Home DIY

Yeah but the light's actually from the late 50s according to the marking, and the cracked old cord looked like the one I've replaced it with. Screws are getting replaced though, maybe 2022 ;)

Was wondering about the age of the lamp.

Concerning the cord suggestion, of course.

Is it safe to use a dremel/drill to enlarge the holes in a ceramic toilet bowl to mount it to its frame (metal/built into the wall)?

For some reason the holes on the loo on the wall side are fine, but coming out the other end are too small to get the screws on the frame through.

There is always a risk of ceramic cracking so I would be very weary of that. However, you can get ceramic drill bits which will reduce the chances of cracking - I used one in a Belfast style sink once when I had to create holes for taps as I was too scared to knock through with a screwdriver.

Finally run out excuses to avoid painting the hallway ceiling. What’s the world coming to?

Have you mowed the lawn? It's looking pretty long actually

Whoa whoa whoa, let’s not get too carried away!

We've got a leak in our roof over our spare room that has damaged the gyprock ceiling and caused a piece about 1m square to come detached. We had my partner's parents staying when it started to split, so we pinned it to the ceiling using a long ladder with a bit of wood on top as a temporary acrow prop.

The roof still isn't repaired, the roofer was supposed to fix it this week (it's just some flashing and a tile to replace so not serious for the roof itself) but obviously the job is now on the long finger.

It would be really handy for us to have the ladder back to be able to crack on with some DIY elsewhere in the flat - is it sensible to remove the damaged gyprock and leave the ceiling with bare laths showing for a while (or to cover it with eg. lining paper temporarily)? Or should we leave the gyprock up and supported til we can get a plasterer out?

Obviously if we get another few weeks of massive rainstorms like in Feb the gyprock may come down of its own accord, prop or no.

PS I know now that we should have just drilled a hole in it and let the water through to save the ceiling. Hindsight is 20/20.

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Decided to use some of the down time to start building the new play area in the back garden, first step is to fence all around it, decided banging in 20 posts by hand was too much like hard work, so dragged the post banger out of the back of the shed.

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thanks! actually managed to get a look at the problem first-hand, and it's one of the non-glazed parts, looks to be a manufacturing tolerance mess up, but only by a millimeter at most.
Father-in-law has a multitude of grinding bits, so fingers crossed it'll be fine.

@Spxtz firstly I applaud your temp acrow prop - top work. If it were me I would probably remove as much of the damaged plaster as I could now, just for fear of more falling down. There does seem to be quite a big split coming out in a few directions or is that just marking on the ceiling?

Either way I would assume whoever is going to fix this would pull the damaged plaster off and make good. At least if you do this and we get loads of rain you can stick a bucket underneath to catch the water.

An impressive and dangerous looking bit of kit.
Is it hydraulically driven?
I'm guessing you have to set up vertical/square for each post?

Got to be much easier than using a drivall.

Yep, hydraulics drag a 200kg weight up to 8 foot and drop it at speed, highly dangerous, this precise machine has already claimed one finger when a friend left his hand on top of a post and someone else released it.

Yep this one is an old one, so it has two screw link arms to adjust both planes

already claimed one finger

Wish I hadn't read that.

already claimed one finger

Lol, fuck, vom, etc.

@mespilus @nefarious better than the PTO that claimed a whole arm... he had to walk back across the fields after that.

For fuck's sake. Lol.

Yeah that was a fun story to hear. I feel happy that I have only lost a little bit of a finger to a table saw, that one hurt enough.

For clarity, the lol is directed at the abrupt arrival of such a horrific story - not some poor bugger losing an arm! Seems all the farmers I know have all too many of these stories - for the sanity of others in this thread I shall keep to myself.

Grain augers give the second best tales, after tractor rollovers. I spent my early years in farming communities, heard too many of these.

Yep, the worst stories are the falling into slurry tanks, that is a horrific thing to do

Far too many of those, at least in the NI farming community. Oddly (or not) quite a few start with farmers trying to rescue their dogs and being overcome by the gases. Fairly high profile case a few years ago of a promising rugby player (Nevin Spence) who died along with his father and brother (sister was also involved but recovered) trying to save their dog.

I grew up next to a dairy farm. Terrified thinking back about how we used to just wander around the slatted holding areas, one dodgy concrete beam away from falling in.

Although, the smell of freshly spread slurry is comforting in an odd way as it reminds me of home. You learn quickly to hold back if driving down a country lane and you see a tractor in a field with a slurry spreader on the back nearing the other side of the hedge.