Home DIY

Cool, thanks. 100% on cordless. If I'm honest, me saving us a shit tonne of money by doing as much as I can myself is a good reason to treat myself to a nice 18v DeWalt collection IMO!

It seems the only DeWalt 18v rail compatible circular is the DCS572:
https://ffx.co.uk/product/Get/Dewalt-Dcs572N-5035048729168-18V-184Mm-Xr-Bl-Rail-Circular-Saw-Bare-Unit

So perhaps the question is whether an 184mm circular saw like this will do the job for everything else (if I go down this route)?

100% on cordless

Cutting loads of cement boards sounds like the kind of thing you're going to want dust extraction for in which case having a corded saw isn't going to make much difference.

Although it is convenient having a cordless one to just pick up and do stuff.

You may like to consider an Evolution cutting blade. The abrasion from cementitious boards is extreme.
https://shop.evolutionpowertools.com/collections/evolution-blades/products/rageblade185multi

You shouldn’t use these in non evolution saws, they cut at a different speed to regular saws. I want to say they are a fair bit slower. I have one of their chop saws and it’s great for having set up it the garage to cut stuff up, but they’re not all that in terms of precision.

Because you need the clean cuts I would recommend a track saw as the track will greatly prevent tear-out and chipping. The DeWalt really isn't the one to buy though.
The cheap Erbauer from Screwfix will be fine, but change the blade, as recommended above.
You will need dust extraction, so there's no real advantage to cordless.

I have both a mid range dewalt corded and a cheapy ryobi 18v. Ryobi was great for doing some basic board cross cutting building a TV unit and for chopping studwork for my shed. But any long rip cuts in thicker material have been problematic.

Thanks all, I must admit I hadn't considered dust extraction as most of this will be used for external cladding, so I'm planning to do the cuts on some saw horses in the garden, and the boards that will be used as flooring are for the ground floor which is going to be a big dusty building site because we're demolishing the back of the house and extending.

It might actually be more of a concern for other uses as that's more likely to be inside.

The DeWalt really isn't the one to buy though.

What makes you say that @bq ?

In terms of blades I've had Freud ones recommended by @dbr and I trust him on that, I'll just try not to make any slips.

Can you chop my valchromat once decided please?

When I've finished my current job sure :P

What makes you say that @bq ?

Unique track system which limits your ability to buy extra track.
Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI3KcCvc2i8

I like DeWalt everything else, but being able to buy Makita track is very useful.

Freud blades are very good.

After a lot of coaxing, and screwing the rad inserts(?) in a bit more to give me space I got the rad refitted without the wall cracking. The little tidy caps were a fucker and had to be modified and I brushed them to get rid of the shiny finish.

Annoyingly I didn't watch any videos before so didn't know I had to put sealing compound on. So far no leaks, but still a bit nervous.

Does anyone have any tips on how to disguise the white plumbers tape? I need some model paint to touch up some marks on the nuts, but painting the tape feels like a bad idea.

2 Attachments

Looks good, to get rid of the tape run a Stanley knife around the joint close to the rad and then along the fitting, remove the excess. Job done, the tape is sealing inside the fitting so cutting and removing won’t disturb it.

Forget the paint and be pleased, big job imo

Paint in older properties ...

We're in the process of buying an older house (the main external walls built in 1820). After getting a survey, hearing things about limited damp, and doing some reading, I understand it's important for an older building to be able to breathe. I also understand that modern paints, plasters, wallpapers, etc. can prevent that. I'm by no means an expert, so if I've got any of that wrong, please do correct me.

My wife is keen to paint the walls of some of the rooms before we move everything in. Currently all the walls are just white. I asked her to find some paint that was suitable for older properties, and she's come back in love with a couple of colours from Little Greene. I've taken a look on their website at pricing and nearly feinted - £90 for 5 litres of their "distemper". Also after reading some more, I learned it goes off after 5 days and that they don't recommend using it in high touch areas like playrooms. So guess what, the rooms she wants to paint are the living room and the play room!

After thinking it through, I was planning to just paint over the existing paint, and I've realised I have no idea if the seller will have used breathable paint and plaster. In fact, I'd wager they haven't. So my first question is whether there is any point using fancy breathable paint unless you know that everything else in the existing wall is also breathable?

My second question is whether anyone has recommendations for a good matt indoor paint that's relatively hardwearing that will colour match a colour from Little Greene and end up cheaper?

There is no 'right' answer here. Either save some money now and risk having an issue in the future, or pay more now and have marginally more confidence in avoiding future issues (to do with breathability).

Generally you should be able to get a feel for how much bodging/modernisation has happened to the property. If everything has already been filled/over plastered then the cheaper paint will make little difference. But if the property is in good 'original' condition then I'd personally avoid becoming the bodger...

Choose from their remix range, 3 of our colours just happened to be what we had picked anyway, saved a fair bit.

Yeah, the inside is already fully modern. We had no idea that it was so old until the seller told us last week. TBH we were not looking for an older property, but the interior of this one had us fooled. The interior is all smooth plaster painted white. I've seen the listing from 2015 when the current seller bought it and all the plastering had been done then, although they were painted a different colour at that point.

What do you think you'd do in my shoes? I feel like the bodge is almost certainly already made.

Is there evidence of damp?

Earthborn clay paint is great for allowing walls to “breath”. It’s not the cheapest.

3 spots on the ground floor where there is evidence of damp. Just above skirting boards either side of the UPVC front door, and then another spot just above skirting board on another external wall. The current paint has flaked off there.

Oh fantastic shout! Somehow I'd managed to miss that section of their website. Thank you!

Wouldn’t use distemper. Too fragile for modern family living. More for retired couple in a 1500s cottage vibe. Little greene is great in general. anything really decent these days is About 100 per 5l. . Dulux Trade is fine though and the cheapest I would go tbh. Heard good things about tikkarilla recently too. Damp - are the skirtings rotten behind ? Get a damp meter in there . Hallways often bad as lack heating and upvc door seals limit ventilation. I don’t buy the damp injection thing but hacking off the plaster and doing a hard cement render skirt would potentially work - but also may push the issue elsewhere- depends if it’s happening because of a breached damp proof course . In a house if that age it would been slate - which may have cracked. We had big issues with similar in a house at the bottom of Highgate hill . My theory was the ground / surface water came down and sat around our foundations. Fuck knows tho damp is such a headache to diagnose .

Thanks, that confirmed what I was starting to realise which is that buying into the DeWalt track system makes no sense.

I have now read a lot of ukworkshop.co.uk posts including ones by Peter Millard who seems to know everything about this that's worth knowing. I've concluded that the best value solution is the Mac Allister corded plunge saw + Freud blades + Makita track (especially as I'm going to need at least a 2.6m long single piece and Makita is best value for long track sections).

For the record and if others are interested for reference, Peter Millard also rates the Triton TTS1400, but it has a weird 185mm blade size, so your blade choices are limited. He thinks the Parkside/Einhell/Excel saws are great value, but they don't fit Makita guide rails due to an anti-tip lip. So that basically leaves the Mac Allister as the budget option which fits Makita rails and has a sensibly sized blade.

I just wish you could still get them for £70/80 which is what they were reduced to when Lidl had the similar (but less good for track reasons) Parkside plunge saws in a while back.

Unless I decide I can justify upgrading to a Makita SP6000J with a Black Friday offer...

Colours were an exact match to tester pots apart from Juniper ash which was slightly less intense colour saturation.
French grey and Tracery II were an exact match and the usual LG emulsion quality.

Flaking is not necessarily damp - it could be efflorescence from the brick.

Fixing what is causing the damp is more important than paint choice though - even a clay / chalk paint is going to mitigate damp a small bit.

The fact that it's a UPVC door suggests that (if it's a solid wall construction), whoever did the last redecoration didn't care for period correct materials, and - I'm going to guess wildly - skimmed everything in gypsum plaster. In which case, paint with hammerite if you care to - the gypsum isn't breathable at all.

To the damp: there's often obvious causes: bad gutters, bad render, breached DPC (can be internal or external), missing caulking, splashback, inadequate drainage / broken drainage.

Just get a Mafell 😉