Home DIY

Advice?
One year old engineered oak floor that has been damaged in several spots by a builder, who let gritt get underneath his 'protective' floor covering when he was doing some work.
Is there a product that I can use to make it look a bit less bad and protect/seal the floor? I see Liberon wax recommended above but not sure how hard-wearing this would be.
Thanks!

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I do tend to use Zinnser 123 as a primer over the manufacturers ones. If you are going as far as priming and undercoating which is sometimes worthwhile depending on the substrate then the undercoat from the manufacturer is quite a good choice on top of the 123.

I'm using the Zinnser 123+ now, it's a bit more opaque.

An undercoat should have good levelling characteristics but that's been hard to find since the move to waterbased woodwork paints.

Cheers, I think that's the front runner at the moment.

Thanks and good point on the primer. Probably should have mixed a bit of a dark colour to at least make grey.

Durability wise the top step will probably take the most brunt, but either way I'll do my best to let it harden properly. I still need to cut and fit the crossbracing, which judging by how long the uprights took be to do will be a while, so maybe I'll do the rest of the paint first, then finish the structure.

Any advices on what product/method to use on this chair (to the left) to seal/protect the wood and stain?
I'm aiming for a finish similar to the chair to the right. Smoother and more polished.
It's been sanded and stained. But redoing it since the color is off. Too red.

Been looking at Polyurethane. Anyone have any experience working with that?

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If you do get it, it's worth investing in a better set of bench dogs than the ones that are supplied as standard, which are a bit sticky to get in. They do the job, but the build quality of the rest of it puts them to shame, rather.

Ok, good to know, I think what they are recommending is a dual purpose primer/undercoat but they are pigmented to match the paint that is going on top of them so tempted to just go for that (partly for convenience). Would go with Zinnsarr if it was going to make a huge difference over the own brand stuff. Just have no bloody idea!

EDIT. Have just ordered the Craig and Rose Primer/undercoat to for the woodwork along with all the other paint.

Osmo Polyx-Oil is an easy option. I've used it a fair bit and it's difficult to make a mess of the application. It's a hardwax (carnauba, amongst others, I think) rather than a polyurethane but it holds up well.

What’s the floor finished with? If it’s oil / wax then a little but of Osmo* (the forum favourite) rubbed into the dents will make them pretty much invisible. Won’t fill them but it’ll make them the same colour as the rest of the floor.

*any wood oil will do the job.

Thanks! Totally forgot about hardwax. That will prob do the trick.

Nice one! Do I need to stain it too or is the oil itself tinted? Cheers!

Nah, it looks like it’s finished in a clear oil / lacquer so clear oil will be fine. Try wiping a bit of water into the scratches / dents, it should go pretty much the same colour as the rest.

I'm going to put a door in an opening between the hallway and what I hope will be a spare/guest room. Discovered there's quite a slope for some reason.

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Smacked on a piece of skirting as a barrier/mould and poured some concrete in (after caulking the edges). Got it reasonably level plus the door should cover up most of the places where it doesn't look very good.

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I'd test a little bit first before you go sploshing osmo all over. It looks to me (from the photos at least) to be more of a matte lacquer finish if so a hard wax repair kit would sort it. It's something I keep in my van for instances like this; fuck ups happen no matter how careful you or people you employ are. The best thing is that it's made to match natural wood tones and it's actually easier to repair wood grain than solid colours as small descrepancies in colour are hidden by the natural variation in the the wood grain.

https://youtu.be/wKWD_4t5bF0

This is a pretty good guide as to how to use the kit.

#BobboKnows

Odd question. I would like to make a stand for a TV we've been given. Ideally it will be on wheels with a footprint as close to the size of the telly as possible.

The tricky bit is that I'd like it to be vertically adjustable - so that it can be dropped down when not in use, and easily popped back up to watching height (bottom of telly ~2ft off the floor). I have a wall mounting bracket, and I reckon fabricating the stand would be easy enough, but I'm unsure of how to make the mechanism for height adjustment. Is there anything off the shelf that might work? I've been mulling over using heavy duty drawer sliders and counterweights but not really got any further than pondering it.

Just use a gas lift arm. Should be able to find one that supports even a large tv.

I don’t know how I’d get that to work for vertical travel tho. I’ve only ever seen them used on hinged applications.

Chair gas lift would be similar to what you're after

Don’t quite get the connection between “wheels” and “wall mounted”. Either way, if you forgo wheels a basic height adjustable stand should do the trick with a cabinet parked in front.

I mean one of these. They have a fairly decent vertical travel.

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Looks good, but all the ones I’ve seen seem quite expensive.

The wall mount would simply be the means of attaching the tv to the stand. Just pointing out that I had those fixings rather than the tv having only feet or whatever.

Vesa mount jury rigged to a couple of chair gas lift columns?

Or just a shelf with a couple of chair gas lift columns.