Home DIY

@nefarious is right hanging a door is tricky and can go wrong, even for us pros.

Does it sound feasable to take the door and have it trimmed to the required width?

No because no cutting service will cut the door for you. They don't want to take responsibility for the measurements being wrong. Plus as has already been mentioned you are much better off offering the door up, marking, cutting, then repeating the process until the fit is perfect. Hanging doors is a drawn out process; after many years of doing it and many, many fuck ups I can hang 3-5 doors a day depending on the frames or liners.

As far as cutting the door down 40mm is a lot to take off a door. Most manufacturers have a maximum trim that is usually ~ 20mm. If the maximum trim is exceeded at best you will void the warranty at worst you'll wreck the door and won't be able to use it.

I often get asked to hang doors, and I always politely decline and recommend they get a professional joiner in for the reasons you’ve mentioned above. I’ve hung doors, but I don’t fancy sweating and cursing for several hours in someone else’s house for not much cash as I don’t feel reasonable charging full rates.

Anyone want floor tiles? Not many. 9. 33 x 33 cm.
se26 collection.

@nefarious and @Bobbo Thanks for the input. It makes sense what you are saying. I will think over and decide which way to go.

Decided to do a bit of googling before hacking up the warped shed window frame.

Ended up clamping the bottom bar in between some wood after washing it down. Then the next day remembered I still have my mum's steamer, so went at it with that and left it for a few days.

The result was a much straighter bit of wood.


Still did a bit of filing back to help give some space to the hot spots to let it sit a bit straighter and drilled a pilot hole to screw the centre piece from the bottom to pull and hold it. It's not straight, but from holding it up to the window it looks as if it will fit and open.

Then lots of holes for the wood hardener to penetrate.

Then fill the holes.

Then slapped on a load of spare end grain sealer - not sure what it will do, but figured it's got to do some protection and because it's so runny it should soak in a bit.

Next is paint. Then cleaning the windows - which I expect will take much longer than I think.

First time I ever hung doors after starting out as self employed, I turned up at a revonation job to hang 8 doors. The doors were all pre finished going into old frames (pre finished doors are meant to go into new frames so no trimming is required) the finish on the doors was ebonised oak with a wax layer on top. As I arrived on site the builder who was running things took me to one side and basically said he was sorry, that he had tried to tell the clients that if they wanted those doors they'd need to replace the liners but they wouldn't listen, oh and that I should be careful as they were picky and each door cost £400. Once I started cutting down the doors I realised that the veneer was so thin that tear out was a real problem and that because of the contrast between the oak and the finish it could be seen from space! This meant I had to use a router to trim doors. Each door took me a day to hang in the end, luckily I wasn't on price and I had to pay for the first door I cut down to be replaced so only just came out of the whole experience ahead.

Good effort, you have far more patience than me. Side question about your grain sealer, did you wash your brushes afterwards? Last time I tried white spirt / water / soap but none of those did it.

Cheers. It was done in stages and the good weather has meant the window frame can sit on the table for a week.

I've got this Ronseal end sealer which I think I washed in soapy water as per the first time for the broken shed panels. This time round I was lazy and used a fucked oil-based brush and washed it again with fairy and water.

Now you've reminded me about it, I found end grain sealer an especially hard item to source. Especially given how common decking is.

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Jesus wept, nightmare fuel that!

Fair to say it took a while for me to get my confidence back.

I'd forgotten all about that.

They really will drive a nail through just about anything. When I worked on big sites it was fairly common for annoying bastards to have to spend a good while removing their work boots from the locker room floor after they'd managed to particularly piss off someone who then took it upon themselves to use one of those to nail them down. I once caught the lead project manager from the principle contractor (the guy who ran the entire site basically) doing it because he was fed up with one bloke who just refused to wear his safety glasses.

Any reccos for the following:

Orbital Sander
Pressure Washer
Hose pipe
Lawnmower/strimmer

Can you tell I've moved into a new house?!

Lawnmower/strimmer

Robomower. 100%. Haven't mown the lawn once in a year and it's perfect.

Orbital Sander

Dewalt

Hose Pipe

Hozelock auto-reel

Pressure Washer

Karcher K4

Lawnmower

Depends on how big your lawn is, really - AdvancedRotak 650 was the recommended mower for mine (~ 50ft garden, can be had for £200)

Does anyone need some adhesive for wooden floors? I’ve an unopened tub of thomsit p618 15kg tub and a half used one. £40 total for both

Thanks mate + @TW

N00b question but if I get a pressure washer, could I use this to water garden (at lower pressure) rather than buy a hose + pressure washer?

Orbital Sander

https://www.axminstertools.com/makita-bo6030-random-orbit-sander-340441

If you want to get more heavy duty sanding done, I’d get this:
https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/power-tools/orbital-sanders/get-75-150-professional-heavy-duty-turbo-random-orbit-sander-240-v/p/ZT1257547X?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=pla%2B%7C%2BPower%20Tools&utm_term=ZT1257547X&utm_medium=pla_css_2&mkwid=-dm&pcrid=377670205568&pkw=&pmt=&prodid=ZT1257547X&slid=&pgrid=%7Bgroupid%7D&ptaid=pla-841956961412&gclid=CjwKCAjwx9_4BRAHEiwApAt0zqVkStKFDLnBO7T9GyeFBXuIDYGdihcI-tHdnj0JBOMbxstS_TGTNBoCFzcQAvD_BwE

They definitely can be used on low pressure (if you get one with settings) but you'd be much better off just getting a hose.

Also, you'll need some sort of hose to connect the outside tap to the pressure washer so might as well get one long enough to water the garden etc.

Pressure Washer

Karcher. If you want something smaller the K2 is good. Once you get one, remember that you need to refer to it as a Karcher not a pressure washer so people know you have one.

N00b question

Not unless you are using it as a strimmer. It will cut down anything that stands in it's path. You will need a hose to feed into the pressure washer anyway.

Hose pipe

+1 to Hozelock

Lawnmower/strimmer

Probably going against the grain and raison d'etre of the forum here, but your garden is under an acre right? Just get a 2nd hand Flymo and save the landfill. For a strimmer get the lightest thing you can. I picked up one for £8 from a boot sale and it’s brilliant. Light, takes up no space (32" tip to toe), and works. If you need a heavy duty one to clear stuff now rent a proper petrol one for the task.

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The expandable hoses are meant to be very good. Hozelock do one.

The expandable hoses are meant to be very good. Hozelock do one.

Be warned. Good ones are good. Shit ones leak.

OK makes sense, cheers.

Robot lawnmower need to think about...

£7 strimmer or £700 robomower #thebuyer in my is tingling

AdvancedRotak 650

tbf this is fucking ingenuous

my box is about the same size as the rest of the mower.

I think I'm a bit bias from using bigger decent stuff at my folks place in the middle of nowhere. While it's fun to use proper kit I think it can also be quite a faff (like getting a chainsaw and lawnmower serviced) and it's place is there, not in LDN / 'burbs. So I quite like things at the other end of the spectrum.

TBH I'm more sold on the idea of a robomower than £hundreds on a mower or strimmer.