Home DIY

You should do the training and exams. It's roughly 4-6 weeks to do BS7651 and Part P. That doesn't make you an electrician but it gets you started on what's involved. It's probably about £2k (oddly).

** You still won't be allowed to do your own garden electrics without getting it signed off by building control and ** you'll no longer be able to claim ignorance if anything goes wrong!

edit ** you can carry out your own garden electrics without building control sign off **

Unless you need to add a new circuit.

If anyone has any builder recommendations for se London (
Job 1 : strip, replaster, paint, build out a wardrobe, build in a desk, possibly wooden flooring, maybe shift a rad by 30 cm
Job 2: downstairs bathroom overhaul
Job 3: probably before job 2 install new front door double glazed unit job)
That'd be cool.

Brexit/covid has fucked our normal dude.

I now have a cellar, it's damp due to lack of ventilation. It turns out there is a window that has been boarded over, it's rotten. The lightwell is covered by a wood frame with roof felt, my plan is to reinstate a window and remove the felt frame to get some light down there.

The window is single glazed and completely rotten. I have flitted between rebuilding the window, or replacing with a cheap upvc unit.

The brick work is rough and will need some attention, but given it's not a window you will see, i dont want to chuck loads of cash at it.

My two options I think are, get wood and rebuild the current window, upsides to this are not being wasteful, downsides are its a single glazed unit and i guess will make the space freezing in the winter.

Option two I am thinking to remove all the wood rebuild a square wood frame and then get a cheap custom size to sit in the wood, I think this will be easier for me to fit than doing into the (very wonky) brickwork. Advantage is better insulation and addition of trickle vent for some airflow.

Which option would people go for if you were me?

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It doesn't look too bad from the inside but the entire frame is rotten, one window section is ok, the other needs two lengths replacing.

Outdoor electrics aren’t a special location in England any more, so as DIYable as anything else.

I’ve put up two pir lanterns outside the front of my house. One of them is working fine. The other is not working at all.

I’ve run a voltage test along the cable and it stops being live at some point half was along the cable.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Ordered two Makita 5Ah batteries on this deal today: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/352725192576

I only need 1 so anyone in north london fancy the other for what I paid? It'll be £61.63. I'm in N8.

Back on teak wall shelves, I'm not sure the Danish oil is going to get me back to the original dark colour? Could these uprights have been stained ?

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New toys.

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Sorry should have uploaded a photo instead of trying to explain badly.

So image is the bottom fused switch. I'm trying to replace it with a wifi/timer switch.

The ends of the cable are too thick tofot exactly in new timer and replicate the images circuit. Even trying to fit them in a wago 221 connector is a struggle.

Trimming the wires to fit feels like a bodge what's the correct way?

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What is the load on that switch? Why can’t you just leave that switched on, or replace it with an unswitched spur, and just put the WiFi switch on the load side?

I still don’t understand what the exact situation is tbh, lol.

Ha thanks for the effort.

So if that switch is left on the immersion will draw any time the water tank gets used. I have cheap power at night so want to heat then and use in the day.

So likely load will be a 3kw heater for 3-4 hours so I want to make sure I do this right or call in a man.

Easy to forget that! They are still a bit more complicated and a lot of people in London will need to add a circuit with an RCD but I have been living in the past.

One possibility. The cable insulation can break down and voltage crosses between the conductors, arcing and further breaking them down. Caused by moisture.

So leave the current switch on and put the WiFi switch in between the switch and the load.

I’d double check the rating of the WiFi switch tbh. Often they aren’t rated for directly switching big loads like that. If you can’t fit the cable in to the terminal, it suggests that it won’t have the switching capacity.

Are you on economy 7 for your cheap overnight electric? If so it may be on a separate supply. Either way it seems unwise to troubleshoot it online.

I’d get someone in really. There may well also be a much more straightforward solution that a specialist would know.

Are you looking at a live loop on 4 or 6mm stranded so there is another load on the loop that needs 4 or 6mm with the output to the water heater on 2.5 twin and earth? 3kw is 12.5A so 2.5 t&e is usually sufficient.

In which case you'd put your wifi switch between the load side and the wires currently in the load side. So keep that switch, add your wifi switch, connect load side n&l with wagos and short wire through to load side of new switch and connect load side of this switch to new wifi switch. Just add the wifi switch under this one on a similar back box and drill or breakout between the 2 of them.

Which is just a different way of saying what Nef has already said! except I've given you the amp rating (12.5) for a 3kw load. I'd be surprised if the wifi switch wasn't rated for 13A but it might be on the limit.

Thanks both that makes much more sense now.

I've given a teak table a fresh coat of tung oil. What clear coat/ wax should I use on top?

I thought the Tung Oil was the finish. When I used it on beech it stayed a little bit sticky for quite a while.

I was going to say our builders plasterers are good, but the builder themselves are a bit of a shit show. Just tried to get those plasterers back to fix something another guy fucked up and the builder told me their not working with him any more but is sending me their details. If I get those, I would highly recommend them (not our builder). They do all sorts, and put me in touch with the plumber who did our new hot water system.

Cheers

What’s the best way of finishing flooring (click LVT) against a bifold door and front door?

On the recent 18v topic - Screwfix have some discounts going at the mo so I got an Erbauer drill w/ 2x 2ah batteries for £70. My dad's had one for donkeys and it's still going well so seemed like a decent deal for odd jobs around the house.

I just make it very tight as LVT doesn't expand and contract. then a thin bead of colour matched silicone.

Let it dry properly then you can apply a hardwax oil like Osmo on top. It’s a good combination, the tung brings out the lustre in the wood grain and the Osmo protects.