Home DIY

Ok painters and decorators. If the plastering is a good job do you sand before the mist coat to key the surface then fill before the 1st proper coat? Or can I just do the mist coat first then any repairs/sanding? What grit....is 120 too course?

Also, do I really need a contact emlusion to water down for the mist or can I use some vinal emulsion I have knocking around?

No need to sand before mist (at least, none of the plasterers I've had in did). Mist, fill, sand, maybe go over any larger filled areas again, paint.

Don't know about vinyl emulsion though.

Edit: Google says no to vinyl for a mist coat.

Not needed for a key, but worth running a RO type sander or a big flat sheet over it to knock off any small dross thats latched itself on there. Easier to spot once its got a guide coat/mist of paint on it any defects TBH.

Fixed a 140 year old wall recently that I thought for sure was a gonna. Utterly done with having to rebuild every single wall I come across so thought I'd try chemically stripping the old wall paper gunk, chipping off the CEMENT that had been used to fill the bigger patchs, then in the loose areas just flaked them out, tied back to lathe, bonding and rebuild with minimum materials. Paint, easifil, sand, repeat until good. 1 day = 3 decent sized walls saved and looking as good as when they were laid in 1880. Instead of around 3 days of effort to strip back and rebuild in modern materials.

Tip, buy a desiccant dehumidifier, makes working in winter warmer, makes working the rest of the year a lot drier = materials dry like they say they do on the tin, not half a week like it ends up being in the 80% RH that UK seems to have all the time.

Google told me that about vinyl too but the tin of vinyl tells me to do a 60:40 mix and I'd bet more diyers mix up vinyl than go and get some contact emlusion. Im guessing it's just internet advice and the advantage in actually minimal.

Thanks, I don't have a RO sander. I haven't seen the plaster yet (for my in-laws). If it looks and feels good I'll just mist then fill and sand, if not, I'll sand, mist, fill, sand.

But it’s not part of the circuit, it’s connecting the light itself to the circuit - if you get what I mean. The same way that your socket circuit could be 32A, but if you plug in a lamp, the lamp will have a 3A fuse, as the cable from plug to lamp will only need to carry the load to the lamp, not the load on the rest of the socket circuit.

Plenty of led light fittings have very thin and dubious quality copper that definitely wouldn’t carry 6A.

This is a much better way of saying it, lol.

Undoing cross head wood screws..

I have to remove some cupboard doors but the flat headed screws holding the hinges in have a very shallow cross head.

I can get a flat screwdriver to engage (just) and have taken a couple out but I can see myself trashing some screw heads.

Will a manual impact driver be useful just to get the screw loosened and moving half a turn and then it should be easier using a normal flat head screwdriver?

Have you got a photo of the screw heads?
The only problem with a manual impact driver (I assume you mean the ones you hit with a hammer) is that the impact may not be great for the cupboard’s integrity.

Was a bit bored so used an old chisel to remove the paint from the screw head , smacked a flat head bit into the screw head slot and seemed to get a bit more purchase with a rachet driver. The cupboards are fitted into an alcove so plenty of support from brickwork either side to use a reasonable amount of force :)

Cleaning screw heads makes an absolutely massive difference. It’s a pain in the arse to do, but less of a pain than dealing with a completely stripped screw head!

My understanding is that as the light fitting cable is only protected by the fuse/breaker in the CU it should be rated for 6A. I presume there is a BS/EN standard that light fittings need to meet that would detail that kind of thing?

Yeah that makes sense tbh. And 0.75mm flex will carry 6A anyway.

We might be at crossed purposes most lamps are plugged into a 13amp socket not a 5amp lighting socket. That's why we are discussing the fuse rating of that 13amp plug.

If you are talking about the 5amp unfused plug that fits the specialised socket then yes it does need to have cable rated for 5amp (or 6 I guess since the cu will very likely have a 6amp breaker).

Crossed wires? I know, I will get my coat ….

@damitamit

I’m just chipping in my view about dark spaces. I actually prefer dark wall colours and white ceilings down to picture rail level.

Think about decent artificial lighting. The biggest impact will be to hit the ceiling first, then the walls and floor last.

I thought we were talking about the fuse to put in the ceiling lamp that moocher wants to plug in and what is an appropriate value for that. Since it is a ceiling lamp that is designed to be hardwired I assume it has a 6A rated flex, or maybe 5A if it is very old (but it probably isn't very old by the look of the sticker).

Apparently you can buy 0.5 mm^2 2-core braided textile covered flex for the retro look. I'd like to think it isn't generally supplied with pendant lamps but perhaps it is with warnings stuck on it that are quickly discarded?

Yep, you were right, got all the screws out in the end by removing several coats of gloss that had been painted over the hinges and screws since the 60's!

I have numbered all the hinges so know where they came from, tempted to buy new ones rather than try and clean up the old ones, the round part of the hinge is visible from the front. Are they standard sizes?

There wouldn't normally be any fuse for a ceiling lamp. I've never seen a ceiling rose that has a fuse although I'm sure there are some that have been made/fitted in the history of interior lighting.

I think part of the confusion is the term fuse. Most people refer to the 'fuse' in the consumer unit as a breaker. These days the 'fuse' rating in the consumer unit should be decided by a qualified professional with the capacity to properly test the circuit.

The assumption I had made was that he was converting it to use from a plug and the rating of the fuse was the question.

fireplace progression. Decorative only (bedroom) and from fb marketplace. Think it is a replica but was super heavy. Had someone properly fit an insert into the middle and concrete behind

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I seriously hate removing paint. This stuff just isn't coming off as well as the door. Spent 4 hours this afternoon tackling the treads and risers on the stairs. Probably why I stopped some months ago. That brown stuff is just turning to gloop and the wood is soft.I completely underestimated the amount of work required to decorate a hallway. FML.

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Wooden stairs are shit and carpet is safer, quieter and easier.

Save yourself the bother.

Bit of white wood showing either side, 95% carpet and nice stair rods?

Bury it all under a Stannah stair lift and prepare for the inevitable/future.

The only easy way to remove stuff like that is by sandblasting it. Sandblasting raises the grain massively and you don't want that being done in your house as cleaning the mess up isn't easy and the ppe that you need to do it is not cheap.