Home DIY

As an architectural student from the drawing board and Rotring period I can confirm that masking tape that’s been stuck on something for a while will have a spirited attempt at destroying the upper/outmost layer of said something when you try to remove it

Not what I wanted to hear!?
When I have time I’ll see if I can find a foam cored tile board that’s smooth as it’s so much easier to work with.
This is one of those jobs to be done after we move in so I guess I have a couple of years to do them..

I bought a tin of MDF edge primer on a whim that I have yet to test out. Otherwise I saw a chap doing fine passes with toupret fine surface filler on the cut edge and sanding with a relatively high grit. Once painted it had the same appearance as the face. You're welcome to the tin of unopened primer or if I recall, it wasn't very expensive at SF/TS.

Well, I bought a roll of green and a roll of yellow today for working on the hallway. If I can be arsed to actually use it I will report back.

Thanks, I have some MDF sealer and various primers (adhesion/multi surface etc) The other option I thought of was borrowing a small hand router thingy and putting a neat 45° edge detail on the boxes as this is what I had done on a MDF pelmet at the top of a window reveal where we need something substantial to screw the secondary glazing into, it’s what the carpenter suggested as mating a piece of MDF to a plasterboard corner is impossible as it just moves.
Finishing off with Toupret FSF is a good idea.
I would still rather do this job with a Stanley knife/cutting mat/glue gun though!?

Very likely the answer is whatever you feel the most confident doing is the best option.

I thought of was borrowing a small hand router thingy

Also have one for the lends

At the risk of repeating myself. To get the same finish on the edge of MDF as the face you need to sand it through grits 100, 200, 300, 400 (or similar numbers) I use a rotary sander to do this but I guess it works with random orbital.

No need for primers etc. just sand to 400 grit and your good.

I always knock the corners of my mdf stuff before painting, either use a router or a plane or sanding block depending on how accurate you need it to be.

I did some MDF boxes with 45 degree joints, thanks to the festool track accuracy they came together very well. Joined with the tiny dominos. Expensive method in tools though.

Tiny domino’s ?

Festool domino mortising machine, part of the system are 4mm 'tongues' called a domino. You can mortice slots into the 45 degree angled edges and glue it up. It saves a lot of prep as the boxes I was making were being sprayed.

Working on the hallway where DIY goes to die. Two coats of Leyland Superleytex High Solid white covered all (most of) the sins. The "easier" thing to do would have been to get a grown up in and rip down/replaster that wall but fucked if I could face the disruption. One coat of Albany Vinyl Matt has gone on, one more to do. Ordered new dado rail and beading to retrofit some wainscotting. That and the skirting will be painted the same colour as the wall in Albany eggshell. May also paint a simple single panel rad the same colour. Woodwork around the door/windows needs touched up so will straighten that edge then. Took a manky old rad off the wall and the act of shutting off the valve awoke a likely decades old leak. Water does not do my bidding so a plumber is coming on Monday to replace the valves and the copper leading to the valves.

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Ah somebody else who spent a 1/4 of the paint budget on tester pots...
i’m using the Albany satinwood for the first time yesterday/today and it’s the nicest paint I have ever used, will not use anything else if i can help it. though they do not match to every colour so ended up picking a colour in haste over the phone and it’s a bit too cold/blue so will have to live with it.

I too have a problem wall that wasn’t plastered and have just orbital sanded with a half worn 120 disc that takes some of the random rough texture areas out but that high solid paint sounds interesting, might deal with the brush marks from 15 different test pot areas too...

It's good but no miracle worker, though test pot coverage is above average. Cheap and available at the usual outlets fairly readily. I used one and a half 15l tubs in the tiny loft extension bedroom trying to cover nicotine stains (which had been thoroughly sugar soaped also). Should have gone with Cover Stain instead. But 3 coats in I was invested.

Ms_com loves a tester pot. Was handy actually as this is "wicker" and dries much more light yellow than the paint card or online image, so is a better fit for the yellows we wanted to pick out of the stained glass.

Having written the post above i found the Albany colour card and ‘Turville’ is way warmer than the paint mixed by brewers so i’m going to take it with me to check against the 3 doors/trim/skirting I have already painted, I know it’s never an exact match but this is way off and probably going to have to get them to mix and send me some more paint, bit fucked off at the time wasted as that’s in short supply at the moment.

Yeah, the colour matching has never been successful with them. Finding a stock colour we like has caused far less stress.

and this is how accurate their stock colours are..

they told me it’s because it’s not stirred enough and i have to bring it in to shaken. just gave it a good 15 min and will take the old stirrer and new stirrer with me to prove it’s the way off.

it’s the Turville we bought which is a warm green/grey it looks far more blue than it looks in the pics, it’s supposed to be a compliment to the french grey walls not an exact match but it has blue and a tiny bit of magenta in it too.

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So it turns out Brewers are giving out colour charts printed in 2018 which have either changed over time or were incorrect. The branch copy printed in 2020 was a way better match but they only had one copy and all their stock to give out was 2018.
Ended up picking a new colour from their 2020 copy but had to pay (with a discount) as the time wasted to send the tin back only to be told it’s within 10% was not worth the hassle.

Hand Sanding: I have just purchased a Mirka sanding kit. Velcro sanding strip onto a handle. This is connected via a hose to my Henry hoover. No dust, no clean up.

Late seeing this post, but you have a PM

I have a cheapo version of one of these. Such a handy tool.

Fiddling around with wood this morning

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That kind of repair is a good candidate for epoxy resin.

I was just gonna suggest that, I done one about a year ago and it was some stuff.

Cost of entry is the thing putting most people off. It's difficult to justify the cost of the specialised skeleton gun and the tubes are £50+, primer is expensive too. Totally worth it if you are doing repairs (especially exterior) professionally.

County Chemicals have a cheaper option for smaller jobs :-

https://www.sealantsonline.co.uk/Products/3C-sealants-wood-repair-system/CCC0083

This is basically wood filler in a tube, right? AFAIK WF is an two part epoxy / wood particle mix.

I've not used that one. I thought it was similar to the single tube version of Repaircare. It's a modified epoxy resin.

Repaircare is different to the 2 part fillers that are more like body filler.