Home DIY

Ha ha ha, I remember you saying this many years ago. Pleased to report that that's still the case. I'm sure that he'd take you up on the offer of a trip to Somerset as he's had a "change" in life circumstances and is now living in Woolwich.

thanks - that stair ladder looks idea!

I need to pull a load of (in some cases) very big nails out of the walls of my garages- best tool for this a claw hammer, or has someone come up with something more effective?

Claw hammer it is I think, or just smash them all the way in if the wall will be refinished?

I hadn't thought of that. A couple of them would actually protrude through the other side of the wall, however - they are Giant Nails.

Claw hammer is probably easiest. With problematic nails, this may be of use.

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I hate pulling nails with a claw hammer. Nail pullers, pry bars and a crow bar would probably be my weapons of choice. Although if you’ve got 6 inch nails stubbornly buried in the walls, nipping them off with a grinder would be preferable to trying to extract them.

Agreed, I saw this style decades ago when I did some roofing over a summer, very useful.

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I’ll have a go with a claw hammer and crowbar, see how that goes.

In related, clearing out the garages news - would anyone like three fluorescent lights with tubes? No idea if they work but I assume they do.

Maybe something like a cresent nail puller, clever design and there are similar ones from other manufacturers.

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Sometimes goes without saying but, eye protection always when pulling nails.

I'd chop them off flush with a multi-tool tbh.

But he'll always know that they are there, rusting away...

These things are great, easy to sharpen up again when you've done a few hundred m2 of carpet tacks and staples out of a few buildings!
Claw hammers only really for mashed new nails, not pulling out old stuff.

OK, new windows installed by me some time ago, Feb or March I think?
Hottest day of the year last week, windows face south, the units that broke are both untouched (as in i've not had them out of the frame) from factory and are in the opening leaf of the window. The fixed leaf's I've had out to mount the frame obviously.

Had a blind down on it, grey colour, around 11 I guess heard a splint sound, few minutes later some more noises so went to investigate. Both started quite small at the edge and over the day propagated the full pain. So yeah. Mftr not got back to me yet, imagine they have a few hundred of these to deal with!

Somehow my fault maybe? Should you not use blinds on glass with low emissive value, or because of its low e missive value (u = 1.2 sounds family?) it really shouldn't be a problem to have blinds close to the window?

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Lovely radiator, where was that from?

Lovely radiator, where was that from?

Looks like https://www.castrads.com/

It's a Castrads Mercury 2 Column 760mm with 17 sections, with the Whitworth Wallstays and the Windsor TRVs. Colour is one the no longer do called Pewter (this was previously a signature colour however they still do a raw finish called Pewter) and the fixings are in Natural Brass. :)

I need/would like to attach some basic ply spice racks to my wall. My problem is that there is a cabinet ~23cms away from the wall. My drill won't fit. Do people think a 'drill driver' might work? Or would 'no more nails' or similar be sufficient to hold that sort of weight?

Cheers

My Dewalt combi drill (which google tells me is 173mm long) would easily manage that assuming it's a pretty normal wall.

Sticks like shit would hold it, assuming there's a suitable surface and enough surface area on the rack for it to bond to.

Command strips might work too if you can ignore how much they project from the wall.

Any recommendations for a plasterer in north london? my usual helpful plasterer has come in a bit pricey for a job

I need to plasterboard a ceiling, the walls are somewhat uneven where they meet the ceiling. Previously I've spent some time carving the edge of the board so that it undulates in tune with the wall in order to get it to butt up closely, but right now I have Covid and I'm not certain I have the will power to do this.

Is there a lazy way of achieving a nice tight fit?

Is there a lazy way of achieving a nice tight fit?

Coving

I hadn't planned on purchasing a stock of antimacassars for the garage, but I imagine they do them on a BOGOF basis with coving.