Home DIY

Macpherson's Eclipse is a good cheap emulsion for a mist coat (I just got 5l for £9) - dilute by 20%
This is better IMHO than PVA as you can see better if any areas need more filling etc.
I'm doing this today :-(

Dammit, are you doing a few coats?
If you're using Easifill or similar use 2-3 passes over joint ideally using progressively wider taping knives. Then sand.

Alternatively use proper plaster.

I spent most of yesterday queuing for the dump with bags of rubble it was boring until it kicked off as somebody drove in from the wrong direction and was nearly dragged from his car*

Next step is to finish the drain 'making good' and then do some re-pointing and replace some lintels.

Besides needing an accro (sp?) is it generally a straightforward thing to do?

*not by me.

You probably want a 'Strongboy' which is a flat plate that you bang into a mortar course to support the wall while you remove the old lintle - it sits on top of an Acrow, if the lintels are short and the wall above doesn't have a high load through it you can just whip out the old one and put in the new. You need minimum 100mm supported either end ideally on concrete pads or engineering brick.

I imagine that part of the problem is that I am not using a taping knife- just a scraper.

So I end up overfilling then sanding back, but I sand too far.

I then have to iron my hands, and start again.

I should learn to plaster.

Sanding using a block or by hand?

Random Orbital sander (that pulls strongly to the left, for some reason)

It's the one above the kitchen external door so basically the rest of the house sits on top of it....it's rusted to fuck.

I was quoted this which shocked me in to ignoring it but as I want to sell.

Both landing & kitchen windows need to have – wall acrowed up to support
above, remove all brickwork necessary to remove steel cavity lintel, clean out
toothing, supply & fit new catnic steel lintel’s with correct bearings, rebuild in
inner skin in block work & outer skin in matching face brick work, inside
undercoat & finish with plaster to leave ready for you to decorate, remove all
rubble to skip & clear site. £2,175+ vat.

^^ You'd be better off making a wooden pad the width of a roll of sand paper and about 200mm long. Works your guns a bit but the result should be nice and flat.

^ I agree.
In the states there's a open mesh/skrim 'sand paper' available for drywall and a pad which fits on a pole with a gimble end so you can sand ceilings etc. might be available here.

Just learn to plaster, it's really rewarding and probably not as difficult as you think.
Quicker than all that sanding as well.

I call it a panel saw.
;-)

I wouldn't trust either one of those saws or the person operating it to achieve the accuracy needed for a kitchen with 3 mm door gaps.

I've made a few kitchens using HPL (high pressure laminate ie. Formica) on birch ply for the doors with a mix of Ikea and custom carcasses.

If you find a small cabinet shop with a decent saw with a scoring blade ( little backwards spinning blade in front of main blade to stop laminate breaking out) they'd cut up the ply exactly to size and you could drill hinge mortises or drawer fixings and finish edges with a laminate trimmer sandpaper and a bit of oil. A pre laminated sheet of 18mm birch ply costs between £130- 180 depending on quality of laminate. Medium sized kitchen with upper cabinets will use less than 3 sheets. The laminate is really tough needs minimal finishing and comes in a bazillion colours. I did my kitchen at home 70s orange.

Poggonpohl on the cheap.

a panel saw is flat....not vertical.

and that little saw...is called a scribe.

and I used to make cabinets and counters for harrods...and many other c*nts.

Has anyone ever laid a cork floor?

What sort of cork? Tiles - yes

Yep.

Is it easy to do? Will it look weird in my front room???

we had few problems with it, nice and easy. Make sure your underfloor is well prepped (nice and level, we went over thin ply that was well screwed down) get the right glue (I can find the brand we had later) and be careful laying them out. Then varnish over them

Easy enough to do, but how good they will look in a front room I don't know. Also, ours are in the bathroom, so it's low traffic, I don't know how they'll do in a higher traffic area.

a panel saw is flat....not vertical.

and that little saw...is called a scribe.

and I used to make cabinets and counters for harrods...and many other c*nts.

'European cabinet saws often offer as an option a scoring blade, which is a second, smaller diameter blade mounted in front of the regular saw blade'.

Also Panel saw;
http://www.csaw.com/striebig/compact.html

It's all just nomenclature though.
What fo you call it, Surfacer, Planer, Surface planer, Jointer or...?

A scribe to me is a tool used to guide a pencil or other marking device to mark for close fitting of work piece to existing surfaces.

"When I was working for the Sultan of Brunei blah blah blah, lovely chap the Sultan".

:-)

Hello!

Has anyone fitted their own bamboo flooring? Or any type of flooring for that matter.

I've laid bamboo- piece of cake.

Tiling is harder, but still not that hard.

Taking off the skirting boards makes for a much better job and I reckon easier no faffing around with quadrant bead etc.
a sharp chop saw and circ saw are good too.
Porta-nailers for hidden nailing are cheap to hire and really satisfying to use.
Or glue is an easy though messy option (ime)

A not-quite home DIY question but in here seems the most appropriate place:

What's the best solution for rust? I have a narrowboat that has been abused for about 30 years and the baseplate on the inside is rusty. I'm in the process of cleaning it up by scraping off all of the flaky bits and looking for something to paint onto it to stop it getting any worse. Ideally something that will allow a coat of bitumen based paint over the top of it as the ballast (paving slabs) has to go back down over it and bitumen paint will self heal any little scratches and hold the ballast in place as it sinks into the paint a little over time.

Is there much difference in the normal brands? Worth splashing out on some Owatrol oil?

Has anyone ever laid a cork floor?

Is it easy to do? Will it look weird in my front room???

About 25 years ago I had cork tiles, so easy to lay a ten year old can do it.

Might be tougher now, but in the 80's with a rather portly ten year old walking around and playing on it, it didn't last long, especially the area by the door.

Although being laid by a ten year old might have been a contributing factor.

As for if it looks good, I hear the 80's is back in fashion, so should be good ;)

^^ I'd use Bilt Hamber stuff to treat the rust then coat it in something thick and flexible like the bitumen you mention.

FYI: I put £2 worth of drain cleaner down the shower plug hole last night and it fixed the slow draining that had recently come back.

Anyone pulled apart a storage heater? Do I need to know anything about them? Where can I get rid of all the bricks? Would someone actually want one of these?

Yes I have.
They're absurdly heavy.
Man.

Lower it onto the floor (having disconnected it) take off casing and remove bricks in situ. They're fire/heatproof bricks so they might be of use to someone building a fire place or kiln or such hippy nonsense. Put them up on freecycle.

Hippy someone will have them for scrap.

Just make sure they're disconnected first for a good 36 hours as the bricks can hold a lot of heat.