Home DIY

Talking of dust, I made a lot of it in the cellar. Got a million nails to remover from the joists then it's getting ready to insulate (and sort these bloody pipes out)

Is there supposed to be a cellar shown in that picture?

I hope it will still be there when the dust settles.

Maybe some sort of shallow planter built around them? Could get some creepers going along the fence then

I need to fit a radiator today. Will I get away with just turning the TRV right down for the ten minutes it should take? My local Screwfix are out of those little TRV caps at the moment.

I'm not so sure. The ceiling was replastered when we had the kitchen (not 40k) done a couple of years ago. There might have been something hidden by the builder but I can't check now as he's dead.

I've managed most of ours without using caps. Just had old towels and a tray on standby.

You should be fine. The problem is if it gets cold enough for the TRV to open to protect against frozen pipes which is unlikely in 10 minutes during the day.

The winter has not been kind to my back doors, how do I fix this & with what?

Is it just a case of rub it back a bit then brush on some new sealant / varnish - any recommendations for tried & trusted products? Doesn't have to be a flawless finish, just need to stop the doors rotting off

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Cheers, yes I thought that was the case, just needed to hear it from someone else. Plumbing gives me the willies, especially in a newly carpeted room.

Remove the rotten wood. Treat the rest. Bring it back up with filler. Sand it back to the original profile. Prime then paint or just varnish.

Just done something similar and it’s quite the ballache. If you can pay someone to do it, you probably should. They’ll strip all the paint / varnish off, sand it back then repair where needed then re finish.

For a quick fix You might find that sanding it back with a sanding sponge gets you to good wood fairly quickly - in which case fill the cracks then varnish. But the repair will be obvious unless you strip it all back.

Cheers, what did you use? I've seen some people recommending slapping on a couple of coats of yacht varnish as a quick fix if the finish doesn't have to be immaculate, tempted to give that a bash & see how it goes - it's the back patio doors & we're not expecting the queen round for cans in the garden anytime soon

The ronseal professional stuff is probably fine for smaller jobs. Repaircare is recommended by airhead but I’ve yet to use it because I needed to learn with cheaper materials to start with :)

The thing you want to avoid with outside wood is allowing water to penetrate and settle in it as you get more rot and in the winter it freezes then splits the wood. I’m not sure if yacht varnish will prevent that from happening, hence fill the cracks first with filler.

If you aren’t worried about the overall finish. A Quick sand with a sponge, apply filler to seal all the gaps, sanding back then vanishing is probably not too onerous tbh.

10 mins, you'll be longer than that for sure unless its the same identical rad which they never are. If you have a pressured system just drain it. Takes no time and saves you flooding the place if you make a mistake.

Once you’ve removed that rotten wood and built up with filler or spliced in new wood, a coat of varnish is going to reveal all of that repair work. I’d prime and paint the lot.

Toupret have a polyurethane based two part filler called Extrem’wood that I haven’t tried yet but which looks like a cheaper alternative to Repaircare

You were right, 25 once I'd remembered the olives. Much fucking about getting the tails between the valves.

What are people’s thoughts on cables for external lights? Cables will be clipped to the outside of the building. So needs to be rated for external use. SWA would be a pain in the arse to reterminate at each fixture.
Has anyone tried that HITUF stuff? Looks like it fits the bill, gives a bit of mechanical protection, but without the need to faff with earthing metal armouring.

Cheers, will give the sanding / filling a go & see how it comes up

@Sharkstar - that had crossed my mind & would probably save the ball-ache of redoing this every couple of years, if the first option looks gash I think that might be on the cards - I take it a properly painted finish would be more resilient than varnish of any sort?

Last time I looked the advice was 'artic'. I went for a black version although it's less uv resistant. It's basically a chunky flexible coating. I'll see if I can find the code on the bit I have left over.

The wood you're looking at is basically denatured. Very often it's only slightly softer than normal and doesn't always have a lot of rot. It's easy enough to handle if you are overpainting but clear varnish is a bit more of a challenge.

The earlier advice has been on point though, it might just need a little sanding and coat it with some sort of exterior varnish. It's a job you need to do fairly regularly rather than try and find a forever solution.

A paint system applied properly, something like Dulux Weathershield will have an 8-10 year guarantee, longest lasting in gloss white, shortest in dark matt finishes. I use All-coat with a coat of cover stain as a primer. So far approaching 6 years without problem in some local jobs. Oil based Dulux weathershield jobs have got past 10 years now but are beginning to crack here and there, mostly on edges of cills.

Ta - the wood doesn't look completely knackered, just a bit weathered. I'll sand it back & hopefully a bit of filler and a few coats of varnish will keep on top of it for now

How’s this for knackered wood?

Second photo after a bit of a clear up.

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Scraped it all out then Drowned it in hardener

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Just like icing a cake, right?

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Never a ten min job no matter what anyone ever says and i seen the room had a new carpet, would never risk it with all the black shite thats usually in rads.