Home DIY

What should I use to fill these holes in my hearth? Don’t mind it looking patchy, much easier to keep that vibe rather than try and make it look perfect.

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Fosroc renderoc. Its not cheap but it's a decent self leveling mortar repair system you may be able to carry out the repair without formwork too.

It may be possible to repair it with a dry cement, sharp sand mix but you'll want to use a plasticiser. Also you will run the risk of cracking while it dries.

Those all sound like proper solutions, thanks for the pro advice.

My rapid setting cement will no doubt crack but the whole thing is pretty shonky and I decided I wanted to do it now with what the builders merchant had on the shelf.

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Lose the gloves, pail and filler and that'll look great.

I've done a really bodge job on some corner shelves (handsaw only for the supports) and I want to tidy the fronts up with something. I thought soft hammering copper strip could work? Any thoughts?

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Maybe a soft material if you don't need food safe surfaces? Leather or canvas maybe, though I might then cover the whole shelf.

Blends in nicely with the Victorian concrete 👌🏻

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Get some planed-all-round oak strip form Leyland (6x30 or something) and pin it on the front edge.

Anna Jones, Osmo & Who Gives a Crap. We’re shelf buddies.

Very nice, everything goes well with the Guinness.

Metal will probably be better if it's close to a oven/hob.

I'd quite like to be speaker buddies too, there lovely looking things.

Will drop up to Wickes, see what they've got. Will report back.

Thanks, I made them from solid oak almost ten years ago. They got moved around while doing the hearth and they sound better than ever now, just needed to be a little further away from the wall.

Tiles!

Anyone know where to buy some rectangular terracotta floor tiles? I can only find square ones.

Also top tips on how to make the join between kitchen floor tiles and dining area parquet not look shit appreciated.

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Gas hob is stuck on. No isolation valve on the cooker. Gas goes off, so does heating. Any genius ideas? I have the front panel off and it doesn't seem there's a lot to be done there either.

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Just leave it lit: cheaper heating bills.

You’ll be toasty for the rest of your life.

Alternatively, turn off gas at meter / outside, disconnect cooker, cap end, turn gas back on.

Or call the emergency “I smell gas” line and be very nice to the man when he comes round.

Ha! It's now toasty in my kitchen. Yes current plan is to jam it full of araldite tonight. New oven already ordered, no one's getting Christmas presents this year!

Annoyingly there's an adjustment screw on the valve but it doesn't close right down.

@dbr I don't suppose a gas end cap is the same size as a radiator one?

It’s probably the same diameter of copper, but I don’t touch gas (or plumbing stuff). It’s defo a gas safe engineer job.

That looks pretty good - how did you smooth/polish it?

Yeah, not worth fucking with, plus it would mean no hobs for a few days. Managed to block up the faulty burner inlet with solder. Seems to have done the trick

Just used a pointing trowel thing. Tried a sponge but it left a texture I didn’t like. I only did the dark bits in the first photo btw - the smoother polished looking bit in the middle was already there.

Visited my parents and faffed around for close to two hours, trying to remount a 5-6m pine handrail back onto the wall along their steep stairs, using the oldest and naffest set of tools.

Drilled new holes in the rail and the wall. Tried to use frame fixings, failed, got dispirited, rummaged in the garage and started again with bog standard rawl plugs. The cheap corded power drill made some smoke when driving in the screws, fragrantly reminiscent of overheating Scalextric cars.

Rail finally secured on the wall and parents happy. Reward was curry and ice cream.

Cheers. Unsurprisingly Homebase didn't have any when I looked, I'll have to have a search online.

Can your cooker be pulled away from the wall? If so it should be connected by a bayonet fitting that will seal when you disconnect it. Have a search online to see what I mean.

(IANA gas engineer, that's just what I found out from having a new cooker installed. Proceed with extreme caution)