Home DIY

What is the forum approved jet washer? Looking for something to clean my wooden decking and also muddy bikes.

Also, do any of them have window cleaning attachments or is that not a thing?

The window cleaning things you see window cleaners using have distilled water in them. That's how they get away without wiping them afterwards.

Not sure about forum approved but the big Karcher ones all have a problem with the little plastic connectors for the lance and you need to keep a load of them and fiddle with them every time they get stuck. On the power and accessory front they are great though.

I wouldn’t recommend using a pressure washer on a deck, particularly a softwood deck. It’s easy to shred the wood fibres if you overdo it, and it’s surprisingly easy to overdo it. Soapy water, bleach and elbow grease!

I was looking at window brushes and saw a load of mentions online of adding dishwasher rinse aid to the soap mix. Seems cheaper than buying lots of distilled water.

What is the forum approved jet washer?

Karcher k2 and the decking / patio attachment

Don’t use a Pw on windows.

Our window cleaner used to distill his own! Apparently there are places you can buy it on tap (like garages). Pet shops also sell it in fairly large amounts. Not sure how expensive it is but I usually get some from the window cleaner to for a record cleaning machine.

I'm not sure about other methods. When I'm cleaning glass after painting etc. I use a window cleaning solution but I'm either on scaffolding or ground level or the piece is on the workshop bench so no need for a long range solution.

I’ve got a Stihl one and it’s great, all the fixtures feel solid and lots of the fittings are brass rather than plastic. FYI it’s badges as Stihl but made by another company (I forget who). Bought from the garden tools place near wood st

Yeah, I'm aware that it's easy to over do it with a pressure washer, especially with bearings, pointing etc. But the decking has grooves in the planks where all the dirt is stuck in. Not sure I will get into it with just hand scrubbing.

Is this one with the T150 patio cleaner sufficient? I notice there is a more expensive T5 T-Racer patio cleaner as well. Only have on deck so I won't need to use it much.

I think the water that condenses in a dehumidifier is technically distilled, although in practice that probably depends on how clean your dehumidifier innards are.

From the limited amount I've discussed it with him it's a simple enough process but you need to have a fair bit of room if you want to distill industrial quantities. They do also test the purity in terms of ppm (particles per million). From the sound of it the discovery that this worked was a revolution in the window cleaning industry, especially in C. London.

Probably fine. I have the Full Control version of the K2 which appears to be slightly different but the patio cleaner appears to be the same.

Had my first proper DIY disaster yesterday and managed to drill through a water pipe in our living room wall. Other half managed to hold off most of the water until I turned the stopcock off, but that didn't completely stop the water as it turns out that it seems to be part of our heating system.

I've managed to stop it leaking with this push fit pipe repair kit but if I try and refill the heating system (which has lost all pressure) it starts leaking again.

I'm trying to get a plumber/heating engineer to come and take a look but it's a plastic pipe, in a wall, not that deep and no foil around it, plus there's a connector at the bottom of the section I've chopped out, which all seems a bit shonky to me. And the house is presumably full of these so I need to find out where they are.

Best idea I've come up with so far is hiring a thermographic camera and turning the heating up to find the pipes in the wall that way...

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What do people recommend to fill some screw holes in external (white) render? Cheers

If I was coming to fix this, I’d chop slightly more out the wall top and bottom and put a length of pipe in and a couple connectors not the 17 it’s got in the picture!

Yeah I got through to my preferred heating engineer who's going to fix it for me and he's already said he will probably need a bigger hole. Going to take a bit of making good this one :/

He also said not great that they've just whacked plastic pipes in the render like that, which is what I thought. Going to pick his brain about the best way forward when he comes round.

Three of those connectors are the pipe repair thing. Even if I'd fitted it perfectly, which I haven't, I wouldn't be happy with leaving that many connectors in the wall.

Touprelith F? Expensive for a few holes. You’re welcome to have a bit of mine if you’re local.

Afternoon.
I know theres been some Birch ply shelves etc being made recently.
What have peoples choice of finishing been?

Just echoing what was suggested to me previously and I've since been using - osmo polyx raw

Cheers for the offer. I do have some other bits and pieces that I need to sort at some point so I'll get a box of it.

Thank you.

there a 5 foot by 10 foot low point in our back yard which is responsible for recurrent water drainage issues and making a mud pit . I was speaking with a water environmental engineer who suggested digging a pit, filling it halfway with gravel, laying landscaping frabic over that and then pitting soil and sod over it.

basically it's a French drain without the pipe. Anyone have experienced with dealing with this sort of thing? It makes a lot of sense to me, but thought I'd ask.

You would need to line your freshly dug pit with a geo-textile to prevent soil particles quickly filling the voids between your gravel.
Check on your local authority website to see if they stipulate minimum distances for soak aways from adjacent properties.

Alternatively turn the area into a pond with marshy margins.

Yeah you make it in to a kind of intentional swale, or alternatively dig another swale in nearby with a land drain to direct the water to it and build the area up with what you dig out.

Another choice would be to use some soak away crates, holds a greater volume of water and easier to install.