit. Unless you have a workshop sized table saw (cabinet saw) with an outfeed table you wouldn't want to cut full size sheets on it as they are too unwieldy and not safe to cut.

Started sorting out a workshop in the garage.

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Trying to decide where to put the vise. Centre seems logical somehow? Also put up some tool boards and bought cables and light fixtures. Tomorrow hopefully time to start sorting stuff into boxes and shelves!

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Looks promising. I have an L shaped workbench with my big vice placed in the middle of the longest side and a smaller vice mounted on a piece of ply that I can clamp down where needed.

I'd put it a little off centre to allow fixing options.

Anyone know anything about drywalling? I'm about to start doing the ceiling of my garden office. 400mm spacing, 5.8 m wide x 3.8 m deep. I will hire someone to plaster it afterwards. My questions are:

1. Do the orientations of the board matter? The short edge of the room is in line with the roof joints. I would end up with far few butt joints if I orientate the long edge of the board along the roof joists as two boards would more than cover the 4m depth
   
2. Do I need to stagger the boards
   
3. Do butt joints need supports behind? If yes, will a piece of timber half half between the two boards with screws suffice? I've seen the folk down under do something called back blocking with offcuts of plasterboard and special adhesive. I'd rather avoid this if I can.
   
   

I want the answers to be no, no and no.

Cheers

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Ceiling boards should go perpendicular to joists, screws at 230mm centres
Staggering will stop cracks forming, so yes.
Ideally you want butt joints to land on a joist, skrim tape over all joints

Your plasterer will thank you for doing all this.

Everything @TooTallTim said but also I'd say it's vital that the joints land on joists, even if they are properly scrimmed an unsupported joint will crack, especially in a timber frame that will be more prone to racking than a brick built building.

In addition I'd highly recommend hiring a collated drywall screwdriver, especially when working overhead. Will you be hanging the plasterboard yourself, or will you have help?

Cheers @TooTallTim and @Bobbo . I'm confused about why boards need to be perpendicular to joists though? I'll end up with far more unsupported edges that way vs if I run them parallel. Are timber battens half and half overlapped at the supported edges good enough or do they need to be attached to the joists too.

I'll have a second person helping me. Was planning on just using a drill driver and one of those drywall bit holders to get the screw depth correct. I'll be doing the job bit by bit over a couple of weeks or so don't really fancy hiring any equipment. I was going to make a couple of T shaped upside broom things to help wedge the boards in places while I drive the screws in.