Home DIY

Ha, no I was talking about the outdoor biffy.

Where do you get the wood from?

The water stop cock is a right handed thread yes? Should it be stiff? I'm loath to bugger something up by just turning it harder...

Did you have a lot of failures with the matchsticks? I am used to doweling but usually only where I've had to cut a broken screw out.

In drill related news, I thought I'd see if my memory was telling me lies and that a battery powered conventional drill could make a hole in our plaster. Turns out my memory was not telling lies, and I'll have to get the corded SDS out tomorrow.

I will forever wonder why they plastered our flat using what appears to be cement.

Not quite house DIY, but made a bird table today out of a fallen over fence post and a bit of left over roofing slate slab. The little house is a 'quick' flooring board, which i need to finish properly tomorrow.

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You're unique in the clean sense.

Fulham Timber

Repainting the skirting boards. What grade sandpaper should I use before applying?

Same here. I ended up buying a 5kg SDS+ to hang pictures

Ha, yes. Mini_com's great grandad came to the same conclusion.

Mostly because I have to deal with rated fire doors. So the hinges have to be G13 grade and the screws have to be Stainless Steel.

The usual trick with normal doors is matchstick /softwood and works really well.

Firedoors have to be a bit more guaranteed.

Sorry. I'll shut the fuck up. 😞

Edit: Sorry this seems a bit OTT. I only learnt the hardwood trick recently but it has got me out of so much shit with dodgy hinge screws!

How old is the paint?
Gloss paint used to have lead in it.
You don't want a house full of lead-containing dust.
Ever thought of using 'Liquid Sanding'?

Not all builders leave a trail of dust and mess in their wake

100% agree, it was me and my stuff getting dirty that I didn’t like! Coming out of lofts looking like I’d been working in a pit etc.
To explain a bit further, I do a lot of work in museums and art galleries - so clean working is paramount. And what can I say, I got used to the creature comforts.

Ha, ha. Same.

Can't leave crap all over the place in NHS clinics. Sweep and vacuum continually when working.

Depends on condition. I'm seeing more woodwork that only needs cleaning and de glossing before painting. Maybe a light sand to denib with 240 grit. There are some deglossing fluids you can spray on that do a great job.

You might have some 70's gloss paint with carpet painted in though, in which case 120 grit. If there are some horrible areas 80 grit.

OK, heavy doors. I have done some 'fire' doors but not often. Made quite a few from fire door blanks at one point.

Is that the two part filler? It doesn't absorb Osmo as well as the wood. Here's a photo of our floor with some filler over screw heads (all 2,500 of the fuckers) and in some old nail holes.
It's visible although not as strongly as in your photo and I don't mind it.
There are other fillers which I think will behave more like the wood. I think I tried mixing some Osmo into the filler but it was just too much of a pain - that stuff goes off so quickly and I was worried that it wouldn't set if it was adulterated.
I filled the more egregious bits with a pva & sawdust mix - wouldn't recommend. I left it sitting proud to protect against sagging and it was horrible to sand compared to proper wood filler although it took the stain well.

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You can see the pale blotches in that middle board which is where some filler residue wasn't sanded out fully

Yes it's the two-part stuff.

Downstairs I used some of the Amber Polyx tints and that did stain the filler a little, but the clear satin hasn't done much at all. I think the problem is that the filler goes on a good pale brown colour then turns white when you sand it.

I saw that Osmo do their own pre-mixed wood filler in a range of colours, but it seemed to be about £6 for a 200g pot.

The water comes in from the left so that buried tap is upstream of all the plumbing in the house. Only one stopcock needed.

Yeah ours is the amber stuff so I can imagine anything paler won't do much.

Now you know why they can sell their filler for £6 a pot

Spent the past couple of weekends stripping the multiple layers of oil paints off our doors (heat gun + scraper). Almost there, just filling holes before sanding again with a finer grit, then painting. First time doing this, and it's a lot more/harder work than expected - but very rewarding.

Top tip: don't stand doors upright when there's a breeze.
Fortunately we were already thinking about changing the glass to plexi to be a bit safer (toddler).

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Replace all the shitty plastic light switches in my house with these, amazing how much better a simple change makes things, every light switch was slightly different as well, all shit but all differently shit.

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