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my wife wanted a pressure fit stair gate. We didn’t have a suitable Jewell post (it’s round where the upper pressure fitting would go. I was worried about how secure the batten would be. By the time my son could walk, he would hang off the stair gate and try and pull it down! I’m glad I went OTT...

That’s what I ended up using. Took a while but worked well. I did debate doing this. I think my issue was that the screws were 80mm long, and around 25mm had snapped off. So still had 55mm to try to drill around. I decided it was quicker and easier to cut the screws flush and just fill.

Thanks all. I tried mole grips. I tried pliers. Both just chewed up the thread without rotating the screws. I ended up getting a bosch metalmax blade, cutting them flush, then using a dremel tool with grinding wheel to bring the top of the screws just under the wood. Ronseal wood filler. Sanded...

Annoyingly I thought I’d done a decent job with the pilot holes and affixing the batten. I think part of my issue was using an impact driver for driving in and out. A drill driver might not have caused as much issue. The screws are 80mm long and the first 25mm have snapped off. I’ll try the...

Makita DTM51Z - has starlock fitting. Thanks. I tried the mole grips but it just seemed to chew up the thread. I don’t have an angle grinder and figured I could cut the screws flush with a multitool.

I attached a wooden batten to a newel post so I could attach a stair gate. Stair gate no longer required. Tried to remove wood screws. The heads snapped off. I’ve removed the batten and the screws are left behind. I’ve tried mole grips without any success. Decided to cut the screws flush with...

3kg steam mop needs to be hung in a kitchen cabinet unit. 18mm MFC. Can I just use a woodscrew to affix a storage hook to the panel? Do I need to use a dedicated chipboard screw? Should I use some sort of hollow wall anchor?

Thanks. Any recommendation for a good filler? I wasn’t impressed with the polyfilla stuff, even if it was easy to sand.

We had freestanding toilet roll holders. Wife decided on a whim to get the adhesive kind that stick on the wall. Except after a few weeks, it came off and brought the plaster with it. I patched it up with polyfilla and it looked okay until I went to screw in the new toilet roll holder and the...

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The small room in our house has two cold walls in winter. The side that has a roof, and the front wall on one side of the window. The other side of the window and the remaining internal walls are warm. There’s a radiator under the window. The front of the house is NE facing. I’ve redecorated...

Walls were skimmed four months ago. Looked good. Decorator came to paint. Did undercoat. Looked fine. As it dried over weekend, there were hairline cracks appearing in the plaster. Decorator plans to fill/sand/paint but I’m concerned why they appeared in the first place, mainly to stop it...

Chap on YouTube mixed filler with a bit of water and a bit of paint. Legitimate technique?

Thanks. I read somewhere that some fillers can be too fine and stand out when painted.

Room has been lined with Erfurt 2000 lining paper. Narrow gaps between some of the strips as the paper has dried. I will paint over the lining paper with Matt emulsion. 1. Which filler product is best for this? 2. Paint with undercoat and then fill/sand/topcoat? Or fill/sand/undercoat/topcoat?

Redecorating a bedroom. The coving joints look a bit obvious. What’s the best thing to use to fill and smooth? Decorator’s caulk? Toupret filler? Something else? When I painted the lining paper, I used acrylic primer undercoat and did the coving in the same paint too. Any prep work other than...

Upstairs landing walls have been freshly skimmed ready for painting. SWMBO has decided one of the bedroom doors should open the other way. Easy enough. But now the lightswitch is behind the door so need to move it. When I’ve done it previously, I just hammer and bolster to chase out. My only...

Recently installed printed concrete patio. I’ve been staining some wood outside (used barrettine wood protective treatment). I didn’t notice some of the stain had splodged on to the ground. It’s now dried and pressure washing does nothing. The concrete has been sealed. The stain is oil/spirit...

I’m trying to remove wallpaper and then hopefully get a professional in to skim and paint. How do I reach the walls around the staircase? My ladders (6ft) aren’t long enough.

Well I succumbed and bought a 100mm belt sander. I managed to get rid of the “stepped” edges from inaccurate blade cutting. Might post this separately but does anyone know how much a sleeper might expand lengthways in wet weather? They are laid in such a way that it’s surrounded by concrete...