Recent content by 88v8

It won't fall off but neither will it last. And whoever does the next repaint will curse it, as they will have to sand off the non-adhering oil. No. No negative effect. Some painters routinely add driers to oils, given how the climate stuff has reduced the chemicals that used to make them dry...

Depends how much the customer matters to you. Waterbase will not bind well to oil, even if abraded and sugar soaped. It won't come off tomorrow, but it won't last. Terebene driers will accelerate the drying of oil, and by the time you've got one oil undercoat on there and two tops - my fave is...

Joint separators are cheap enough. In 50+ years of maintaining my cars I've never found it a good idea to mess around without the right tools. Nylocs can be reused three times. The thread must project through the nut two and a half turns. If you have to knock a threaded part by hitting it with...

Drop some of the mortar into vinegar. If it fizzes, it's lime. Lime is not meant to last forever. In time, all lime pointing will need redoing. But it's kind to the bricks or stone, as it's softer. Use NHL 2.0 and a sharp sand.

Occasionally water comes into our cellar. We already have a sump pump and perforated collecting pipe down there which works fine, but in recent years it has started coming in at the opposite corner. The specialist who did the sump pump 14 years ago proposes to deal with it by running another...

It's not ideal. It was probably cheap. now it's showing its age, here and in the hall. I found that Sadolin do a two-pack stainable filler. Not clear whether you add the stain whilst mixing, or stain it after its set. That would be a way of filling in the missing veneer so I'll give it a try...

Previous owner had a veneered cherry floor put down in the shower room about 30 years ago. Some of the veneer has come off. Three patches, about 6 square inches in all. The veneer is of uneven thickness, and some of the the underboard has damp damage so it's wavy. I've glued down the loose...

I have some new thinseal units with leaded lights, to be set into stone surrounds in our listed cottage. They will have to be fronted with glazing compound so that it looks like putty, and then painted. What would you use? Seven years ago I used Kawo Elastokitt for wood windows, but the...

I have some 6" Minton Hollins left over from tiling our bathroom in 1991. I'd like to use them in our new bathroom, I can cope with the 6" not being quite 6" any more when I mix them with new tiles but I see that in the intervening 34 years, wall tiles have got quite a lot thinner, in fact...

So I expected to pick up some glue size in my local DIY shop but it seems to have vanished, even Dulux Decorator Centre don't have any. I have one sheet of plasterboard to paper over with lining paper... thinking to dilute some paste... in the past, on the packets of paste it used to give...

A month ago I replaced an MK external socket as the lid catch was verrry stiff, fitted a BG. The neon lights and it powers anything plugged in, but when I plug in my socket tester - one of those that shows three lights if all is well - it shows no lights at all. Bizarre.

Back when I was alive, basins had square holes and taps had a square on the bottom so they don't move when you shut them off. Mind you, even 30 years ago that started going pear-shaped, I remember putting new taps in an old basin where I created the squares on the taps by locking two brass...

Afterthought... if this is an external wall, it should have weep holes to disperse the water pressure. This enables the wall to do its job while being less thick and expensive to build. Some useful info here on building retaining walls.

Teknos Siloksan Facade. Highly breathable. Can be tinted to RAL colours. I bought mine from Holman Paints.

Not unless the existing varnish is coming off. If it's sound, all you need to do is key it.