Home DIY

Thanks that's really helpful.

Yes it's a fence panels, but tongue and groove and the other side is very far from the lovely flat surfaces on the side you can see.

Follow up questions:

• Anyone got any good tricks for screwing batons onto brick walls level without the holes "walking" and moving the battons out of level?
  
• Anyone got any masonry drill bit recommendations, that aren't too expensive? I've been resorting to using some spare tile bits followed up with my slightly blunt and hard masonry bits.
  

1. Hold the baton in place level and drill through it with a wood drill bit just enough to mark the hole. Drill the hole with a masonry bit and hammer the screw in a rawlplug through the batten into the hole. This has worked for me for skirting - but obviously skirting is less susceptible to moving.

2. I got some Dewalt bits from Toolstation that aren't round at the chuck so don't spin and they've worked really well.

Here's my question: is this an oak (or other wood) board or just dodgy-looking pine?

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Sorry didn't see this, if you look up acrylic nail kits and use the liquid and powder that is used to bond acrylic nails to nails. Have used that stuff to repair motorbike fairings, car bumpers etc. You need to cut (hobby drill/dremmel) a v grove in the break and then seems to last well.

As you place the Baton hammer some nails to hold the baton in pace

So you might need to draw a line first so you know where to place the nails

Has anyone added glitter to paint? To get a glittery finish?

Hold the baton in place level and drill through it with a wood drill bit just enough to mark the hole. Drill the hole with a masonry bit

Yep, would agree with this - make sure the wood drill bit is smaller than the diameter of the screws you're using otherwise there'll be no material left for the screws' threads to pull on.

hammer the screw in a rawlplug through the batten into the hole

I wouldn't do this, as it'll make an unnecessarily large hole in the wooden batten, which could lead to loosening/failure.

Use a masonry drill bit of the correct size for the rawlplug, with the batten out of the way, and then put a screw through the batten into the waiting rawlplug. If you put a rawlplug in and it's protruding slightly, you can just use a chisel, or maybe a Stanley knife, to take off the protruding mm so that the batten sits flush against the wall. Trying to remove rawlplugs is a recipe for crumbling walls and enlarging holes too far.

Thanks all.

Depends on the grain of your glitter. If it's too rough it just sticks in the surface of the paint like dust does.

I have a pot of mica powder that I've used to get a nice effect in oil paint.

It's pine (generic name for softwood). Most of the boards in that picture look to be redwood but I can't be 100% from a picture on the interwebz.

As wood is a natural product there will always be some variation in colour, but I don't think that would account for that big a difference. So it's either a much older piece of timber or it has been stained at some point, it could also be a slightly different species such as pitch pine.

Ceiling cracks. When do I worry?

Only if they are large (i.e wide and deep) hairline cracks just need to be filled and forgotten about.

Hairline.

Can I blame the bangy fat cunts upstairs?

Thanks, that is what I though. The girlfriend saw a pack of glitter to add to paint and decided that is what is happening.

Have used automotive metallic spray paint before to give a metal flake finish. But great heads up on the info on size of glitter as I didn't think of that.

Is it artex?

Are those flexible ceiling paints any good at coping with movement?

Next you'll be telling me that trades actually know what they're doing some of the time.

It oddly seems to fill ok now without manually adjusting the float.

There is an odd high whine in the pipes that wasn't there before though! Christ.

Fitted a lock into a door today, since I last did this I've got reading glasses for close up stuff and was impressed at how much I felt like my dad, glasses perched on my nose and chisel+mallet in hand, cup of tea off to the side.

Also my drill managed the door, then needed to go back on charge for the recess required for the door frame striker plate - which given that it's ~10 years old is probably a good run. What's hot in the world of cordless drills these days?

The sound of water whooshing past a closing valve? Maybe try adjusting the pressure with the ball-o-fix on the supply.

Or just mutter the ancient incantation, 'that will settle down with time love' as you exit the room and don't forget to bang your toolbox on the door frame.

Festool TXS and full centrotec kit. Thank me later

If you need to routinely drill joists or doors then you might want a larger Festool.

Step into the Brushless Suite, sir.

If I didn’t already have 3 Makita cordless drills I’d get this pack https://www.toolstation.com/makita-dlx2145tj-18v-lxt-cordless-combi-drill-impact-driver-twin-pack/p19850

It’s been mentioned before but having one drill to drill and one to screw makes things a lot more efficient.

Presumably you use the dak-dak to screw with?

I really ought to get my own set. Is there any of lower value worth recommending? Looking on their site they have a few

Screwfix have the model lower to the one @Dramatic_Hammer posted for £200. Differences are battery 4ah vs 5ah and the Nm being 42 vs 91