Home DIY

Just bought the no nonsense ready mix plaster to fill in a ‘chase’ after removing a pipe. Is it the right product to use it was shit to apply so going to have apply it in layers. Or do I go and use the toupret filler to level it out.

I was trying to do patch repair after the plaster had blown when the previous owner got it skimmed.

Toupret are my go to because time is money and they always work a bit better than expected (especially if you read instructions). I'm sure there are lots of decent ones but I've been using Toupret so long I don't know much about the options.

I've also started routinely painting filler patches with Gardz from Zinsser before emulsion and that has made some really brutal chasing patches disappear.

You are all about the toupret, are you on commission? ;) Used toupret in france on your advice, worked well.

Edit: you should be on zinsser commission, used the stain blocker and you were right. Others I usef, claimed much but the stain marks came through.

Have used easy fill or similar?

Thanks should of stuck to my guns but you live and learn. Better use the rest of it now I’ve spent money on it

Can you use it as a top finish? Or just continue with plaster

I guess I’ll wait to see how it dries and sands

It just comes from years of having limited access to properties to fix problems so you need the materials to work. If the filler shrinks or sags on a job when you're only on site for 2 days you can end up with a lot of timing problems. Zinsser is reliable too. I have looked for UK based alternatives but not found anything as good yet.

Easy fill is very popular with plasterers, its a joint filler for plasterboard. Very soft and easy to feather with a sponge but you need to be very careful to prime it. It's prone to making very fine bubbles in the paint. It's supposed to work well under multi finish plaster.

Toupret TX110 for example sets at different rates depending on the temperature of the water you mix with it. Very useful some days.

Another product which is very useful is Multi Solve, made by the people who make CT1 which is also very popular with tradesmen. That and the Everbuild multi wipes.

I understand that it all adds up if you are just doing some diy. I use a mixture of what's hanging around on my own diy jobs, my hallway has been half painted for 15 years though!

Very informative...I used to used polyfiller for everything. I remember when I discovered toupert fibracryl it was a revelation for reoccurring cracks.

The exterior version Fibarex is great too, great alternative to Fibacryl around window frames.

If you have the time and money then Planirex followed by the oil based gras a laquer gives a glassy finish which makes window sills very easy to keep clean, even with London grime. It's really time consuming though.

Bit more progress on the play area, just waiting for the new swing set now, and ignore the creases in the "grass" those are now smoothed out!

1 Attachment

i was thinking copper as a new kitchen counter top surface. But not getting a company to do it for 2-3k but doing it myself with my wife. The plan so far is to simply put a cut piece of copper on top of the existing cheap kitchen top although maybe with a layer of wood underneath. We like the idea that it can be recycled and is anti-bac, and also fits with our plans for a mad, 70s colours kitchen.
Has anyone done such a thing?

I've used Gardz on your recommendation and also Zinsser B-I-N stain blocker and had good results with both.

The latter painted successfully over some quite bad water stains in the kitchen ceiling.

I used to use the spray version of cover up from Zinsser on ceilings, worked a treat, a lot of the time it would blend with the existing paint enough to not have to repaint the entire ceiling. The over spray was awful though, everything covered in a very fine spray of near impossible to remove paint!

B.I.N. and Cover Up are slightly different but both are reliable enough to recommend. Gardz is easily my new favourite 'secret' weapon.

Having taken down the suspended ceiling installed by the previous owners and stripping the woodchip wallpaper we've discovered that the ceiling was hiding water damage and of course most of the plaster from one wall along with large sections from the water damaged wall.

The cause of the water damage appears to have long since fixed and have checked from above in the (unconverted) attic and there's no sign of water ingress there.

Some of the original lime(?) plaster that now shows in the water damaged area is fairly soft and crumbly - does this area/whole wall need to go back to brick or can we remove the soft areas and patch up with bonding before doing a top coat?

Photos here

Sorry was a bit of humour. Toupret is becoming my go to filler after your advice after trying others in France. Have used the zinsser stain block paint, after your recomendation and that works not has problems of the stain coming through.

Part of me thinks we should have a wiki with advice...

I've ordered a Speedheater Cobra to finish stripping the paint off my stairs. All this time at home needs to be used for something.

Slightly odd question, but I think this is the best thread for it - I want to swap the lenses of my headlights, which are bonded in. Obviously I'll break the bond when I take the lenses out, so after cleaning everything off I need to bond them back in, using a sealant that is water proof, UV resistant and can deal with vibration and heat.

What should I use?

heat.

What temperature do you estimate the lamps, (assuming you are not converting to LED),
will generate at the lenses?

The dipped beam are Litronic, so a HID type bulb which sits behind a big glass lens.

The main beam is a 55w halogen bulb, and the parking lights are LED.

Of that lot I'd think that the main beam would generate the most heat - but would only be used when the car was in motion, and as they're at the front of the car they're air cooled.

The guides that tell you how to get the main lens off say to put them in the oven at ~100 degrees centigrade to soften the glue off before prying the lens away from the main body of the light.

100 degrees centigrade to soften the glue

Occam's Razor suggests a hot-melt adhesive to re-seal, then.
Does Porsche offer a Workshop headlamp re-seal kit?

DIY bodge solution to a probably more serious problem. The plastic roof thing covering our parking space in front of the garage (never park a car in the garage, it's for bikes) is built by an idiot, water leaks and drips down on the car between the plastic and the stone foundation. So I've put a gutter there. The water runs through a steel beam which I suspect supports the stone and concrete above and it's veeery rusty. Now I can forget about that for another year ;)

2 Attachments

Be careful if it's lead paint.

Also, having just stripped the paint off my stairs, I would highly recommend a Bahco 665 scraper:

https://www.buybrandtools.com/acatalog/bahco-665-heavy-duty-carbide-scraper.html

Or if you're in East London you can borrow mine.

Before and halfway:

2 Attachments

Occam's Razor suggests a hot-melt adhesive to re-seal, then.

Does Porsche offer a Workshop headlamp re-seal kit?

No, Porsche offer the opportunity to purchase an entire headlamp unit.

Hot-melt adhesive as in a glue-gun?

You're right to caution about the lead paint but infra red strippers (which the cobra is) don't heat the paint directly, they heat the wood underneath and the paint separates from the wood. Don't get me wrong, you can burn the paint and the smell of burning lead paint is unmistakeable.

Be very careful with the spoils, there are guides to handling them and make sure you keep the whole process clear of children and pregnant women.

The heavy duty carbide are great but staircases are very hard to do with one because you can't pull in the direction of the grain to scrape the surface. They work very well on door stiles, windows if they are out of the frames and window cills. If you are used to one and have some power in your arms they will strip all the paint off anything pretty fast.

The cobra really shines on mouldings.

A roof like that would normally have flashing above the join between wall and plastic. It would be chased into a line of pointing. They probably didn't want to cut into the stone.

Never done it, but in the Videos I watched suggested that you can just stick the lens back on using the old glue. So heat up, open, clean or whatever, heat up, stick back on.
I would definitely do this, but my car was free and cost me 150€ so far.
So in your case, probably something from the [sika melt] line.(https://automotive.sika.com/en/solutions_products/exterior-adhesives/sikamelt.html)