Home DIY

Now I just have to find time to make them :D

Judging by the mark that has appeared on my celing I may need to reseal my bath. I have the fear of doing it and it not really being watertight (but not obvious enough that I just redo it straight away).

Any top tips/guides? Cheers

Which bit of the bath do you think is leaking?

I'll put a tenner on the plug hole to u-bend joint leaking

I want to believe it's the sealing - but has the bath no access panel to test this, drip drip lowest point toilet paper to check etc

For us it was the overflow, plus ms_com and mini_com running a deep bath. Got a video call while I was in the US for work where water was pushing through the kitchen spot lights, them both standing wrapped in towels crying and the smoke alarm going mad as it had got water in it. Grateful for the fold out bath panels when it came time to replace (plus the 4,000 mile distance when it was actually happening).

We had the same thing, the design of the overflow tightening onto the bath was dogshit.

Then we had it again, searched for ages, checked all pipework five times before noticing a little mark on the bath surface. A fucking hole in the bath itself! Someone must have dropped the sharp edged hand shower 🥴

Had to redo the epoxy with a kit off the internet.

When I was labouring for Fiddy BITD, "someone" (genuinely wasn't me but none of the other trades would own up) dropped a hammer in the brand new bath we were putting in. Because no one owned up there was a long, tense bun fight over who was going to replace it as the homeowner rightfully didn't want a repaired bath when he paid for a new one.

Ours was one of those where you twist the cap on the overflow to operate the plug. It had just deteriorated over time. So replaced with a clicky push plug and all stainless. Getting the old one out was a fucker as the cable access was on the opposite side to where I could reach. Ended up just busting the fucker out. It was going in the bin anyway.

I have also resealed the bath a couple of times now. Mainly twice because the first time was shit, but didn't contribute to any major leaks (to put @aggi 's mind at ease). In the intervening years I got a fuck load more caulking practice in elsewhere in the house so it's a bit better now. I prefer using a blade to get the old stuff out. I've tried the solvent stuff but it always leaves some semi-disolved gunk in the deeper recesses and I'm paranoid that will negatively impact the new stuff from going on properly.

Issue is this has appeared on the kitchen ceiling:

Directly above that is the far side of the bath

Bathroom was done about 5 years ago (as was the kitchen ceiling painting).

Thinking/hoping it is the sealant as it doesn't look great at spots (although can't see any obvious lifting):

Also, there is no easy access to under the bath so sealant is first easy thing to do. Not really sure the best way to see if that has/hasn't worked though (other than waiting for the patch to get bigger).

No deep baths so can rule out the overflow at least.

That doesn't look that bad. There is also usually some batten along the wall to take the weight of the bath, that usually gets sealed too.

love the cornice, there's the obvious of where the stain appears can be a hell of a way off from where the leak is (but I'm somehow doubting that as a theory) - what does strike is there's a 2" or so gap around the bath panelling! What does that extra splishy sploshing water have to get through to arrive at the ceiling - [squinting] isn't the bath sat on a entity tiled floor

Have a look at the grout between the tiles.
Cementitious grouts always shrink, might be a hairline gap between the grout and a tile.

Has anyone replaced a built in microwave and/or installed a microwave?

I've watched it* being done, if that might help?

*installation of a microwave**
**combi, convection type thing which ened up being the most expensive thing in the kitchen

Yes.

1. Take microwave out
   
2. Put new microwave in
   

and also, remove plastic sheth from plug pins and keep it , coz it'll just be a total waist of resources if you didn't

Cheers all. That gap under the bath is tiled (not really sure why they put it there other than to run an LED strip there).

The grout on the floor is definitely cracked and shrunk, maybe I should replace that first. I was assuming the bath sealant as that is directly above the mark.

I'd want to make sure it's not bad plumbing before resealing and hoping it stops. Best way I've found (from experience) is cutting a small hole it the ceiling where the mark is, see if you can see anything obvious, then running taps whilst observing to see if you can see any water dripping/increasing in the area above the ceiling.

Do you mean an over the range microwave? That has an integrated exhaust fan?
I’ve done those.
Not a one person job.

installing drip trays

Haven't checked this thread in a while. I did this in my old flat about 8 years ago, piece of piss, although I guess I'll never know if I got it right as I moved out shortly after.

I know that would be the best way but making good afterwards would be quite an effort so would prefer to put it off

Be careful when you start looking for leaks...

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Cheers mate. After doing some searching online I realised most people call them "eaves protectors" rather than the "drip trays" prescribed by the roofer I got a quote from.

I watched a few videos, checked prices, and have ordered them up. For less than 30 quid, I should hopefully have all the bits I need for 9 metres worth. I'm gonna try and fit them all tonight if kiddos don't wake up lots. The pointing needed where the drips splashed back onto the wall and caused lots of moss growth and then frost damage will have to wait a bit longer, but that's fine. I just want to prevent more damage being done as quickly as possible. The only tricky bit for this job is getting up above the gutter. It's only 1 storey above a flat roof, but about 40% of that area has a lantern style roof light so I'll need to figure out how to get a ladder around all that safely, alone, at night. What could go wrong?

Last night's job was fixing the guttering on the flat roof. I took down 8 metres worth, cleaned it all up, took off all the clips and started from scratch. Each of the clips was secured with 1 rather than 2 screws, and many of those weren't even screwed in all the way. As it's such a long section, there's a joint piece that should have been screwed in but wasn't at all. I realised as I was doing this that there was no fall on the clips at all. They were all just put up as close to the top of the fascia as possible. I had known there wasn't enough fall, but didn't realise it was just completely flat. Of course it was never going to work properly.

Anyway, it was pretty easy work given I can access either from a step ladder on the ground or from a door onto the flat roof above. I was able to get it done in a shade over 2 hours, including set up and tidy away.

Roofer #1 had quoted £350 to do this. Roofers 2, 3, and 4 still haven't bothered to show up to quote for the work when they said they were going to. TBH that has been a good push to just DIY it, even if life feels very busy right now with 2 kids under 3.

This was one of those rare DIY jobs where nothing went unexpectedly - the holy grail! If a clip or a section of gutter had snapped or anything like that I'd have been stuck at 10pm praying it didn't rain overnight and that I could find somewhere with the right product in stock in the morning, while also needing to do nursery drop off and collection and a full day at work. Fingers crossed installing the eaves protectors this evening goes as well!

The final part of the guttering fixes is then figuring out why water drips out of the side trims of the flat roof, and then fixing the root cause. After a quick bit of research and inspection, I think it may be missing the foam tape underneath the kerb trims that are meant to provide the watertight seal. If that's the case, should be an easy fix. If anyone has experience diagnosing and fixing this type of issue, I'd appreciate any input you have!

Like this.

Basically the microwave display panel sometimes goes nuts. Which we can live with. What is now hard to live with is that it randomly beeps (loudly) about 40 times p/m. After about 4 minutes of being in the kitchen you want to smash it to peices and put your face on the hob.

I'm finding searching for a replacement painfully and unrewarding and half wondered if I could disconnect the speaker.

Howdens kitchen if that gives any more information.

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Your white dimensions are a standard size so it shouldn't be too tricky. My dad replaced his recently and said it was fine.

John Lewis, AO, etc often have cheap installation offers for certain brands, join their membership scheme, etc. Think I got my integrated washing machine done for about £30.