Home DIY

Good question.

Previous owners/decorators could think of a way to make the coving follow the curve so they just buried it behind some plaster. The plaster doesn't follow the curve very well so it looks like it's just swallowed up the coving.

What look like mice droppings in the shed about 8m from the house.

Should I do anything? Or live and let live?

1 Attachment

Are you sure they're mice droppings?

It's hard to get a sense of scale from the pic.

What animal poos uncooked rice?

Unless the shed is in your kitchen, there's no point trying to get rid of them. There will always be mice.

inb4 nuke from orbit

Burn it down.

Get a cat

Mine does fuck all.

Take one of my cats, they kill everything. Night before last the fuckers left one at the bottom of the stairs. Obviously I stepped on it as I came down for breakfast.

How long before your furry friend realizes your house is warmer and contains more food than your shed?
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/280521/ etc.

Flooring/floor sanding questions:

1. I have some brand new floorboards alongside some Victorian pine ones. (I know it's not going to look great, but the builder put them in and I'm not going to rip them out again so I'm just going to apply the same stain and hope they'll be reasonable.) The question is - at what stage of the sanding process should I start on those? Should I go through all the grits with them as well?

2. There's a room upstairs which we've also stripped back to boards. I'm pretty sure that it slopes along the joists - the ceiling in the room below is also far from horizontal so it makes sense. If I were to lay flooring on top of the floorboards, what would/could I use underneath to level the floor out?

1 Attachment

Mine does fuck all.

Get more mice.

We were thinking of getting a log burner but would mean getting rid of the tiles and maybe the surround. Now thinking we might just sweep the chimney and occasionally have a fire in the winter. There are some cracks in the fire place though. Is this safe or need addressing/filling?

3 Attachments

Thanks all.

I'm sure it's been made worse by the random floor underlay I've kept in there.

Not a fire expert, but there were cracks in the back of all the fireplaces in my folks old house which had no central heating - ie lots of fires. Pretty sure it's a product of heat + stone.

Never any issues, although they did get them patched eventually when there was work to the rest of it. But these were solid chalk(?) stone things, so could well be softer.

They always had a caste iron fire plate at the back. Protects the stone and helps with heat.

Word, my new hallway has got thin laminate flooring stuck down on top of wooden floorboards. The laminate peels back easily enough but underneath there's a layer of gritty, grey cement-like stuff. What could it be? Screed? I need to know so I can choose the right method of removal.

Was hoping to be able to heat or chemically strip the boards but it looks like grinding/sanding might be in order.

1 Attachment

Most likely something like ardex on a self levelling screed.

If it is I would be amazed if you could get it up without fucking the floorboards. Sorry to be pessimistic but this stuff is meant to be difficult to remove.

Thought as much. Reckon mechanical removal is a messy but possible solution. The boards don't need to be perfect as we're just going to paint them black.

Alright Keef.

Anyway.
If the vertical struts of your shed aren't wide enough to accommodate screws / fixings to allow multiple hanging points, does it make sense to screw osb sheet to the struts and then fixings to the sheet?
IS THAT SENSIBLE?

I need a new shed. I'd like to build one myself but time is of the essence here so I think prefab will be best and I can build shelves and a bench inside in due course.

Where's good to buy from? I'd like wood instead of metal, and we have an existing concrete slab to set it on.

I like my shed from Tiger Sheds.

Batons across at the levels you want the fixings rather than sheet? That way you don't lose as much space as boarding out.

Much better idea.
3-5 cm thick (deep) should work right?

plenty - depending on what you're hanging - I have bikes hung on 2x3 which is 38mm nominal

I looked for a long time and decided a dual skin plastic shed was he best long term bet!

Went with one from Lifetime sheds and it's been great. If you are storing a lot of metal tools it's very good at resisting condensation. The guy who delivered it told me he has one for his scooter collection for that reason.

Of course I get why you would be thinking wooden, I was pretty sure I would build one from scratch but this one outperformed anything easily affordable.