Home DIY

Yeah, chucked some silicone grease on there

Thanks all. The current paint is over lining paper, which I could strip off, then repaper, then paint. But I am lazy time-challenged and will happily live with a less than perfect finish

There's a new version 123 plus, roughly £40 for 2.5lts but a real improvement in opacity on woodwork, covers more stains as well. Yet to try it on bare aged redwood, most waterbased primers fail to stop redwood (pine) bleed.

What's the cheapest and easiest floating floor I can install? I want a white/light gray floor to lay over the existing one in my rental flat, so I can always revert to existing floor if needed.

Looked into vinyl click systems (LVP?) but don't like the idea of nasty vapours.

Oh, and existing floor is laminate boards, decently flat and free of damage. So much so that I even considered car vinyl wrap, but I don't know how hard wearing it'd be and how easy to remove if it came to that.

Click-OSB... and paint.

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This is invaluable! And is encouraging me to do it myself instead of paying for it to get done!

Lifted carpet and hardboard which has probably been there for 15 years to expose a pretty crappy looking load of floorboards.

How bad a condition can they be and still be salvageable for sanding and sealing?

I’m going to attempt to replace some as they are superfecked in any case. But wondering if actually it’s a waste of time and will need to cover it back up again.

Thanks!

Anyone got a recommendation for where to get reclaimed floorboards?

I got some from a place in Sewardstone (near Chingford on the way to Waltham Abbey). I think that was because they had enough with similar dimensions to what we needed rather than because they were particularly cheap, but they were ok.

Google suggests it was here:

https://www.reclaimed.uk.com/

Cheers, will check them out. Went down to Dulwich reclamation yesterday and they seemed confident at sourcing what I required, although we didn’t discuss area coverage. Thought it was a little expensive at 30-35 per sqmetre

You need to be careful when sourcing any timber products from a reclamation yard. If they have had any paint or varnish on them then the yard will dip them, basically put them in a large tub of liquid nitro-mors and leave them until the paint lifts off (I don't know the exact process this is my best guess). As a result of the dipping process the timber often takes on a lot of moisture so will shrink back once it dries out.

Does anyone have any recommendations for sourcing windows quickly?

Preferably timber window. We would like one that's about 800mm wide probably by 1000mm height. I don't mind if it's direct glazed rather than an opening window as it's near enough to our door.

Most of the places online tend to have a lead time of a few weeks, or have quite expensive pre-built options.

As long as they're sound and don't have super-deep gouges (although they can be filled) you should be fine. If they've got some kind of coating, maybe figure out what it is because it might make nasty dust or clag the sandpaper.

Meaning they could reduce in size post purchase unless dried out accordingly?

Gotcha... to be fair until @Bobbo ‘s seemingly simply steps to sand a floor I was very ready to pay for somebody else to do it. With said instructions I’m still probably going to pay someone to do it because I know I tend to do a bad job and then pay extra for a a fix of my fuck ups and then the cost of the original job BUT it does also give me the belief this time I may be able to do it myself!

Gotcha... to be fair until @Bobbo ‘s seemingly simply steps to sand a floor I was very ready to pay for somebody else to do it. With said instructions I’m still probably going to pay someone to do it because I know I tend to do a bad job and then pay extra for a a fix of my fuck ups and then the cost of the original job BUT it does also give me the belief this time I may be able to do it myself!

I'm sure you can do it, just be prepared to spend a fair amount of time preparing things. The sanding itself I found didn't take too long but you need to clear the room completely, make sure all the boards are securely fixed and have everything ready. Ideally you remove all the skirting too and then either put new skirting on or if the old stuff is OK, reuse it.
Then you've got all the filling to do before you do the final sand and lastly you have to finish the floor somehow (we used Osmo).

Oh and it's dusty. I still sometimes find dust from the sanding and it was over 2 years ago.

Not quite; as they dry they will shrink.

When wood is harvested, when it's green to use the proper terminology, it has anything from 40% to 100% moisture content (compared to seasoned wood) depending on the species and where the wood comes from in the tree. In order to use the wood it must be dried, traditionally by air drying but these days its more likely dried in a kiln, this brings the moisture content down to between 11% and 20% typically. As the timber dries it shrinks, however once the wood is dried it can still absorb moisture (from the air and many other sources) it can also dry out further so it has a habit of expanding and contracting. This is why wooden flooring is never laid tight to the wall as it needs to be able to expand and contract and also why traditional floorboards have gaps between them.

In the case of timber from a reclamation yard that has been dipped it is likely to have taken on a lot of moisture. So in all probability it will shrink once installed which will present a problem if you are planning to sand and fill a floor as after a while gaps will open up where the floor has been filled.

Thinking of a small indoor climbing wall as a project over Christmas. The only completely empty wall I have is in the spare room which is fairly small. For this reason I was thinking of a tilting board which would allow a bit more variety. (Similar to the simpler ones of these).

In the image here it seems to be attached to the wall with chains using just a bolt hangar at either end. As I'd be attaching it to a stud wall my question is whether this would be strong enough? Or would I have to attach another framing piece to the wall and then bolt through both that and the stud? As it's a rented place I'd rather do as little permanent attaching as possible.

Apologies for the rather vague questioning.

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indoor climbing wall + rented =

I built a yoga wall for my wife and used heavy ply on both sides (the unused side is in a closet). Bolted through in addition to attached to studs - probably overbuilt.

Ha. What could possibly go wrong.....?

What indeed

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Thinking something like this. Although being much more reinforced and rethinking the pivot point.

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