Home DIY

I still think the Dewalt corded or cordless are great for the ££.

Having a first ever crack at wall papering today. The wall was originally a dark purple so I've done two coats of white paint since Friday to block out the paint behind.

Now with two runs of paper on the wall the wallpaper paste seems to be mixing with the paint and allowing the purple to come through. Is this going to resolve when everything is dry? Anyone else experience similar?

Basically, when you start undoing the nut that connects the radiator to the system, nothing will come out because the bleed valve is creating a vacuum.

As you undo the bleed value, the water will start pouring out the side that you've undone.

so it's a balance between how much the bleed valve is open and how much the retaining nut is open as to how wet your carpet gets :)

TLDR: have access to the wrench at all times in case you run out of places to put the water.

On a scale of 1-10 how likely is it that I get home to half my house ripped off by a subsided clay slope? We dug everything out on Friday and then it rained pretty much solidly the last two days. Plan is to get retaining wall put in before next weekend but that relies on it being at least semi dry the next few days. The area behind the house to the left is well held with some concreted in boulders, the right side is just very wet clay. There'll be a french drain between the wall and the toe of the slope, I'm thinking about adding some extra drainage into the slope along with some foliage to steady things up. Before, the slope extended around the corner pillar of the covered area. You could see it had moved already as the drain pipe was crushed against the wooden post, and none of the posts are particularly vertical.

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Thanks for clarifying this, and much appreciated for all the help.

Ha, didn't realise someone had just asked the same question. Cheers @Soul Need to investigate the valves a bit more as one of them does adjust the water flow but the other appears to be fake and just spins freely.

Yes, think it needs to lift up a bit looking at the brackets.

New colour will be purple so pretty different. A normal mini roller definitely won't fit behind, are there extra slim ones for behind radiators?

You can get sponge pad type things on long handles but I could never get a decent finish on them.

what's the easiest way of doing it?

Read the post above yours! (Ironically, I didn't read the posts above mine).

I need to do this in a few rooms too...

Ha, didn't realise someone had just asked the same question.

Me neither.

Need to investigate the valves a bit more as one of them does adjust
the water flow but the other appears to be fake and just spins freely.

Lock shields (the one that doesn’t control the flow) often have a dummy head or a cover on them that needs to be removed to close the valve, there will be flats on the spindle, an adj spanner will do the job.

If not you’ll need to drain down the whole system 😭😖

drain down the whole system

That's kind of less of a problem when it is your house so you aren't in such a hurry.

True.

Shut the valves and take it off, just be quick with your fingers over each end or get 2 of you to do it. Flipping it won't work and if you dont know what your doing in that type of thing you can fuck the pipes.

Take off the cap and you'll be able to turn it off with a pair of pliers

So I want to insulate between the internal beams of my log cabin roof, both for heat retention and also to minimise rain noise.
I plan to stuff insulation up and then batten and put a false plywood ceiling up.
Question is, what insulation to use and what depth? The beams are 200mm deep, so can take a fair amount, and there are no headroom issues.
Also should I be leaving an air gap between the insulation and the existing ceiling/roof?

I realise that insulating the outside is better, but it had a new covering put on last year, so no way that is being taken off again.

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Any electrician recommendations for SE?

What's the weight of your roof supported by? The photo does look a little dodgy!

Could you put some wood down and pick up the horizontal beam with telescopic supports?

I wouldn't be overly worried about clay, it just wants to expand. It's not easily washed away unless you have heavy/fast-moving water (cohesive versus non-cohesive).

Cheers. I think taking it off is probably the wisest, I'll see what is under the fake valve. No carpet in that room so not the end of the world if it drips a bit as I take it off. After closing the valves do you need additional caps over the exposed pipes or is that only for TRVs? I assume I can still use the central heating whilst it is off?

You don't need any more caps if you have turned the valves off at both end.

Of course, for the TRVs, they just operate the valve underneath so you can just pull them off and turn the valve manually and leave off until you've painted.

They aren't TRV's so won't open once closed until you open them again. Yeah you can use it, you'll need to top up the pressure again when you rehang it. Also tape the olives on the valves when you rehang as it'll save it potentially leaking.

Cheers. Yes, not TRVs so should be OK. May still use this opportunity to buy a wet/dry vac though. My Miele really isn't that happy when I use it as a shop vac.

@Sam_w

to insulate underside of roof, you can use; mineral wool; sheep's wool but these are hard to secure. foil backed PIR (polyisocyanurate) Insulation panels is the way to go.

Kingspan and Celotex both easily available and easy to cut with a bread knife, look at 100mm Kooltherm K107. you tube has fixing methods usually pinned with mechanical fixings.

12x24 battens at 600mm centres running from ridge to eaves should provide cavity space between soffit and insulation. let us know how you get on.

Cheers, was thinking to use celotex, just checking there wasn’t a reason not to! Was thinking to throw up 100mm because I have the space…

Was going to batten using something like 2 x 2 on one beam, then tightly squeeze the insulation in and the fix 2 x 2 on the other side, then fix some plywood onto the 2 x 2 to work as a ceiling. Does that make some sort of sense? What depth plywood do you think I could get away with? It’s not going to have anything fixed to it.

Thanks!

plywood lining will add alot of extra weight so will need alot of fixings. in manageable strips say 600mm wide x 6mm thick, its possible. how about plasterboard taped and jointed between the beams would look ace, no? assuming that you plan to paint it white between the beams. it all looks awesome, I have man cave plans of my own, btw :)

Was hoping to leave as natural wood, maybe whitewashed. The space between the beams is about 800mm, so was hoping to rip 2400mm sheets down into 1200 x 800mm wide strips, and nail them up, but hadn’t really considered the weight…

ha, in an ideal world, veneer backed insulation panels with the obligatory architects shadow gaps :)