Home DIY

100% use an hitman setup.

It really helps contain the dust

It’s still moving air around the room in an uncontrolled way - I’ve tried it! As well as sealing the doorway with sheeting.

All the sealing is doing is stopping the dust going through out the flat.

connect your Henry to the sander

Can Henry retain the dust? Thought a lot of it would be very small particle so will go straight out again?

Extension hose and put the Henry outside.

That would be easily doable.

But I don't have a Henry or equivalent vac. Just a hand trigger Dyson. Bugger.

Where can I get Mirka Abranet sanding discs in London?

They're not all that tbh

Any Dulux decorator centre.

Also

They're not all that tbh

+1 for what they are they're fucking expensive don't last and require you to buy a new pad to fit to a non mirka sander. The dust extraction in you sander is designed to work with punched holes in the disc and you probably won't notice too much difference for the extra outlay.

OK, thanks!

With a bag they are good, but a wei or dry vac through water is the best.

What suggestions do people have for bathroom flooring? Tiles have been vetoed as has cork. I'm vaguely aware that there's lots of vinyl/lino kind of stuff out there nowadays which doesn't look shit but I don't know anything about it.

Ideally at the cheaper (but not super cheap) end of the scale.

vinyl/lino kind of stuff

Karndean spendy for vinyl flooring but very, very good. Most of their stuff has to be laid by approved contractors as it requires a VERY accurate feather screed to be put down prior to laying, however some of their range is diy friendly.

2nd for Karndean - excellent quality stuff

If Karndean is too pricy, then oddly LG make similar flooring, we have over 100m2 of it laid in our house for the last couple of years and it has been perfect.

I've got some Quick-Step click-lock stuff and it was quite easy to lay

Cheers. I think that was one I was thinking of. It's only 6 sqmtr so price shouldn't be too bad. Whatever we get will be going over floorboards. What's the procedure there, put down some ply or underlay or something to cover the gaps/imperfections?

I probably won't be doing it myself (it's not my house) but I'd like to understand the basic process.

With the stuff we used you do have to have a pretty perfect subfloor, so ply lining is a must.

As @Sam_w says the subfloor must be pretty perfect. Basically because it's vinyl if there are ridges/bumps in the floor it will affect the flooring; worst case scenario it could, over time, crack a bit like a credit card in a wallet that is subject to repeated stress in the same place.

Karndean installers will, to the best of my knowledge, ply line, then put down self levelling and then put a specialized feather screed on top only then do they lay the floor. This produces a floor that is pretty much flat enough to play snooker on.

I used to work for a company that manufactured ventilation equipment. Basically you have to create a flow of air from an input point to the extract point. In a perfectly sealed room you will not generate air flow you will essentially create a mini-vacuum and it will seem like your fan is not working.
Couple of questions - is there a ventilator in the window, it is normally a plastic looking strip that can be opened and closed?
If Yes and your extraction point is above the toilet (as shown in the plan) then you will effectively create a short flow between the window and the extractor. It will do little to extract the steam from the shower or the bath. You should consider moving that extract point over to nearer the shower.
If no, Is there a vent in the bathroom door or does it fit poorly? If so then the flow of air from the door (when closed) to the extract point will be reasonably effective at taking the steam from the shower and the bath + those lovely toilet smells.
If you get a suitable in-line fan for the loft then you could use it with a Y fitting to extract above the toilet and the shower, air will take the path of least resistance to you may need to balance the ducts to achieve this.
From memory, but worth checking, since you are putting the electrical unit in the roof you will not fall under Part P of the building regulations.
This is the company I used to work for (I managed the technical support team for a while but am not a ventilation technician), a call to their tech support line may yield some good advice.
https://www.greenwood.co.uk/intermittent-extract-fans

Hope this helps.

Cheers both, I'll see what is on the quotes compared to what you suggest should be done.

Have it, tap.

1 Attachment

What! Why? And what was inside it?

The upper section was pretty firmly stuck to the valve body inside by ~100 years of gunk and corrosion.

Sparky heads, a question: how quick/easy do you reckon it’d be to get a job after doing the city and guilds 2365? Decided to just put some savings into doing the course, but need to figure out if I can afford to jump straight into it, or should I wait to start the course, expecting that getting a job afterwards may take some time. I’m based in Leeds.