Home DIY

render looks okay

I'd still blame the render though, particularly if it's cement / acrylic and not lime.

Water could get it through any crack and flow / wick to that area, and wick through the mortar.

It also depends on the inside wall covering as to where it surfaces.

Virgin technician is due at our house at 4pm.

I'm intrigued to see what they have to say... will be awkward if it's the same technician who disconnected us on Friday afternoon!

The more I try to recall what everything looked like before, the more I think the splitter/T-piece was used to take one feed to both our house and next door. I have no clue why it was seen fit to completely disconnect us.

I've been angry about this all weekend - which my better half says is daft. I'm inclined to agree (we're not exactly internet fiends and we have been out most of the weekend), but... the actually temerity!

No good for my stress levels.

Wouldn't you still want to waterproof a ply floor if your that worried unless you're using marine ply? If which case maybe use OSB, then apply a liquid membrane (like they use on flat roofs-nasty stuff but effective) then the cork or whatever over that. The guys that did our bathroom did this and then tiled over it (although that is a wet room in particular)

Best practice for anything moisture-related seems to be cement board now (22mm floors, 12mm walls, t&g with adhesive).

Also the quality of marine ply isn't what it used to be...

can't wait to hear how this turns out

Actually, when I think about it that was what they did for ours, cement board, liquid membrane, then tiles

Any suggestions on how best to repair the lip/ edges where the plasterboard sheets meet on this velux?

It’s in a bathroom, extending through the roof cavity. Planning history and repercussions suggest the Original work was a little slapdash. Roof space is pretty cold but well ventilated due to gutters running internally. Old house etc.

Would I be right in thinking insulating the structure would have been a good way of reducing condensation?

2 Attachments

In our house we've stripped out a lot of lining paper to find perfectly serviceable original plaster underneath, but one retro arch ruined the landing, and this week we finally got round to putting lining paper back up... Plasterer would have be too pricey, but who's to say that the arguing wasn't more costly.

Definitely a nice from far, far from nice type of job.

1 Attachment

It just needs re-cualking and refinishing, right? Whatever caulk was on there couldn't expand enough with heat / cold so it cracked and split. Get some caulk with a decent expansion ratio, Souldal has some good stuff like Fix-All.

Don't people normally lay this sort of thing if you're doing flooring from scratch?

https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/flooring-grade-chipboard/18mm-x-2400mm-x-600mm-caberfloor-p5-tongue-and-grooved-moisture-resistant-chipboard-flooring-tg4/p/611016

Ply seems like very expensive over-engineering doesn't it?

It's not like it needs to be supportive or pretty (something something my wife thank you i'll be here all week), just flat & non-compressible.

Even if it must be ply, 6mm would surely do the same job.

Oh ok, I guess so yes! I always leant more towards ply for longevity. But, this stuff is moisture resistant and a fraction of the cost so what's not the like...

Its going to be an office in the short/medium term and then a bedroom one day. I think I'll go down this route and save what little money I have for everything else. Thanks all!

Sounds great, thanks. Wasn’t sure if I needed to reinforce with something clever.

Ply seems like very expensive over-engineering doesn't it?

It's funny isn't it, ply has gone the way of other fashion items - such as jeans, - starting off as a cheap, functional and durable item, but are now an expensive accessory used to signal taste and group identity.

Hello all, after the advice on here I have removed about 10000000 M8 wall studs. Making a mess was good advice.

The second problem we face, is the last owner did just a shocking job at painting. There are runs, drip and brush strokes EVERYWHERE. The only way I can think to remove it is to sand, but hand sanding has become boring and time consuming (two bedrooms houses are bigger than orginally thought). I was looking at an orbital, but was wondering if a dry wall sander would be better.

Any recomondations would be welcome.

Could you use a pole sander rather than than electric one? Obviously you don't get any of the dust extraction with it being manual but its (possibly) less effort than holding a piece of sand paper in your hand.

I've done half my house with a orbital. Dust extractor and FP3 obligatory. Prep is everything for good painting.

We've replaced the floor boards in our kitchen with 18mm ply + a 3mm layer on top. I wouldn't use OSB.

Is that based on the location (kitchen) or based on the material generally?

Both. Osb is crap and especially prone to falling apart when wet

Ta!

@chrisbmx116 what flooring did you have in your office with the cork flooring? Also reading that chipboard can be problematic with cork flooring adhesion. Cheers

Hmmmm I feel it was chipboard. No adhesions issues at all. One small not flat join that I missed which is now annoying me but it’s still stuck solid.

Nice one thanks! This is good to know.

This screw won't turn to come out. It's through a timber batten, into a rawlpug in a brick wall. I assume it's bent somewhere inside the wall.

Any tips on how to get it to come out? Preferably without ruining the wall, or at least minimising patching of plaster.

1 Attachment

Have you tried an impact driver (gently, if that isn't an oxymoron)?

Otherwise, you could cut through the batten either side of the screw head, and chisel away the remaining section so that the screw head is poking out of the plaster unencumbered by surrounding timber. Then use a set of adjustable pliers (water pump pliers) on the screw to manually turn it anticlockwise.

Possibly.