Home DIY

People in glass houses...

Have you thought about the logistics of routing? What type of bit and what size? Follower bit or bushing? What angle to approach from? how easy that will be to keep square without removing the door? How close to the edges will you be able to get? How will you square up the corners?

These are all things that would paralyse me into inaction.

Now I read it back it does sound unnecessarily snarky, rather than jokey.

@jameo +1 to it being a good job. Not bricks, but on limestone when I used a specific cleaner I found that a very stiff old school scrubbing brush helped to work it in, and lift off the mortar.

For some of the worst bits I used a soft wire brush, but do a test patch and let it dry as it can scratch.

Both putty and beading. the only differing factor is mounting the beads to the door face not in the rebate (having the glass almost flush with door will be a bit odd) and the putty to avoid the mm tolerance the tape will need .. potentially the beads could be done in whole vertical strips avoiding a few cuts and joins. . But also can't see why routing wouldn't work , the extra useful bits needed just add up either way

Nice work!

Thanks all, I’ll pick up some of that acid cleaner and give it a go

These are all things that would paralyse me into inaction.

Better that than an unrecoverable error!

I'd just fit secondary glazing and be done with it. From what I hear, retrofitting sealed panels in to wood rarely goes well.

Better that than an unrecoverable error!

It frustrates the interior design committee here no end when I wince at the "can't you just...." requests.

At least your design committee can see what they want done

I've got some gateposts out the front of our house that i'm going to be repairing later. Longer term, I'd like to get that hinge point back in commission, but the old spindle seems well and truly stuck in there.

Any advice on getting/drilling it out? Pretty chunky.

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@gillies I replied to you on the locohome chat too - oh hai 😃

To me it looks like someone has added a load on concrete to block the fireplace up at some point, and the impression on the concrete is what looks to be the old fire closure panel or similar.

If you're a bit unsure about an SDS, maybe try a bolster chisel around the edges and you might find it starts to come away. That said I can't see any reason removing it would cause an issue as it doesn't look like it suppose to be there given its a chimney.

Do you have a photo of the chimney from a further way point? To understand what's above it?

what’s the best sensibly priced (£200 or less) shop vac / wet & dry vac to buy please?

I borrowed one of these, which was amazing, but £450 is too much. The friend who owns it says the same - it is amazing and can be used 365 days a year, I want something that is as powerful but for amateur use. I don’t know, maybe breaks twice as soon for half the price, would still last me 10 years!

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Titan are excellent value.

Not dust extractors though, just shop vacs. Just be aware that they're not designed to remove tiny particulates safely like expensive Festool etc so wear protective masks etc when working with sanding / cutting still.

It will likely be set into mortar. They can have quite a long and pointy shaft (fnar fnar) that gets pushed into mortar and provides the strength to hold a cast iron gate. You'll need to chisel it out but it would take an age. Can you get an angle grinder and cut it off and attached a new gate hanger over the top which is just drilled and bolted?

I bought the 20l titan and it was a godsend for our refurb. it has a bigger filter which you can clean if you careful to not piece the paper.

I wonder what the most important metric is for vacuum power - litres/second?

I found a good karcher with almost the same litres/second as the fancy Bosch one, although not a dust extractor/filter one. Can’t get it this weekend, so that’s made m choice for me and I’m joining the titan crew.

With some help from my step dad, spent the last two days hauling a shit ton of incredibly dusty shite out of my attic and built a storage platform whilst topping up the insulation. It's nothing fancy but a huge improvement on what was there before.

This meant I had to cut a hole and install a new hatch in the loft floor which was especially dusty-
worth it though.

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Toolstation item 81741 is indicative.
Potentially 8 1/2 inches in length.

Fein Dustex is a good middle ground between bouji Bosch and Titan. L-class filter and you can get a bagless filter. Has been excellent in our workshop for the last couple of years

+1 we bought the cheapest one when we had a much lower budget, and it has been a god send for many years already - I keep saying I will upgrade when it dies but it hasn’t….

I hate those.
We have them at the workshop and if they work well they constantly do the loud filter cleaning, if they don't they beep all the time. Even after you tried to clean everything.

Hai 2 u 2! I sorted the fireplace! But thanks for for the reply :)

Turns out the concrete was very solidly enmeshed with the metal frame but much less so to actual wall. So with some vigourous wiggling, it just came loose!

Fingers crossed… it’s in stock, it’s overkill, it’s more money than I should be spending, I’m fed up of clogging up my normal hoover, I’ve gone for it!

Anyone got an ffx referral code?

What's the best way to fill this gap so it can be decorated to match the skirting? Anything easier than cutting some wood to fit and using caulk/wood filler over the smaller gaps left?

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