Home DIY

Some time ago I had some wood cut at a local sawmill and bought some jointed oak worktops from an overstock warehouse. It sat there for ages while I worked every day, but between Christmas and New Year I finally had the time to get to work. I took it into the cellar, planed it with the lethal tool you see in the pics, and cut the worktops to size with my tracksaw.

4 Attachments

I then cut the lengths to size and did a dry trial fit, and as you can see, marked up my pieces. Then got the yellow tools together.

4 Attachments

Then with the pine and poplar painted I made some shelf supports and cut the shelves.

3 Attachments

Then I went to Paris.

1 Attachment

Then I came back and used the yellow tools.

4 Attachments

Before adding the top to make the first of 3 new kitchen units.

3 Attachments

The end.

Good work, that looks brilliant!

That looks so good. Are you at all concerned about side to side wobbling/racking?

looks amazing, great job

No, it’s pretty sturdy. Each shelf support Itself is solid with 8 dowels, and 12 screws, and they screw into each leg with two screws. The shelves are attached with 6 brackets and the top with 8.

That's lovely, and looks really well made.

Excellent work and excellent photo thread.

Shout out to @pryally for passing on his old jigsaw. Already been out to use "dismantling" a cabinet and worktop. Thanks!

Should have said.

wow! looks amazing!

Joists under the stairs have seen better days, to say the least.

Quite a few of the bricks supporting the joists have this yellowy efflorescence - I’ve been wiping it off as much as I kind, and cleaning up the sub-floor so there’s minimal/no material bridging in between things - anything else I need to worry about here? (they are/were red engineeeing bricks)

3 Attachments

Also think I’ve found the source of the general wetness at the back of the house.

to the left of the chimney breast the water pipes are boxed in (to the left on the first photo - boiler currently above in the back bedroom) - and I can feel water along the grey pvc pipe that comes down there under the floor across the back of the house eventually to the downstairs loo on the other side.
Will be pulling off that boxing in (new boiler/plumbing happening, so dodgy push-fit fitting (my assumption/hope - the rusty metal plaster-holding-corner-strip-thingy supports this, I reckon) should be sorted by default in a few weeks with any luck - just need to clear out the sub-floor here and get things dried out.

2 Attachments

Ah sorry mate. Didn’t think of that!
It was Alex’s birthday.

bridging

Where are the internal walls / external walls?

Dwarf walls abutting external walls is a great way for damp to rot your joists.

A roll of DPC under them might help.

Joists under the stairs have seen better days, to say the least

I would say that those joists are terminally fucked and would strongly advise you to replace them if I was working for you. With the amount of rot at the end it is entirely likely that moisture has travelled up the grain and could well be rotting away in the centre so if you leave it as is it is possible that you'll do all this work out a finished surface on top the subfloor and then 6 months to 6 years in the future will have to tear it all up again to replace them. It makes much more sense to get it done now even with the current cost of building material.

anything else I need to worry about here? (they are/were red engineeeing bricks)

Nope looks good. Engineering bricks will retain their strength even when submerged in a sewer 24/7.

Out of curiosity is are those joists ending on an external wall?

anything else I need to worry about here? (they are/were red engineeeing bricks)

For it to be affecting that area I'd say it's more likely that it is the pipe not being properly lagged and condensation forming on the outside. From my experience failure of pushfit pipe fittings progresses so unless it's literally started in the last 6 months it would have been noticed a while ago (assuming it's not the failure mode caused by a clown forgetting to put the sleeve inserts into the pipe before joining it to the fitting - but when that goes wrong it's sudden and catastrophic).

Out of curiosity is are those joists ending on an external wall?

It’s the party wall between us and next door (we’re mid-terrace).
The photo of the efflorescence is an internal one, in fact all of the photos show only internal walls.

Will absolutely 100% be replacing the rotten joists - one of the main reasons for lifting the floors as we knew there were suspect damp spots.

Have a feeling whilst there is DPC under the joists on the beams and/or dwarf walls/supporting bricks, it’s old (either slate that has cracked or some kind of bitumen that’s now brittle).

RE: the push-fit failure, it’s hard to say, the house has been empty and unheated for the past 18 months, and it’s only this one instance of this one pipe I’ve come across that’s noticably wet (and with obviously wet/damp sub-floor under its path).

As I say, re-plumb coming soon, and builder (touch wood) round on Monday to look around and quote.

edit: red is where there’s rot, probably at the ? mark too (paint flaking on wall above), but boards run under the stairs so didn’t get them up today.
yellow is where the photo of the yellowy bricks is from.
also have rot at the back between the downstairs loo and kitchen door/entrance - but not taken that side of the dining room up yet either

1 Attachment

Template it with thin board is a reasonable trade off time-wise. Helps if you have some hardboard around though.

@Bobbo one other potentially perinent point is that for the last 10 years or so, the fridge in this house was under the stairs

edit: probs not, just had a chat with next door and their porch floor gave way a couple of years back - so perhaps a culprit in common, will investigate further!