Home DIY

Those Duopower plugs are good. Also, with crumbly walls I've found these helpful sometimes https://www.toolstation.com/rawlplug-wet-n-fix-repair-solution-pads/p84265

I had thought about doing the same with poly-filla but thats a great tip, thanks!

Again, it seems to have worked for me. YMMV as with any advice from a random internet IT guys who tries not to get trades in wherever possible.

I've finally got round to patching the holes in my knackered wall and now need to try and paint it to blend into the existing wall. I know it's not going to be perfect but I'd like it to not be too obvious.

I've got some colour matched paint that looks pretty similar. My problem is how to apply it without it looking obvious. Walls have either been rollered or sprayed so have quite a flat finish which I don't think I can match with a brush. I could use a little roller but some of the patches that need covering are pretty small compared to a roller. Are these little paint pad things any good? Any other suggestions, cheers?

Haha whereas I am taking advice from random internet bike nerds who take advice from random internet IT guys.
It does sound like a fairly logical thing to do though, certainly doesn't sound like it will hurt.

@aggi That stuff looks brilliant, thanks for that!

god love the person who has to deal with removing the plugs in future (probably me, in which case "fuck you, past stevo_com!").

It's easy. Drill the plugs out with the same sized bit that you used to make the hole in the first place. Done in seconds.

Never heard of putting adhesive in the holes and can't see it hurting. The way that almost all anchor systems for mechanical fixings work is by forcing a higher volume of stuff into the hole than the volume of the hole and compressing it. This goes from the old school wedges into brickwork and matches in a drill hole right through to modern chemical anchor systems which expand slightly as they set. As I say I don't think the glue will hurt but not sure it will help hugely either.

The biggest issue I come across where plugs and other such things fail is people not clearing dust out of the hole (especially with chemfix etc).

This piece of wood under the threshold of the back door is rotting. How do I replace. Do I need to take the whole door out? Can it be replaced with Stone / concrete. I won't be doing it myself but have no idea where to start looking at costs and don't want to get taken for a ride as money is tight.

Bad photo but you can just see the rotting wood under the door

First figure out why it rotted. If you don't solve that, if you replace it with wood (and it will be poorer wood in terms of quality because that's how things are now) it will just rot again.

Clear out all the shit that's around it. Find out what's its actually doing; its function, how it was fitted. Then figure out what might be a good, easy replacement job.

We had an extractor fan fitted in our bathroom earlier in the year to combat the steam and condensation build up when having a shower. When it was first fitted you really noticed the difference, since then we've re-decorated the bathroom and I swapped the shaver socket for one of those wall mounted toothbrush chargers. This week I've noticed that there seems to be a lot more condensation building up when having a shower, water droplets running down the wall etc.
The fan looks to be working fine and is pulling air through so I'm at a bit of a loss as to why there's been a change in its effectiveness.
Anyone got any ideas? Could switching the shaver socket be effecting the power supply to the fan?

can anyone reccommend a company that will lift a 150kg fridge freezer to a 1st floor flat?

It's rotted because it's exposed to the elements, French drain sits in front of it so when it rains the wood would have taken water damage over time.
Thanks for the advice though. I will do a more through examine. I would have thought any thing on the perimeter would have been block work.

Dab it on with the tip of a brush. Sash brush is quite useful too, roll the whole wall with a 4 or 6 inch roller can be quicker with better results than trying to touch it up with new paint anyway.

Pretty good candidate for Repaircare epoxy resin or similar. Cut the rotten stuff out with a chisel.

99.9999% no, changing the socket couldn't affect the fan performance.

The air contains more moisture at this time of year though.

Cheers, I'll have a look at sash brushes. Unfortunately it's the hallway at the bottom of the stairs so it's a big, awkward wall.

Hallways are usually very difficult to touch up, depends on the lighting but patches usually show up more at oblique angles. If you have primed the patches with Gardz you'll have a better chance of the filler not 'grinning'.

With the sash brush you can trim the end square with scissors. When you're painting sashes you normally trim the end to a point. It becomes like a stencil brush with a square end.

Airhead's suggestion is a pretty sound one.

Out of curiosity are you sure there's nothing more substantial behind it? I would expect an external door to be sitting on some kind of brickwork or masonary at the very least. I'd be tempted to try and put a cheap drill bit through one of the more rotten places to see how deep it goes before it hits something solid. It may be that you don't have to worry.

Worth taking the front off the fan and seeing if there’s a mesh grille that has become clogged with dust from the bathroom redecoration. Our kitchen fan was struggling recently and this was the cause, although the buildup took years rather than months.

Yes, there's already a fair few scuffs in the hallway that show up when it's sunny. Cheers for the advice.

Yeah, I took the grille off, and everything looks fine. It's only been fitted for 4 or 5 months so not enough time for anything to build up. I did notice that one of the flaps on the exterior grille wasn't opening properly so put some silicon lubricant on it.
Anyway going to keep an eye on it, had the window slightly open as well as the fan on this morning and that seemed to make a difference.

What kind of ducting is there?

The wire re-enforced concertina type of ducting isn't the most efficient where the inside point of the "v" of the concertina sits in the duct lowers the diameter of it. Additionally it also creates turbulence in the air passing through it again reducing the efficiency. Finally water can collect in the hollows allowing stuff to grow and in worst case scenarios further block airflow.

Is the ducting in a straight line going direct from the fan unit to the vent?

You want to minimise the number of bends in any duct work. In solid ducting elbows have a radius to them rather than a straight 90 degree bend like you would see in pipework.

If the ducting is flexible could it have shifted for any reason since it was installed?

It’s the rigid ducting type and a straight roughly 30cm run so no issues there. Going to keep an eye on it, my worry initially was that there was a loss of power to the fan but I don’t think that’s the case now.

Try holding a piece of toilet paper to the grill. If it holds, it’s working.

Almost a week to get to this point.

Should have finished the whole thing in a couple of days but there was so much shit I needed to put right. I did tell them that shadow gaps, especially backlit ones need everything perfect and was ignored. Now the LEDs nicely show up just how bad a job the spreads did with the skim coat (I wasn't even allowed to try and sand this back for reasons unknown).

I keep trying to get out of this place and I keep getting offered more work.

To top it all off the owner has announced he is going to start a property development business and wants to know if I'd be interested in some more work..............

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Christ... did they skim with a garden spade?

Big tub of wonder wipes ftw though. Vital