Home DIY

You'll also need to work out how to get 10x tails from all the mats to the thermostats without crossing under any of the mats themselves.

This is the upstairs floor in a stone built cottage. Any idea how 5his could happen? There’s not much evidence of leaks from the roof either now or historically, although there’s a few small marks.
Most of the top floor is like this. Joists are fine.
I need to replace the floor obviously, I’m guessing with t&g chipboard, but wondering if ply might be better?
Any advice would be appreciated, thank you 🙏

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Maybe a bit thin and broken down over time due to footfall.

You don't often see evidence of Shredded Wheat's inglorious entry into diy flooring sheets.

I did one room in 25mm ply and one room is 22mm osb3. The osb3 was infinitely easier to work with. That looks like 600mm centers?

Old cottages get damp, that plus long spans between joists plus non-moisture-resistant chipboard going soft.

In theory 22mm moisture resistant chipboard should span 600mm and won’t swell.

Ply is obviously more stable and water resistance but isn’t tongued and grooved so you’ll have the risk of ridges at the joints.

Don’t fancy floorboarding it? That’d look nice, be more ‘correct’ for the house is much easier to handle and trim than massive sheets and I bet wouldn’t be loads dearer than ply, if it all.

Thank you - I bought a smaller number of bigger more expensive mats so hopefully it will be straightforward

I have 2 mats (15sqm in total).The tails terminate in a fused spur, which goes to the thermostat.

With more, you'd probably need a terminal block.

The draw scales pretty linearly with area - given you can buy 20+ sqm mats, and they happily use one thermostat.

I had a sparky do the actual work, as it was being fed from a new CU.

Afternoon, need some hive mind help. I have a curtain rail made of mild steel that needs welding in the middle. Can anyone recommend a metalwork/welder? I'm in Hackney. Thanks. S

House I was helping some mates with recently had a floor like that. Joists where an age apart, 600mm, but there was no nogs/links the other way, someone had just screwed some pine skirting board under the joints on the long side.

Whole floor was super wonky, when we took the carpet up the stuff just crumbled.

Ran nogs every 300 but left the joists where they were and reinforced the edges of the sheets and then the thicker OSB (22 or 24mm?), very solid feeling after.

🤫

40 pound on a 2nd hand mig

Popped my head in here once, could be worth a call

London Metal Engineers
https://www.londonmetalengineers.com/
505 Hackney Rd, London E2 9ED
07508 499483

Thank you. Sounds straightforward. Hopefully

I was going to ask but thought it might be a bit cheeky. Thanks for the recommendation for the Hackney Road guys.

I here do people source outdoor lights from? The freeholders association for our building (that I’m part of) wants outside lights, but everyone just keeps posting links to Amazon straight to landfill shite, and it dawned on me that I’m not actually sure where to look. Planning on popping to the wholesaler to see what they’ve got when I have a chance. But in the meantime wondered if there were better examples available online.

What type of lights? Spots, PIR, Festoon?

I've had all sorts from TLC and been pretty satisfied.

I think people have expressed an interest in more traditional looking stuff. Wall mounted lanterns etc. I’ll probably also needs a small flood with motion sensor as well (which is what I’d most like advice on tbh). I had some beckenheath ones that I installed for a client but they didn’t even last that long despite not being mega cheap. I mostly just need to illustrate what prices are actually like. I’ve sent out a load of links to stuff on TLC.

Mostly just trying to deal with people scattergun posting random links from Google, who don’t quite understand that those £12 wall lanterns will barely survive being installed let alone a cold and wet British winter. You’d think that being an electrician would give you some degree of weight to your explanations but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. I’m half tempted to just buy a cheap Screwfix £12 lantern just to show them how unfathomably shit they are, same goes for shitty solar lights (no, the auto generated “best solar lights” article just sent to me isn’t actually helpful).

You’d think that being an electrician would give you some degree of weight to your explanations but it seems to be falling on deaf ears

"I think people have had enough of 'experts' "

Bega are legit... https://www.bega.com/en/products/outdoor-luminaires/wall-luminaires/

Fuck me they’re nice !

Oh so that's what he did after Mambo #5

Probably the best thread for this, I need to stock up on sandpaper (for use on wood, not metal) across the different grits, is there a recommended bulk buy option?

Appreciated