Home DIY

When I did ours I followed the video advice of the brand Lustrolite, which is the Acrylic we ended up using anyway. Rubberised sealing paint behind any joins/edges then paint over with a colour similar to the panel so any slight glimpse through an edge will be less obvious. Think I might have a pic mid panel. And don't forget to use a neutral cure silicone.

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Ta.

Is that plasterboard backing on yours? As we're brick internal walls, i'm wondering if i need to do anything specific to the plaster finish or just plaster, then follow the instructions above...

How easy was the lustrolite stuff to work with? I'm thinking of going with them.

More than you can ever know. #validated

I dot and dabbed the wall with plasterboard then plastered. If you've got bare brick I'd imagine you'd do the same no? Can't plaster onto brick and internal rendering is a faff compared to boarding. I painted finished wall (once dry) with a mist coat and top coat of proper bathroom anti fungal paint, not that it'll ever hopefully see moisture.
Lustrolite cut well, I bought a dedicated fine tooth blade for the Festool and did a few practise runs to find the sweet settings and speeds, you can electric plane to finish but I found it came up just as nice with a block and some 400 grit paper.

Gloss paint. And undercoat obvs.
For skirting. Quick and easy to use, not extortionate. Ronseal? Wickes own brand?

Farrow & Ball

Fingers

Another bathroom question...

One corner of the bathroom is a hastily thrown up ikea cuboard thing, housing the washing machine and shelves for various things.

As part of the renovation, i'm going to rebuild it in mdf, paint it and have it much more 'integrated' into the room.

The question - one side of the cupboard would be perfect to fit a heated towel rail to. Would that be a stupid idea? Any issues with affixing one to it? The actual water pipes for it would come through the floor...

Does it have to be gloss? Satin finish dries in a day and looks nicer in my opinion, Dulux Satinwood ftw

How much formaldehyde do you like in your air?

http://www.greenhomeguide.com/askapro/question/when-does-mdf-offgas-when-the-heat-is-on-in-the-winter-or-throughout-all-seasons

It just has to cover skirting. And look nice (not aged yellow). And be reasonably priced. And quick to get on. And dry quick. And not smell.

Leyland water-based acrylic is what I use. Doesn't dry as smoothly as oil, but then it won't yellow.

Was going to recommend exactly this

A medium amount, just like everyone else...

Also, surely i could just use MDF without added formaldehyde. It would also we painted / sealed so would emit less gas anyway.

Not sure I would use MDF, given the first sign of moisture and it would swell. Any reason not to build out of thich ply? Would be more confident hanging a towel rail off ply as well.

I guess not - just always assumed MDF to be easier to work with in terms of building out cupboards etc. I suppose i could go full belt and braces and build a thin stud wall but i was just going to batten the back wall, attach and then cross brace with fixed shelves...

MDF is cheap because the otherwise waste wood particles are bonded together with cheap urea-formaldehyde reins.
Painted / 'sealed' mdf just outgasses over a longer time period.

Bathrooms = humidity
humidity + wood (particles) = swelling/rot.

From my understanding you should be ok with MDF as long as you seal it and it doesn't come into direct contact with moisture, but i'm just risk averse.

Have also seen things pull out of MDF, so trust ply more for hanging loads off. How heavy is the towel rail?

It would be a normal 5ft ish towel rail.

I hadn't really thought about ply but some 20mm marine ply would be solid enough..

Yeah I would personally go ply, but I am no expert... The airing cupboard in our bathroom is being made of 20mm ply.

plus 1 on Satinwood - water based so no white spirits needed to clean up brushes etc.
My skirting boards look like an iced Christmas cake.

I am about to try this primer/sealer/undercoat prior to using satin gloss - Apparently no sanding required, just sugar soap wash to clean dust, etc. Waterbased undercoat yet covers and seals yellowing oil based gloss. It 'etches' onto the existing gloss hence very little preparation required.

My weekend of hard graft is in 2 weeks I think..... Let me know?

Will do - amongst other DIY activities (which I will post about later), the undercoating is this week, gloss later next week.

Bench seating. Who does good cushions (made to measure) and what's a good price?
Been quoted £300 not including materials.