Home DIY

Foreman Snags or similar.

They will use a colour matched resin-based repair mortar.

Thanks. The guy is suggesting coming back Friday to cut out and replace each of the three bricks himself. Should I let him?

Have you got a ready supply of matching bricks, and will he match the mortar colour?

Aaagh. Help me fix this. We bought a new letter hole front door plate thing. It was a little bigger than the last so I chivvied a few cm off either side of the door hole. But the new plate didn’t come with anything to secure the rear. I feel like it needs a rear plate or bracket to screw the front to? What shall I do?

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Loads of ways, I'm assuming its functioning and noone is going to nick it, . Are you up for buying a (brass) door kick plate and cutting filing to size with a small amount of filler to smooth the fit.. they don't normally need much tension just enough to stop them falling off

They hardwired speakers. Any holes in your ceilings or speakers up there?

How hard would it be for an ape like me to put a few metres of fencing to a standard that's good enough to keep a dog in and not topple over if a chunky cat walks along the top of it? Would all be along one side of a garden.

Yep, that was it...thought as much and should have just whipped the front off as it was speker cable...they dissapear into the skirting board and I've no idea where they go, nor can they be pulled...oh well, snipped and pushed out of view...

This is the house of wires...there are wires for 'things' everywhere. Be it TV cable, phone cable, ethernet cable, this house seems to have multiple of each in every room...

Bodging way would be something like fixing plates fixed vertically to hold the bolts, screwed in to the back of the door....

Or the fancy way would be a letterbox cover/plate, but that would need careful measuring and potentially drilling of new correctly spaced holes.

Not very. Big 'ole for each fence post, at appropriate distances from each other, bag of post mix in each, use a big spirit level and a string line to get the (treated) posts plumb and in line with each other. Allow to set. Apply fencing (panels or featheredge etc) to posts.

Hmmm, sounds doable. Maybe I'll give it a go! I've got a mate who's a gardener and does all that sort of thing so will see what he quotes and go from there I reckon.

Check on top of your kitchen cabinets as that was always a common place for second speaker zones

A letter box cowl/security hood would hide a multitude of sins and also prevent ne'er do wells from easily reaching any latches with pokey devices.

A la

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Helpful thanks all. Some fixing plates with a posh cover is on order.

It looks like the sandstone threshold stone on my front path has been partially covered with a thin cement (I think) screed at some point. What’s the best way to remove this? I’m assuming mechanical?
I tried briefly with a ro and belt sander. The belt was more effective but I only have 1 worn belt so didn’t get very far. Before I go pick up some new belts is the anything more effective I could try? I’m not looking for a faultless finish, some wear and patina is fine.

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SDS with a chisel bit but if it's well bonded to the substrate it might be tricky.

You want to smash the screed without damaging what's underneath.

Front wall that was blown, ready for plastering

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Bit confused by the picture, It looks like its the red stuff that's flaking up a bit. Is it that you are trying to remove? I guess media blasting would be the ideal?

Chuck some osb down and hang some filament bulbs. Save on the plastering.

Should I let him?

I'd let him pay for a brickie to do a proper job.

Your insurer might help you out here, if you want to take it that far.

Yes, on reflection it’s not that clear.
The red paint is what I want to remove, but in doing so it’s evident that there’s a thin layer of cement over part of the stone. It could be covering up all manner of defects, but I’d like to try and remove it and see the condition of the original stone.
South of the pink line is stone, north is cement.
I could try an SDS but I’m weary of taking chunks out of the stone. Maybe I’ll try a bolster first.

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Being realistic, what is you're ideal outcome?

A stone colour stone. 'Rustic' is fine.
Annoyingly I've tiled to the lever of the screed though so, even if I do successfully clean it up, if there's too much of a drop then I'll end up smearing it in cement again and painting it black.

In that case focus on removing the colour and don't get detracted by what's under the screed or whatever.

Get on screwfix/tool station and buy a tin of paint stripper and some sanding belts.

Do the paint stripper first then get sanding.