Home DIY

Is it a PIR? And the click says a relay is involved.

Relays are happy at 1HZ but a PIR may have a tunable delay to avoid multiple triggers.

Thanks. It’s a brick box with lots of nice 60s features which the previous owners didn’t do much to preserve sadly but our aim is to gradually get it more period correct. The classic ‘if only the house had been less expensive so we could afford to do all the work that needs doing’ I guess.

Edit, refresh fail, was a reply to @dbr

Was the stairs being held up by the radiator!?

It did clang a bit when walking over it. Best bit is they obviously painted the rad at some point so they must have realised the situation but just didn’t care.

It definitely looks like there’s a relay in there. And it figured avoiding multiple triggers would make sense. Will leave it to settle and hope for the best.

Have to go back to fanny on to wire in some security cameras now anyway. Joy of joys. More cheap Amazon/Aldi/Costco/Homebase shite electronics to faff on with.

They’re super thin for dominos

Looks to be 18mm veneered MDF or similar. Assuming it is 18mm a 5 X 3o domino would be fine as long as you double checked when setting the depth. Personally I'd use a biscuit as it would do the trick just as well and is cheaper, but the festool system is pretty much industry standard. Spline is a possibility across the mitre but would be mega fiddly as a concealed spline within the joint.

If the bottom is dado’d and glued, that might be enough strength.

I doubt it end grain to end grain glue joints are, to say the least, weak. In engineered timber where the fibres are usually very short and the substrate is highly absorbent its a point of failure waiting to happen. Those drawers unless I'm mistaken are not on runners and are designed to be opened by pulling the top of the box. They'd be on the fixing pile within 6 months of purchase in my house; where all drawers are full to the brim of random heavy stuff and usually operated by heavy handed, overexcited children.

Those drawers unless I'm mistaken are not on runners and are designed to be opened by pulling the top of the box.

Yes, the drawers run on a couple of pieces of what look like dowel. They’re probably not the best designed or constructed set of drawers, but they fit the shelving when we bought it. And it would be handy now to have more, they just not available to buy. They’re also tiny, I’m not sure runners would be useful as they’re so small.

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for some reason the floor of our guest toilet has a downlight in the floor, facing up under the glass sink. I think it's supposed to look modern or something.

Problem is, since going LED, it's really bright! the bulb glass is flat and 4.5cm across, and doesn't get hot. Can I just put a translucent amber sticker on it to dim it a bit/make it a bit warmer white?

Hue bulb and set it to default to one of the lower settings? I'm presuming it's Gu10.

If you get a 'white ambiance' version you can also adjust the colour temperature to the exact white you want.

Can't you just buy a lower wattage bulb? You can get low output ones for things like bedside lamps.

I love your hallway floor tiles!

They don’t seem to be a complicated design. However, I don’t have any appropriate tools really, just what I’ve collected through the years as a renter. So, does anybody have an idea what the minimal amount of tools I’d need would be to make something like the photos below? Fine saw? Corner clamp? Mitre guide?

To do it like this you would need a mitre saw, very well set up, to do the mitres.
A router to do the dado / groove for the drawer base
Some clamps and glue to stick it together. You can buy corner clamp guides to make sure it's all square, or you can make a template.
and some oak veneered MDF (it's usually veneered on one face and one edge), and some plain MDF for the bases, all of which you can order cut to size.

But as others have said, a mitre like that is not a strong construction, so there may be something hidden we cannot see, and getting that level of finish takes time, skill and practice.

Have you looked on Ebay, Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree for any of these for sale? It's probably a cheaper and easier way to get more drawers. I've pimped loads of old Ikea things by simply buying more second-hand ones and using what I need from them.

If you’re not worried about them looking the same, but just want some the same size, you have more options and a potentially easier task. It would be difficult to exactly match the veneer on the mdf anyway. Given the choice, I’d avoid doing a mitre joint. Assuming a dovetail is too much of a stretch, the front and back could be butted onto the sides and secured with dowels and a pair of cam and dowel concealed fixings, and glue. Ikea style. You’d need a jig for the dowels and concealed fixings. Still quite a bit of work involved.

@Muppetteer what are the dimensions? I’m gonna say it will be easier to find alternative drawers to fit

@bq & @Sharkstar From all the info, it's looking more and more like I'm not going to attempt to make something. I think purchasing all the tools required just for this will end up being a lot more expensive than seeing if something else fits or something comes up in the future.

@Tenderloin the dimensions are a bit odd as the shelving is Muji and follows their Japanese measurements which are: Width 26cm x depth 37cm x height 34.5 cm.

They've also got few different configurations, a wide version, width 52cm x depth 37cm x height 34.5 cm and a few others. But, it's just a bit of a pain that they don't seem to be available in the UK or EU anymore.

How much did they cost new, if you can remember?

How much did they cost new, if you can remember?

I think they were about £35 a set. I've got two sets in the photos.

Another option would be to see if cutwrights can cut the mitres with cnc'd dowels for you they're pretty accomodating and it would all depend on if their machines can cut the bevel. With their range of boards you should be able to get a decent match.

Edit - Would be more than 35 a set but could come in close if you can get a good number from a single board.

I think it's one of the AmazonBasics ones

Anyone reconditioned their own sash windows?

Ours need tlc. At least one cord has gone and all need external paint.

Worth attempting myself or get a pro?

They're fairly straightforward - well worth a go

Hope so....Any special tooling and materials I need And any guides to the process I should read?

Long time since I've done any, but Leyland SDM used to carry pretty much all the bits you might need at reasonable price/quality balance. Tools - nothing specialist, nothing you're unlikely to have in a normal toolbox.

There are bound to be guides online, but
IIRC any of the decent DIY books (Readers Digest or whatever) have sections too.

Which cord do you need to replace? Lower sash is easier as you can do it without full removal (upper sash you'll need to remove the lower one first).

I have done many professionally. I wouldn't describe what you have said needs doing as reconditioning per se.

In order to replace a cord you need to

Remove the beading on one side of the inside
Pull out the lower sash and remove the cords from the sides of the sash
remove parting beading
If the problem is the upper sash then remove the cords from that too
remove covers to the sash boxes which are usually hidden under a few layers of paint
now you have access to the weights you can replace the cords
nail new cords to upper sash
replace parting bead
nail new cords to lower sash
replace bull nose beading

That's a simple guide to the process. If you need a source for parting bead or bull nose or you decide to add some draught proofing you can browse a lot of options at Mighton or Reddiseals.

If you want to paint the exterior while they are out of the frames you can shutter the windows with 12mm ply strengthened with some pine on the back. Then prep and paint them with something like Zinnsers Cover Stain followed All-Coat. Other exterior paint systems are available but this one dries quickly.

I'm skimming over a lot of processes which I would carry out as 'prep'. But often I am stripping the frames to the wood, removing the glass and replacing with 6.3mm acoustic glass. Draught proofing all round and replacing weights to accommodate the heavier glass.

I reckon doing the external stuff is beyond me. Will take some photos and put them up here...but do you know anyone in West (or who could travel to west) who could do the external work?

Happy to throw a bit of money at it to get them redone properly.

Sadly I don't know anyone who does it and I'm going to be very busy this summer doing last years jobs as well as this years!

External decorators should be reasonable easy to find though. I tend to be more specialised, listed buildings and stuff like that where the windows can't just be replaced.