Home DIY

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Plaster dry, time to put the light back. Of course it's not easy. Any YouTube is no help.

These yellow bits will push in enough to go through the ceiling hole, but not the red bits.

How do I do it? The red bits don't seem to move enough in any direction to fit.

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Do the red bits not lever the yellow down when you push them onto the outside of the ceiling?

how the hell anyone decided these 'mouse trap' design were adequate for anything is a mystery.. but (best I know) the yellow will go through by holding to the lamp, the red won't and it'll feel like you are at danger of braking the plaster pushing them in (and you are) ... then you've no idea where they are sitting or if the spring tension is about to blow but they should sit.
[There's a slim chance the ceiling replacement has changed the plasterboard thickness] but by all means take the springs off turn them around and place in different settings to try and achieve them to reasonable working order - but they just say mouse trap to me

Oh, so red stays outside the hole

I'll try that first

You can also get metal inserts for the hole to protect the plaster from the light destroying everything if you want to be super tidy. Bought a load in my last place but alas can’t remember the name. They have a split in them so you can twist/feed them in from below.

E: c-fix

Just refitted some of ours like this.

Red bits point downwards, pointing towards the light, and wedge into the hole. This fixes them in pace while the yellow bits push through the hole and the spring holds them in against inside of ceiling.

The springs are TIGHT. Get up on a ladder to allow you to get really close to them, you really have to squeeze the reds together to get them into the hole without damaging the plaster.

Ooooh what about a cable tie....

Don’t suppose anyone knows a shop selling a yellow coverall in Brixton/Dulwich/Norwood area?
My Walter white fancy dress for tonight is looking unlikely as Amazon say ‘today by 10pm’ on the one I ordered on Thursday.
Have looked online at B&Q/Wikes/LDM/Brewers/Screwfix/toolstation/Travis Perkins.

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just angrily toss a pizza up on the roof when you arrive and you can relax for the rest of the evening.

Would rep/LoL etc.
If I had the right blouson jacket I would get a pork pie hat but it’s now ‘out for delivery’ so fingers crossed it’s here by 6…

In classic fashion I'm doing everything backwards. Stove has now been installed, going to have a go at patching it myself and like the idea of sand paper on MDF as looks like it would work nicely with the flat edge on the inside of the curve.

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what's this fix for this little fuck up, other than opening up the wall (wood cladding and OSB on the outside, plaster board & PIR on the inside)?

I drilled a hole, and completely neglected to consider the live wires just on the other side.

The short can from the drill bit itself - there's no (apparent) short in the wire now.

Obvs I'd rather not open the wall up, which would be a giant pain, but I'd also rather not burn down the entire building by bodging an unsafe fix.

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Is there no slack in the wall? If not you could (carefully) cut a the insulation out of the way and connect with straight wagos. It should be contained in a maintenance free box according to the letter of the regs but the fact that it remains accessible if the back box is removed means you could bend that rule a little bit. Proper way to do it would be pull a new piece of wire through. Sometimes that's easier than you think it would be.

Can you pull the damaged wire through at all? Add a connector and push it back?

I have no idea if that’s a good though! My electrical adventures are pretty minimal

Limited slack, unfortunately.

Pulling wires through would be a non-starter, I fear. To be honest, it was challenging enough to route them when there was no cladding and no battens in the way. Now there's no access at all, and no clear space bigger than 30cm x 2 cm.

I've bought some straight wago connectors - worth a shot for tenner.

If not, I think I'm making holes in the wall - from the inside, as I'm loath to hack the cladding up.

What joy - more plasterboard work.

Make sure the wagos are in the connector box, not free floating

Thinking about this a bit more. Can you put a deeper back box in and make the repair inside the back box. That would be a great solution.

I think this may work, as I have more than one back box to play with.

I'll disconnect the damaged wire from the socket on the left, then pull it out though the sock back box on the far right.

Then I can wire in a new length of t&e to the socket, and chase it through to the far right socket, which has plenty of room to fit a box behind it.

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In theory, at least.

Looking promising...

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Amazingly, I thing this is going to work.

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Success. Cheers @Airhead (and others).

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I have a 3 day window in which I would like to re-oil my wooden worktop. It's been 2 years since it was installed and there are a few scratches and areas where water is starting to get through. Should I be sanding through the old finish first to expose fresh wood everywhere, or am I better just applying oil and waiting a few more years before getting the sander out?

If it’s the same oil going on top then a light sand is all it needs.