Home DIY

What wood did you use there, if you can remember?

It’s probably meranti or maybe sapele, it’s whatever Howarth Timber were selling as ‘hardwood’.
It’s sustainability is unknown.

I've not been but I'm sure it's maintained by a crew of very specialised people with paperwork and methods dating back a long way.

Good to know our taxes are keeping it nice :)

Have I shown the cupboard of coats where the rack fell off ?

Gripits didnt work then, old crumbly shit plaster.
Those @Bainbridge / Dov proved plasterboard plastic things look good as are the @nefarious approved toggles.

I’m pretty sure our (grey) door has bubbled up from the sun, it gets very hot in summer - too hot to touch at times!

Number 10 has a blast-proof steel door. Painting it is probably a bit different from a wooden one.

They have two and swap them over very couple of years. Presumably the spare goes to a workshop somewhere for a sandblast and respray.

The guys here will be using F&B on our door and Little Greene on the frames, both eggshell. Will post pics for reference once done.

Has anyone used birch ply as flooring? I'm planning on using full sheets in my upcoming studio build. It'll be laid on top of UFH heating mat, 5mm underlay, SIP panel (18mm OSB). As the price of this stuff is creeping up and up I'm wondering if I can get away with 12mm rather than 18.

Why birch ply? I would have thought (potentially naively) that most of the appeal is in the end grain, which won't be seen in your application. So you may be able to use a cheaper veneered alternative to get the same look?

I've had a plug socket moved along the wall away from the site of a new radiator and now I need to make good the old hole and the chased line along to the new one. Can someone point me to the post from a month or so ago where someone explained how to do this neatly? I've UTFS'd with no luck.

Bonding to fill the chase and hole to a few mm below the surface. Gyproc easifill for the top.

I'm a big fan of these for the 1,000,003 small filling jobs in this place - https://www.toolstation.com/prep-euro-filling-knife-set/p98277

Those filling knife sets are great value. I have a few sets the oldest must be 20+ years old. Not that I'm tight with my money or anything.

There's a red set too which I think is stiffer for scraping.

Ta!

This one https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/178667/?offset=25525#comment15678241

Worked well for me except I had to do a few rounds of filler and sanding to get it nicely smooth.

There's a red set too which I think is stiffer for scraping.

Gotta catch 'em all! To my untrained hand, the blue ones are far easier to use than any "fancy" handled one I've had before.

I bought a second blue set, as the first set is somewhere in my house that is not immediately apparent and it seemed easier to just buy another set as I was getting an order in anyway.

If it has to be ply, why not 6mm. It's not ss if it's structural.

Or particularly hardwearing as a floor material...

The heating mat manufactuer would be able to tell you if ply is a good choice ornot too.

Just a follow up question to my radiator/socket one above. As far as I can see it's acceptable within building regs to have a blanking plate behind a radiator (and definitely preferable to plastering over it!). It will be accessible in case of a fault by dropping the rad.

I'm going to put some radiator reflector foil behind the rad which will cover the blanking plate and the cable in the wall, but do I need to do anything additional to protect the cable joint and the cable from potential heat from the rad? I imagine that the heat on the wall will be well below anything that might damage the cable once the reflector foil is in place.

Theres no that much heat comes off it, so dont worry.

It's a very valid comment! I'm going to be cladding some walls and making a desk/shelving so I'd like it all to have a consistent finish. If I can find a cheaper veneered with the same face finish it's definitely an option.
@TW, another valid thought, there shouldn't be any flex as it'll be over a substantial base.

Another (cheapskate-ish) method is to fill with bonding, then wait for it to go off a bit, then add a load of water to your mix to skim and smooth over the top. You can also wipe it down a bit with a sponge.

Below was today’s effort. By no means perfect, but a plasterer is coming tomorrow to do other stuff so I didn’t sweat it too much about the finish as it’ll be skimmed.

1 Attachment

I'd check with the manufacturer of the matting in an case, as they may have something to say about how the flooring is fitted

Are you allowed to run new central heating pipes up through an existing stud wall? I tried to find regs about locations, but just seem to end up in a pit of screwfix/plumbing forum diy vs pro flame wars.

I would do it, people run them in worse place and im pretty sure there isn't any regs on where you can and cant run heating pipes.

allowed

By whom?
🙂

¯\(ツ)/¯

I have been reading a lot about electrics to figure out what can be done about with our loft conversion reassembly. Figured same with pipes but I guess I'll just try and apply some common sense and keep any joints out of the walls and as accessible as possible.

apply some common sense and keep any joints out of the walls and as accessible as possible.

Sounds sensible.
Is the plumbing just for heating?
I pretty much only bury soldered joints - I like to only use compression joints where they’re accessible- I avoid plastic mostly but for fishing through existing structures it is bloody handy.