Home DIY

Get back in your Castle! I'm doing mine for £90....

That kitchen is lovely... god, I only did mine a few years back but getting tempted to again...

Ha!
When you have to buy 2 x themostats and 5 x smoke alarms, nest stuff starts looking pricey...

Always have to show off...

I'm not sure if this is too big a project for you to cut your teeth on.

When I warned you about the stopcock it applies to the rest of the job anyway. Tackle the stopcock when you've established that you can disconnect the supply to it if it leaks once you've disturbed it. Then once you've got the stopcock in order and the water disconnected you can establish your pipe sizes and decide if you want to use compression fittings (like the one in your picture) or solder. You can lag the pipes with foam lagging.

It's not a difficult job if you've done this kind of thing before and have a box of tools but it sounds like you're new to this stuff so it might just be too big a job for you on your own. Normal process for DIY'ers in this situation is to do the job with a more experienced DIY'er who can guide them and let them get a feel for the individual processes without having to have an overview. Webadvice is not going to give you that.

Thought about polished concrete? http://www.survivefrance.com/t/making-a-polished-concrete-worktop-how-to/10514

Sexy af

What are you hoping to achieve for this flat when it sells?

Tasty. What's the spec: number of bedrooms, total floor area etc?

How does something like that fix to the wall, proprietary brackets?

Furniture magnets.

Nice spec. trying to get a similar one on my build, but with 300sqm I can't afford the really posh finishing touches!

Couple of questions, as you are a bit further along than me, and you might be able to help change my spec!

1. You went with Nest thermometers, any reason you didn't go with Nest smoke alarms?
   
2. What system boiler did you go with? looking into them now, need one to do 1 x master bathroom, 2 x en-suite, kitchen and cloakroom
   
3. Any reason you used mdf on architraves other softwood?
   
   

thanks!

All I see is you doing this alone in your expensive house:

Softwood ends up costing more to get a decent paint finish. I use pre-primed moisture resistant MDF on all replacement skirting these days, it saves a lot of prep time and there are loads of pattern choices.

Don't use Skirting Boards Direct, scammers and a waste of time. mdfskirtingworld are good though.

Not answering for Diable, he may have other reasons but there's no reason to use softwood skirting.

Ah interesting.

Think we will end up using MDF upstairs but softwood downstairs as think we are going to end up staining not painting.

Even if you're doing 9" skirting mdf is a good choice. The quality of softwood these days is so poor you need to put a lot of work into it and mostly it starts damp and knotty. They do a lot of foil wrapped mdf for oak/beech etc. finishes now.

I did all my skirting in 220mm pine. You do get the odd bad knot, but the stuff I had was generally ok. I'm not a big fan of MDF, but I guess in modern buildings there is less chance of damp.

The moisture resistant stuff is great, I've had it survive in flooded bathrooms. I usually opt for that. Where did you get your pine ones? It may be that I've stopped using it but I was having problems sourcing decent stuff.

I have used a lot of MDF so probably I'm over hating on it. I don't love it as a material but it's stable and provides a good surface for painting. Especially in skirting and architrave where it's structural rigidity and weight is not an issue. I've just fitted a room of 220mm, it worked out very well, quick to paint and looks smart.

Need to fix a kitchen 3-hole tap spout, where's a good place to find spare parts? Is the spout likely to be a standard pattern fitting? Full set of the taps is £6-700 which is mental.

Normally an expensive tap set should have spares available but there's not much to go wrong with a spout. I've never been able to find a standard for taps but I'm no expert on them. Usually the cheaper brands are easier to replace than track down spares.

It's an MGS T45 and the swivel joint in the spout is leaking (a lot) when you run the water. I'm going to take it off today and see if I can get inside it at all, as I assume once there it should be simple enough to replace the seal...

We had reproduction ones made to match the existing ones we had in the house which were fine, but we also got some from Wickes which were fine. However, sounds like the ones you got would be easier to use. If they are OK in the damp, then the only advantage of the pine is if you want to varnish them or strip them later.

Thanks, that looks as if it should disassemble quite nicely. Taps came with the new house, indeterminate age.

Having a hard time removing my bathroom sink from the wall, need to reposition as it's always dropped on to the floor. No bolts holding it on, must just be silicon right?

Cucking funts that installed this bathroom, couldn't have just bought a spirit level.

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Here is a photo of the sink. I need to get it off the wall, replace waste, and refix with proper bolts ideally. It is free of the pedestal, but still stuck fast. Can only get my knife down 1/8th at the edges, can't get at anything from below. In the middle it feels like the knife is hitting something gritty, don't know if this is the ceramic or another adhesive.

and yes the taps are disconnected. Trap is disconnected at the out-flow, but it shouldn't be stopping it from moving away from the wall.

Apparently WD40 can work as a sealant remover. I might have to try that.

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