Home DIY

I find quicklime better for disposal of bodies.

Never used one. The starrett one is handy because it gives you a very accurate read out of the angle you need to cut to make it work. As far as I know pro coving guys put it up with a suitable type of plaster. Never done the job or had it done or seen it done though. I like coving but not the ordinary stuff, a nice big complicated coving really sets improves some rooms.

You could fix the edges of your ceiling for less time/money though.

@dammit where are you based, I've looked at hackspace in hackney and http://www.blackhorseworkshop.co.uk/membership-services/ in E17.

I will be trying it myself first, if I'm shit then I'll get coving. If that's shit, I'll get someone in.

It is a pain but if you try to do the walls or ceiling first, let it dry and smooth it off then do the other surface. There is a plasterers float for inside corners, I have one but I've never had much luck with it.

I have seen the "corner trowel" but can only imagine the scratches I would leave. I will try with a standard filler/scraper and a sanding block

Use a sponge to feather filler rather than sanding.

YouTube video instructions?

Looks shite too.

Not that I've ever seen. It's just that sanding is super popular these days and we've all got amazing sanders and hoovers so filler on walls gets sanded when it's actually a lot easier with a bucket of clean water and a sponge to even out newly dried filler by wiping the sponge on the filler. It wouldn't be much of a video. :)

Just try it and you'll see.

On the corner trowel, there's also a float which is made of polystyrene, it has softer characteristics.

You could also nail a batten to the wall and get the ceiling edge level then fill the wall when the ceiling's dry.

Anyone ever laid school gym flooring (junkers) in their house/flat? If so, did you like it... Any issues, etc?

A shop fitter friend of mine tells me it smells of feet when you're cutting it up.

Fine once it's in I'd imagine...

Bork.

I agree with @TheShipwright get a different plumber. No sort of combi will manage three bathrooms well but contract plumbers like them because they are cheaper and easier to install. A well designed megaflow system should be just as efficient and much more reliable as the boiler doesn't have to fire up every time you turn a tap on.
The key is to have good flow from the mains, at least 22mm pipe, into the water storage tank. There should be a pressure limiting valve, if you take the cold water supply for shower and other mixer valves from between the valve and the hot tank then it should be self balancing with no need for thermostatic mixers. If you can site the water tank away from an outside wall any lost heat will stay in the building. A tank with twin coils is good as it can be adapted to solar systems later on and will heat up the top half of the tank quickly if you need it.

Looking around the internet it says that unvented systems need to be installed by a G3 engineer. That sounds impressive but it just a one day £90 course than any tradesman could easily do, it seems your guy hasn't bothered to learn. I installed my own system about 11 years ago and the building inspector wasn't bothered about it then. The annual maintenance check is very simple.

I have read a fair bit since my previous post and to be fair there seem to be powerful combi these days that have integrated tank and can deliver 25l per minutes. That seems to be sufficient for a 2 bathrooms/15 radiators house. We will have 3 bathroos but one will be in the utility room and will most likely never be used at the same time as the others.

I see these builders point though. Megaflo needs more than 1 bar to work as intended but thames water is only required to deliver 0.75 bar or something. So if water pressure ever drop to that the megaflo becomes irrelevant. This is what happened to his dad a couple of years ago apparently, water pressure in his area dropped from 6bars to less than 1 making the megaflo a huge unecessary expense.

This is the storage combi boiler mentioned, one of the most powerful on the market if not the most.

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/worcester-greenstar-highflow-550cdi-combination-boiler-natural-gas-erp/

Valiant boiler. F22 error which is low / no pressure. Website says leak but we're not pissing water anywhere...

Ideas / thoughts welcome.

Have you bled and refilled the system this winter? What pressure is there in the system now? Can you refill it and get it started again?

Not bled this winter. Last refilled in October-ish when replacing a radiator.

System pressure needle is at the bottom.

We've gone out for dinner now but I'm going to try and refill when we get home.

@Aldersbrook, that boiler is expensive surely a megaflow and a system boiler would be a similar price? And you'd have backup of stored water and immersion heating.

Refilled and restarted. I'll monitor pressure and see what happens.

The walls are french white stuff, Looking to remove the current wallpaper and then fill and smooth. The walls are very crumbly and produce lots of thin powder and chunks. So looking for something to attach to the henry and suck all the bad stuff away. Will definitely get a paper tiger and some of the fluid.

Thanks for the gardz heads up. Do you paint it on once the walls are smothed and the 3 days passed to then aint on the walls?

The rooms are still going to require prep, one room being painted is the kitchen so sugarsoap to remove all the grease then the mask the edges and polythene on the floor. Then paint. Suspect my love of the paint pad might make it easier.

Having had the same issue, how old is the boiler and when was the pressure vessel pressure checked.

And I'm back to 0.6 bar so I'm losing pressure pretty quickly; assuming a leak.

Any idea how I go about finding where? I've checked all the radiators and can't see any damp patches etc.