Home DIY

My current solvent collection includes IPA, meths, toluene, xylene, acetone and MEKK. Good old unleaded still has its place though. IPA won't shift duct tape residue.

There are cut list calculators free online that you can use.

Otherwise, trial and error (in a spreadsheet or similar).

There's no magic formula, unfortunately.

thanks all, seems to confirm what I worked out already

Shortage of multi-tool blades. TIME TO PANIC BUY!

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Are grid systems interchangeable? Which one is this? MK?

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What lives (and laughs and loves) in the cage?

Gimp, obvs

Project!

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P2

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Living here as of this week. Been rented out for decades and is not in best shape. Got a rough budget and plan, will do what I can myself but not done much DIY thus far in my life living at home then in rentals. Big ticket items at the top of the list

-Bathroom and kitchen, possibly jigging floor plan
-sash windows - retro fit double glazing maybe, light restoration as a minimum.
-sort the stained glass window
-decorate (at the end). There is old textured wallpaper above where picture rails would have been but to do it properly that needs to come off.
-shelving feature

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That front door/entrance way from outside would be my 1st job, make it secure from previous tenants getting back in (happens way more than you think, had it only happen to me once personally, but numerous mates numerous times) and just looks like a cheap modern bedroom door type affair, not really up to 'securing you from outside' in either warmth/sound/assholes.

Bathroom/kitchen. Unless you have to live in it immediately would tackle those 1st and just chase out where all the services come and go from, got to be some re jig worth doing as both look pretty terribly laid out (looks like former terraced house/home thats been quickly made into flats in the 70's).. Think about extraction too, many older/conversions don't have adequate ventilation in bathroom kitchen for steam + smoke + cooking grease so the whole place gets disgusting quickly. Access to outside walls and ability to core drill them is harder than you think.
In our current project gonna have to hire a lift just to put a few vents in roof, cheaper than scaff, but still hundreds just to get on the roof, then install as many vents/boiler vent pipe/aerials/dish/gutter repairs as possible in the 4 hours we've got it for. I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Rest of rooms look OK, would just walk aroud each one with a cup of tea, clipboard and a screwdriver and poke EVERYTHING.
Get an electrician in, pay and do a test on what you've got, so you know if you'll need a partial rewire or just a new consumer before you do much else (no point plastering a wall only to find your gonna have to run new cables in it a month later, done that one about 5 times now FML).

Check with upstairs and downstairs neighbours for general arsehole'ness (if they are, just sell it and move, as the new guy, you won't win any arguments), leaks and noise. Most often there will be a noisey floorboard (yours or their's!) that you'll only discover when you've finished the place, and you can hear them moving around.
Consider insulated plasterboard/other options around party walls and exterior walls, energy prices gonna keep rising, worth doing something while your at it.

Just bought another new tool, milwaukee RO battery sander. Why the hell haven't I owned one for the last decade, makes life so much easier, and much more gentle than other sander types while still actually removing material. Total lifesaver.

Cheers for all of this!

Was going to change the two locks this weekend to start. But maybe a new door is a better shout...

Previous owners fitted a new boiler 2-3 years ago and cored out (I think without permission). Kitchen think I can get a self circulating extractor. Bathroom no idea - the bit in the middle of the stained window it the current extractor fan, so the frame is all rusted.

Neighbours all good! Did my DD before getting it.

Would you sand old wallpaper down or just remove it properly?

Drop Stevo a line to give you a hand. He's free most weekends.

> remove it

Buy a 2nd hand steamer and one of these

You want to be careful steaming on old plaster. That will pull in any moisture and hold it. Then anything you do over the top will be fucked and have to be done again. Ask me how I know.....

As Stevo_com says, be wary of steaming any potential lathe and plaster! Also, just do the locks until you can afford the door, and once the danger of bashing a nice new door with any materials has passed.

That's good to know!

If its thick crazy old nasty stuff sometimes it actually comes off quite easy.
Have a thing thats yellow, trianglular with 3 spiked balls on it, you run that around over the old paper, then squirt it with water/dish soap/can get wallpaper stripping compound if you want, the best one is sold by 'B.I.N' can't remember the product name, its pricey but it will save you your sanity.
Then get a cheap steamer, as others say, don't go crazy on the steamer, once it starts coming off it'll be easy, then use a quality scraper and thicker gloves as you'll slice yourself with old paper a lot.
Door yes, maybe later on, number of times I've bashed finished surfaces at the last minute, soul destroying.

If your keeping carpets but want them to feel a bit better hire out a proper floor cleaner machine or get someone in to do them, and replace the underlay. Find most underlay looses its rubbery ness long before the carpet gives out.

Wdym by this sorry I don't get it!

Lime pointing going in above work top level in prep for electricians coming around next week. Old mortar held together by paint.

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New door and two new locks, sited a lot further apart than the two you have there. London bar.

We had two rooms replastered. The first crowd steamed the paper off the walls and skimmed over. That plaster all blew due to the excess moisture now in the walls. Had to all be hacked back to brick and redone.

Would you recommend watertite for a bathroom?

I have used perma-white for bathrooms and it's great in terms of application and can be tinted, with less variety than Dulux etc. I can't speak to its effectiveness but Zinsser claim its scrubable so even if mould does start to build up it can be got rid of.

Watertite is an oil based waterproofing paint. It's really designed to be used on basement (or other) walls where penetrating moisture is an issue.

I suppose you could use it but this

Watertite® Waterproofing Paint has a unique solvent based formula that combines a state-of-the-art waterproofing resin with Portland cement to create a coating that stops up to 34psi of water pressure.

Makes me think that it would be somewhat problematic to redecorate should the desire take you down the line.

If you have an issue with black mould in your bathroom this would probably cover it up at the very least but it seems a bit extreme and as a specialist paint will likely be expensive.

TLDR I'd stick with perma-white

Watertite®

So would this be the stuff to use on the inside wall of my brick shed where the neighbours garden now sits above the dpc?

Would it work?

Cheers

(yes I know I should dig it out, drainage etc. etc. but that is a very different level of job to repainting)

Just wanted to post a quick thank you to @Airhead for the deglosser tip before painting the wardrobes. Made the prep a lot less messy and a lot quicker! Would recommend doing if you're thinking of painting furniture in fairly good condition (ours was brand new)