Home DIY

Nothing wrong with String if it's going in to good quality masonry.

This lot is on plasterboard. Hold me. Or my shelves.

(literally had to take the drawers out of the cabinet to even lift it - weighty)

IANAE but I would want to be able to lift it off for maintenance. Maybe a stick on gasket strip or something. Anything that means it's not bonded in such a way that requires silicone dissolving goop and much swearing if it fails in future. But it could be that the recommended thing is to silicone it.

I'm pretty sure my manual said don't silicone it.

Mine has a bit of a lip, I just have to wipe it out every so often.

String shelving is dead good for the price imo - love the stuff

Hobs come with either a foam or like a putty seal.

You could run a small bead of mastic round it if you feel like it but I wouldn’t bother personally.

Thanks all, it does indeed say dont seal it in the manual

Are you screwing into the stud or using some fancy drywall fixings? They look great, by the way.

They supply some meaty dry wall fittings. The far left rail went in to a stud though, by chance.

They don't recommend trying to work around the stud layouts, interestingly.

Assuming the vertical support bars are stiff, which they look to be, the rotational force created by the hung cabinets is going to be distributed across all of the fixings on that bar, and the opposing inward torque at the more remote fixings will be reduced because of the distance. I hadn’t really thought about it before.

cheap (£80) drill press

What's the issue?

Does it not go high enough?

I plane and shape it with chisels. Very little sanding especially with a machine as it heats up quick. You can use perspex as a former and you get close to a mirror finish.

Don't worry too much, I've had a big one with desktops on lathe and plaster for a few years. The cabs are a lift though!

It's the genius of the system.

Yes, apparently white is preferable because of the uv resistance.

The cabs are a lift though!

The drawers are insanely over engineered. Looks like they were designed to withstand being filled with lead (or gold bars?). Once the drawers were out it was liftable. With them in... no chance. No idea how the young lad who delivered them got them up two flights of stairs - I thought I overtipped him, on reflection, he earned it.

Electrical question:

I want to replace a cracked socket pattress box, and replace a mains powered smoke alarm. In both cases the replacement has the same wiring as the existing unit and I don't need to do anything to the fuse board.

Replacement socket box is because the old one has cracked. Replacement smoke alarm is so that it is wirelessly interlinked with other alarms in the flat.

Can I swap these myself legally?

Yes, unlike gas there isn't any things to say you can't replace them yourself, also even though the wires are the same double check when switching the smoke alarm as I had to rewire one recently that was slightly different.

Trying to avoid purchasing an 18v mitre saw for price, size and energy requirements. I’m not going to be cutting too many batons, the ones I do are going to be 2x2 max, nor do I need compound cuts.

Can I get away with using a jigsaw + guide rail (preferable as already have and will need for other jobs) or should I buy a manual mitre saw which I assume with do a better job but need more storage space.

Where did you get those bits of door seal? Our doors are in almost exactly the same state as yours.

I assume you're talking about Repaircare (mirror finish). I was thinking about my experiences with regular two part epoxy. I've never tried using a chisel (or a plane) on that, always gone straight in with the sander.

I assume it's not cheap!

They are made by storm guard. These came from iron mongery direct

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/product/stormguard-xrd-rain-deflector-with-rubber-seal-914mm-length-inwardoutward-opening-doors-white-362470

You can get nicer looking wooden weather bars - this was a bit of a bodge but I couldn’t face trying to find someone to do a proper job on it by replacing the water seal and fixing the routing in the cill.

Yes, repaircare for the perspex. The 'bondo' will plane just fine too. I wonder whether the 2 part does work with perspex. Basically repaircare won't stick to perspex so you can use it to form a surface and crack it off when it's dry.

It's a 'lifetime' purchase. They have the whole system figured out though. The company has a great ethos.

Thank you!