Home DIY

Wood is more insulating than PIR board. The standard I’ve seen is boards between joists, tape the joints with foil tape to make airtight, plasterboard over. Taping is often excessive, and many don’t bother.
The other thing is to make sure you create a sufficient air gap for where the cables are running, otherwise things can get a bit complicated with calculating the de-rating factor for the cable, ie - running cables through insulation reduces its current carrying capacity.

Orbital fasteners seem to have a few
https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/categories/timco-drywall-screws

Is it though? Or maybe its because it can transmit moisture? Seen a few ceilings especially in bathrooms where the pattern of the framing can be seen clearly through the plasterboard in a thin line of mild black mold/discoloration of the paper. Behind it is CLS framing with PIR board put between them, maybe they didn't use a vapour barrier or there was gaps between PIR and the wood though, i'm assuming its something like that causes the cold spots to become frame shaped.

Putting up twinslot shelving. 5 shortish uprights. Screws and Fischer plugs into plaster with brick behind. Second from left upright is about 3mm too high due to incompetent drilling, meaning the shelf won't rest on the first upright.

Do I leave it or is it possible to fill the holes (what with) and re-drill slightly lower down, obviously the holes will mostly overlap.

I'm considering either making the holes bigger, packing with wood and using woodscrews, or filling existing holes with milliput and redrilling.

I'm all out of vinyl storage (again). I've got a few more kallax around the house with some in too but main storage is already full. There's a pile waiting to be sorted, just out of shot.

I've mocked up two solutions in sketchup, both have some additional shelving at the top for lego stuff.

The main difference being that one design has a 30mm facia on the top and sides of each unit which I'll route LED strips in for lighting, the other doesn't for the records.

Couple of questions:

1. As you can see from the pics, I have a service hatch for our kitchen
   / bathroom fans which all vent out of the roof. Should I cover it /
   would I get away with maybe creating a non-permanent attachment for
   the bottom left 'cube' of four compartments for records, using
   battens to allow that part to slide in and out if I needed access?
   
2. Which one looks nicer? I think I prefer the facia across everything though it will end up hiding a few records. The sections are tall enough to accept box sets even with the facia
   
3. Would I get away with 15mm MDF? I've modelled for 18mm but shits expensive yo.
   
4. I'm going to swap to bookshelf speakers. Could I wall mount them either side, at the lego shelf height?
   
   
   
   

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Look at the back here too detailing facia overlap and construction...

Room is 2552mm wide so will domino together the horizontal shelves to create a full length shelf at each level.

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I've filed the holes in Spur shelving brackets into slots with usable results - some abuse with a centre punch will even give something close to countersinking - also slots can be off vertical to allow for really rubbish marking out (don't ask how I know - MrsE hasn't noticed)

I'm considering either making the holes bigger, packing with wood and using woodscrews

That's a good option.

No fascia for the record shelves imho. 18mm is probably min, try the sagulator if you want a better estimate.

Although, Vitsoe is really the way to go.

filed the holes in Spur shelving brackets into slots

Ooh. I do own a round file although probably not the right size. It's too high so would sit at the top of slots which gives me more confidence.

Having a blast replacing doors. This one seems to have been hung with half a box of matches, hopes and prayers.

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Then we have the bottom hinge, which was holding a good chunk of the lining in place...

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Wow, don't think I've ever seen anything that bad irl.

Yeah, I don't think wood filler is going to fix this.

Still, not as bad as what we discovered in the loft: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16594145/

Stashed Products make quite a nice looking hanging storage system for bikes#

This is just a rip off of the Spatr 'giant tie rack' system he invented a decade ago. But much much more expensive.
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/8981182/

Full spec a few posts down.

IMO using a sliding door track/trolley might be cheaper than the Stashed Products system but it will still add unnecessary expense and complexity with increased likelihood of failure. I imagine the @spotter system would be more robust.

I'm glad you raised it though as I need to send the link to the architects we're using.

You could actually do that with epoxy resin, it would be more economical to use the epoxy to glue in a piece of wood. Repaircare is a good one. Cost of entry is high but it's worth it if you have a lot to do.

I did see your structural floorboard when you posted it. Looks like you're in for a lot of surprises with that house.

New bifolding door means we'll be needing a fence or screen where next doors picket fence used to be just fine. Ideally the fence will decrease in height as it gets away from the house so as to maximise the view.

The section of fence nearest the house will have to run on a patio, and to continue in a clean line it would then have to sit on top of the boundary wall. Or I will have to replant a young beech hedge a foot further away from the wall so I have space to put the fence behind.

Anyone have any thoughts on how complicated or expensive this could turn out to be?

It's been discussed at length in the thread and I've posted pictures of a method that worked for me. Basically a threaded rod in the base of a fence post, rubber grommet from electrical suppliers, epoxy adhesive in the hole in the top of the wall. It allows you to adjust the angle once you've fixed it so that you don't have to drill perfect holes.

Making a garden path from reclaimed bricks: terrible idea? My biggest worry is it will disintegrate at the first sign of frost. Would make it as permeable as possible, bound edge and unbound sub-base.

I'm seeing nice looking things on Google images but they look like they're in sunny places.

Iirc @ColinTheBald has views on this.

Mainly what you have identified and needing a good base.

I wrote the idea off when I discovered that they're ~£1 per brick... So potentially £120 p/m² vs ~£100p/m² for porcelain tiles.

Obviously if you can get some from a skip and it's a small enough number thsy cleaning them up isn't going to take forever it seems viable.

To anyone who's insulated under their floorboards: How long am I looking at to put insulation under my floor boards in a 1st floor room 3x3m?

1. Empty room
   
2. Carefully number and lift laminate and underlay
   
3. Lift floorboards
   
4. Cut and fit breathable membrane
   
5. Cut and fit insulation
   
6. Refit floorboards and screw any squeaky ones
   
7. Refit laminate
   
8. Tidy up
   
9. Fill room
   
   
   

It's mainly steps 3. - 6. I need help with the time estimate. Is it something that you can bosh out once you've got stuff set up? Or is it one of those jobs that ends up being more awkward than you think? Can it be done solo or is it mucb faster with two?

Cheers.

Yeah, I think maybe I could live with a little spalling as it's just a path, main patio will be getting porcelain (I assume you mean <£100, I'm looking at about £30/m² here for porcelain).

Someone on nextdoor is looking at selling a big brick wall's worth of old Imperial bricks. I'm guessing it's not really a seller's market so hoping for double figures max for enough to do about 20m² of path.

Yes. <£100.

But the point being even bougie tiles are cheaper than reclaimed bricks p/m².

Also I was looking at a patio, so that needs a lot. Whereas for a path you could genuinely drive round and look for skips.

I think 3 will be the one that's most up in the air and will depend on how old the floors are and what condition the nails are in. Will you need to take any skirting off too?

Definitely get a pallet buster to lift the boards. If you've got a friend who also has one, it's a huge help too, much less strain on the boards.

The cutting/stapling membrane and insulation didn't take long at all for me - though I was using fibreglass type stuff, so didn't need to be super accurate compared to if I was using PIR.

I also used a few screws to put some loose boards down upstairs, which very easily split the boards where I went a touch too far/too quickly - used anular ring nails everywhere downstairs (c.50sqm).

For that 50sqm, lifting the boards took about a day between my dad and I - though the living room that was in the best condition, relatively, was up within a hour or two.

Membrane and insulation (plus DPM on top as it was ground floor) probably took me about 6 hours or so on my own - multiple alcoves/fireplaces/non-straight walls/junctions/radiator pipes here, though.

Nailing boards back probably about 4 hours or so.

If it's a square room, might get it done in one long day? Probably?

Thanks for the reply, I'll have a search later in the week. I guess it relies on the integrity of the wall somewhat.