Home DIY

It's doable but not easy to completely disguise it in multi finish plaster. If I'm trying to make it disappear I usually line it with a very thick lining paper. Sometimes that's not the best idea in a kitchen though.

Mostly it doesn't need to be completely disguised and a lot of people would have a decent go with easy fill and a sander. Easy fill is quite a soft finish so the walls can easily be marked though.

A good middle ground is a harder filler like Toupret interior filler (TX110). More expensive though and you might need to seal the wall before applying the filler.

Thanks for the options! Going to try and pop round to get a better idea of how deep it is and what the rest of the wall is like before committing to a particular route.

Turns out these corner of the door stop type seals are great! With the 12 or 15 mm deep jobs you have a large lattitude of door fit and doesn't really change how it closes, seals on both edges of the door and easy to fit. Great find cheers man.

Having fitted various types for 20 odd years I discovered these and never went back. Good to know they worked for you.

I would like to tidy up the render before painting it- what’s the best product to use to fill this in?

1 Attachment

Toupret Fibarex although you'll have to fake the finish if you need it to match.

Thanks - can't find that to actually purchase in London near me, via Internet shops anyway, I'll make some phone calls tomorrow.

They've recently changed the name! Screwfix have it.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/toupret-masonry-repair-filler-1-5kg/572pp

Bingo, I shall go and get some if I test negative tomorrow morning - thanks.

If I test positive again I wonder if they'll out a box outside for me to collect once they're retreated back inside?

Not sure, if I preorder to my local ones I'm only in the store for a minute to pick it up and there's nothing changing hands except the goods. They seem to have the distancing working.

Worth phoning and asking, in my experience the staff at Screwfix are always fantastic

Removing Artex ceiling as a DIY job? 70s house so probably contains asbestos - test kit results outstanding. I’ve read everything from, wet it down and wear an FP3 mask/coverall, to, absolutely not instant death. Anyone with lived experience? Am I mad to even consider it?

Steaming (as in wallpaper striper) may work (soften and scrape from underneath) but if you're leaving the underlying substrate in pisspoor state then maybe pull the whole lot down in one for re-bording. Any prolonged overhead work soon becomes frustrating and arduous. Sorry I've no real lived experience. It's pattern condition and area size could have bearing I've a distance memory of chemical application that is covered to soften then scraped away

Calling artex technical support will get you much further than I can

Why bother taking the risk?

Having spoken to quite a few firms about the 1970s artex celings in our house everyone said they don't even bother to strip it from plaster celings they just remove the celings as it works out quicker and cheaper for everyone.

They only bother surface removal from concrete and then they all use a product called x-tex

Appreciate. Whole ceiling down and then reboard/skim? Did you have it done?

Even removing wallpaper with a steamer has started off the edges peeling down, so doesn’t look like it would be an awful process - more worries about intangible future lung damage.

I’ve been looking into tensioned fabric ceilings to cover our polystyrene tiles. No prices yet but seems like it’d be quick and very low disruption option. Can even add some acoustic treatment into the bargain to satisfy my hifi nerdery.

Yes, we were already having the whole house replastered due to all the chasing.

We had an asbestos survey before hand, which confirmed the celings and found a whole load of high content tiles and one pure asbestos board above the front door.
Now if we ever sell the house we can show the report that we had it all removed and the board above the door has been fully and, safely, encapsulated. I think people may be a bit funny about buying a house which they knew had asbestos, but now we can truthfuly say its been resolved.

Removing the celings does give you the advantage of being able to rethink your celing lighting options too

Another option is to have a false ceiling put in, but this only an option if you have high enough celings - which ours weren't.

Thanks, thats really useful. Follow up q, if the apparent structure is paint, wood, backing paper, it's almost certainly woodchip not artex? (Again, lab results are pending either way, just need the hive mind to tell me if I'm being hugely under/over cautious)

1 Attachment

Definitely looks like woodchip paper to me. Artex being a plaster finish.

That’s where I’ve landed to a 98% degree of surety.

I removed loads of that- not asbestos?

Previously: Bought first home, in Glastonbury. Moved 120 miles west.

Looks like the carpet in the lounge started smelling even worse than it did before, between the (overly wet) cleaning and the time we moved in (couldn't leave any window open due to living far away) TBF the carpets smell everywhere in this house.

Tried treating the lounge carpet with the usual 50/50 white vinegar spray etc which seemed to help in some areas, but not in others. So the next step is to get rid of that carpet, looking at mid-range solid core LVT (click) options. Any recommendations in this subject?

Here's the state of it. It was a standard build in 1997 so hopefully the floor underneath is uniform.

1 Attachment

I need to drill some holes, as plumb as possible, in a very not-flat stone wall with an SDS. Is there some trick to getting them plumb? Best I can think of is some small bubble level taped to the back of the drill.

While we're on ceilings and paint and stuff. Was this blistered paint look something people did intentionally or a sign of poor prep/old leak etc? Any suggestions for removal? Will be skimming the ceiling but figure it'll need cleaning up before that happens.

Harder to photo than I expected. Blisters are couple cm diameter, other bits I assume are just paint and sponge work based on some obvious swipe marks around the light fittings

3 Attachments