Home DIY

They require perfectly straight walls and a very sympathetic placement of the backbox. I’m going with.... do not buy.

👌

I have the larger one of this (with the power socket on the front) and it's great.

Definitely worth the hassle of picking up for someone...

I've had an issue with them too

I bought all mine from See Switches and as @Señor_Bear says the wall needs to be pretty perfect but I wouldn't let that put you off buying them (unless your walls are fecked) as they do look super nice. I did all the sockets and light switches whilst renovating so hacking walls to sink backboxes wasn't an issue.

Move.

Hey.
What shelves are these please?
Thanks.

Svalnas was mentioned earlier

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/svalnaes-system-47397/

Thank you.

How much wastage should I be adding when sourcing a reclaimed pine floor (square edge boards, laid straight on joists)?

Floor area is ~15m^2. Seen 5-10% quoted for a new floor, 20% for reclaimed. Does that sound about right?

Using a straight edge find the straightest side of the door. Then using either a large framing square or the 3-4-5 method to square the top and bottom of the door in relation to the straight side. It's then relatively straightforward to square the other side from this.

The trick is to do this while taking off the bear minimum from the door, but once you're done you can treat it like a factory door.

Is there anywhere in London that I can go and buy off-white grout?

Hi, just about to start our reno and would love to take this, please. Can make a donation to charity, bring beers etc? We are just down the road so can easily collect tomorrow :)

Can you choose the boards? Wastage from off cuts and wastage from undesirable boards are separate things.
5% seems very low. I think we went between 10-20 for our reclaimed beech. Had a reasonable amount left over - but admittedly that was mainly boards with shake or other issues. Fine if they’ll be under furniture etc, but not what you want bang in the middle of the floor space.

If you go and hand pick your boards and get all long lengths, and avoid damaged boards etc that will obviously reduce waste.
This isn’t always an option though.
Also, picking boards is very time consuming. I definitely could have reduced my wastage if I'd been more fastidious with my picking. I didn't get any stinkers in there, but enough cosmetic imperfections that made up my waste. I'd also had to travel to pick up the boards, so paying an extra £20-30 as a contingency to save having to come and get more/patch in loads of little bits was definitely worth it.

Cross post from classified for some really nice leftover engineered wood

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/359265/#comment15781002

35mm solid oak 4 panel doors

Where did you order from? I need one of these.

Not necessarily the 35 mm oak bit, but I need a better 4 panel to replace the cheap one on a bedroom. When the sun shines on it in the right way you can see the light through the edges of the panels.

Ukoakdoors.com

Good point. I was thinking off cuts, hadn't considered being picky about the boards.

We'd planned to drive over but it's all a bit of a hassle at the moment. Will probably just go for 20% to be safe and get them delivered. The front half of the room and hallway all have the original boards. Hoping that with the imperfections in those we'll get away with whatever turns up...

I mean, having extra is useful for future repairs, making nice things and generally avoiding stress. And you get to be picky about the boards you put down. It does depend what and where you buy from tho. Some places take all the shite out for you and you pay that premium. Other places don’t and charge less.

Any recommendations on tile paint for a bathroom?
It will be around a bath and sink and window ledges, as well as four walls. The bath has a mixer tap and a shower head on the wall but isn't a shower as such. I keep seeing 'not suitable for showers' so wondering if that is really just for contained showers that will have lots of water and heat.
It's only a 'temporary' fix till we get some cash to gut it and start again.

There was some chat about this a while ago I seem to remember. If I wanted to hire a labourer to help clear a concrete slab from my garden and level the ground, where would I look other than Wickes car park (◔_◔)

I went through a phase of getting picked up in tile shops :)

Running SWA between a cabin and a garage. Small gap about 50cm. Is it ok to run the cable straight through a hole in either building (single skin timber cabin, ply and PVC fascia on the garage side).
I’ll silicone each penetration obviously, or should I really run them into junction boxes with glands etc.

I'm not sure there's a regulation that applies. It seems like the kind of thing that should be fine if it's all fixed in place. Junction boxes would look nice though :)

Big old leak this morning, hoped that it was snow as cause when it first showed itself the other day.
This morning bitumen painted every bit I could find that looked suspect.
Fingers crossed it works.

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