Home DIY

Can be tricky to do in a spot like that, but taking your first measurement from the 100mm point often helps to make more accurate measurements. Just remember to take off the extra 100mm when you make the cut!

It's a good idea to cut the wood to a bit less than the distance between the walls then offer it up to the gap and mark it. At least until you know your tape measure and technique is working.

Another problem with internal measurements is reading the wrong value on the tape. Still happens to me occasionally.

Basically repeating what Nefarious has already said here!

Steel rules are great but I don't take mine to sites because they are easy to lose or damage.

Cheers all for the tape measure suggestions.

I remember seeing the Talmeter before and watching the promo has sold it to me again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ovuFoiVwr0

Plus it's not a fortune, so I think I'll jump on it before I go down some sort of internet tape measure khole

It's a good idea to cut the wood to a bit less than the distance between the walls then offer it up to the gap and mark it. At least until you know your tape measure and technique is working.

That's a good tip. I used the +5mm section of the body of my existing tape measure and rounded up

I've straightened it now so can't show how bent out it was.

Definitely a lesson not to let Mini-H run riot with it in future. I'd stupidly assumed because it was a metal bodied one explaining they couldn't put it in water was enough.

They do like their tools tho

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Decided to clean up (with the delicate use of a cold chisel) the edges of a small area of plaster that needed patching behind our sink. Lots of it came off. It wasn't bonded very well. Now its no longer a small patching job :/

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On the plus side, I'm enjoying the many many layers of wallpaper.

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I have a special system devised for placing them in my toolbox for this reason!

Now its no longer a small patching job :/

DIY in a nutshell.

The box room/office in the new place has a massive hole in the lathe and plaster wall. Plus a load of cracking by the window. I am imagining it will look similar to the above once I start pulling the liner paper off. But fully prepared. It is going to be my "how hard can plastering be?" practice room.

Yup!

If I'd seen this coming I'd have gotten someone else to do the whole thing. Well, perhaps that's unfair because I actually did see it coming, hoped for the best and made plans for the worst.

There was always going to be a need for a pro to do the tiling, but that was to be done after all the cabinets and worktops, so wasn't on the critical path. In a stroke of luck, I found someone who can come tomorrow to price the job and he has the afternoon free which might give enough time to deal with the short-term plastering requirements. Here's hoping.

The other side of the room looks a lot better, and I would still be up for doing it myself, but if I've got someone coming in anyway then there's little point as it shouldn't take a pro very long to do a small area like the attached.

My walls are, as they say (in Scotland at least) "plastered on the hard" i.e. directly to the brickwork. Plastering onto laths seems like it would be much trickier. Good luck!

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Cheers. I'm just going to chuck lime plaster at it and rub it 'til it complies. Then call a professional.

I was also planning to fit some replacement floorboards, as there are some gaps/ missing boards under cabinets/ split edges.

It's not the worst timber floor in the world, so I wouldn't mind keeping and repairing it, but would need to have it sanded back after the repairs. However I was surprised to see 30 linear metres of floorboard in 5 different widths being needed once I'd measured up. That I for sure didn't anticipate. Now nervously/ excitedly waiting on a quote for all the replacement boards being custom cut, which I've asked to be accompanied with a quote for supplying and fitting a whole new floor.

Seems fine, what could go wrong?! :)

Looks like the worst side of mine is the original (presumed lime) plaster - based on what looks like horsehair bits to help it bind together. So I'm also not sure about infilling with gypsum plaster. It's not an external wall, so breathability isn't a big concern (although the other side of the wall is tiled for the bath/shower so could be hiding all sorts of hideousness) - I just want it to stay put!

Would love to see more pics, planning on doing very similar...

I did a a lot of fishing holes and cable channels + a 80x80 hole in a sloping roof. My attempt is no worse than the other plastering we had done by a professional. It just took 4 times longer I guess? I'm sure this doesn't scale up to doing a whole wall, but I would definitely recommend giving patches a go!

This is great, thanks for putting together.

Making the room not canary yellow and presentable for now really. It'll be my girlfriends office and we'll invest some more on it when we've recovered from moving and sorted the more important rooms. We're DIY'ing the kitchen from the end of next week so that'll be the killer for a while.

Looks great! We have something similar in aqua colours in Mini Hammers bedroom but painted painstakingly with rollers... Might suggest cans if Mrs Hammer wants the same in our incoming ikea utility room.

Thanks! We went with Montana cans for graffiti, you might have a look at other caps but we just used what they came with. You're better off doing three thin layers than trying to get it one go. And wait for wind-still, dry, and not too cold day or prepare for everything in your house to have a fine dusting of whichever colours you've picked.

Would love to see more pics, planning on doing very similar...

Sure - although any new pics will be a bit lived in

This is the basic layout - we carved off the back section to make a large closet/boiler cupboard, removed the old door and hung a new one in the new wall, which made the space outside a little landing/hallway.

The plans don't show the shower (too hard) but it's in the new wall between bathroom and boiler cupboard so we could run all the plumbing in the gap. The ledge behind the bath has the plumbing for the bath taps.

Is there anything you'd like to see specifically? I have some work in progress pictures of various bits.

Cheers for sharing! Looks pretty much identical to what I am planning! How has it worked out for you? As expected? Anything you'd change?

This is an early render of my plan, but have since switched the loo and sink to be like yours as well flipped the shower head (its wrong here).

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switched the loo and sink

Also some people don't like being able to see the wc from the hall.

Where's the tank for that toilet?

Aye, I wasn't sure what was worse - seeing the loo or it being next to you when in a shower/bath. Gone with the later.

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