Home DIY

What type of shelving is it? If the brackets can work with it, as above I would try to get the plug in to the brick behind the plasterboard and use that to take the weight rather than the plasterboard itself. If that's a no go, hollow wall anchors are good (as above, again), but they are long, so you will need to drill out some of the masonry behind the plasterboard.

Dot and dab is a shit show really isn't it?

its the one that also rests on the floor, what a PITA!

That looks like a Fischer Duopower. You can double stack them into the hole if your fastener is longer than the plug - have done this several times in dot and dab. Just snip the first mm off of the open end to get rid of the collar.

they provided both so i imagine its supposed to be one, and not dot and dab, the depth between board and brick is too big, and you can hear the studs.

There is a low expansion adhesive foam available, probably from the Forum's favourite building chemical company, Soudal.

They are supposed to work on plasterboard, but hollow wall anchors are probably the safer bet.

We give them a rub down with a bit of wire wool before it sets

i thnk i understand the fixing, but do i need to drill the brick for the screws, or should i get shorter screws?

As long as the screw is longer than the plug then it will work. Fischer give a min / max screw length for their plugs.

Drilling the hole long enough for the screw sounds like a good idea

The green Gripfill from Screwfix seems ideal - goes off pretty quickly but you've got a minute or so to squidge it into place. For a whole room you'd probably need three or four tubes but it's cheap.

Finished off with a squirt of caulk along the top.

I imagine if the skirting ever needs to come off it will bring some of the plaster/render with it though.

Thanks, ordered

The yellow grip fill is a bit nicer to work with as it has less (or no) solvent. Either one works unless you have curved skirting or walls in which case a screw is pretty normal. I prefer to plug mine properly or get them in a stud if it's a plasterboard wall.

Big fan of CT1 now, expensive but better than anything else ive used.

It's great and I do use it a lot but grip fill has a different quality that is useful with skirting.

Have you tried Multisolve, it's the spray made by the CT1 people that's brilliant at cleaning the last remains of silicon/mastic from baths/shower trays and many other uses. I carry one all the time now.

I need to fit some fence posts along a tarmac Driveway. Does anyone know how to go about it?
Should I be digging holes and setting them in concrete or will bolt-down fence brackets be ok? And if so how do I fix them down?

I’d be cutting the holes in the tarmac where the fence is gonna be, digging holes and putting them in with post Crete.

Aye, I would have thought tarmac would be too liable to crack and crumble with frosts etc (see: potholes). Plus, probably not a reliable/consistent depth.

I don’t often do that job but could be handy to get some for the odd chance

It's definitely one thing that it's worth having for. If you're changing wastes and taps it's useful.

Post holes, concrete.
Paint the bit of the posts that’ll be in the concrete with bitumen (Black Jack) first.
Trowel the concrete so there’s a slight fall away from the post and it’s higher than the tarmac.

Thanks for the advice guys. You’ve confirmed what I thought was the right thing to do, I was asked to use post brackets.

If you know there's concrete under the tarmac then use brackets fixed through the tarmac into the concrete. Otherwise, holes.

Good deal on Makita 6ah 18v twin pack £150, selling fast. Gone from 98 to 78 remaining while I bought mine. Countdown thing is clearly nonsense.

Makita sale is only on today.

Cheapest I could find a 2 pack of 5ah recently was £137 and then they all sold out, so this seems like a really good deal. The rest of the Makita sale is a bit meh.

https://www.ffx.co.uk/product/Get/Makita-Bl1860Bx2-5055945225723-18V-6Ah-Lxt-Li-Ion-Genuine-Makstar-Battery-2-Pack

Painting clouds!

I want to paint white walls blue but put cut out cloud shape adhesive patches on first to peel off.
Kids room I might add :)

I'm not having much luck on my web searches.
Ideally I'd like a roll of something I can cut shapes myself.

Can anyone help?