Home DIY

Other thing to consider is the original colour has a mixture of fading and dirt on the surface so a colour that matches it will usually be a pale grey version of the original colour. Most of the time touching up walls is impossible, occasionally it works. Painting entire walls and leaving others unpainted is usually fine even with a matched paint.

Dulux diamond trade but it's a little bit plasticky. Cleans very well though and seems to resist grease. Chalky paint is back in fashion, as a decorator I love it because it needs repainting twice as often.

I'd have at look at Purdy, 9" roller, medium pile sleeve, roller pole and bucket. Clean them properly and you're sorted for life. :)

many tradesmen don’t give a flying fuck

Quoted for truth, context irrelevant.

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^{(Obviously many do, and I wouldn't want to libel them, but, well, many don't.)}

How many times do you reckon on cleaning a sleeve before chucking it? They’re never the same after the first use but I tend to hang on to them.

Learning to clean them well makes the biggest difference. There’s various tools to speed up the process but Airhead will have greater knowledge on that!

We've been washing them as best we can in the sink then sticking them in the washing machine for a rinse/spin cycle. Is was not sure how badly that would fuck up the machine, but it was ms_com's idea, to any fall out is on her and it seems to be fine so far. Sleeves are definitely softer feeling than just hand washing.

Idly revisiting the idea of insulating our shed.

This time rather than explicitly thinking about using it to create an outdoor 2 season office space, I'm thinking more of a cheap way to reduce the temperature swings for use as a potting shed.

Internal joists are ~4cm. I remember someone saying net + insulation was the cheapest route. Anything else?

Also if I was going to pick 1 or 2 walls and a roof which would be best? I assume the roof would retain some heat and the roof and south wall with windows would prevent some of the rise in temp. Or would it be totally pointless?

To avoid any confusion the aim of insulating isn't a passive house in the garden it's to bring the inside temp to a more usable range. My old notes have daytime temps from 10°-45°. Overnight is a nudge over the outside temp, but I'm not worried about that as a quick blast with a heater in the am would bring it up.

Edit: £45 for a couple of rolls of foil bubble wrap looks like the cheapest.

Learning to clean them well makes the biggest difference. There’s various tools to speed up the process but Airhead will have greater knowledge on that!

I use hot water and a painters tool . It's very satisfying to use.

I've read back through the impact driver/battery chat, still slightly confused - looking at the Makita impact driver, is it worth forking out for the LXT battery series? Seems like it will future-proof for future tool purchases in the same series, but will it impact the functionality of the impact driver as well? I guess I may end up looking to buy more tools so should probably go down that road but its a hefty outlay... cheers

Yes, imo. Makes it much easier to justify future tool purchases if you can buy them bare and already have batteries that'll suit.

Definitely always go for the ones with cross tool compatible batteries.

OK great, that seems reasonably clear. It would make it much easier if it was possible to buy a battery and charger separately but I guess I'll just stump up for the decent combo drill and driver kit with 5.0Ah batteries and be done with it....

I use Makita LXT stuff.

You should be able to get batteries and chargers separately. It's always good to have a range of battery sizes, small batteries good for occasional drilling etc. Big batteries good for circular saws and angle grinders, but heavier.

What do people use the combi drill for? Makes more sense to me to have a twin pack of impact driver and a drill driver.
But I'm sure there's a good reason.

combi drill

The "hammer" action on a combi drill is enough for 80% of DIY (hanging pictures/shelves etc). Saves most home gamers buying an SDS+

I've had to bin some if they start to shed fibres, usually after 15-20 years!

There are lots of different cleaning methods, some guys put them in the washing machine. I wash them really well, scraping the paint out then spin them dry. If the water coming out when you spin them isn't clean then you need to wash them again.

I'm not using rollers exclusively and I've tended to use small ones and brush out the finish for quite a few years. I do sometimes bash a lot of rooms out with a roller but I'll use an 18" roller frame or smaller if the surface is uneven.

I don't like washing them but it's that or buy new ones.

You should be able to, but I couldn't see anything reasonably priced and delivering soon after a quick search, if you know anywhere to look I'd be very grateful! Also re battery sizes, just seen screwfix have the kit at a really good price with 2ah batteries. I would imagine these would be fine for my needs, especially with 2 supplied to swap between if necessary...

Do you airless spray much now?

Scrap the above, I'm getting confused with the two different battery systems again 🤦‍♂️

2ah will be fine for most drilling and impact driving, if you could get a bit bigger it would probably be better though. Aall my batteries are older, when I think the smallest was 3ah.

Powertoolmate are my go to for things like this, and are quite often cheaper than screwfix\toolstation. Their website is awful, but a new one is launching next month. They also have a facebook group that they post deals in, it's heavily milwaukee skewed, but they do occasionally have Makita deals, including batteries.

No, I'm not doing whole house stuff much and it adds so much time and hassle in a crowded domestic property. Also the amount of paint in the pipework you need to flush out if it's only a small room. Bearing in mind most of the property I'm working in is small London rooms.

I had been hoping to build a spray booth for furniture projects but the space I'd use keeps on being occupied by other worthwhile causes.

In terms of the smooth finish, I have no problem exceeding my clients desire for smoothness by rolling and brushing out. :)

One of these is a good investment. I use the pro dec one (I have 2 they're that good) but this one is a bit cheaper. It gets a lot of use for brushes. It's a good idea to have a plasterers bucket or other tall container to spin stuff in.

https://www.mypaintbrush.co.uk/uni-pro-brush-roller-cleaner?language=en&currency=GBP&notax=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIl5HYq_3X7wIVDZ53Ch2E3wSbEAQYASABEgIsi_D_BwE

Amazing, thank you - put together a package on powertoolmate for just the impact driver, 4ah battery and charger that was cheaper than I could find anywhere else and I really don't need the drill just now anyway so this is perfect.

Basic plumbing SOS. Got a leaky tap. Opened it up, extracted cartridge, toddled along to local plumbing supplies expecting to be rewarded with a simple purchase/fix and to bathe in the warm glow of a DIY job done competently. Which is a glow I am not hugely accustomed to. The grumpy plumbing man took one look at the cartridge and just said 'no'. Apparently it's really unusual and they don't stock any. I asked if he could advise any search terms/specs to help me find online. "no". He just said do a google and find a picture that looks the same. Having been through all results on ebay+amazon I can't find a match. Anyone able to ID or offer suggestions of what to look for/where to look? Cheers