Our Little Durham Restoration Project...
Discussion
KTF said:
If you tile first then you will get a more even surface to silicone the enclosure to and a better seal. If the walls are slightly off then you can use the tiles to adjust for that as well.
If you already have the tiles then you could have measured it all up and calculated where the tiles needed to be finished so that it ended flush with the enclosure.
The tiles have a bevelled edge, the wall is plasterboard, so that will give a more even surface.If you already have the tiles then you could have measured it all up and calculated where the tiles needed to be finished so that it ended flush with the enclosure.
They are longer than standard, they're 72mm I think. The website I picked them up from said exactly that and recommended the 72mm ones, they didn't do bigger. I might have a look at the one that's fitted and see if it would be better moving inwards a bit further, though it doesn't cause you to bash your nuckles off the frame where it is.
paulrockliffe said:
Gingerbread Man said:
Install the tray. Silicone around the tray to wall joint. Tile the shower and then grout. This makes a waterproof base. Then silicone around the tray to wall joint again. Then you put the screen's profiles onto the tiles, normally running a bead of silicone down the back of the profile. Also putting a smidge of silicone over the screw holes/ plugs. Then screw these to the wall and then mount the shower screen like you have.
You then silicone on the outer edges only, so if water gets behind the profile, the water gets out into the tray and away. Siliconing both sides of the profile never matter how much, water tends to gets in, builds up and then gets away through a small area, normally creating a stain onto a ceiling. This is for 90%, but refer to the instructions.
Tiling up to the screen creates an awkward joint to seal, and if this fails, it's straight onto your base layer.
You have a step down from the tiles to the screen.
Even badly sealed screens onto tiles can leak, you're just increasing the chances of water through the ceiling.
If you ever need to replace the screen, taking one off the tiles and cleaning up before putting a new one in is easy. Finding a new screen the exact same width will be a pain, maybe having to piece in tiles.
Have you siliconed along the back of the profile?
Have you siliconed around the tray to the wall pre-tiling?
Have you siliconed the tray to the wall before fitting the profiles, otherwise there is a wide open gap behind the profiles?
Just trying to help create a better finish and a waterproof one that'll last.
As a bathroom fitter, I'd only ever install the screen onto tiles.
That's interesting, thanks.You then silicone on the outer edges only, so if water gets behind the profile, the water gets out into the tray and away. Siliconing both sides of the profile never matter how much, water tends to gets in, builds up and then gets away through a small area, normally creating a stain onto a ceiling. This is for 90%, but refer to the instructions.
Tiling up to the screen creates an awkward joint to seal, and if this fails, it's straight onto your base layer.
You have a step down from the tiles to the screen.
Even badly sealed screens onto tiles can leak, you're just increasing the chances of water through the ceiling.
If you ever need to replace the screen, taking one off the tiles and cleaning up before putting a new one in is easy. Finding a new screen the exact same width will be a pain, maybe having to piece in tiles.
Have you siliconed along the back of the profile?
Have you siliconed around the tray to the wall pre-tiling?
Have you siliconed the tray to the wall before fitting the profiles, otherwise there is a wide open gap behind the profiles?
Just trying to help create a better finish and a waterproof one that'll last.
As a bathroom fitter, I'd only ever install the screen onto tiles.
The instructions have no silicone behind the profile, and both edges siliconed. The inner edge of silicone will be behind the tiles and there’ll be a second silicone seal there too obviously.
The tray was siliconed to the wall before the screen went on, so there isn’t a gap underneath the profile.
If the screen needs to be replaced then it’s not a huge job to retile completely and it’s not a huge job to replace the plasterboard behind the tiles at the same time if that’s damaged taking tiles off. Given it’s more than likely the screen will out last us in the house, I’m happy with that eventuality. There’s a good bit of adjustability in the width of that screen though, enough to give 20mm of play in the location of each profile.
I think the screen onto tiles approach looks like a bodge, though I accept your reasons for that approach. Don’t take that the wrong way, what I mean is that showers done that way rarely look right with the tiles sticking out of the sides.
Regardless, it’s too late now and I’ll just have to re-do it if there’s a problem.
I’ll admit I hadn’t given it too much thought until recently as my Dad did his showers 20+ years ago the same way and has never had any problems with leaks. It’s only my girlfriend’s Dad tiles that keep falling off that made me look into how water proof grout etc is.
Based on what I’ve read on the internet the plan is to use epoxy grout on the tiles, with the bottom bead being done in a normal grout rather than a silicone so that any water that did get behind the tiles will come out again rather than be trapped there and I’ll know quickly that I’ve got a problem.
What do you think about that approach?
Firstly, house looks great, and is going to be a credit to your hard work!
Ref the shower, gingerbreadman is absolutely correct, the walls should be tiled first, and then the screen fitted onto the top of the tiles. You should never fix the screen to the plasterboard and then tile up to it, this will leak. Don't forget the profiles of shower enclosures are designed to have some water in them, which will drain into the tray at the bottom, if you fix the screen to the plasterboard the excess water will drain into the plasterboard. I know its a pain, but to save yourself hassle in the next 6 months I would sincerely reccomend removing the screen. Tiling fully first and then refitting the screen again. It's the only way to do it properly and avoid future hassles. As someone who runs my own bathroom and kitchen installation company and having 20+ years experience, I've seen hundreds of showers with leaks and damage to rooms underneath caused by these sort of things! It's amazing just how much damage water can do, and also how easily it can get out of the enclosure.
Just giving you the best advice mate, as I would hate to see you ripping it out again in a short time!
I didn't get round to updating the thread last week, so I've two weekends worth of updates for you now. We've made some very good progress on some of the important stuff that we need to be able to move in. We're away next weekend, but planing to do a soft move the following weekend. I'm in Manchester during the week, so we'll both start living there at the weekends, which will make it easier to get more done and without having to drive too and from Durham for meals etc.
It should take the pressure off a bit and let me get out on my bike first thing too, which would be great as I feel like I've hardly ridden at all in the last 6 months and now winter is here I need time to ride weekends as it's more of a pain to get out at night.
Things we have that work that we didn't have a fortnight ago include:
Electricity, all lights, sockets etc all finished and working. We're just waiting for the clip-on face plates to arrive, they're on a slow boat from China, but these are only cosmetic. So we can see in the dark, I can charge my phone and there aren't extension cables running everywhere!
Fridge and Freezer are in, all tools have been moved out to the blacksmith's, the oven and hob are uncovered and working. The microwave is plugged in. In short, we have a kitchen again, so we can get some food in and start living in the house a bit. It'll be great for my parents not to have to bring their camper van whenever they come over too.
Bathroom has a toilet, a sink and a bath. None of them leak too! I've a few bits of finishing off to do in a couple of weeks, but I can confirm that the bath is very warm and comfortable. The shower is half plumbed, I stripped a thread on a connector on Sunday, so that's to be sorted next time I'm there. I manned up and took on the job I was most worried about taking on yesterday and epoxy grouted the shower tiles. It was pretty nerve-wracking knowing I had 45 minutes to get all the grout on and start getting the tiles cleaned before it set solid, but in the end it was fine. It was hard work emulsifying the excess grout off and cutting it back to the right depth on the bevelled tiles, but because of the way it is it was very easy to get a great finish on it. Would recommend, so long as it lives up to the claimed water-proof-ness.
Hearth tiles have been done in the living room, this was delayed several times as tiles kept being delivered with damaged edges. I won't name the offending company, as their customer service has been superb, to the extent that while I needed 15 tiles total with 6 having all perfect edges (others to be cut), I've done the job and been left with 16 spare perfect tiles and a similar number of damaged ones, so I have a load of marble left for some other jobs. I think I'll be tiling the back and sides of the hearth to match, then I need a stove-fitter.
Living room is about done, 5.1 surround speaker wires fitted to skirtings, sofas are in, I've just the hearth to finish, stove to fit and a couple of other minor jobs and I'll be able to remove the cardboard floor and officially open the room for business. There's a bit more to do in the dining room, but I've got the table and chairs out of their box and that's ready to use too. Both rooms were painted by my Mum and look great.
Lastly, I filled up the central heating again, so we can keep warm now that the worst winter in a millennium has been confirmed. Need to sort out a better thermostat for that though as the one we have has a timer program that is a pain to set and doesn't have an over-ride, so you can't actually turn the thing on and off without reprogramming the timers. Need to do some research on that....
Anyway, more pics for you:
Living room painted:
Furniture in:
Skirtings and window sills done:
Hearth tiled:
Architrave done, wall light on:
Cardboard floor!
Discreet speaker connections:
Excess marble!
Dining room painted:
And table in ready for dinner!
Bathroom steps finished, door on and architraves on, looks fantastic!
Epoxy grout:
Bath fitted:
Stair spindles ready to be installed:
Outside sufficiently illuminated!
Functional kitchen!
Electricity!
I think the general plan now is to focus on the downstairs rooms in the main, though we want to get coving up upstairs soonish so that they can be painted by my girlfriend and my Mum when they're around to help. And my Dad will want to fit the banister as soon as he can as I think he's quite excited about that job. Two of the bedrooms are useable, if missing carpets and woodwork etc and we can live with that as we use them for sleeping only. So the next few weeks will be spent sorting out the little jobs downstairs, there's still a few door frames and doors to go in and then a few tidying up jobs and the boiler cupboard needs fitting out for my server, internet, tv etc so it can be hidden away.
Next update in a couple of weeks.....
It should take the pressure off a bit and let me get out on my bike first thing too, which would be great as I feel like I've hardly ridden at all in the last 6 months and now winter is here I need time to ride weekends as it's more of a pain to get out at night.
Things we have that work that we didn't have a fortnight ago include:
Electricity, all lights, sockets etc all finished and working. We're just waiting for the clip-on face plates to arrive, they're on a slow boat from China, but these are only cosmetic. So we can see in the dark, I can charge my phone and there aren't extension cables running everywhere!
Fridge and Freezer are in, all tools have been moved out to the blacksmith's, the oven and hob are uncovered and working. The microwave is plugged in. In short, we have a kitchen again, so we can get some food in and start living in the house a bit. It'll be great for my parents not to have to bring their camper van whenever they come over too.
Bathroom has a toilet, a sink and a bath. None of them leak too! I've a few bits of finishing off to do in a couple of weeks, but I can confirm that the bath is very warm and comfortable. The shower is half plumbed, I stripped a thread on a connector on Sunday, so that's to be sorted next time I'm there. I manned up and took on the job I was most worried about taking on yesterday and epoxy grouted the shower tiles. It was pretty nerve-wracking knowing I had 45 minutes to get all the grout on and start getting the tiles cleaned before it set solid, but in the end it was fine. It was hard work emulsifying the excess grout off and cutting it back to the right depth on the bevelled tiles, but because of the way it is it was very easy to get a great finish on it. Would recommend, so long as it lives up to the claimed water-proof-ness.
Hearth tiles have been done in the living room, this was delayed several times as tiles kept being delivered with damaged edges. I won't name the offending company, as their customer service has been superb, to the extent that while I needed 15 tiles total with 6 having all perfect edges (others to be cut), I've done the job and been left with 16 spare perfect tiles and a similar number of damaged ones, so I have a load of marble left for some other jobs. I think I'll be tiling the back and sides of the hearth to match, then I need a stove-fitter.
Living room is about done, 5.1 surround speaker wires fitted to skirtings, sofas are in, I've just the hearth to finish, stove to fit and a couple of other minor jobs and I'll be able to remove the cardboard floor and officially open the room for business. There's a bit more to do in the dining room, but I've got the table and chairs out of their box and that's ready to use too. Both rooms were painted by my Mum and look great.
Lastly, I filled up the central heating again, so we can keep warm now that the worst winter in a millennium has been confirmed. Need to sort out a better thermostat for that though as the one we have has a timer program that is a pain to set and doesn't have an over-ride, so you can't actually turn the thing on and off without reprogramming the timers. Need to do some research on that....
Anyway, more pics for you:
Living room painted:
Furniture in:
Skirtings and window sills done:
Hearth tiled:
Architrave done, wall light on:
Cardboard floor!
Discreet speaker connections:
Excess marble!
Dining room painted:
And table in ready for dinner!
Bathroom steps finished, door on and architraves on, looks fantastic!
Epoxy grout:
Bath fitted:
Stair spindles ready to be installed:
Outside sufficiently illuminated!
Functional kitchen!
Electricity!
I think the general plan now is to focus on the downstairs rooms in the main, though we want to get coving up upstairs soonish so that they can be painted by my girlfriend and my Mum when they're around to help. And my Dad will want to fit the banister as soon as he can as I think he's quite excited about that job. Two of the bedrooms are useable, if missing carpets and woodwork etc and we can live with that as we use them for sleeping only. So the next few weeks will be spent sorting out the little jobs downstairs, there's still a few door frames and doors to go in and then a few tidying up jobs and the boiler cupboard needs fitting out for my server, internet, tv etc so it can be hidden away.
Next update in a couple of weeks.....
Was away with friends last weekend, but had a reasonably productive weekend this week.
Arrived on Friday night briefly to drop a few things off and had a quick check of a few little jobs my electrician had done during the week. Ended up in one of the bedrooms briefly, then turned to come back downstairs and was confront by this:
WTF! Turns out my Dad and brother had decided to pop over last weekend and surprise me! Looks awesome, can't believe what a good job they've done and it's something I was worried wouldn't get done for Christmas, so we're over the moon!
Here you can see where the original newell post has been mated to the new, looks a lot better than I was expecting, just needs abit of finishing off. The whole thing is rock solid.
Next up I was back in the bathroom, doing the last of the tiling and getting things close to being finished. I've a few jobs left to do then I can start doing the little finishing touches, fit the skirting bits and paint. Need to sort out a proper wash stand though:
Tiling finished, or should I go higher?
Mirror fitted:
Shower fitted and working:
I was worried that the water pressure wouldn't be high enough for the shower, but it's absolutely superb, best shower I've ever had! Just three tiles to cut at funny angles then finish off the grouting and that's sorted.
Bath side fitted, well sort of. It's in and ready to be fitted properly, but I need to finess a couple of bits to get a perfect fit:
Last job of the weekend was more tiling, getting a bit sick of it to be honest, but not too much more to do now. Hearth looks good though, just needs sealing, grouting and the back and sides doing:
Fitted the dishwasher and mashing machine:
Dishwasher has the 'check water' light on and isn't working. Not sure why but the internet is full of ideas, so I guess that's to come to bits when I get chance.
We spent our first night at the house on Saturday, I've officially moved in, though as I'm only there at weekends my girlfriend is still staying with her sister, at least until I move the good bed. Here's our temporary bedroom:
Next weekend I have a few things on, but my Dad is here, so we should get quite a bit done. Might start on the coving upstairs so we can do some more painting and there's still stacks of woodwork to get through.
Arrived on Friday night briefly to drop a few things off and had a quick check of a few little jobs my electrician had done during the week. Ended up in one of the bedrooms briefly, then turned to come back downstairs and was confront by this:
WTF! Turns out my Dad and brother had decided to pop over last weekend and surprise me! Looks awesome, can't believe what a good job they've done and it's something I was worried wouldn't get done for Christmas, so we're over the moon!
Here you can see where the original newell post has been mated to the new, looks a lot better than I was expecting, just needs abit of finishing off. The whole thing is rock solid.
Next up I was back in the bathroom, doing the last of the tiling and getting things close to being finished. I've a few jobs left to do then I can start doing the little finishing touches, fit the skirting bits and paint. Need to sort out a proper wash stand though:
Tiling finished, or should I go higher?
Mirror fitted:
Shower fitted and working:
I was worried that the water pressure wouldn't be high enough for the shower, but it's absolutely superb, best shower I've ever had! Just three tiles to cut at funny angles then finish off the grouting and that's sorted.
Bath side fitted, well sort of. It's in and ready to be fitted properly, but I need to finess a couple of bits to get a perfect fit:
Last job of the weekend was more tiling, getting a bit sick of it to be honest, but not too much more to do now. Hearth looks good though, just needs sealing, grouting and the back and sides doing:
Fitted the dishwasher and mashing machine:
Dishwasher has the 'check water' light on and isn't working. Not sure why but the internet is full of ideas, so I guess that's to come to bits when I get chance.
We spent our first night at the house on Saturday, I've officially moved in, though as I'm only there at weekends my girlfriend is still staying with her sister, at least until I move the good bed. Here's our temporary bedroom:
Next weekend I have a few things on, but my Dad is here, so we should get quite a bit done. Might start on the coving upstairs so we can do some more painting and there's still stacks of woodwork to get through.
Cheers guys, another row of tiles would take it about 15-20mm below the height of the mirror, so it would need two rows to go over the top of the mirror. But cutting into those tiles means there isn't a full row above the mirror, so it would probably look best with a third row to finish it.
It's slightly complicated by the wall falling away at the current tile height, so the mirror sticks out at the top and it won't tile as neatly, but I'm sure I can get that neat either way.
I was too busy to sit down and work it out so decided to just leave it as it is and have a think about it. I won't be doing any more until I'm ready to do the right hand side of the mirror, and I don't want to commit to the length of that run until I've worked out the cabinet that's going there, so I've got a bit of time to work it out.
It's slightly complicated by the wall falling away at the current tile height, so the mirror sticks out at the top and it won't tile as neatly, but I'm sure I can get that neat either way.
I was too busy to sit down and work it out so decided to just leave it as it is and have a think about it. I won't be doing any more until I'm ready to do the right hand side of the mirror, and I don't want to commit to the length of that run until I've worked out the cabinet that's going there, so I've got a bit of time to work it out.
More progress this weekend, I had a few things on so wasn't able to crack on all weekend, but my parents were here again.
Priority now is getting downstairs neat and tidy, though I have to find some time to put up some coving so my girlfriend can do some more painting. So we started fitting the door frame and door in the hallway. We figured it would take a couple of hours, then we'd get the coving up in the hallway and make a start up stairs. One man job, so I left my Dad too it; took all day. I think he was a bit pissed off with the job by the time he'd finished, but it does look very good!
It was another pain in the arse job, with the frame being set in from the walls by a couple of inches. The packing is set back from the frame by 9mm so a piece of ply will fill the gap and accommodate the architrave, so although it looks rough, it's actually very precise, which is where the day went:
While that was going on I was tiling. Again. I got up very early on Sunday to grout the previous days work as I was due at a party and the hearth now looks like this:
Just needs sealing and the stove fitting and it's finished.
My Mum is staying for a few days this week to varnish everything again, so I decided it would be charitable to sort out the TV so she can watch Strictly. This involved swapping a wire over on the aerial in the loft then untangling the mass of wires in the boiler cupboard. I've run two battons on the wall so I can fix bits of kit to the wall on ply sheets wit hthe wires hidden behind. I've got a multiplexer that takes a feed from 8 satellites and 1 aerial, then outputs the lot to 12 locations. Ply was drilled for the wires entering at the top, though I need another strip for the bottom connections. It'll be quite neat when it's all wired up, you can see the effect on the top row where all the wires are connected:
I've not fitted the wires to the satellite dishes yet, so they're not tested. I managed to balls up fitting the wall plate in the living room and now I can connect the outlet to the wires, but only if the plate isn't attached and I can't then fit the box to the plate, so I'm a bit stuck. Might have to break the plate to fit it:
However, the good news is that the TV works with full signal strength:
While I was out, my Dad carried on wit the staircase and templated the stringer before cutting the oak to fit, looks ace:
He also fitted the finials and my Mum stained them:
So that's all the good stuff. Now for the bad news; damp. f
k, fk, fk. We had a lot of rain on Saturday with driving winds, on Sunday we had this:
And you can see the same on the photo above with the TV outlet socket on.
My assessment is that it's water that has been forced into the outer skin of brick by the wind, where it's then run down the inside of the cavity. It's then hit debris in the cavity and been able to bridge it and soak through to the inside. Hopefully.
I know that the water table is low and the ground is very dry, so I can't see that it's rising through the DPC, given that it seems to be linked to the rain we had rather than just being there all the time. In addition, when I cleared the airbricks it became apparent that the cavity is full of crap to about that height.
So, provisional approach is likely to be to remove some bricks on the outside and try to clear the cavity manually, but I'm about to start a new thread on this to get some advice.....
FFS!
Priority now is getting downstairs neat and tidy, though I have to find some time to put up some coving so my girlfriend can do some more painting. So we started fitting the door frame and door in the hallway. We figured it would take a couple of hours, then we'd get the coving up in the hallway and make a start up stairs. One man job, so I left my Dad too it; took all day. I think he was a bit pissed off with the job by the time he'd finished, but it does look very good!
It was another pain in the arse job, with the frame being set in from the walls by a couple of inches. The packing is set back from the frame by 9mm so a piece of ply will fill the gap and accommodate the architrave, so although it looks rough, it's actually very precise, which is where the day went:
While that was going on I was tiling. Again. I got up very early on Sunday to grout the previous days work as I was due at a party and the hearth now looks like this:
Just needs sealing and the stove fitting and it's finished.
My Mum is staying for a few days this week to varnish everything again, so I decided it would be charitable to sort out the TV so she can watch Strictly. This involved swapping a wire over on the aerial in the loft then untangling the mass of wires in the boiler cupboard. I've run two battons on the wall so I can fix bits of kit to the wall on ply sheets wit hthe wires hidden behind. I've got a multiplexer that takes a feed from 8 satellites and 1 aerial, then outputs the lot to 12 locations. Ply was drilled for the wires entering at the top, though I need another strip for the bottom connections. It'll be quite neat when it's all wired up, you can see the effect on the top row where all the wires are connected:
I've not fitted the wires to the satellite dishes yet, so they're not tested. I managed to balls up fitting the wall plate in the living room and now I can connect the outlet to the wires, but only if the plate isn't attached and I can't then fit the box to the plate, so I'm a bit stuck. Might have to break the plate to fit it:
However, the good news is that the TV works with full signal strength:
While I was out, my Dad carried on wit the staircase and templated the stringer before cutting the oak to fit, looks ace:
He also fitted the finials and my Mum stained them:
So that's all the good stuff. Now for the bad news; damp. f
k, fk, fk. We had a lot of rain on Saturday with driving winds, on Sunday we had this:And you can see the same on the photo above with the TV outlet socket on.
My assessment is that it's water that has been forced into the outer skin of brick by the wind, where it's then run down the inside of the cavity. It's then hit debris in the cavity and been able to bridge it and soak through to the inside. Hopefully.
I know that the water table is low and the ground is very dry, so I can't see that it's rising through the DPC, given that it seems to be linked to the rain we had rather than just being there all the time. In addition, when I cleared the airbricks it became apparent that the cavity is full of crap to about that height.
So, provisional approach is likely to be to remove some bricks on the outside and try to clear the cavity manually, but I'm about to start a new thread on this to get some advice.....
FFS!
Righto, sorry about the lack of updates, life has got in the way a little bit and I've been too tired to sit down and jot everything down.
First things first, I got to the bottom of the injury to my R2 unit; think my Dad put a hot drill bit down on his chopper while fitting skirtings and melted the poor thing. I'll sort him out with a new one when he gets promoted to running suction for the whole workshop.
Damp; here's what I done (can't see cavity!):
Holes in the wall:
Crap removed:
Holes filled:
I fashioned a couple of scraping tools and got what I could out or broken up and then put the hoover in and sucked out a tonne that way too. Got the cavity cleared down to about an inch below the bricks I removed, where it appears to be solid. The damp patches are still evident, but have cleared up loads, despite some bad weather recently. Impossible to tell if it's solved as the paint could be stained, so will monitor, repaint, then monitor again to assess success. Reasonably confident....
You can probably see that the tarmac is too high and that there is more dampness in the lower part of the wall than there should be as a result. A job for the summer is going to be to cut a trench and add a drainage channel down the side of a design to be determined to keep the wall as dry as possible. This will allow me to remove the drainage pipe running across the front garden, protect the front of the house from water when it's really really wet. Removing the drainage pipe, means I can remove the side wall to the front garden too.
TNT:
Returned a load of flooring that we didn't need. TNT collected, 10 days later they tried to return it to me claiming that it had been sent back to me by UKFlooring Direct. I didn't see the floor but was told that it was all over the back of the van, so rejected it. Found out that it wasn't rejected by UKFD, that was a lie to try to get me to accept it back after it had been dropped off something and destroyed. Currently in a fight over refunds, compensation and complaints about dishonesty that I won't bore you with. Didn't look like this when I posted it:
I finished wiring up my network, server, phone line, server and TV multiplex:
Most of the alarm is in too now. Really pleased with how it's coming together; internet went live on Friday and we're getting a consistent 17mb/s, which is awesome. XBMC is up and running in the living room and all the remote control stuff works so I can listen to stuff while I'm working. Loads more to do on distributed sound, but that can wait. might ask for some Raspberry Pis for Christmas.
Alarm I'm struggling with a little bit, but I've convinced it to let me in as an engineer now rather than just shout errors at me, so I'm confident I can get it all programmed once I've convinced it to let me in with my laptop. Thanks PH for the instructions!
Popped home to my parents' house last weekend and I'm now the proud owner of a man device:
I'll be taking a load of old radiators, copper pipes, lead pipes, bits of steel etc to the scrappy soon and will then get my storage shed back. Though I'll inevitably then fill it with the trailer, so not sure I gain a great deal. But every man needs a trailer!
I've got 95% of the flooring down upstairs now, though I won't bore you with pictures of that. Mainly as I didn't take any. Anyway, it's screwed and glued now, there's a few bits that need some frigging to sort out due to studwalls being built on top of the floor boards and there's a few gaps to fill in, but nothing too difficult. I've left an easily removed board above the boiler so I can pop it up to run central heating and water to the loft one day.
Only issue I had with the flooring was this:
FFS! Entirely my fault, I used a tape measure to mark the pipe, then forgot to use it to make sure I screwed the right point. Direct hit.
Lost central heating, but not a complete disaster as the plan for the day was to drain it, remove radiators, paint behind them and fit skirting behind them before refitting and filling the central heating with some gunk to flush it properly before inhibitor goes in. So while Dad sorted the architraves, I did this:
The DPC is so I can check for leaks as the wood below was too wet to detect small leaks. Was worried that the cut was too close to a bend and I'd have to replace a complicated bit of pipe entirely, but it held great. Heating back on.
In the meantime I used my girlfriend's protestations over painting in the cold to do more man stuff:
First fire! Great draw, lit easily with a blow torch and made the whole house comfortably warm in a few hours. Was surprised at the impact it had on the whole house, it's a 5kw stove so was expecting a lot less. Will be great when both stoves are in as the house will be toasty. Used half a bucket of coal and a few bits of scrap wood and got 8 hours heat out of it. Really really pleased with this!
I checked the rear of the stove; I'm not surprised the plaster was destroyed when we moved in, the plaster was too hot to touch. I've got a load of tiles ready to go in the hearth that I *think* will reflect a lot of the heat out and insulate the plaster, but happy to take advice on this as I really want to get the heat into the room and away from the plaster!
This is what the lounge will look like if I can find a fitter:
While I'm on about putting holes in stuff; fitting the radiator in the little bedroom back on caused the electrics to trip! On inspection there was arc damage between radiator and radiator mount. I'd put a screw through the cable that ran to a socket. I presume it had tripped when the electrician had turned on the mains, but it had fried the wire and removed the short, fitting the skirting below had disturbed it and turned the radiator mount live
I diagnosed the problem by by looking at pictures on my camera, removed the screw and removed the short. Going to have to get the cable replaced though.
So thankful that RCDs were fitted.
Here's the screw, you can see the damage:
We got quite a few more architraves done and this bit of the stairs:
Looks great! I've got the designs sorted out for hearths in the bedrooms, so going to order some bits of wood and get started on those as they need to go in before the carpets. I've also got something interesting in the pipeline for mantel pieces, but I won't spoil the surprise...
Upstairs is a bit of a mess now as we moved all the coving and skirting up, but we're going to work through that now and try our best to get some carpet in before Christmas. Likely to be New Year, but I like a tough target to aim for.
Sunday we put coving up in the back bedroom; coving, paint, skirting, finish flooring, carpet, then move on to the next room is the plan. This was the hardest room as it needed 14 separate lengths with corners around an alcove, a chimney and what will be a fitted wardrobe eventually. Took half a day and there's one length left, but we're pleased with it:
Dad made a scratching device to key the walls as there's some adhesion issues downstairs that are being held together with the pins we used, so we needed a better job this time:
Then this is what it looked like done:
I've got Friday evening and two days this weekend, then 5 days the following weekend, so we're going to try to get as near to carpets as possible in that time and then see where we're at.
First things first, I got to the bottom of the injury to my R2 unit; think my Dad put a hot drill bit down on his chopper while fitting skirtings and melted the poor thing. I'll sort him out with a new one when he gets promoted to running suction for the whole workshop.
Damp; here's what I done (can't see cavity!):
Holes in the wall:
Crap removed:
Holes filled:
I fashioned a couple of scraping tools and got what I could out or broken up and then put the hoover in and sucked out a tonne that way too. Got the cavity cleared down to about an inch below the bricks I removed, where it appears to be solid. The damp patches are still evident, but have cleared up loads, despite some bad weather recently. Impossible to tell if it's solved as the paint could be stained, so will monitor, repaint, then monitor again to assess success. Reasonably confident....
You can probably see that the tarmac is too high and that there is more dampness in the lower part of the wall than there should be as a result. A job for the summer is going to be to cut a trench and add a drainage channel down the side of a design to be determined to keep the wall as dry as possible. This will allow me to remove the drainage pipe running across the front garden, protect the front of the house from water when it's really really wet. Removing the drainage pipe, means I can remove the side wall to the front garden too.
TNT:
Returned a load of flooring that we didn't need. TNT collected, 10 days later they tried to return it to me claiming that it had been sent back to me by UKFlooring Direct. I didn't see the floor but was told that it was all over the back of the van, so rejected it. Found out that it wasn't rejected by UKFD, that was a lie to try to get me to accept it back after it had been dropped off something and destroyed. Currently in a fight over refunds, compensation and complaints about dishonesty that I won't bore you with. Didn't look like this when I posted it:
I finished wiring up my network, server, phone line, server and TV multiplex:
Most of the alarm is in too now. Really pleased with how it's coming together; internet went live on Friday and we're getting a consistent 17mb/s, which is awesome. XBMC is up and running in the living room and all the remote control stuff works so I can listen to stuff while I'm working. Loads more to do on distributed sound, but that can wait. might ask for some Raspberry Pis for Christmas.
Alarm I'm struggling with a little bit, but I've convinced it to let me in as an engineer now rather than just shout errors at me, so I'm confident I can get it all programmed once I've convinced it to let me in with my laptop. Thanks PH for the instructions!
Popped home to my parents' house last weekend and I'm now the proud owner of a man device:
I'll be taking a load of old radiators, copper pipes, lead pipes, bits of steel etc to the scrappy soon and will then get my storage shed back. Though I'll inevitably then fill it with the trailer, so not sure I gain a great deal. But every man needs a trailer!
I've got 95% of the flooring down upstairs now, though I won't bore you with pictures of that. Mainly as I didn't take any. Anyway, it's screwed and glued now, there's a few bits that need some frigging to sort out due to studwalls being built on top of the floor boards and there's a few gaps to fill in, but nothing too difficult. I've left an easily removed board above the boiler so I can pop it up to run central heating and water to the loft one day.
Only issue I had with the flooring was this:
FFS! Entirely my fault, I used a tape measure to mark the pipe, then forgot to use it to make sure I screwed the right point. Direct hit.
Lost central heating, but not a complete disaster as the plan for the day was to drain it, remove radiators, paint behind them and fit skirting behind them before refitting and filling the central heating with some gunk to flush it properly before inhibitor goes in. So while Dad sorted the architraves, I did this:
The DPC is so I can check for leaks as the wood below was too wet to detect small leaks. Was worried that the cut was too close to a bend and I'd have to replace a complicated bit of pipe entirely, but it held great. Heating back on.
In the meantime I used my girlfriend's protestations over painting in the cold to do more man stuff:
First fire! Great draw, lit easily with a blow torch and made the whole house comfortably warm in a few hours. Was surprised at the impact it had on the whole house, it's a 5kw stove so was expecting a lot less. Will be great when both stoves are in as the house will be toasty. Used half a bucket of coal and a few bits of scrap wood and got 8 hours heat out of it. Really really pleased with this!
I checked the rear of the stove; I'm not surprised the plaster was destroyed when we moved in, the plaster was too hot to touch. I've got a load of tiles ready to go in the hearth that I *think* will reflect a lot of the heat out and insulate the plaster, but happy to take advice on this as I really want to get the heat into the room and away from the plaster!
This is what the lounge will look like if I can find a fitter:
While I'm on about putting holes in stuff; fitting the radiator in the little bedroom back on caused the electrics to trip! On inspection there was arc damage between radiator and radiator mount. I'd put a screw through the cable that ran to a socket. I presume it had tripped when the electrician had turned on the mains, but it had fried the wire and removed the short, fitting the skirting below had disturbed it and turned the radiator mount live
I diagnosed the problem by by looking at pictures on my camera, removed the screw and removed the short. Going to have to get the cable replaced though.So thankful that RCDs were fitted.
Here's the screw, you can see the damage:
We got quite a few more architraves done and this bit of the stairs:
Looks great! I've got the designs sorted out for hearths in the bedrooms, so going to order some bits of wood and get started on those as they need to go in before the carpets. I've also got something interesting in the pipeline for mantel pieces, but I won't spoil the surprise...
Upstairs is a bit of a mess now as we moved all the coving and skirting up, but we're going to work through that now and try our best to get some carpet in before Christmas. Likely to be New Year, but I like a tough target to aim for.
Sunday we put coving up in the back bedroom; coving, paint, skirting, finish flooring, carpet, then move on to the next room is the plan. This was the hardest room as it needed 14 separate lengths with corners around an alcove, a chimney and what will be a fitted wardrobe eventually. Took half a day and there's one length left, but we're pleased with it:
Dad made a scratching device to key the walls as there's some adhesion issues downstairs that are being held together with the pins we used, so we needed a better job this time:
Then this is what it looked like done:
I've got Friday evening and two days this weekend, then 5 days the following weekend, so we're going to try to get as near to carpets as possible in that time and then see where we're at.
Great progress there!
Good to hear your thoughts on the stove our 5kw Burley is here and the fitter is starting this week. He can only manage a few hours here or a day there etc, as he's actually booked up til after crimbo, so we are grateful he's even starting.
Can't wait to get some proper heat into the downstairs.
Love the trailer. Do you need a tip pass for one, like you do for a van?
Anyway, lovely job.
Good to hear your thoughts on the stove our 5kw Burley is here and the fitter is starting this week. He can only manage a few hours here or a day there etc, as he's actually booked up til after crimbo, so we are grateful he's even starting.
Can't wait to get some proper heat into the downstairs.
Love the trailer. Do you need a tip pass for one, like you do for a van?
Anyway, lovely job.
marky911 said:
Great progress there!
Good to hear your thoughts on the stove our 5kw Burley is here and the fitter is starting this week. He can only manage a few hours here or a day there etc, as he's actually booked up til after crimbo, so we are grateful he's even starting.
Can't wait to get some proper heat into the downstairs.
Love the trailer. Do you need a tip pass for one, like you do for a van?
Anyway, lovely job.
The stove that's in is great, amazing how well it heated the whole house and it's much more satisfying having the heat come from scrap oak flooring that you've used reduced to kindling with nothing more than a blunt axe. The other should be pretty much the same, given that they're both iron boxes, but I doubt it'll get fitted this side of Christmas as everyone seems to be busy or not answering their phones. They're both made by Hunter (I think) and both have a riddling grate fitted so I can burn wood or coal without messing. I have a preference for coal as it burns cooler and longer, but I have a garage full of old wood so will do a mixture of the two I expect. hopefully I can use the trailer for collecting wood if I can find someone that needs trees removing.Good to hear your thoughts on the stove our 5kw Burley is here and the fitter is starting this week. He can only manage a few hours here or a day there etc, as he's actually booked up til after crimbo, so we are grateful he's even starting.
Can't wait to get some proper heat into the downstairs.
Love the trailer. Do you need a tip pass for one, like you do for a van?
Anyway, lovely job.
For us these aren't necessary at all, we have gas central heating that's specced way higher than necessary so we have no need to burn stuff to keep warm, it's just more interesting. We'll likely use the central heating during the week then set a fire if we're in at the weekend. I have a hankering for setting one up in the old forge now, but I don't know if that will fly....
Our tip you need permits, but I think I can apply for 12 free goes each year, which will do me perfectly. I could probably get a friend to get me passes for neighbouring Council's too if it became really necessary. I've got a few conifers that can be taken to the tip this way though.
Quick update; had five days at the house last week and got through a lot. Unfortunately it was a lot of the same stuff and I didn't have my camera, so I've only got a few pictures and they're not great quality.
I spent the first three days mostly nailing wood to walls. Christ that's hard to get right when the walls are bent, bowed, not at 90 degrees, not upright etc etc. Some of it's perfect, some of it isn't. Fortunately wood filler sorts most issues out and the corners will mostly be hidden away. Carpenters amongst you might have issues with some of my work, but no one else will notice the 'character' so I'm fairly happy with how it's gone.
This is my best bit, only took me two hours!
Must have walked mile every day between workshop and bedroom cutting all the wood, but all the skirting is in upstairs apart from one piece in the hallway that needs cutting into the wall as it's too bent and the bedroom we're staying in. Plan is to get tow rooms finished, move rooms then start on that room.
Hearths need fitting in the two upstairs bedrooms before carpets, so I made a recycled hearth. I found a piece of oak that we bought for something, but have forgotten what so I used the to make a frame. I then fixed this to the floor. Then I removed it from the floor when my girlfriend reminded me that the carpet thickness would cover a lot of the hearth. I used the old dining room flooring to raise the hearth by 19mm, then added some supporting frame work using some spare wood from when the roof was replaced a few years ago. Then used off cuts from my flooring downstairs to fill the surface. Looks like this:
Frame in place:
Top finished:
Colonel Hathi and Nelly in their new home:
I'm really pleased with how that's turned out! I managed to cut the final piece to exactly the right size (Cheers whoever told me to buy that Dewalt mitre saw!) and tapped it in with a mallet leaving no gaps at all. Budget was £150 a hearth, cost was nothing, took me half a day though!
My Dad came over at the weekend, expecting to do architrave and skirting, but as I've done most of those we decided to tackle one of the last big tidying up jobs downstairs; kitchen and under-stairs cupboard doors. Sounds straightforward, however I had decided that I wanted a sliding door into the kitchen as it's the best solution. You can't hinge the door to the left as it then interferes with the under-stairs cupboard door. You can hinge it to the right, however if fully open it obscures the window and it is inevitable that it'll be open 99% of the time because it's really handy to have easy access between kitchen and dining room.
Problem is that I'm a fussy bd and sliding tracks are ugly. So I wanted the entire mechanism to be behind the architrave and for the installation to look as conventional as possible. The engineering was 'problematic' to say the least!
This is the track installed:
You can probably see the issues here; the left hand door frame has had the rebate rebated to 100% (ie ripped off!) so the door sits in a normal frame, but slides through the rebate. The track then sits on the frame, screwed to the oak above, which is screed into a wooden joist. We haven't fitted a top to the door frame, but there's a finishing piece to sit on the kitchen side so it will look like there is a head to the frame on that side. The frame is stepped forward into the dining room to let the door slide. Architrave will fit as normal, but be run around both doors at once (up-along-90 bend-along-down)
You'll also spot that the door frame into the under-stairs cupboard is missing an upright. Yes, because I'm a fussy bd the door slides between the wall and the missing upright. But it's OK because I measured the gap months ago, that frame is only 18mm thick at the uprights to maximise width, the doors can have 10mm trimmed off each side and that leaves 2mm clearance either side.
The top if fixed in, so putting the missing upright that is only supported top and bottom in requires some consideration. Unfortunately that consideration took place months ago and neither of us could remember how we were doing it. The best I could come up with was that the plan was to remove the top post-plastering so the wood could be screwed together, but that seems unlikely given that we have filled the screw holes with oak plugs that are going nowhere!
Just fitting the track took hours as it needs to be dead level, the support in both sides determines the level and the joist above the under-stairs cupboard required notching. At this point I was starting to regret my choice of doors!
Frame support underneath the stairs:
There's an architrave to run around here too, so it'll be neat inside. There'll be 6 inch shelving behind the sliding door floor to ceiling.
Door on:
Getting the door on involved recessing the hanging mechanism into the door top and trimming top and bottom. Then two very thin spanners allowed me to wind the door up very close to the track. Mustn't lose those or the door won't ever come off again! Door then trimmed again to get the gap to the threshold perfect.
There's a guide bush recessed into the threshold to guide the door, with another one to go behind the missing upright under the stairs and one in the pantry to seat the door perfectly when slid away.
The missing upright went in by slotting the base with a biscuit jointer to allow a 90 degree bracket to be wedged and glued in, this is screwed into the concrete floor. The wooden floor isn't in the pantry yet, so that gave 20mm of wiggle room to get the frame in. In the end we fitted two dowels at the top and glued these. We also removed a piece from the top of the frame and made a replacement wedge of oak, screed this to the frame, then pinned it back to the top of the frame to make sure it would be solid. We ended up with a very solid join and that piece does nothing other than look pretty and allow the door catch to lock.
Apologise, the picture isn't great, but you can see the uproight in (wedge to be removed when glue dries) and the door slid into position. Cupboard door needs to come off for a final planing to width, but is also on, so a few finishing off bits to do and the architraves and mission accomplished.
Now it's done, it'll probably be one of my favourite jobs that we've done, particularly as everyone said it couldn't be done so that the track was hidden and the door going such a small gap with so little room for the other door!
Next weekend we'll try to get two of the bedrooms ready for carpets and hopefully I can get the architraves on those two doors and some proper pictures.
I spent the first three days mostly nailing wood to walls. Christ that's hard to get right when the walls are bent, bowed, not at 90 degrees, not upright etc etc. Some of it's perfect, some of it isn't. Fortunately wood filler sorts most issues out and the corners will mostly be hidden away. Carpenters amongst you might have issues with some of my work, but no one else will notice the 'character' so I'm fairly happy with how it's gone.
This is my best bit, only took me two hours!
Must have walked mile every day between workshop and bedroom cutting all the wood, but all the skirting is in upstairs apart from one piece in the hallway that needs cutting into the wall as it's too bent and the bedroom we're staying in. Plan is to get tow rooms finished, move rooms then start on that room.
Hearths need fitting in the two upstairs bedrooms before carpets, so I made a recycled hearth. I found a piece of oak that we bought for something, but have forgotten what so I used the to make a frame. I then fixed this to the floor. Then I removed it from the floor when my girlfriend reminded me that the carpet thickness would cover a lot of the hearth. I used the old dining room flooring to raise the hearth by 19mm, then added some supporting frame work using some spare wood from when the roof was replaced a few years ago. Then used off cuts from my flooring downstairs to fill the surface. Looks like this:
Frame in place:
Top finished:
Colonel Hathi and Nelly in their new home:
I'm really pleased with how that's turned out! I managed to cut the final piece to exactly the right size (Cheers whoever told me to buy that Dewalt mitre saw!) and tapped it in with a mallet leaving no gaps at all. Budget was £150 a hearth, cost was nothing, took me half a day though!
My Dad came over at the weekend, expecting to do architrave and skirting, but as I've done most of those we decided to tackle one of the last big tidying up jobs downstairs; kitchen and under-stairs cupboard doors. Sounds straightforward, however I had decided that I wanted a sliding door into the kitchen as it's the best solution. You can't hinge the door to the left as it then interferes with the under-stairs cupboard door. You can hinge it to the right, however if fully open it obscures the window and it is inevitable that it'll be open 99% of the time because it's really handy to have easy access between kitchen and dining room.
Problem is that I'm a fussy b
d and sliding tracks are ugly. So I wanted the entire mechanism to be behind the architrave and for the installation to look as conventional as possible. The engineering was 'problematic' to say the least!This is the track installed:
You can probably see the issues here; the left hand door frame has had the rebate rebated to 100% (ie ripped off!) so the door sits in a normal frame, but slides through the rebate. The track then sits on the frame, screwed to the oak above, which is screed into a wooden joist. We haven't fitted a top to the door frame, but there's a finishing piece to sit on the kitchen side so it will look like there is a head to the frame on that side. The frame is stepped forward into the dining room to let the door slide. Architrave will fit as normal, but be run around both doors at once (up-along-90 bend-along-down)
You'll also spot that the door frame into the under-stairs cupboard is missing an upright. Yes, because I'm a fussy b
d the door slides between the wall and the missing upright. But it's OK because I measured the gap months ago, that frame is only 18mm thick at the uprights to maximise width, the doors can have 10mm trimmed off each side and that leaves 2mm clearance either side. The top if fixed in, so putting the missing upright that is only supported top and bottom in requires some consideration. Unfortunately that consideration took place months ago and neither of us could remember how we were doing it. The best I could come up with was that the plan was to remove the top post-plastering so the wood could be screwed together, but that seems unlikely given that we have filled the screw holes with oak plugs that are going nowhere!
Just fitting the track took hours as it needs to be dead level, the support in both sides determines the level and the joist above the under-stairs cupboard required notching. At this point I was starting to regret my choice of doors!
Frame support underneath the stairs:
There's an architrave to run around here too, so it'll be neat inside. There'll be 6 inch shelving behind the sliding door floor to ceiling.
Door on:
Getting the door on involved recessing the hanging mechanism into the door top and trimming top and bottom. Then two very thin spanners allowed me to wind the door up very close to the track. Mustn't lose those or the door won't ever come off again! Door then trimmed again to get the gap to the threshold perfect.
There's a guide bush recessed into the threshold to guide the door, with another one to go behind the missing upright under the stairs and one in the pantry to seat the door perfectly when slid away.
The missing upright went in by slotting the base with a biscuit jointer to allow a 90 degree bracket to be wedged and glued in, this is screwed into the concrete floor. The wooden floor isn't in the pantry yet, so that gave 20mm of wiggle room to get the frame in. In the end we fitted two dowels at the top and glued these. We also removed a piece from the top of the frame and made a replacement wedge of oak, screed this to the frame, then pinned it back to the top of the frame to make sure it would be solid. We ended up with a very solid join and that piece does nothing other than look pretty and allow the door catch to lock.
Apologise, the picture isn't great, but you can see the uproight in (wedge to be removed when glue dries) and the door slid into position. Cupboard door needs to come off for a final planing to width, but is also on, so a few finishing off bits to do and the architraves and mission accomplished.
Now it's done, it'll probably be one of my favourite jobs that we've done, particularly as everyone said it couldn't be done so that the track was hidden and the door going such a small gap with so little room for the other door!
Next weekend we'll try to get two of the bedrooms ready for carpets and hopefully I can get the architraves on those two doors and some proper pictures.
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