Home DIY

Flip the switch, fresh spaghetti comes out of the little holes?

5a lamp socket I think?

Lighting socket - possibly controlled by a lightswitch somewhere.

never heard of this before, looks right. weird place for one, inside a storage cupboard..

Or, as it looks really old, it could be an old 15 amp power socket from when plugs had round pins. BS546 is the standard.

https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/British-plugSocket_history.html

Never knew we moved over from round pin plugs in 1947 :)

place was built in the late 60s/early70s so maybe not?

5A light sockets aren't usually switched on the socket, you would have the switch in the wall somewhere. So just an old round pin socket.

If it is still connected there is a reasonable chance the cable will be fabric or vulcanised Indian rubber which is probably rewire time.

the whole house was rewired, this is in a storage cupboard on the roof (my house has a flat roof and a roof terrace). going to guess that its maybe disconnected then.

Buy an update and sell your vintage model on ebay:

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MKK2891.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=415703895099&placement=&kw=&network=u&matchtype=&ad_type=&product_id=MKK2891&product_partition_id=940253954358&campaign=shopping_excluded&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=CjwKCAiAm-2BBhANEiwAe7eyFJGlScpYXxcibaYGRheuhpJb2S_SG9-LgSMrO1k2uhI7skkXarRSvRoCnnwQAvD_BwE

I have one very dirty/sooty fireplace from an open fire (since removed).

How can I clean this shit off? I’ve used a load of household “tinctures” with limited success as you can see.

Any ideas?

?

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Otherwise there is pretty much nothing that oven cleaner can't remove

You want something reasonably basic/alkaline. Idk any product brands in the UK but the spray on stuff I use to clean the glass in our wood burner is basically potassium hydroxide.

Edit: too slow. Oven cleaner sounds like a good option too. It's sodium hydroxide (lye).

A incredibly messy but reasonably effective method is a wire brush drill bit to abrade the bricks clean again.

Very very messy, as in worth building a Covid-secure plastic tent around the fireplace, and using similarly-specced breathing equipment while in there doing it, if you go down that route.

One bottle of oven cleaner applied. No real noticeable difference although hard to tell as they are now wet.

Maybe a wire brush drill bit and COVID tent is the way to go!

I’m imagining this is about 250 years of carbon build up as this is the age of the house.

Maybe I should just install a grandfather clock there...

5A light sockets aren't usually switched on the socket, you would have the switch in the wall somewhere. So just an old round pin socket.

Yep, I've got those sockets (unswitched) connected to the lights on top of the bookcases in my room in Chambers. They're switched from the light switch on the wall, with another switch for the central ceiling pendant.

Stripped the walls in my hallway, still needs a thorough going over to remove all residue from the ancient woodchip paper. No idea what’s going on lower half, looks like someone has painted on wood effect, generally though it’s pretty solid throughout, I can live with the odd scratch or nick in walls being 115 years old, so I’m not planning to do major repairs. However I’d like to do the whole hallway and stairwell in limewash / chalky lime paint which will undoubtably need 3 or 4 coats. Any tips much appreciated, I have been thinking about dividing hallway at downstand beam and maybe timber panelling hallway to dado rail level

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We all dream of timber panelling. It's not Downton Abbey mate, just paint it with Dulux Diamond Matt Trade and thank me later :)

Seriously though, wood panelling is a big undertaking. Kudos if you have the time/money to do it.

Chalky paints used to be the rage in the late 90's, problem in hallways is people touch them with their hands/luggage etc. and it shows in hallways because you look at the walls from acute angles.

I've used earthborn paints before, nice finish. I would maybe start out with some Dulux super matt emulsion (trade again). Something with lots of solids that will help to even out the colour difference. I would never just paint that wall though, just personal taste. Probably I would line it to protect the plaster which from experience is not very durable without paper on top.

Window board fastening question. I am milling up some one piece oak boards to replace all the internal cills in our house. I'd like to attach them without any visible fasteners. The deepest board will be about 200 and 30mm thick so perhaps will be some wood movement to contend with. I'll be Osmoing both sides of the boards. It's going onto a solid brick wall (no cavity).

Can I get away with adhesive alone? I have a tub of sumogrip in front of me which is a polymer adhesive, will it work? Or how about some polyurethane foam adhesive?

I glued all my window liners - four sides ~250x19 with a huge rebate. No movement as far as I can see. I used a fully waterproof PU varnish on the under / glue side.

PU foam is gross. Avoid.

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Probably I would line it to protect the plaster which from experience is not very durable without paper on top.

Interesting you say this, the plaster in the place I've moved into marks really easily, not helped by pale and not particularly hard wearing paint.

I was thinking that just harder wearing paint would mainly solve it, lining it hadn't occurred to me. Is is standard lining paper you'd use or something else? Cheers

Thanks. What varnish and what glue did you use? Also what's the purpose behind the rebate?

Manns or something similar for the varnish. Anything properly waterproof would do. I can’t remember what glue I used tbh, probably something in a cartridge.

The rebate fits over the frame of Velfac windows, timber goes right up to the glass. This gives a good idea, though all the other windows had a lot more noggins or whatever you’d call those bits of wood.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BksaNZ6gEpB/?igshid=u4br0mzdqjju

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bknaj3qgRKe/?igshid=189p9yjb19327