The DIY Thread

[Boozad]

Great idea by @Newbridge Wolf given me starting off about sanding shit.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Lolz proper fusty old mons forum now!

Took on a house that needed alot of work about 6 years back, had some work done for us but done a fair bit myself to save cash. Its been bloody hard work and I'm not sure were any better as by the time you finish one job on the old house it needs maintenance elsewhere.

I find the skill builder series on YouTube good viewing, especially Robyn who is an annoyingly good carpenter, makes it look very simple

 

[Boozad]

That's basically where I'm at, the house needed major work when we took it on, had to take a lot of the walls back to the brick as the plaster had become damp due to it being empty so long. Did all that before we actually moved in and several tens of thousands of pounds later it's about halfway there. New windows, new kitchen, new bathroom (along with a new boiler and an airing cupboard removed that encroached on three rooms), back garden landscaped (although I've neglected that the last couple of years) and the front garden ripped out and a block paved drive put in with new front walls. I'm doing the bedrooms myself now so they're a good standard but will need someone in to plaster the hall, stairs and landing. Once that's done that's the inside finished, it does need a new roof but that will have to wait.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Nice sounds like were pretty similar, We made the mistake of moving in, had no choice unfortunately.

Ripped up the old carpet downstairs to find parquet flooring throughout, which I sanded back and sealed. Ripped out the old York stone fire place and put a new one in (not York stone) had the house rewired, had a log burner put in which I Ripped out the old fireplace again. Changed all the doors, built a shed/lean to. Converted the garage into a dog grooming salon for the wife (not 100% finished that yet!) Changed the balustrade to the stairs and stripped back the old stair finishes to the boards.

Swapped bathrooms around had an extension built over the old garage and got a shite builder who flooded the house whilst I was away then had to repair loads because of him being a knob.

Had to redo a fair bit of his work first fix joinery type and did all the work to the kids bathroom except the electrics and heating, did all the flooring finishes etc.

When I'm up and about I'll finish of grouting that then its pretty much done.

About to move forward with a small extension to the rear to do the kitchen and sort some of the windows out.

Done naff all with the garden apart from chuck money at it to get rid of loads of overgrown shit Changed a fence at the rear but it's too much atm!

Mad really when I think about it all, still feels like I'm living in a shithole though but probably just can't see past everything that needs doing

 

[Boozad]

Yeah it's a fucker when you still feel like that, I'd thrown over £35k at this place and still hated it. I think once the bedrooms and hall/stairs are done I'll feel a lot happier. It's half rewired, when I had the kitchen and bathroom done the sparky put a new consumer unit in so those two rooms run off one unit and the rest of the house off the old one. I really should get it done but it's the least of my concerns really, I don't want to go that far backwards before moving forwards or I'll give up. I do need four new internal doors as well which I'll do at the same time as the hall/stairs.

After that it's new roof, fascias and soffits, extend into the old coal house outside the kitchen to give me a computer room/office, board out the loft for more storage room then I think that's it really. Oh and a new floor in the lounge, that'll probably be last of all though as it's proper low on the list of to-do stuff.

 

[Boozad]

All sanding and filling/caulking done in the front bedroom and most of the glossing done, just got one corner of skirting left where i couldn't move things round enough to get it all done. Looks a million times better than when I started so chuffed with the results.

 

[Paul]

Wife wanted a bay window and i wanted a downstairs toilet, took a couple of years of weekends, did everything by hand except the plastering, rendering and the final electrical connections, left that to the experts

 

[sycophantia]

Looks a good job, how do you keep motivated?

 

[Kenny]

Wife wanted a bay window and i wanted a downstairs toilet,

At this point I was a bit worried about what the pictures were going to show. Thought a middle ground bay toilet was about to appear

 

[Paul]

Looks a good job, how do you keep motivated?

I enjoyed the challenge, the only bits that got me down was digging the footings (the type of clay that you had to smack off the spade) and falling backwards into the trench whilst putting up boards to stop people falling into the trench

 

[Boozad]

Class job.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Fair play nice job that, did you take the chimney down yourself too?

Decent bit of roofing too, even getting the bonnet tiles in.

I'm so tempted to do my rear extension but it involves knocking out rear walls and fitting steels, not something I can really do on my own.

 

[Paul]

Fair play nice job that, did you take the chimney down yourself too?

Decent bit of roofing too, even getting the bonnet tiles in.

I'm so tempted to do my rear extension but it involves knocking out rear walls and fitting steels, not something I can really do on my own.

Yeh, dusty horrible job taking the chimney down, as long as you've got basic building skills and knowledge it's not that hard, just the timescale is extended (in my case by a year ). Id get builders to put the RSJ in and you take it from there, you must get used to being told "it looks like a building site round here" at least daily though !

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Yeh, dusty horrible job taking the chimney down, as long as you've got basic building skills and knowledge it's not that hard, just the timescale is extended (in my case by a year ). Id get builders to put the RSJ in and you take it from there, you must get used to being told "it looks like a building site round here" at least daily though !

I can imagine, yep the wife is used to the current situation tbf so shes pretty good. I like to think that I can turn my hand to most things, certainly carpentry related but I've done the bathroom, rendered a gable wall, bit of plastering, tiling and plumbing but the whole thing comes down to timing, I have commitments in the week and weekends outside of work I train my youngests rugby team, manage it and run around for their football teams so I think I'll have to get builders in for the lot, shame as I'd really like to do a bit of blockwork and would love to do the roof

Everything takes longer when you do it yourself as your constantly setting up every day you work and getting into it. Fair play for digging the footings by hand - I'd have defo get a mini-digger in for that!

 

[EpsomWolf]

Any woodworkers amongst us?

Have decided to have a go at refurbishing a wooden kitchen island worktop. Been putting it off as had no idea if it was oiled, or stained and varnished etc, but it’s rapidly deteriorating so something had to be done.

A few pictures and a couple of questions along the way.


As it was before starting:


Lots of general wear and scuffs but a few bad stains like this too:


Will put in here at this point that I’m using this guy’s technique plus his suggested oil which (according to him) will give a robust finish suitable for the intended purpose:

First stage with blade scraper seems to be going ok:


Blemishes still showing badly after scraping. Questions about the next stage of sanding coming up:


This is where I’m up to and starting to get nervous. To get down into the grain to remove the stains I’ve got to use a fairly coarse sandpaper, 80-100, but that leaves scratches which you’d ordinarily sand out using finer and finer paper. But, because the pours have to stay open to absorb the oil the recommendation is no finer than 120 grit. I’m currently working on a test corner and doing everything by hand but the 120 grit I’m using to finish off is showing the scratches below:


The guy in the vid uses an orbital sander at 100 grit. I’m very nervous about going all in with the orbital and doing some damage I can’t get out of. Question I suppose is, do I trust the orbital or continue by hand but only going in the direction of the grain which would hopefully avoid the swirls?

Difficult to know too if very minor scratches will hidden or amplified once the oil goes on?

I guess you get back the effort you put in during the prep, but feels a bit like the point of no return here. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[machin05]

Orbital isn't gonna cause any damage. It's just quicker than by hand.

 

[pavlosmacwolf]

I use a sander with a triangular head (no idea what they are officially called) and by following the grain where i can i get a pretty good finish. It seems to be all about the time you spend rather than brute force.

 

[machin05]

I use a sander with a triangular head (no idea what they are officially called) and by following the grain where i can i get a pretty good finish. It seems to be all about the time you spend rather than brute force.

Palm sander, I think

 

[EpsomWolf]

Decided to give the orbital ago because at least if it goes wrong I can blame machin.

Went with 120 grit, didn’t apply any pressure and just let the weight of the sander push down.

Had only used the orbital once previously and had very mixed results so was nervous of using it but it was a cracker for this task. Bloody hell, amazing! This is the same small test area that had the scratches in the previous photo. Well chuffed. I know what I’m doing this weekend:

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

When are you next up for a Wolves game? Mine needs doing as well!

I have dark American Walnut and the secret of oiling is applying several coats lightly - rubbing and buffing each coat until dry in between. You are not looking for a shiny finish each time but a dry, even build up
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