Home DIY

Good to know, ta. I had it in our old place but in to plaster over brick where it felt super study (but mounting the e-tracks was a mission).

It's worse when you live and work in area that was all like that. A lot of it still was when I moved in 20 years ago. I have got better at dealing with it :)

I've got a few of differing low budget makes and types, from £15-£50. They sometimes flag up an issue that you might have overlooked but they are not as important as experience. Most of the mistakes people make are avoidable. If you're not sure go slow and use smaller bits, investigate a bit. The finders help if you are outside of your usual property/construction type and trying to figure out what you are drilling into.

For example you already know all the zones for cables so you should always check in them if you had to hang a wall cupboard. That's a scenario where a cable finder can give you a big warning that there's power in that area.

Unless the property looks like the electrics haven't been updated since the 60's. In those cases you need to think about checking if you have any rcd protection as well.

Yes, it's lovely into brick. We have a desk on a brick wall and it's really solid. Another good quality of the e-track is bending to fit curvy walls.

I've found the e-track very easy to do with a laser.

I mean a dot and dabbed wall can be just as bad as a lath to get a fixing on sometimes.

Worse in some ways. I use these Corefix plugs

https://www.screwfix.com/p/corefix-metal-original-heavy-duty-dot-dab-wall-fixing-10-x-95mm-24-pack/344hg#:~:text=Corefix%20original%20heavy%20duty%20steel,%2C%20shelves%2C%20boilers%20and%20radiators.

Aside from price I can recommend them. Just hung a really heavy mirror using 3 of them.

The dob and dab catches me out because it's usually only in the basement of the houses I work in. I've only recently started on some new build flats and they need a lighter touch sometimes.

Has the smart lighting for multiple bulb fixtures thing been solved yet? I’m assuming some kind of module at the fixture rather than at the switch would work?

Yeah, noticed already the mad wiring in older houses. Shortest route possible seemed to be the choice for a lot of cables plastered into the walls. Often in a metal conduit of some sort at least, but still.

It's water pipes I'm more worried about. Which reminds me that I need to grab some of those Rothenberger Kibosh emergency repair things you recommended.

As I'm fairly new to the trade, and my main area of experience that is lacking is actual work in houses, I was keen to have something to try and help keep me out of trouble. I'm hoping I can find someone to take me on for a bit so I can learn my way around domestic jobs a bit better!

Yeah theres a ton of new builds or modern houses we work in. Sometimes you think its a plaster board wall and are like fine then you go to get a fixing and its fuckin dot and dab......

Can you just use really long screw and go through into the wall behind?

Mispost

Aye but it’s having the super long screws sometimes that’s the issues but that is a work around.

There's a fair few options that involve some module somewhere in the wiring.

Pretty much all the switch replacements that I've seen are ugly

Fair. Good attitude to have. And yes, a good way to get your feet wet, so to speak.

Not always. Sometimes that will pull the plasterboard towards the wall. That's why the corefix work because you drive a metal sleeve into the plug which bridges the gap.

They are worth having in the bag. I'm not sure if a really expensive one is a lot more useful because I've never had one.

When you're working with plasterboard walls the void can help you to avoid damaging any pipes or cables. Go very slowly and carefully into the wall and you can feel any changes in the substrate. Big drill bits and drills are the worst, I hit a water pipe in a block of flats with a core drill. Luckily no permanent damage done. Clean water is less of a problem than people think.

I'm quite interested to see what could be done with an IR scanner. It might help to find central heating pipes for example.

The more often you drill holes in walls the more cables and pipes you'll hit though. I've asked long serving pro curtain fitters and the answer to how many was 'lots'

How much load can an average plasterboard wall take?

The lifetime guaranteed safety answer is zero load. And that's what I would stick to if I were you.

I'm also interested in people's experience with stud/pipe finders. Doesn't have to be budget, but I'm not about to drop a few hundred quid on a top end one.

I have a fairly crappy one and it's never really helped me that much unless the circumstances are ideal.

So when I start rebuilding my ensuite, after I finish ripping it apart, it's worth adding extra noggins to the studwork to support the radiator/basin/shower?

I don't mean to go against some of the very experienced builders in this thread. I'm just giving my own personal opinion here:

^I have no idea without seeing exactly what you're talking about. If it's easy to do, why not? But I would never hang shelving off drywall.

There's just too much leverage. However good the mounting points are, they only get worse with time. Shelves should not have adhere to a lower than expected weight limit. Im paranoid about somebody (child) getting hurt.

The list really goes on, But it all boils down to the fact that Drywall is not a structural material.

Interesting, thanks. I've got some curtain poles to fit on some dot and fab insulated plasterboard walls and corefix look good although I'll have to check the thickness of the board.

Only one I've ever used that was any good was this one from Bosch but it's not cheap.

Well, that one is definitely the money end! I guess if you're doing that job all day every day it might be worth it.

In tis case the system being discussed is Vitsoe 606 which has an aluminium track fixed at roughly 300mm centres on the track. The shelves themselves then spread the force on the track and there are options for shelf size up to a table which has a supporting leg. They supply hilti fixings for plasterboard that are so good I started using them for my own projects after being supplied them for my shelving.

They are a rare case of a company who have their product installation figured out.

I'm quite interested to see what could be done with an IR scanner. It might help to find central heating pipes for example

Because they only observe the surface temperature, that's unlikely to be useful as you'd be relying on the hidden pipe radiating/conducting its heat to the back of the surface and that warming the surface sufficient to observe.

If they are on, it t will find underfloor heating circuits as they are intended to heat the surface. CH pipes running along a hall not to far below the floor may show, however a thick carpet / underlay would probably have a fairly uniform surface temperature if the heating was on.

I have a Perfect Prime UR0005 and it can see the cold bridging of studs and screws through the plasterboard and areas within those studs that are poorly insulated :(

It picked up a fuse box breaker and a plug socket that was hotter than the others and turned out to have loose terminals.