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Ripped a load of old plaster off a partition wall today, it was practically falling off. Anyhow, the lathes are all exposed, still nailed to the timbers. If this wall were to be plasterboarded, do those lats stay, or get removed? I only ask because they make good firewood :)

The guy who did my kitchen used a sharp blade from a plane to scrape the stained area (was soap for my goretex coat) off, treated the area with cellulose thinners, and then he simply re-oiled it.

Thanks, but I prefer traditional materials to their modern equivalents.

Sounds like a previous botch job to me with regard to the damp proof course. Old houses don't usually require one. Ask them what they used to measure the damp with...... Is the house empty, or occupied? That would explain much of any interior damp. As for the rest, sounds like par for...

Thanks for the help, it does seem like a fairly straightforward job. I just wanted options as I need to get more light in that back room and cutting into the flat roof just seems a bit silly when I can rip it off and replace it with a roof that'll look much better on the building.

ahh right, the grain on the orbital is 240, so if I get a sheet from B&Q etc, and use it along the grain rather than across, that'll sort it?

Thanks, whats the best way to remove them?

Well I didn't really want a seamless corner, that was the effect I was after. I used the orbital sander with that paper, and its now unbelieveably smooth. :)

How easy is it to build one? I have a flat-roofed extension on my kitchen, which is built outwards from the old wall. There will no doubt be a girder along the ceiling supporting the weight of the back wall, which will stay in. Because so little light gets into the back of my house, I...

Right, I've done a bit of sanding and drilling now, here: Don't all laugh - I'm actually a TV cameraman, I'm entirely self-taught when it comes to DIY (apart from this place that is). When its clamped and glued, the gaps will vanish, and the dowels won't be visible. Obviously the top...

Extremely dangerous if you ask me - you'll have a generation of drivers who get in, turn engine on, engage gear, and disengage brain. I want to be in control of my car, not a computer somewhere.

Yeah, but it doesn't hurt to see more than one person making that suggestion.....

Thats almost exactly what I had in mind, I think I'll begin though with a sheet of sandpaper, and do a 'towel drying your back' motion over the corner - will be faster for the first few minutes, until I get a slight curve there.

Nah, the cats would have to be daft to sit on those boxes, the valves get too hot to touch. They'll sniff around them for a minute or two, and then decide that the roaring log fire is nicer :) Besides, whats the point of having those lovely glowing valves locked up out of sight :D

Well I knocked one together today with dowels. The edges are, as you'd imagine, a bit rough, so they need a good old-fashioned sanding. If I clamped each corner in my bench, and got a large sheet of coarse sandpaper, would that be the quickest way to soften those corners up? I don't really...

I'm not having a go, but just think: Those windows have been there for hundreds of years - and they're slightly inconveniencing you, so you're suggesting changing the character of the house by changing them. If you replace the glass with float glass I can promise you the house will (from the...

Is it the handle, or the window mechanism that has failed? IIRC you just get a flat bladed screwdriver under the screw cover (should be obvious where that is), undo the screw, and off it comes.

Personally I'd find the cause of the bulge, and repair that - not patch it up.

Thats exactly how I fixed some rather large shelves recently: Those have 2 rods in each one, the rods in the wall are almost one brick width deep. I'd imagine on a mantlepiece you'd need 5-6 rods, its quite hard work, but if you angle each rod very very slightly off-straight that alone...

Thanks, personally I'd leave them out of the box but there are several 400VDC rails for the valves, and I have 2 cats....... I plan to make the boxes really nice and smooth, I'll probably oil them once finished. I've not decided yet on a glass top, or a chromed metal top (with the valves...