Home DIY

Yes, front fence I am definitely going to do myself from scratch with treated timber, but that is way smaller than the back and much more feasible... is http://www.travisperkins.co.uk any good Sam? they seem to have most of what we need and doesn't look too bad https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/fence-panels/forest-garden-trade-lap-dip-treated-fence-panel-1830-mm-w-x-1830mm-h-6-ft-x-6-ft-minimum-order-qty-of-2/p/817520 Whilst the panels at local timber supplier look like old-school creosote (https://www.selhursttimber.com/)

Travis Perkins are pretty expensive if you are paying cash as they are geared to providing to the trade by account.

Floor sanding questions.

So I’ve laid the reclaimed beech. There’s a few spots where the boards have a lip of about 1mm. I’d planned on just doing it with a belt sander and an orbital. A bit of time on google has me doubting this. The floor is in a hallway and a toilet, so it’s a lot of narrow space, and it’s only about 10 sq m.

The thing that has me a bit confused is that a lot of advice online is for sanding existing floors - which includes sanding off the lacquer or varnish. Because I don’t have that to deal with, will a belt and orbital sander be sufficient, or should I hire a proper floor sander and edging sander? Energy for the job is running low, keen to not fuck up the finishing.

SE london? Try orchard fencing in catford

I've done a lot of floor sanding recently and found narrow spaces really annoying to work in with a proper floor sander, and edging sanders hard not to fuck up with, especially when you're tired.

A belt and random orbit might be less frustrating. I think your space looks small for a floor sander but quite big for hand tools - it's probably going to be a bit annoying either way.

If you're trying to even out the floor you will still need to work up through the grits to get a good finish (@benonfloors on Instagram/How to Sand a Floor on YouTube suggests never going more than double the previous grit, e.g. 40-60-100-120 should be alright). Amazon have some big boxes of 10 discs each from 40 to 180 grit.

thanks @Bobbo and @dt :)

a few spots

How few?

Power tools are great, but you've got to weigh up the time getting it, setting it up, etc. vs doing it by hand.

Yeah, this deffo all makes sense. We’re a first floor flat, which also makes lugging big gear around less appealing.

I can borrow a belt sander, and I need to buy a random orbit, so I think I’m gonna lean towards that, rather than potentially wasting money on hiring stuff. Just had a moment of paranoia - always good to have some reassurance from the hive mind!

About 10 edges where it’s proud, and that’s only across small sections too, not down the full length of the board.

As I said above, I probably will do it by hand, but a morning on YouTube had me wondering if I was making a big mistake!
Cheers

Good luck man. I feel for you.

Sanding is fucking awesome for the first 3 minutes. Then it's hell.

I did our kitchen using a random orbital - it was extra tough because I was sanding old linoleum which was laid somewhere in the 30s-40s, it's hard as rock and takes extra long to cut back.
The room was about 2.5m x 4m.
What I'm saying is that it's possible and shouldn't be too bad as it's wood with no finish as opposed to what I worked with.

Very obvious things that it's probably worth reminding yourself of anyway:

• Don't press too hard
  
• Change your disc before it gets too worn
  
• Don't stop moving the sander
  
  

It's probably going to be easier but less satisfying than starting with dirty old floorboards.

A shameless plug for a sales thread
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/350118/#comment15379397
4 stainless steel up/down lighters, brand new un-used for £19.
Thanks

Ha, I’ve been repeating these to my wife (to no avail) while she sanded some of our doors.

Thank fuck for that. Trying to figure out how to get the last pieces in without pulling any skirting off was a bit of a mind bender, but happy enough with the result.

Gonna give myself a day or two before sanding. Getting it down has taken 7 straight days - feeling a bit fucked!

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And a before shot for context.

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This is where we got our fence panels from (no relation). North though so dunno if that's convenient: https://www.howefencing.co.uk/

Very nice indeed!

Really useful for me, so cheers.

@nefarious - well done. It looks good.

finally, paint is done as well as touchups having removed the old carpet, and floor is secure and almost totally squeak free. new carpet is being professionally fitted next week. more furniture to be moved tomorrow and prep the rest of the other room's floor which isn't boarded. it's full of surprises though, like loose and squeaky boards, cracked boards and shit loads of compacted dusts which have been fun but messy to deal with. haven't found any weird artefacts yet, but will report back

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When you’ve been cursing Bosch for three weeks and about to book an engineer to fix the dodgy compressor on the fridge - touch the oven tray on top of the cupboard and the rattle stops instantly.

With CH on, this (new, along with another vertical and two horizontal column rads) is making dripping, flowing type noises - the others are almost completely silent, other than when the heating first comes on or goes off. The system has been bled for air several times. I can only assume that there is still air trapped in the radiator or elsewhere in the system and I should keep bleeding it, even though it is just water coming out at this point, until the noise stops?

EDIT: Have bled the other vertical radiator again which, going by the pitch of the noise as I bled it, does still have air in it, even though there was a constant flow of water. This has reduced the noise coming from the first vertical rad. I think this is going to be an iterative process...

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maybe the design means that it takes a little longer for air to rise to the top. Normally you would stop bleeding when there's water coming out, set the system pressure to 1.2bar and leave it.

Have you bled from the top of the house down to this radiator?

I need some advice on internal downlighters.

My father in law has some older larger dl in his kitchen. One of them is broken and we cannot find a replacement. The idea is to replace them for smaller more modern leds but how do you reduce the hole??

Any info greatly appreciated

More tool chat. Having read up more about sanding floors/sanders is it worth spending the extra to get a geared sander- IE one that has rotational sanding as well as random orbit?

Main options are the Makita BO6050, Bosch GET75 and the Festool (too spendy for me!). The Makita gets average reviews, and the Bosch really good reviews, but am I just being daft throwing an extra £200 at it? Typing this out I feel like I know the answer, but value the DIY thread hivemind's input.