Home DIY

I could see why :) I suppose I was doing something with washing up!

Thanks. Good to know.

Found some handy men to help do that and a few jobs now my OH can't help with anything, so I guess I'll go with what they say.

On that note, my OH wants them to "skim grout" the kitchen wall tiles to freshen up the grouting (they saw it done somewhere). I haven't pressed it, but I thought you had to dig out the old grouting as the fresh grouting needs to be a certain depth to adhere.

Probably worth also saying that the current tiles have a relatively deep(?) grout line.

Again I guess I'll see what the handymen say, but would be curious if anyone has tried it?

Strikes me as something that would chip/flake off easily. I would take out as much of the existing grout with a grout rake then re-grout.

Same (well that's what I did the previous two times I did the bathroom)... which was why I wondered if anyone had tried it themselves.

I guess it is just a case of raking over to key, rather than raking it out then it could be doable. We'll see what they say as they'll have a bit of downtime as they're relaying our bathroom floor.

It feels quite nice paying somebody else to do DIY for once.

I have a window with one of these locks but no key and none of the other ones in the house even fit the lock. It's only about 6" square so not too worried about locking it but would prefer to avoid busting the lock if possible. What's the best way of opening it? Cheers

Hard to quanitfy I know, but assuming the wall could take the load, how much weight could you reasonably expect to hold on a setup like that? It's the kind of thing I was thinking for a kilner jar rack that would probably see in excess of 100kg of static load.

I think you'll have to bust it to get to the 2nd screw under the handle. Good news is they don't take a lot of force to break.

A question on spacing from walls. I am making my shed walls ,they will be clad with box profile, there is already a steel frame around the top and legs, so I am now building a frame between them to hold the walls. It is is being made of 4x2, and the sheets will be standing vertical. Wall is roughly 5m long and 4m high. I am running horizontal wood which the sheets will be fitted to, and will then do lots of noggins to give vertical stiffness. My question is what centres should I use? i.e. in the very bad not to scale picture, Blue = Steel, Orange = Wood, what should the ? measurement be?

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I think 16" is standard for 2x4? Then people go further (20" and 24") if they're using thicker lengths (2x6 and upwards)?

You usually measure 16" in a home environment to find the next support.

Hmmm yes, wasn’t sure if i could get away with less seeing as the timber is not providing any structural strength, it’s purely there to hang the tin off.

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Studwork is non-load bearing on paper, so it feels the same to me? I've used metal studwork for quick lightweight walls in a warehouse but regretted it soon after (cut fingers, trickier fixings and poor soundproofing).

Centres are usually determined tin the tech specs of the sheet material.

You're not going to go wrong with 400mm centres though.

(You might go wrong with 16", as a lot of sheet material is metric)

Why are your studs running horizontally though?

In the end I just stuck a big screwdriver in there and turned it. Was expecting some kind of pop as it gave but it just turned like it was a key.

If you can find the make of handle from another window that's open you can get a key from online suppliers. In some cases!

Tough one. Wouldn't like to say without looking at all the variables. There are some fixings which give weight ratings, it still depends on substrate though. The shear force of a 5.5mm screw is going to be over 50kgs though.

Do update with photos/details when you figure it out, I'm looking at a similar design for my shed (still very much on paper at the moment) albeit with a timber frame not steel. Any reason why you're not running the long length vertical with the noggins horizontal?

Also anyone know of a decent & free roof joist span/thickness calculator?

Cheers, I was thinking of 3 or 4x shield bolts through a french cleat, but the wall is the unknown. It's concrete block, but I don't know much more than that. It's moot as I can't get hold of the factory to make it for me since things opened again.

I've recently used some fixings called Corefix to go into concrete block under dab plasterboard. They worked very well but they do remind you that concrete block sometimes dissolves under the hammer drill so it's worth drilling it with hammer off. If you have a lot of runout on your hammer drill you will want to go down in drill size.

I used to have a try at making any fixing suitable for any type of abuse but there is a point where suiting the likely load is more appropriate.

Reason for long lengths horizontal is that I am using 4m lengths of box profile for the walls which run vertical, so to get fixings at a consistent position I need to run horizontally. I have decided on 600mm centres, will be plenty strong enough, will throw in plenty of noggins and can even throw in some diagonal braces if needed.

Don’t think it is going anywhere, each leg is over a metre into the ground and surrounded by a cubic metre of concrete, small child to give scale...

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(sorry)

Bathroom fitters in north london - any recommendations?

Sorry for the late reply. Hide glue would do the job the ready mix bottles do have a short shelf life though, you can get the traditional stuff but you need a double boiler and it's messy and smelly.

From the bottle it's applied like pva and holds as well for as long as needed but unlike pva the bond can be reversed with the application of steam.

Send this photo to the team at handlesandhinges.co.uk. They will identify the key needed and send you one for a smallish fee. It’s like the myth of fingerprints.

Agghh...

Handymen have said that not only is the bathroom ply sub-floor not the right ply, but the floor tiles are wall tiles. Hence the eventual grout cracking and movement.

Seriously what is wrong with people?

The old owners had clearly done the kitchen and bathroom relatively recently before we bought it with a view to sale. But honestly how much £s was actually saved on cheap ply and the wrong tiles? (it's a very compact bathroom)

Frustrating as it will mean effectively paying for a bathroom install at some point. The only upside is I guess we could replace the stupid square washbasin which is impossible to keep clean.

Need some help/advice on laying parquet on a concrete, not very flat, floor.

How flat does flat need to be? and what options are there? Self leveling compound, chipboard, etc?

Really I just want to lay on top and avoid adding any layers but have no idea if this realistic or not.