Home DIY

Maybe try sketchup. Your drawings have left me with more questions than answers!

I've had a look at it, but find it super frustrating to learn with lots of "tutorials" I find are actually just twats doing things to disco music.

(yes, there is a ledge the right side sits on that is higher than the left).

He's not laying it on top of the hearth rubble, he's taken off the top layer of mortar that was used to level the hearth with the floor and glueing the boards to that. Its the easiest way of doing it but not what I would do it as this way presents a couple of issues:

1. Floorboards will expand and contract slightly with the seasons and changes in humidity. Nails will allow this to happen (especially old fashioned cut nails most often found in floors like this), however when you glue the boards to an inflexible surface like stone either the glue or the boards will fail (it doesn't matter how good the glue is).
   
2. Because the sub floor is also timber it too is prone to movement. If there is any vertical movement then there will be a bump in your floor that appears and disappears.
   
   

Because of the two reasons outlined above I'd always recommend removal of the hearth but this isn't something a diyer should undertake as the hearth is often cantilevered out from the chimney itself.

Does this diagram actually make sense to anyone?

The bottom one does. You want to put a bin in a shed no?

The top one looks like a pair of these.

If I get time later I'll draw up and post how I'd do this.

You draw pictures and make it easy for people to understand stuff for a living. Mate. M8.

Only in 2D, I haven’t got the RAM for 3D.

Smashed it out by eye anyway. Prob could have done with not using a jig saw as plenty of cuts are wobbly but pretty happy so far.

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Thanks for your reply.

I removed the layer of cement from under the tiles and the hearth "stone" and got it down to roughly the level of the joists with an SDS drill.

I have rearranged the boards a bit so that most of the boards over the hearth straddle it completely and can attach to joists either side of it - luckily my boards are running with the hearth rather than perpendicular as in the video.

I was thinking of putting some old carpet underlay between the boards and the hearth to hopefully cushion any gaps and still allow for some movement.

What are your thoughts on this?

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I think you've done a wonderful job.

Not yet unfortunately, having tried most other methods of stripping, I thought I'd throw some money at the problem. Looks like you're doing a great job with yours.

Thanks!

I ran out of cut nails (I was trying to re-use any in decent condition) so those boards are mainly just slotted in rather than fixed. The real test will come with trying to sand them - it may become a little more obvious how uneven they are.

Took our bathroom fan out, the propeller had come off the motor axle. Easy fix, but I discovered there’s no sleeve out to the air brick. Think it matters?

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I sanded down the wall today after doing some patch work. I did a final layer of toupret filler. As I’ve gone to sand the bit at the bottom the plaster behind hasn’t fully dried and cumbled

Do I just leave to dry properly then use some filler and sand down?

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I doubt it really matters unless you get a lot of condensation in there.
If the fan has a decent overrun I think it should ventilate alright. Solid wall?

Think you probably did about the best you could given the circumstances. Rather than underlay it would maybe be better to chock the boards up on wooden blocks but getting them to sit flat on the slab will be tricky.
When I did it on our ground floor the joists were the other way around so I just took the whole thing out and put a new joist in across the hole where the hearth was. It took me some time and created a vast amount of rubble. Then I did it to the other hearth too. Feels like a lifetime ago.

Yep, solid wall. Annoyingly we had to switch to a 24v fan as its above the shower. The low voltage version doesn’t have a timer or humidistat but I’m always careful to leave it running and open the window after showers.

The transformer and isolater are pretty easily accessible in the other room. Can a humidistat be retrofitted?

Yes, it's normal to need at least 24hrs with a patch that size.

They're already sitting quite flat and there's quite a lot of rubble I took out from under the hearth that I can pack under it.

I could probably do with some of those little plastic wedge things to pack them in as well.

Welcome to borrow my chop saw (not a euph) if you want.

I've got a box of those, not that it's any help to you right now.
You want something solid underneath really because as people walk around the boards will flex slightly and I guess this will over time have a crushing or compacting effect.
I'm guessing you have maybe up to an inch of space below the boards? If you've got something solid like a roof tile you could bed it into some mortar and rest the boards on that but it's probably overkill and it's still going to be quite hard to get it snug against the boards when you lay them on top

The easiest thing is to bodge it and then stick some furniture over it

That's the spirit :)

Can anyone recommend a decent screwdriver set for home DIY?

I really rate Wera stuff, really comfortable in the hand, and not a crazy price.

If you only want 1 set then this is a decent option :-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wera-Kraftform-Interchangeable-screwdriver-05059030001/dp/B00I8N2FP4

My personal choice if I could only keep 1 set would be :-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wera-05135961001-Screwdriver-Kraftform-Red-Yellow/dp/B00TJ3J7MG/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=wera+160+iss&qid=1586264452&s=diy&sr=1-2

I'm only recommending the VDE sets because you might want to use them for electrical items. The second set have smaller handles than normal as well but they are my go to set these days.

How hard is it to knock some bricks out of a bin shed wall and replace it with an air brick?