Home DIY

Yeah that looks absolutely mint. Mines a povo one in comparison. Worth noting I’ve used it for about once in a year.

It’s not really an answer to your neck issue but I have a similar problem and use a squeegee mop with diluted sugar soap. Horrible job.

I did something similar recently. Drilled the sides of the channel and chiselled out about 75mm deep. Took a few hours but my shoulder still hurts if I scratch my back!

Cheers. I was hoping someone would suggest that. I figured the length of the mop would mean I was only craning my head half way to up, I just wasn’t sure sugar soap would be up to the job.

Cheers. So we're saying it's not easy work. But should be a one day on the weekends worth of work all in.

You mean there's an alternative to the rank juice running down your arm and into your arm pit??? This room nearly killed me getting the bulk of the nicotine/tar off with sugar soap and a sponge.

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Grim

Ooof.
Wonder what the inside of the previous owner’s lungs looked like…

I can only guess that it was a probate sale, judging by the number of fags consumed.

Nope, alive and kicking. Just a couple who had grown up kids and they had separated so she was living mostly in that room in the loft and the living room. Obviously smoked in bed too as the side of the room where her bed was was the worst.

Windows too

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But all salvageable.

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Imagine what the inside of her lungs looked like. Christ.

2 years in and there are still spots in other places in the house that haven't been touched yet where a wipe or sponge comes away brown. So yeah, I can't imagine she's long for the world. Should have Zinnsered that whole room when I had finished with the sugar soap and vinegar, as I threw over 15L of Leyland Trade Emulsion at it before all the discolouring went away. Probably increased the insulation properties with the inch of paint I put on the walls and ceiling...

That's the sort of cleaning that's miserable to do, but spirit-lifting to finish. It's like an exorcism. You've done great work there.

Still commonly referred to as "the stinky room". Ms_com has asthma so she couldn't go in there until it was done as her chest just immediately said "nope!". Now it's our friend/lodger's room.

It’s tough and does depend how strong the concrete is but stitch drilling and sharp chisel helps. Also not hitting your hand with the hammer reduces the pain involved. Wear knee pads too if possible.

You can use a ladder to get a different angle on the mop head, takes a bit longer but it saves a bit of dripping. Buy a cheap throwaway one, the caustic soda is tough on the squeegee.

want to fix my back garden gate

The frame and part of the door rotted due to a leaky drain splashing from the shed to the left of the pic.

I might be able to save the door but the frame needs replacing. Not sure how to go about this other than to measure the existing frame dimensions then order replacement (treated) wood and build a new one.

Any tips? Specifically how to safely remove the old frame and affix the frame to the brick without damaging it.

edit: yes the alleyway needs a clean :(

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Windows have cleaned up nice but the radiators never seem to loose the stains. If you dont smoke and use decent rads they will stay white for a long long time.

One hell of a cleaning job!
Get those big 5 litre jugs of industrial degreaser (water degradable stuff), wear a paper suit with genuine marigolds taped over the top, full goggles, mask with proper filters on it, then get to work. Or just insure the place and let it burn. As even with duck taped on marigolds, the fowl brown stank juice will run into your arm pits.
Fag tar or 3rd hand smoke is impossible to remove from many surfaces, but you can try and get most of it out and then seal it in with something like zinsser. Smaller radiators I would just replace as you'll have to remove it and disturb the joints anyway.
Got a piano off a family member who smoked a lot even for that time period 35 years ago, despite various attempts to clean it, and 35 years, still reeks. Anyone without lungs of steel will not be able to lift the lid on it and inhale in any way. Should take it to schools and chemically shock kids with it into staying away from cigs. Anyone who ever makes the statement 'don't worry about the smoke, it'll air out', needs to take a look at themselves.

The hours of sponging, painting and then sanding (the floor) did the job. We stopped getting whiffs of stale cigarette about a year ago. I think the smell sustains in some places as they don't get forensic on the cleaning. We were lucky that this was a room with tongue and groove floor boards. The other rooms have so much dust and shite under the floor boards what could have absorbed the smell that it would have been impossible. The living room (the next worst room) had laminate flooring. That and the underlay below it took the hit. Once we removed that it was 95% gone from that room.

For the rad, being thorough about getting all the dust from the fins on the back and being liberal with the cleaning fluid really worked. No damage to the joints, no leaks a year or so on. Used Dulux Quick Dry Eggshell (Timeless, an off white colour we use for any woodwork that would normally be painted brilliant white) and the stains have not come through. Even where there was surface rust.

But, I agree on the comment about replacing. We have replaced quite a few in this house, the only ones we repainted were this one and the one next door in ms_com's office. They may well be replaced in future but they are in small, well insulated rooms so there has been no real rush. An hour and a couple of coats of that eggshell (mostly brushed on then a roller over the main flat surfaces, need to make sure the brush strokes in the "valleys" are long and straight or else it looks like a dog's dinner) and they are grand from 5 ft away.

We bought an ex-smokers house too, it had also been sat empty for a while, we took out the carpets and everything soft and binned it and have set about cleaning every surface, stripping all the wallpaper (of course, every wall had 3 layers) and otherwise trying to eradicate the stench. The ceilings were grim AF, we ended up skimming them all after cleaning them to make sure there was no leak through. We couldn’t get the UPVC front door clean at all, but were planning to replace it anyway, and there were no radiators installed to clean. We still have one built in cupboard that smells of fags. 2/10, would not do again.

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We're getting new floors layed (concrete floor, self levelling, engineered wood). The skirting boards are coming off.

Current our Internet enters the house from outside into the bottom left, then runs to the the bottom right where the power is and plugs into the modem > switch > deco WiFi router.

Our TV and music is in the top left.

On the other side of the TV in the adjacent room is the other deco.

As the flooring is up I'd like an Ethernet in the dining room and near the TV

My questions are:

1. can I just run a couple of Ethernets around the room while the skirting boards are off?
   
2. What type of cable should I use given two 90° bends?
   
3. Is there any other type of diy cable I should run while I'm at it?
   

Thankfully they had removed any carpet before we moved in, but left the underlay???!?!!! So that getting yeeted along with the curtains and eventually the laminate flooring and its underlay were some of the easy wins.