Home DIY

Good question. It's not immediately obvious where it drains to, I assume it's underground somewhere. There's a dishwasher draining too although I've not noticed any smells from there.

@Dramatic_Hammer I've got decent access so that's probably a sensible place to start.

Cheers - was thinking a bigger radius (~200mm) - hence jigsaw palaver.

I would buy two solder ring connectors and a bit of 15mm copper pipe, and a cheap donut shaped pipe cutter, and a cooks blowtorch, some flux, and some fine grade wire wool, and a pipe bender/pipe bending spring.

Then do this

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Sanding wooden floors. I know a number of people have done this recently with enviable results, so I was hoping to tap into that knowledge. I have a couple of questions - pics of my floor below.

1. It looks to me as if our floorboards have had some rather hideous orangey stain/treatment at some point. Presumably this will sand off? The floorboards look a bit ropey to me compared to some of the examples I can find but I assume it's still reasonable wood, can anyone see any reason not to sand them back?
   
2. We have three rooms and one long hallway that need sanding. There is no way we can do it all at once (there isn't enough other space to put shit to clear all the rooms) - happy to follow the general advice of getting the pros in, but is the experience so terrible (dust, mess etc) that you'd recommend doing whatever we can to do over the same period (i.e. clear out two of the rooms and get them done in one day, then spend the night moving everything into the newly sanded rooms from the others to allow those rooms to be sanded)? I assume we really want to treat them immediately after sanding so possibly add another day either side of the moving to allow that to happen? I think ideally we'd split the job up and do a few months apart, but if the mess and horror is going to be so extreme maybe that is a bad idea...
   
   

Cheers!

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The mess/dust can be fairly easily contained to the room you're working on. Open the windows and stuff towels round the door etc. So I reckon you could do it a room at a time if you wanted to. I would do the hallway last if it were me as that will obviously see most traffic and can't easily be blocked off for sanding/finishing. Rent the machine for two days with the idea of doing one room. You might get it done in day, but at least you'll have the option of taking it slower and working out how best to use the machine. Then when you do the others, you'll have the experience to just get it for one day to do one room, or a weekend to do two.

Those boards look fine to me. The stain is already scratching off, so the 40 grit belt you start with will rip it off no problem. Be sure to go around knocking any nail heads down below the level that will be sanded to. The belts will chew through them no problem, but the sparks + wood dust are a bit terrifying when it happens and you are essentially creating sharpened metal blades if you just sand through them.

This is great, thank you, albeit seemingly against the previous lufguss wisdom of "get Zen in"... i guess we could do the small spare room ourselves and see how much we hated the experience...

I'd never have a go at anyone for wanting to get someone in to do it. But it is something you can do yourself, if you want. The industrial sanders you hire are essentially like using a 40kg+ vacuum or lawnmower that wants to run away from you. Stopping it from running away, or letting it do so more slowly than it wants (you don't want to stay in one place) is what makes it work.

If you're not on the ground floor, it's a pain in the dick to get upstairs single handed. Though not impossible. I did the 2nd floor bedroom floor.

I also DIYd it using a belt sander, cheap titan hoover and masking tape/sheets keep dust out of other rooms. Was fine in the end, although took a couple of weekends. Can see why throwing money makes sense too though and will probably hire someone/something when we do the whole of the downstairs.

Far less successful containing dust when we had the chimney knocked out, or going back to brick while for the bathroom.

Finally got round to scribbling it as it was the only way I could get my head around it. What I did originally was the top doodle. Which is why the light stayed on with the single pole switch off/open. When I closed that switch, it shorted the supply which is why the RCD tripped.

I then fixed it by changing it to the bottom doodle. An actual circuit that can be broken by the switch.

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Changing non TRV valves to TRV valves is worth getting a professional to do right? (on a couple of Rads).

Nothing wrong with doing it yourself to see what it's like, that's also what we did and now getting Zen to do the other rooms.

Floorboards look fine and in much better state than ours were. I'd say don't underestimate the amount of time it take to punch all of the nails in far enough and to put in the slivers if needed to close bigger gaps etc ...

Regarding dust, I was super impressed by how little dust the machines actually generated when we did it. So much so that for the next rooms I'm happy to paint the walls before doing the sanding.

Finally, don't underestimate how much the primer and lacquers cost if you go for the good stuff like Bona etc

This is really helpful, thank you! When you say 'punch the nails in far enough' do you mean anything other than hammering so they're flush with the board? RE filling/fixing, I'm not looking for perfection here, there are no massive gaps and I sort of just want the scratched-to-fuck orangey-ness gone and for it to look like a reasonable wooden floor. Do you think fixing/filling is necessary. Also hoping to get a puppy next year so it's likely to get fucked again anyway.

Similarly somewhere said you had to replace cracked/split boards. I have a few, but they still feel entirely solid, anyone know if I definitely have to swap them out or just advisable for perfection? Pic below.

And re primer/lacquers, what is the usual advice? I see some people online proposing multiple coats of stains, sealants, lacquers and top coats. That seems like quite a lot. I just want something natural, definitely not weirdly orange like the current situation and - because puppy - hard-wearing would be good.

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On the dust: You just need to be fastidious about sealing spaces. Use plastic dust sheets in pairs to create airlock type systems. If you've got >1 floor put dust sheet doors at the top and bottom of the stairs.

On the time line: You've pretty much nailed it. Remember to factor in time to hoover and wipe the floors. We sanded ours in the day, varnished at night, then varnished another coat in the morning and went out for the day.

I'd definitely have a go your self. It's not like you're making garage doors.

I'd also add if you're likely to do any kind of DIY involving wood in the future, use this as an opportunity to buy a decent recommended dust mask with replaceable filters.

I've got an average one and have bought loads of disposable ones, and really wish I'd invested in one when we did the floors in our hall and sitting room.

Don't have any recommendations, but if you search in here I'm sure you'll find some.

There is a lot of sanding in my future - floors (if DIY), skirting, repaired walls and probably doors too, so this is a really good shout. I'll do a search but if anyone sees this and has a recommendation please don't be shy....

So you'll need to punch them in deeper than that as the 40 grit will chew through the first layer quite quickly and if you do it flush you'll need to punch them in again between sanding which you won't want to be doing.

My comment around the slivers etc is from my own experience I wish I'd spent more time doing that before because it makes the finish product look a lot neater but I'm learning to love the "character" and charm.

For the products to put on it we used Bona Natural Primer and lacquer. One coat of primer and two coats of lacquer. It's super quick with the correct roller (not paint one) and I remember it drying super quickly (although that was during the summer). What to put on will depend on what you want it to look like.

You can see on the pics what we started with and how it looks now (Please ignore lack of skirting boards, can't motivate myself to install them although I have like 16m of the stuff in my hallway ...)

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anyone know if I definitely have to swap them out or just advisable for perfection

Again, those look fine. Basically two oddly shaped board now. If you're happy with the split aesthetically, then leave it.

When you say 'punch the nails in far enough' do you mean anything other than hammering so they're flush with the board?

You'll want them a little below the board as you'll be taking some wood off. Even with punching them all down, some of them didn't go deep enough and I ended up sanding a lot of nail heads. A punch and a 4lb lump hammer makes short work of it. Just be methodical and go along each board and you'll be done before you know it. The bigger hammer just means it's going to be one whack for most of them instead of relentlessly tapping with a regular claw hammer (unless you take a big swing).

This is really helpful thank you! Your floor looks amazing now. I have also just checked the prices of the Bona products and see entirely what you mean by expensive...

I am definitely going for characterful rather than perfect!

Also very helpful, thank you. Makes perfect sense.

Not sure if this is DIY but a heating question

Daughter lives in a one bedroom mezzanine bungalow. The radiator downstairs just seems to lose all the heat upwards to the mezzanine floor as does the extra floor standing electric panel we bought

To keep the ground floor section toasty will some sort of fan heater help?

I'd recommend either the trend stealth or the JSP force 8

I prefer the jsp one as you can close the filters momentarily to check the fit (quite important that it fits properly). Other than that it's much of a muchness

DIY. wrench. Spanner. Ptfe take or lecture.
Then decide how you want to go about. If your going to do a few then drain the system buy some inhibitor. Change the valve. Flush some water in. Inhibitor added. If you have a towel radiator use that as your infill

Alternatively you can do the snatch method.

Any difference between how either of them interplay with safety goggles?

Going round in cycles over evolution mitre saw options. It seems like I may as well get a compound sliding one. Even though right now I can only envisage 90° and 45° cuts and my main current requirement is actually accurate replicable cuts.

Do I really need more than this no £90 one?
EVOLUTION R185SMS
https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-r185sms-185mm-electric-single-bevel-sliding-multi-material-sliding-mitre-saw-220-240v/383gf#product_additional_details_container

Or will I regret not spending the extra £80 on this down the line?
EVOLUTION R255SMS (570 x 545 x 385mm)
https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-r255sms-255mm-electric-single-bevel-sliding-multi-material-sliding-mitre-saw-220-240v/1062x#product_additional_details_container

Or is this at £125 the goldilocks or just a price point?
EVOLUTION R210SMS
https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-r210sms-210mm-electric-single-bevel-sliding-multi-material-sliding-mitre-saw-220-240v/2965v#product_additional_details_container
Another factor is that I'd like it to live in the corner of my bench which is 65cm deep. Machine dimensions don't seem to be listed. But I'd probably sacrifice some max material size for ease of storage/preventing mess.

Cheap one has 1000w motor and hard start, the more expensive is 2000w and soft start. I absolutely hate hard start saws - always jolts the piece you’re about to cut slightly as the saw starts.