Home DIY

HTFU and karate chop it.

I tried kicking it. I tried with a bolster chisel and hammer. I tried with a sledgehammer. I even got my son to have a go at it. The first section finally fell victim to a combination of angle grinder and sledgehammer, but it took ages. A fair amount of concrete was used in the making of this wall, small though it is.

Well just go at it properly then. We've taken down reinforced walls just with a sledge hammer.

When you get to reinforced footings now that's fun.

Is there a special sort of "properly"?

Isolate it from the walls and ceilings you don't want to remove, as far as is practical, before you apply force.

What ^^^ said.

Just so we're clear is this internal or external?

Is there a special sort of "properly"?

Have you got;

• a photo of said wall
  
• a sledge hammer
  
• £20
  
• a location relatively near Camberwell
  
• a high tolerance for sweaty Irishmen
  
  

If so, I might be able to help you out...

It's a section of garden wall, not connected with any part of the house any more (we took out a small section when we moved in, as it was bridging the DPC.

Sledge hammer, demolition crowbar and chisel.

I have items 2 to 5 (we're in SE23) and can sort out 1 fairly easily. I might just have a go at it before the weekend, but if it's still substantially there after that, I may just come back to you.

Grand, now back to my door question.....

Is there a special sort of "properly"?

SDS drill with a chisel-bit would make short work of that wall (I have both in SE23 should you wish to borrow them).

I don' t think I've posted this on this thread, but if you're interested in not-quite home DIY then I've been blogging in way too much detail about the refit of our narrowboat: nbjohngray.blogspot.com

Hopefully will be of interest to some.

Blimey, this wall is quite something. I've been using the combined forces of De Walt and a sledgehammer today, and I might be about 30% of the way there. The mortar, or rather the stuff they've used instead of mortar, as just as strong as the bricks, and I'm simply shearing off sharp-edged chunks. No hint of it actually coming apart brick by brick.

probably weetabix and milk mix.

Ludd I had the same problem chasing in wires on the external walls of our house, by hand I might like to add!

Blimey, this wall is quite something. I've been using the combined forces of De Walt and a sledgehammer today, and I might be about 30% of the way there. The mortar, or rather the stuff they've used instead of mortar, as just as strong as the bricks, and I'm simply shearing off sharp-edged chunks. No hint of it actually coming apart brick by brick.

You've probably tried all this, and from your description of the wall it's pretty sturdy, but have you tried stitch-drilling the wall into segments, then having at it with the sledge?

I found that after putting a line of perforations into a stubborn wall you could get a satisfyingly large section off- a chain being as strong as the weakest link and so forth.

I also found getting my girlfriend to do it worked well from an energy conservation point of view.

Thanks, yes I did try the perforation method. My daughter did suggest that Mrs Ludd might like to have a go, but she managed to escape that by inviting a friend round for coffee.

Anyway, the wall is now down, bar a number of bricks in the bottom course. Fortunately it was our visitors black merc that intercepted some of the flying fragments, rather than anyone else's car. And part of the wall was actually a lot easier than the rest, and I ended up doing the last 60% or so just with the sledgehammer. Our front garden is now a free-form rockery.

Dammit, PM to follow.

Realise this is the DIY thread, is it still ok to ask questions about hiring professionals to do your DIY?

Flat I've just bought has a potentially very useful loft space (which I actually own, unusually for leasehold) but at the moment it's neither very accessible or useable. I'm interested in having a larger hatch fitted if possible, a ladder and light installed and boards fitted. Some of that I would attempt myself, but there are companies which will do that whole thing.

Thought I'd ask on the (probably unlikely) off chance if anyone had done something similar and had any advice?

Ta

(I did manage to successfully stick a new coat of paint on the bedroom walls this weekend. It's a start)

Also, anyone used these guys before - http://www.mdfcuttosize.com/

Want a desktop cut to the width of my second room. Standard price for 2000x750x30mm delivered is £60, sound reasonalbe?. I'm interested in the melamine faced stuff but can't find any info on extra cost. Will have to give 'em a call

And a question of my own: I need to stick some timber to some steel. There appear to be many products that fit the description (Pinkgrip, Gripfill, Stixall ...) but I haven't used one ever. Is one by far the best or do all the branded ones tend to have pretty similar performance?
I went for Sticks Like in the end, comes in a tube you slot into a skeleton gun for application, cost about a fiver. Used it yesterday and it seems pretty good stuff, takes a little while to cure so you can move bits around to get them in the right place but after an hour or so it's stuck pretty solidly.

Enlarging an attic access hole is easy enough. Double up the joists all the way around the hole if you have to cut through any. The attic should be a job that any builder/carpenter can do.

Has anyone got experience of roofing or own a roofing ladder/ladder hook? I've got a really simple bit of guttering to do but no way of accessing it. It can all be reached from either a flat roof (which can be accessed out of a window) or a very shallow-pitch slate roof, I just need a way of getting up there and having something to stand on so I don't trash the slates.

Edit: I should add that the slate roof is to a single story part of the house so it's barely working "at height" at all.

No commercial link to these guys;

http://www.thetoolshow.com/

I've been a couple of times,
1st bought an Evolution circular saw, with an extra £10 Show discount, and a free t-shirt
2nd a couple of 305mm blades for my sliding mitre saw at a very good price.

Also saw the Festool Domino cutter(?),
don't know what I would do with it, but its the best piece of machinery I have seen,
and the joint the demo guy made in a few seconds was perfect.