Recent content by triz

Was thinking of doing a couple of small rooms, the biggest of which is 3.6x3m, just to save a bit of money. I think I'll still get a plasterer in for the front room which is a bit bigger.

Good point! I've heard of decorators who have done something similar to this though, if they didn't have the skill to do a proper skim, so was just wondering if anyone here had tried it. I doubt I'd be able to get a good finish using the regular method.

I'm thinking of skimming over some artex ceilings using a DIY-friendly method that I found on YouTube. They way they do it in the video, is by applying a light finishing compound to the ceiling with a paint roller, and then smoothing it over with a taping knife. After a couple of coats and a bit...

I'm in the process of installing a new shower in my bathroom, and have concealed copper pipes coming out of the wall, to which the bar mixer will be attached. The shower installation instructions suggest using mastic to fill the gap around the pipes, but I'm not really sure where to find a...

After taking the rest of the plasterboard off, it seems that if anything it's just a bit of old mold, so that's put my mind at ease. Agreed, the wood definitely isn't the best quality, but should hopefully be strong enough for the new boards and tiles!

I've just started taking down the plasterboard around the bath, to be replaced with cementboard, and have noticed some black marks on the wall studs. Does this look like rot? And if so, do I need to worry about it?

Thanks for the links and advice! How many framing screws would you put in per meter of bettening? Those do look like they would provide a stronger fixing, but it seems 20mm will be a hard limit for me based on the dimensions of the room. This mounting kit seems like it should provide a good...

It's an exposed bar-mixer shower, so should only be the hot + cold pipes that need to go behind the wall. It will be tight, as I won't have much more than about 20mm to work with, but I think I can get away with it if I clip the pipes flush against the masonry wall.

I'm about to start a bathroom renovation, and was wondering what kind of wood to get for battening out a masonry wall. The plan is to make a 20mm gap to allow the shower pipework to fit behind the wall, and then attach hardiebacker boards to these battens for tiling over. What kind of timber...

Is carcassing timber likely to be any stronger? If I can source some structural C16/C24 graded timber in the right size, perhaps that would be stronger than ungraded redwood?

Can you recommend a strong softwood to use for the splice? I picked up some planed redwood from Travis Perkins to practice my splice joints, but am not convinced it's strong enough for the job.

I'm thinking of using two half-lap joints to insert the new piece of frame, secured with four screws in the overlapping sections. Do you think this would be sufficiently strong enough?

That's a great suggestion, thank you! I wonder if it would still be worth trying to fix the frame before attaching one of those bars, just to provide a bit more strength. Perhaps I should cut out the damaged area, and replace with a section of fresh timber? What kind of joint would be used to...

After taking off the architrave of our external front door, I noticed that the frame is damaged around where the lock keep is. The damage has been partially filled, but I'm not confident in the strength of the repair, it looks like it would give way very easily if someone tried to break in. What...

Thanks for the tips. Those fixing kits look very handy, will definitely make my life easier!