Home DIY

Yes, with much filling and repairing.

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Edit- pocket reply….

Does anybody know if this is larvae of a wood boring beetle ie woodworm?

I’ve found a few after taking our floor up but I can’t see any damage to the boards or the joists.

There’s one dead beetle type thing but it turned to powder the second I touched it suggesting it’s probably long since dead.

One of the signs is sawdust but after cutting the cutting the tongue and grooves off, there’s plenty of that anyway.

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https://www.spab.org.uk/advice/wood-boring-insects

Wood boring insects need damp wood - so if it is dry, I wouldn't worry.

Wow worth it though, beautiful entrance!

Cheers. The cellar below has occasionally got damp before we owned the house but the joists are dry.

I think I’m going to paint a treatment on for peace of mind.

I have a chimney where the top stack has been removed and it now ends in the loft. My loft seems an ideal place to relocate some electrical stuff to but I need a network cable up there. Running one up the inside of the chimney from the ground floor seems the neatest way to do it but I'm buggered if I can get it up. House is victorian/edwardian.

I've drilled a hole in the top of the chimney where it was capped and dropped a weight on a string down. I suspect it is getting hung up around the first floor (fireplace has been removed there) but can't really tell.

I've tried an endoscope thing but I can't really tell what it's showing me/I can't really direct it. I've shone a torch up the chimney from the ground floor fireplace and I can't see any light at the top which I suspect isn't a great sign.

Any suggestions on the best way of doing this? I don't mind spending twenty quid or so on something that will resolve the problem but beyond that I'll probably revert to my original plan of putting stuff in the cupboard under the stairs. Cheers.

have you tried smoke pellets?

Could you try pitting a tent pole up or down? Or an electricians "fishing rod"

Chimneys rarely go vertically up and if they’re not being used, you can come across all sorts like dead crows.

I started messing with ours and several hundred litres of vermiculite insulation poured out into the lounge. I hope it wasn’t the old stuff which was notoriously full of asbestos but I’ll never know.

or Drain rods is what we have used in the past. Could even tape an endoscope to the end of it. Can get cheap ones from Argos that would do that job.

My mate got a new back door but somehow the supplier measure the door 6’’ short leaving a rather big gap. Took three weeks for another door to appear - he wasn’t happy!!

Maybe I'll have a look at getting some rods. Hopefully there will be some cheapo ones out there. The chimney was removed at least ten years ago and some fireplaces were shifted around a few years ago so hopefully most of the crap is now gone from inside it.

I need to extend my chimney flue. Found some lengths of steel pipe online but not sure how it connects to the other pipe?

I want to replace my bathroom cabinet with one that doesn't hinge on the top (I know...), and is bigger, with a shaver socket built-in, light, demister etc. The current one is basic.

There is a light on the wall over the current - this spot will be covered by the new one. Also have a shaver socket on the wall next to it that won't, and that supplies charge even when the light is off.

How hard is it going to be to tap into the supply of the shaver socket, so that the cabinet has power when the light switch is off? it's pretty close.

thank you, more able DIYers than I

How hard is it going to be to tap into the supply of the shaver socket, so that the cabinet has power when the light switch is off?

Not at all hard. There might be cosmetic issues if you need to bury a cable in a wall and the resulting making good.

Ah, the wall is tiled. I was hoping to get at it without any damage to the wall. unbent wire clothes hanger or something

maybe use the vacuum trick people use for concealed cables in bike frames

That depends a lot on how it is routed. The shaver socket in my bathroom is on a block wall and drilled through the wall behind (then in a bit of trunking down to the floorboards and onwards). No chance of fishing anything there.

Considering some sort of sheet material instead of tiling the kitchen splashbacks.

It would be for a run of units around 2m, there is however a few sockets I'd have to get around. If I'm to go down this route what's the best option for cutting the material?

Mark where you need them (or make a template first in 3mm board). Drill the corners and cut out with a jigsaw.

If you make a decent template you can have the splashbacks made in glass. Paint the back or mirror them, even aged mirror looks decent. Make sure it's safety glass (i.e. they cut it then bake it) with edge stamped safety marks obvs.

Of course if you mess up and the socket holes are in the wrong place you can adjust the back box slightly. I also didn't make it clear that you want to cut holes the size or a tiny bit larger than the back boxes and get longer screws for the sockets.

Urgh, doors. The main door to my (circa 1880) block of flats is catching on a high spot on the floor.

I've tried shimming behind the lower hinge. It helped a bit, but it's still catching on the floor a bit, and now it's catching on the door frame (as the door has rotated due to the shims). I've also stripped one of the old screws and failed to drill it out. Still 3 of 4 screws holding that hinge in place, but nevertheless annoying.

I tried planing the side of the door which again has helped a but but not fully solved the issue.

Really I need to somehow move all three hinges up by about 2-3mm.

Anyone got tips on how to achieve this? I'm sure there must be A Way To Do It. I'm fearful of making the situation worse at this point. It's a big old heavy solid wood door and the hinges are screwed into timber framing behind.

Started to plan the tiling on the front porch.

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What yellow is that door?

What yellow is that door!

Ftfy

We did this because the screw holes were too big but I think it will work for what you describe. We just drilled out the screw holes to a dowel size, glued dowels in and re-drilled holes.