Home DIY

Thanks - I do have an electric sander and I was thinking about cleaning up that bottom edge as well. Hopefully I can do a decent enough job that it lasts to the next jubilee so I can make it up like @duncs mock-up

can't comment on it's quality but rutlands emailed me to say they have one for under £300 the other day.

People with electric knowledge
Can I use an Italian to UK travel adaptor to use this Italian three pin plug in the UK or is it more complicated than that?

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It'll be fine, light bulb is a light bulb, long as it's 230v. Personally I'd replace it with a UK plug.

+1

Why have a fancypants light with an ugly adapter?

You can always keep the og plug if you want to sell with original parts.

Now the weather is improving and the snagging list is low I need to turn my attention to renovating these 1930s(?) pine internal doors we picked up.

Need to add/remove these amounts

from these

)

Questions

1. Is there anything that'll catch me out?
   
2. Can I just use any old softwood from wickes for where I need to add >1cm, and does the grain need to match? I know it won't be as solid as the old pine, but for a couple of ~1cm strips stuck on the top and bottom I would have thought it would be OK.
   
3. Anything I should buy to make fitting the doors easier?
   
4. I'm assuming that using the hinges on my current door is the way to go to reduce effort.l (hinges pictured in attachments)
   
5. Any door handle recos? I have absolutely no idea what type I'd like.
   

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I've been searching for doors for our house to refurb and replace the shit modern ones with. Such difficult here.

Good luck! Don't know where you find the time.

Thank you for your assistance!

We were trying to work out logistics on picking some up from Liverpool - which totally changed the price of even cheap doors. Then left it and a month later my OH saw these being freecycled on a local FB group.

I expect we'll have to overpay to find a last matching one for the living room, but hopefully overall it will work out as cost effective.

I've totally forgotten the condition of them. But remember that one is a bit fucked around a hinge. Hoping it won't be too hard to fix.

They are fucking heavy too.

Not against doing this, just not something I have done before!

I had wondered about these, first call are they plumb (not twisted) enough to use -

Good question. They've now spent almost a year in a shed on their side with a wide range of temps.

It looks like a collectors' item... Also ina way it's not giving you the easiest task,, I really like its look, and just for the love of that would only half prep it and use clear products well to obviously show the history. Or save the time and effort by saving £50 a month and buy new next year and spend two hours every couple of years on that ones upkeep ... But on this all coat is good

Take all the door stops off first.
Make the hinge holes in the door lining match the ones in the door, not the other way round.
Buy a box of matches and some decent screws.

Id consider drilling out all the screw holes and gluing dowels in to start again, on both door and frame. Matches are a bodge

Take all the door stops off first.

What are door stops?

The bits in the middle of the frame the door buts up against when closed

In answer to question 3 - a bag of packers and a winbag will make your life a lot easier when positioning, adjusting and finally hanging the doors.

And then that bag of packers will last you the rest of your life for other odd jobs.

Qu. 1) - don't cut off more than ~15mm on any one edge, as you can start cutting into the joints of the rails & stiles. I can't see your full table of numbers but it looks like you're only shaving edges, not taking hunks off. And divide the total amount to remove by two, and take it off both sides, to reduce them evenly.

Also never assume that your doorframes and floor are square - they probably aren't.

2) I'd think softwood would be fine, seeing as they're pine doors. Matching the grain - depends if they'll be painted or not. If you're leaving them bare/oiled/varnished (definitely give them some kind of finish) it will be very hard to get it bang on, but once you've glued the new stuff on and planed it down etc, you could give it a light stain so that colour differences in the two timbers don't attract attention.

Totally fine if done properly, none of my work is a bodge thank you very much!

Newly (<1 month) refurbed and painted garage, now quite weathertight with a sealed door.
Rather warm inside, not sure how damp.

This is the mold that's bad to breathe in right?

Clean off with product then longer-term add ventilation and dehumidifer?

Thanks folks

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because nothing is ever square with these things - i found using the old door as a template of sorts made trimming to size pretty seamless (clamp old door on new door, used hand-saw then electric planer to trim)

new hinges will be more work, but might be a more secure idea longer term (and look a bit nicer?) - i found replacing the old 3-hole ones with 4-hole ones (used these) meant the holes were in different places so didn't need to worry too much about the integrity of the old holes.

probably a questionable opinion, but i'd maybe try hanging the doors that are too short first and seeing if the size of the gaps are actually noticeable enough to warrant glueing-and-screwing in the first place? got about an inch's gap at the bottom of the bathroom door i did a similar job on recently (this one)

only other thing to mention is the time - but imagine everyone in here is familiar with the initial assumption multiplied by seventeen rule.

oh! might also need to factor in moving the latches and associated rebates in the door frame too

Cheers all for the tips. Especially hanging to see if size missmatches matter.

Doors will be painted. Standard leyland acrylic eggshell to match all the other woodwork.

Do wonder if Roller Bolt Latches make more sense. That way we won't be tied to any handle type once we decide. I can't help but feel small round ones will look more suitable.

My DIY box room office is steadily taking shape. I ended up going full golf club and putting marine ply down to replace the floor boards as I managed to get 3 sheets fairly cheap. The only non DIY has been putting the skylight in and cutting the birch ply for the desk and shelves.

I was quite surprised after re-boarding with gyproc how much easier it was to tape and skim the joints rather than get a plasterer in. Wouldn't really notice the difference. Left to finish is flooring, sorting all the cables, finishing on the skylight, skirting and replace the door into the eaves.

Looking great. Good job.

Not really a box room any more now it has a skylight! That will really help the ambiance.

That's excellent.