Home DIY

The all-important glass hammer

About to laminate my living room/kitchen (there was a part/stud wall (only about 900mm) wide which I've taken down to allow breakfast bar and open up a bit. basically my kitchen has a 6mm ply layer meaning the floors are different height. I don't really want to use a strip/reducer so could it be as simple as basically levelling the floor by laying the 5mm board underlay on the living room floor?
alternatively can I lay new laminate directly on the living room laminate, meaning I only have to build up the kitchen area (smaller/cheaper/quicker)? cheers

Don't forget the lightbulb repair kit

Thanks for the advice @Mr_Sworld

If it were me I'd put 6 mm ply down throughout. Then lay the laminate and underlay on top.

I've just replied to your dm

Bugger; knew you'd say that!!! Much appreciated

I want to get a dust mask, primarily used during sanding wood, but occasionally removing rust or other tasks. Particles rather than fumes.
Any recommendations?

Pic doesn't show, so unsure what trim your meaning.

Often the door isn't sitting square within the frame, so some of the seal is doing nothing to keep out draughts (and noise)

Use a soft pencil and mark the corners and handle height where the door closes into the frame. Are the marks even, or has the door dropped (or frame bowed out by a shit install) ?

Use a piece of paper and trap it between the door and seal whilst closing the door. Is the compression of the hinges and locking mechanism enough to lighy grip the paper?

The 3M 6200 with a dust filter should be good.

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I use a JSP force 8, you can squeeze the valves to close them off and check for airtightness and the filters are replaceable.

My bay window is leaking air. Will make do with replacing/fixing trim for now, but will eventually get the room replastered and do the reveals properly. What should the back of the stone columns look like ideally? I'm assuming this mess of plastic trim is not it. Would you plaster the inside face or is it usually treated in some other way?

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I use this one it allows you to check the fit by pressing the filters. Very good bit of kit but any one with p3 filters will do the job.

Some progress made with the alcove shelving and fireplace this weekend:

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Well done, that's not a small undertaking and it looks good. It reminds me I made so many like that 15-20 years ago. Eventually I moved to a partly freestanding style that could be constructed off site. There seemed to be a move to fatter shelves as well but I don't like those much for practical space reasons. The style you have there makes the most of the space available.

I took down fatter shelves to make way for this - but I was a bit limited by using the existing battens. I thought doing the whole thing myself would have been too much of an undertaking - and I was probably right - but I would have done some things differently if I'd started from scratch.

The next step for me was planning these kind of projects in 3d (sketchup). It helped speed up the problem solving and gives an opportunity to improve on designs before they get made.

Fantastic effort and work. Looks really good. You must be pretty knackered by now. Is the rest of the house next? :D . I'm still at it 2 years in with no end in sight.

I've not had a lot of rest at weekends or in the evening but it's been quite rewarding. It's one of the only rooms that doesn't have something from beyond my skillset in it - the rest all need replastering, or walls knocking down, etc.

Eventually I moved to a partly freestanding style that could be constructed off site.

That was my approach, 2 boxes for the cupboards and 2 boxes for the shelves. Out of interest, do you fix yours to the walls?

Shaping up nicely, well done!

In smaller, more gritty and a bit nervous DIY areas I've managed to clear a floor drain in the boiler room that some bastard previous owner had poured cement into. Took advice from our plumber and got myself a cold beer and a sharp chisel. Very pleasing to watch the water finally swirling away before the 'shit, what if there's a leak in the basement below' moment but everything looks fine.

I always fix built in units to the wall, for a variety of reasons not least safety there are a number of ways it can be done but space plugs are good. You adjust them so they fit snugly between the carcass and the wall then mark the wall, drill your hole bung a screw and plug in and away you go. The benefit of these is they are easy and don't pull the carcass out of shape.

Plug-in mini oven for sale, if any kitchen renovators are going to be without for a while.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/340738/#comment14981660

Not if I can avoid it but it makes sense to secure the boxes in a couple of places. I have been making purely freestanding furniture for the last 25 years too. It feels like extra work to make it built in these days! I really don't miss getting the shelves to fit alcoves.