Home DIY

I used Zinsser DIF Concentrate after losing my shit with a steamer. Recommended.

Did this concentrate give off any toxic smells or anything?

I've got some wallpaper to get rid of at our new house but we have 1 year old running around, so trying not to use anything too harsh

it's smells like bubble mixture to me, which could be more risky than a toxic chemical if the kid likes bubbles

Thanks, if it smells like that she'll definitely be trying to lick the walls...

Yes that stuff, 'DIF', pricey but completely worth it. Wear eye protection and maybe a decent mask if your steaming it too.

Started putting a floor down in our loft last weekend, remaining panels going down this Saturday…

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I have Zinsser perma-white satin on some units and it is very tough, definitely scrubbable.

Ha always struggle anywhere above Birmingham to get a 'London bar', its not that they even have a different name, just doesn't seem to be a thing.

Only ever once had a house broken into, but would use the term loosely. Was a victorian terraced townhouse with inner/outer doors. Outer door very solid, girls I lived with never ever locked it, inner door flimsy indoor quality with worlds most worn nightlatch on it and a thin bit of glass. Suspect they just gently leant on the inner door and it opened. Lasses got turned over for all their electronics, don't think I lost anything important, yet they never learned and year later (moved with some others) they still did the leaving the outer door open/worn out crappy inner door. Ah well!

Now every place I live in I spend a decent bit of £ changing all locks for something solid, reinforcing the door edges (often damaged from decades of being abused/forced/broken into a few times) with hardwood and monster screws, reinforce the frame with hardwood and monster screws and sometimes a metal insert plate to tie together all the keepers. Never been broken into since/not sure if anyone has tried as never been any damage or evidence of it, maybe I'm just lucky, but always think its worth spending a day and a couple hundred quid to secure a property. Can think of a grands worth of stuff worth snatching within 3 m of front door, so if it reduces the risk of theft from just a hallway then its worth it all day long IMO.

Huge! Could put a whole flat in there, or a bike workshop :P

Bet you could let that out for 600pcm.

Ha ha ha, bear in mind it’s a long long way from London’s famous London!

We bought a house earlier in the year that was built as a holiday home in 1996 and owned by the same guy since it was built. It looks like it was built with the intention to have an upstairs (electrical and lighting circuits present, window on gable end, wide hallway to accommodate a stairs, etc.).

Dad is a builder and had enough sheets of 18mm t&g osb to do 80% of the floor, so picked up a few more and started sheeting it out last weekend. It’ll probably just be storage and somewhere to turbo train through winter til we decide what to do with it.

It’s probably 3 times bigger than the studio I rented in Clapham Junction for 1k pcm in 2013 though.

Need to get a bunch of white paint. Maybe 30l? I remember reading on one of the numerous diy/home/kitchen/extension threads that it's false economy to buy brand x, and instead get brand z. Or something like that. Anyone remember this? What should I buy? Hoping there may be a Black Friday deal I can jump on to.

I like the Leyland Superleytex. High solid content (so the buckets are heavy) which means it covers well. I buy 15l a go and I think it's a shade under £30 a time.

https://www.toolstation.com/leyland-trade-super-leytex-matt-emulsion-paint/p20896

Interesting you say about solids, bought a few huge tins of paint for just white/new rooms and found they are more than half water.
Leyland I've mostly found to be decent, some of screwfix's nononse range is absolutely brilliant and others worthless, bit of a lottery with how its mixed/batching I guess.

I bought the expensive ones and the cheap ones and they all seem to be almost throw away.

Should have said we're after white, but it'll be going over some dark paint in at least one room. So something that's not water would be great. £30 for 15l sound quite good...

Aye. I blew through 15l of Dulux in one room trying to cover unwashable nicotine/tar stains (before I knew of the joys of Zinsser). The leyland just battered it.

They do them in Leyland if you’re prepared to look hard enough. Obviously I went to a Leyland in London so it might just be local stock! I’ve also invested in a 3mm stainless steel strip, drilled by me, to reinforce the door edge. The main thing to look out for on a London bar is that it is the right depth to secure the enclosure.

You can sharpen multitool blades but from my perspective it's a false economy because my clients would be a little upset if I stood around all day sharpening blades. So, yes, I view them as consumables (the same as most other saw blades) but I do find that the Bosch ones last considerably longer than cheap ones. Assuming I'm not cutting something I know will wreck the blade I'd expect that set to last at least 6 months. A cheaper set I'd expect to last half that time at the very most.

If you find that the blades don't last long bear in mind that heat is the enemy of saw blades. This applies double to multitool blades because unlike most other blades they will stay in contact with the cutting face so there is no chance of them cooling down it's rare that I take mine off the lowest speed for anything other than sanding.

The roof nerd in me appreciates this. Looks to be a very well cut roof of non-standard layout.

Yeah dad reckons no expense was spared, expensive timber and all hand cut.

Yes and it should do.

Cheers.

Looking at insulating my shed roof on the inside.

Quite hard to find advice about what to line the inside with. I've seen a couple of people recommend hardboard due to its light weight over ply. That makes sense to me.

What mm hardboard do folks think would be best?

Cheers.