Home DIY

FFS. It's something to do with the adapter/multi plug for all our laptops. Really don't have the head space to methodically go though it all and check.

It'll be such a pain if I have to get a new multi plug. I'd just recently set it all up neatly again in a recess under our dining room table, along with organising all the bricks and cables. I swear it's just fucking easier to leave a rats nest of wires and shit, cause you just have to fucking undo it at some point anyway.

Anyone got any magic with Velux windows? We had two new ones fitted as part of our roof work a while ago. The windows themselves are fine and open and close smoothly. But the locking mechanism/closing bar latch thing is a fucker to close. ms_com can't do it and I feel like I'm going to break it everytime. Exacerbated by her asking me to close the big one yesterday, me not bothering, the storm blowing it open and ALL the rain being dumped into the loft room.

I've had a bit of a look at it and cannot for the life of me work out why it's so difficult.

I am not keen on getting the original installers back as they are not people I ever want to see again in my life. I am resigned to either fixing it myself or paying someone else to do it. I just want to check all the "have you made sure this is set this way?" or "grease that" type suggestions.

Our new one is like that. Assumed it would loosen up over time/have been ignoring the loft.

EXACTLY what I have been doing. Problem is it's ms_com's office, and I reckon she might want to be able to operate the window. And I don't want to be on call for closing duties.

I contacted a specialist firm who reckon I'm out of their catchment area (despite being 20 miles away...) but did suggest calling Velux directly. I'll take another look later when the sofa bed that was below the window dries out. Maybe take a can of lithium grease up there with me.

Can also confirm our loft Velux is a bastard to close and open

It's also old

calling Velux directly

They are pretty helpful. I had them walk me though installing external awning shades.

Mine were also stiff (although not as bad as yours sounds), always felt a little like you were breaking it when you closed it.

We have 5 that are all stiff to fully close. There are 2 settings though, closed with ventilation and fully closed. I always make sure the window is fully seated in the frame before clicking the locking bar into the locked with ventilation setting, then go for fully locked and sealed which is a bit more effort. There must be some adjustment in the locking mech but the position of some of ours would make it very awkward to reach. Ours are in the 10-20 year old range and they have not loosened.

Brick slips, any advice around using them? Toying with the idea in one of my rooms (only one wall)

Or am I better off going down the horrid route of taking all my plaster off back to the brick and seeing what I've got?

The carpenter has pulled out because he doesn’t like the look of the job. I mean, nor do I. Is it that bad? Paging @Airhead

On colour matching. Whilst Brewers do it, they are a bit shit at my local branch. Lovely people though, just a bit clueless.

Went in last Friday with the wallpaper sample wanting two testers. One they could do just fine but the other was too small a patch of colour for their machine. Fine, got a sample of one of them. Samples only available in matt emulsion.

Took it home, tried it out and decided we would go for that colour anyway.

They told me I just needed the code off the tin or even just my name as they would store that in the machine and make a note.

Went back on Saturday to ask for 1L of eggshell in the colour they mixed up the day before. However, it turns out the code is also linked to the type of paint so they couldn't use that to make the same colour in eggshell, I'd need the original colour reference.

Went back in yesterday with the wallpaper sample, got them to mix it up in eggshell. Came home, totally different fucking colour....... Not just a "it will dry lighter" thing, but the difference between a warm pink and a totally grey/beige. I didn't bother getting them to open the tin as the person serving remembered me from Friday and we had a whole big discussion about what the colour should be.

Will need to find more time to go back with the original tester pot and the wallpaper sample and see if they'll refund me.

At least it was a carpenter rather than a doctor

@spenceey we explored brick slips years ago when I had the same idea. I got samples and everything, the issue I had is that they just looked too perfect and I felt it would have been an obvious "fake" brick wall.

We went down the route of taking everything back to bare brick, which was the most horrible job I have ever done. This was in Cardiff where a lot of internal walls in older properties use a mortar mixed with slag from coal mines - so it was black coal dust.

I had to repoint everything then using lime which took ages but the finish was great. We sold the flat about 6 months afterwards and it was sold again 2 years later and the wall had been rendered. I nearly cried.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't bother unless you absolutely want a bare brick wall, and if you do I would do it properly (i.e go back to bare brick).

How thick are they?

Could you age them by soaking the outer face in a corrosive, blowtorching a few then leaving them in the garden over winter?

After reading this through a few times I'm starting to wonder if it's a good idea!

Some of the brick slips I'd looked at seem to have some colour variation in them so would hopefully look more 'authentic' that also saves all the bloody horrid mess that would come with taking it back to brick. Nevermind the fact my bricks may look dreadful under all the plaster.

Bit of a dredge but going back to ladder chat, which would be better:

2 part 4-7m https://www.laddersukdirect.co.uk/double-extension-ladders/zarges-premium-double-extension-ladders/448-3
Or
3 part 3-6.6m https://www.laddersukdirect.co.uk/triple-extension-ladders/zarges-premium-triple-extension-ladder/49-7

I don’t care much about storage space, the 2 part is marginally slightly lighter.
I need to go up to a vertical height of 5.5m to the gutters so a length of 5.7 would get me there at the 4/1 ladder angle rule.

Is there a stability/safety/noticeable difference between 2 and 3 section?

I need to clean/fix gutters due to moss buildup, paint the house and think about washing the windows.

Leyland Dalston.

1 Attachment

There are two rows of garages on-site, one row of the garages is slightly larger than the other (taller, mainly).

The vast majority of them have had their doors changed from the original hardwood (?) to cheap up=and-over metal/PVC jobs.

There are two left original, in the smaller row:

This is the garage I've rented for around 10 years - it's got the frame left from the original doors but nothing else:

And here are the two garages that I'm (hopefully) buying - the old frame has been stripped out and a new frame installed, with slightly smaller doors than on the garage I've been renting:

It's actually pretty tight getting the car into the new garage due to the smaller (narrower) door, and frankly the doors are both buggered - the chap who owns the garages has re-fitted them and made them just-about-work ahead of selling them to me.

I'd like to replace them/will replace them - and I'm tempted to have a crack at making new doors to the pattern of the old ones.

What should I consider ahead of this project?

What should I consider ahead of this project?

Primarily security, probably

What should I consider ahead of this project?

Adding some grey and orange in a Gulf Racing colour scheme.

By the time you have added the door frame, and accounted for the bit of the door that doesn't fully clear the frame opening or hinges sticking out a bit you will narrow the entrance further. Fine for bikes but I think you said one would be used for a car - will you still be able to get your vehicle of choice in/out?

Oh you could make new doors to the same pattern but have them as one single up-and-over door like the originals. Would be pretty heavy (assuming made of wood) but with the right counterweights it could work. That way you wouldn't decrease the opening width.

The centre line of rotation through the hinge pin is on the centre line of the vertical members of the frame, the doors therefore open in a way that doesn't narrow the aperture afforded by the bare frame, if that makes sense?

And I can get the car into the garage I rent (still has the original frame) more easily than I can the car with a new, wider frame (the ones I'm hoping to buy) because the distance between the old frame is (guess!) 30cm wider than the new frame side members.

Primarily security, probably

Not really my area of expertise, but I could probably shout my way through these up and over doors, if it came down to it. I would hope that solid wooden doors with a solid frame, bolted into solid concrete and blockwork, would be stronger.