Home DIY

Hmmm thanks yeah I figured it wouldn’t be easy. I’ll stick with the danish oil.

@%~} - Yes the boiler leaked (twice + hot weather). I'm also keen to have someone who knows what they're looking for checking it.

There's only one central light and no coving.

Unfortunately, though there is no one I can get to help me. Added to which my OH is pregnant so cannot do 100% of the childcare for more than a couple of hours at a time. If it's doable in a day by myself then I guess I could take a day off when my kid is at nursery. But it would also mean removing all the insulation in that section of the loft so that would add to it too I guess...

If anyone has any good real life tutorials then let me know.

I just added £800 to the cost of a 4mx3m bedroom by taking the ceiling down ( absolutely filthy job), putting up another and then skimming it.

The original cost was just for skimming over.

Thanks.

Sounds like we need to think about putting it through the insurance.

I had to have the additional cost of a carpenter for 1 day to strut out the ceiling and level it so that added £250 I think.

If there's any way you can avoid that job I would do that. It's not a days work for 1 person without the experience and tools to hand. Even disposing of the old plasterboard is a pain these days as a lot of place won't take it or charge the earth.

If you hired a plasterboard lift you might be able to strip the old plasterboard out and re-board in a day depending on the room size but it's unlikely and you still need to tape the joints and skim it. Unless you are good at mixing plaster you will struggle mixing and skimming. Most plasterers are going to have someone mixing for them and they'll have the advantage of all the floats maybe even stilts or at least ladders and boards and the experience+strength to do it.

Thanks. Yes, I'm pretty sure these are the ones that are installed and they seem to be dimmable. My question is more whether I need to switch the drivers for them to be dimmable or can I dim them with these drivers?

This seems to be the dimmable counterpart;

https://redarrowtrading.com/dimmable-driver-for-sp6w.html

The LED Circular Panels are suitable for educational providers and residential areas, are supplied with fixed output as standard and dimmable drivers are available to order separately if required.

Suspect the answer is no, you can't use a dimmer unless you fit the above instead.

Got a soldering iron ? :)

As in £800 - £250 = £550

Or it cost you £800 + £250 + £skim

skimming

100% would not skim it ever.

But after a quick YouTube I am wondering whether I could remove the old plasterboard and put up new board.

The timing of all of this is a fucker though. My OH can't help. They also now have to start self isolating more and we were already cautious so I don't think I can get my dad to help me out - although he can't lift his right arm that well anyway.

TBH just rearranging the loft so the insulation can be reinstalled will be a lot of work.

I'm also reminded of not getting one of our outhouse doors replaced on insurance after our tenant broke it. I thought I could do it for £100 and our excess was £150 I think. Still haven't done it.

Excluding skim the new ceiling cost £800 but I think £250 of that is carpenter so £550 for 4mx3m.

Merci bien. Honestly, super helpful your instructions for a DIY-newbie like me!
Will give it a shot at the weekend while the OH is away for a night.

Any good design tools for kitchens? I've realised my wobbly lines without a ruler or any scale measurements probably won't amount to much and I feel I should be taking it more seriously. If there's something I can download to an ipad I'm in. Happy to pay (but not a subscription model if poss).

diykitchens.com is decent.

Plus £400 looking at the cost of the drivers.

All I want is not to be blinded when I get up during the night.

All I want is not to be blinded when I get up during the night.

Verboten!

Sorry to bother you with another question, but when I get around to fixing the flaking paint in the bedroom, I should probably also do the hallway at the same time. Am I right to assume that I would just have to scrape off the paint in the affected areas, make hairline cracks a little wider in v-shape with a blade, then fill, sand and paint? Wondering in particular about the flaking paint along the edge between wall and ceiling. A builder who had a look said he would just put some painter's mate caulk, but that doesn't sound quite right to me.

Thanks so much!

Cheers.

About the new builds, I worked on Thamesmead as my first job. The plastered houses got a special biege paint for new plaster and it was horrible. The paint was dusty and chalk like, very very thin and barely covered the plaster colour.

I second that.

Caulking the edges of walls is normal practice. It probably lasts longer than a hard filler. There are different qualities of caulk and it's helpful if it has a few hours to dry before it's painted over otherwise the emulsion might craze.

In the hallway the only thing I think would worry me is the little patch of what looks like a damp stain. Sometimes they need to be covered with something like cover stain because emulsion might not cover it.

I can't be sure what if it's just the photo though.

I started in London painting elderly peoples flats for the council in Vauxhall. It was fine working with the tenants but the guys running the job were shabby on every level.

Thanks again. Yes, it is a damp stain, caused by the same leak as the flaking paint in the bedroom. What kind of product would you recommend as a stain blocker?

I have also a couple of oily looking, shiny stains that only started showing during the recent hot weather.

I have feeling the flat had a very shoddy paint job all over!

How long should I wait before painting my newly rendered and plastered lime walls?

Cover Stain from Zinsser is my go to. Those shiny patches that can appear are still a bit of a mystery to me.

Not sure on lime. The last one I did used a special paint for lime. I assumed it was based on lime so it would breath in the same way.