Home DIY

This is what I have / willing to use.

Ideally I'd keep the 75x75mm posts and 40x40mm long battons, but it's not the end of the world.

I'll be using other shelves, but I'd like something I could possibly put my wine rack back on, or could at least take weight without thought.

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Cheers @Bobbo that's really helpful. Yes it's a Victorian terrace, and not maintained very well throughout, as far as I can tell. Sand, mallet and level is definitely doable. Thanks again.

How about:

2 of the 30x20 430mm lengths, as side battens positioned to the front of the depth. There would be c.130mm unsupported depth in the back corners of the shelf...

BUT

1 of the 20mm MDF lengths as a crossways batten across the full (well 860mm of 880mm) width of the space, on the back wall, so that unsupported area would be small and you're unlikely to put huge weight right in the corners?

Cut the stained fencing panel (?) to width of 880mm, leaving the 40x40 edging piece on as the front of the shelf. Attach to the 3 battens on the wall, and screw the 40x40 into the side battens to help prevent sag in the centre.

Edit: this assumes the panel is a) deep enough to serve as the shelf and b) capable of being cut down without falling apart)

Awaiting critique...

Finally found our stopcock. Under the bathroom floorboards, which until recently had lino on top. And the tap was buried in ash and other shite (we're on a top floor flat!). Bloody tenements.

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our stopcock.

There's fancy!
First flat I bought didn't have one at all.
The first money I spent on the place, (after the mortgage application etc),
was to pay a plumber to turn off the block, via the small manhole in the pavement outside,
to install a stopcock.

Yep he's coming on Monday to move it up to the pink pipe on the left of that photo. Before we found it we had to turn off the whole building when we needed something done upstream of the isolation valves... unfortunately one of the shops under the block has a mains coffee machine so we were having to get the plumber out at 6am before they opened! Not such an issue during lockdown though.

Where does that downstream 'T' lead off to?

Walked past the bathroom earlier and heard water gushing through the toilet - opened it up and the float has broken off the cistern. The float valve looked a bit gammy and misaligned so I figured I'd replace it at the same time. The pump looked ok so didn't want to get the whole shebang.

Checked screwfix to see what was in stock for same day having turned off water coming in to the toilet.

Ordered one of these:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-plastic-part-3-float-valve/693fy
and one of these:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-cylindrical-ball-float-90mm/448fy

Assumed would be fine as every float valve says 1/2" on the site so assumed they were relatively universal. Obviously can't connect to the bottom inlet bit unless I'm doing it wrong (which is entirely possible given the circumstances of trying to fit it on - shouting at mrs cyoa to stop fucking laughing and take the toddler who keeps flushing it while I try and figure out what to do).

As a temporary measure, I've just put the new float on the old valve arm which is functional but the float (only one they had in stock) is long rather than round and gets stuck on the way up. The new valve arm is smaller (can be resized) so would fit with the new float but there's no way to stick it on (that I can see).

What do I need to get / need to do?

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I also thought that. Get it vacuumed while it’s open

Oh, the Joys of plotting the utilities in a 'new' residence.

Selfishly hoping the council will get around to assigning me a new storeshed so I can move some bikes into it. Then I can dismantle the existing shed and the decking.

Did a quick survey of the decking. 36 rows of planks with 11 sets of screws (two per plank) over the course of it. I make that close to 800 decking screws to be removed if I don't want to (eventually) chuck any metal into the wood bin at the tip. I have a square head driver that will go into my rechargeable drill although the battery is old and doesn't last long between charges but should be able to borrow a corded drill from my neighbour.

800 screws at 5 seconds each (giving a bit of time to clean out the heads that have soil in them) = just over an hour of screw removing entertainment

It should pile up quite neatly once it's all dismantled and take up a lot less room than it does currently.

TL'DR.

tl'dr.

800 shitting decking screws, or do I just hammer it to death and throw it in the "general rubbish" section of the tip.

Lol I know right. I’ve only just working out my plumbing is connected around the house

I have a question how simple will it be to brick up a small window that is 17’ by 28’? What else do I need to consider?

17’ by 28’

quoted for posterity

Do the screws still being in the wood matter? I’ve never bothered getting 100% out - it’s not always possible anyway.
I also reckon you’re being very optimistic with 5s/screw if they’ve been there a while.

We might see @musa offloading huge quantities of over ordered diy materials in the coming months.

ha

hammer it to death and throw it in the "general rubbish" section of the tip.

Cut it up with one of these

Then throw it in the general rubbish.

The kitchen

have a question how simple will it be to brick up a small window that is 17’ by 28’?

That's a fucking big window or a 'Stonehenge' moment.

So you'll need another stopcock!

If it’s been there any amount of time then I reckon you will get 25% of them out, impact driver would be my tool of choice to try. If not just get destructive, if the screws are in a straight line run a circular saw either side of the screw line, means you have consistent lengths and still no screws but takes no time to do.

No such thing as simply replacing an inlet valve :)

Can't offer much advice except to say I've worse times doing it than you are having.

you could maybe save some blushes with gaffer tape until Screwfix is open again. You might need to study the dimensions online. If you fitted a flow master style tower inlet you would save these problems but they have issues with grit getting in them over time so I've stopped fitting them.

I’ve measured it three times now lol.
It’s 43cm side and 72cm tall. 😂