Home DIY

LSX is fav of mine but none here. Seems hard to find too.

Now the toilet isn't leaking, it was a big leak now nothing.

Some of you may remember I have some damp issues a few cm above skirting board height. Nothing major, no mould, never seems to get worse just ever present.

Tried a few things, had a couple surveyors round - they’re equally confused. Suggested potentially condensation but we now regularly run a dehumidifier and it’s normally about 60%.

Decided to poke at the wall a bit and wondered what I’m looking at, layers and layers of wall.

Looks like cement(?), plaster, plastic-y gloss paint (?) and then another layer of plaster???

Plenty of potential for moisture to get stuck between these layers?

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This is what I did in similar situations

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To be honest I can only go from early to middle childhood memories and every lounge that had a fireplace had one of these bad boys in front of it:

The perfect crime because the "realistic" backlit fibreglass coals meant that no one could tell the difference.

I did wonder about that kind of thing but it might be a bit beyond my skills. Did you route out the old? Is the new just glued in? Any tips for matching the wood? Not sure my parents Victorian doors are the best thing to learn on though.

We reused old floorboards which had been taken up to replace. You don't need to router when working on the face of the door. You can just use a sharp Stanley knife to cut out the edges. If you can I'd try cutting your edges so that they have a draft angle, it makes it easy to jam the pieces in. Its not a difficult job to learn as you go.

Just adding, you might find it easier to remove the mortice lock and fill with wood and use the type of lock mounted on the door.

I did think about suggesting this to you but in the case of the door at your parents house it is more complicated than the one that RJ has in his photo. The damage you're dealing with is to both the rail and the stile. It is possible to patch this but you need to consider that the joint between these two parts of the door is prone to movement so you will need to do 2 patches that go with the grain of the part of the door that they are in. These patches will need to butt up to each other but not be glued to each other so that movement can occur.

need to do 2 patches

I see what you mean, that makes sense. Will start with matchsticks and see where it goes.

Did not see your earlier post but looks like cement yes render coat, plaster gypsum skim coat which for some reason has been painted with gloss paint then at a later date skimmed again.
So yes plenty of layers to attract moisture but is the damp really that bad? I can not see from this photo

Before I took all the paint off. To be fair it is looking better, this photo was 6 months ago. You can’t tell in the photo there is still some tide mark visible.

Looking back at the old photo I hadn’t realised it’s way better

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Discussing not arguing:
Gloss paint and gypsum is similar in breathability (is that even a word) in that they are not.

Not arguing? 😁😁😁No comment 😂😂😂😂

Flexible tap tails- have you had them corrode (rust) so badly that the tap to tail screw in has failed?

I’ve seen that in France. The taps corrode too. Dissimilar metals I suppose.

Visible marks doesn't mean it's still damp necessarily. The damp will have moved anything soluble around with it which usually means you can still "see" it after it's dry.

I put a hairdryer on it and it dried further, so I’m not convinced it is fully dry

A thousand deaths upon whoever invented wallpaper and it's irremovable properties.

In some places, it's been easier to remove the plaster from the wall, than to remove the wallpaper from the plaster.

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Death is too good for them. I have a house full of this shit

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Lining paper on wallpaper on wallpaper here

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Hammer drill setting on my cordless entry level drill isn't doing anything to my wall. The wall is about 2ft thick and very solid.

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Bosch Multi-Construction/Multi-Purpose bits for use with your existing drill, or bite the bullet and get an SDS.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-expert-straight-shank-multi-purpose-drill-bits-4-piece-set/138ky

unless the hairdryer just changed its appearance further. Maybe I'll repaint that section of wall and see if it comes through.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to strip the paint from architraves and skirting. Was on extra thick, at least 3 layers and needed a repaint. Almost regretting my decision.

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I think you should get yourself a decent combi with a couple of torque settings and new half decent masionary bits. While an SDS is better and will deal with concrete I've never had any problems with my DeWalt combi in brick since using new bits and the high torque + hammer setting.

Pretty sure Screwfix still have deals on DeWalt and Makita impact + combi sets.

Eg two batteries and a box https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dck2510l3t-gb-18v-3-0ah-li-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-twin-pack/682fk#product_additional_details_container

The hammer drill action on a combi drill is never any good. The way it works on a combi drill is there are two serrated plates that engage and as the chuck turns these are pushed together which in turn pushes the bit into the wall. Doing it this way generates more noise than forward motion and the noise made is of a frequency that means it travels pretty well through solid walls so you'll be pissing off the neighbours.

An sds on the other hand has two motors one turning the Chuck and bit, the other turning a cam which drives the bit forward. It's more efficient, drills a lot quicker - especially in stone walls and makes much less noise.

If I owned a flat in a building like yours my first DIY purchase would be an sds and some quality bits to go with it.

This is a good buy and if used for DIY will likely out-live you.

worst has to be scraping woodchip off ceilings. we just gave up on scraping large bits of our hallway ceiling