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No, there is not a staircase running up to the loft. It is just a ceiling with a loft access hatch leading to a boarded area, rather a standard configuration in English/British houses. But, in this specific case, that area and the roof and services configurations are such that access from above...

ree, thank you for reading, considering the issue and offering your advice. I appreciate (and am a believer) that fixing the root cause of a problem is often the best way to go. However, that is not always an available or truly practical option. The house is approximately 100 years old and...

Hello plasterers! The plaster ceiling in our upstairs hallway will always be prone to cracking due to the unfortunate structural flex in the area from the loft access. There is no real practical option at the moment to change / strengthen the beams. The ceiling was reboarded and skimmed...

I am pretty sure that the usual advice for painting matt water based over silk is to sand back sufficiently to ensure that all the sheen is burnished off (to ensure key and penetration of the new coat). Back in the days (long long ago) when I used to work summers with house builders, the...

Hello experience DIY'ers, painters and pro-decs, I could use some advice here about which dilutions and readily available roller sleeves (screwfix, toolstation, Dulux Dec) you have found in your experience give the best results with Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt and Trade Diamond Matt paints. I have...

> Off the top of my head, I don't see any reason that you couldn't cut down an 8" disc to fit. There is nothing magic about the edge of the disc so far as I am aware. > I've always wound up using the bog standard drum and edging sanders available from hire shops e.g. HSS (although I often...

Yes, exactly the sort of product. The mesh does a good job of taking down the varnish without clogging up. By helping to ensure that it doesn't clog up, you are less likely to get a high spot. High spots become hot spots. Hot spots then start to fuse hard and can then gouge into the surface. The...

What I found with the first floor I did was that I wanted to over sand between coats. Quite predictably, I went too far. Not a big deal. But depending how noticeable the area, it can mean re-sanding and starting over. If you find yourself in this situation (or in 10 years time when you want to...

I think that you may be headed in the wrong direction here. Those 600 grit discs are described as "for stone" because they are being marketed at those who are polishing stone. I am not an expert on redoing floors, but I have refinished 4 (or 5, can't recall exactly) with pleasing results. All...

I would absolutely heed all the advice concerning first focusing on investigating and curing the source of the water stain. Often the stain appears a good distance away from the source of the water and the source of the leak may be quite intermittent (for example, it took us quite a while to...

You can get mould resistant paint tinted to most any colour you wish. The problem is that you may find yourself limited to some of the more expensive brands and a larger minimum quantity (e.g. 5L). Have a look at Dulux Trade Mouldshield Fungicidal Matt / Eggshell. I am reasonably sure that...

FWIW ... I've used Bona (<The Brand) Mega (<The Bona Name for the Grade of Toughness of the Finish) SilkMatt. It is water based and very hard wearing. You can get the Bona range in different finishes and wear grades. I put it onto 1920's london plane/ pine floors which I refinished, joint...

dcdec, thank you very much for your post! Really useful. You note: Which leads me to wonder if you would suggest that I, where possible, coat the walls first before the ceiling? I am thinking that with the product being so runny that if the walls are already coated, it will be easier to...

Point taken on board. I picked up many of my DIY skills working construction in summer jobs in the US ages ago; and, as part of that, I am used to dry walling and mud / jointing compound. I picked up some TouPret Fine Surface Filler to fill in some paint chips and found that it behaves very...

After an earlier problem with unsatisfactory mist coat adhesion, (as suggested by Mister Helpful, Joe-90, Phatboy and others) I am turning to Zinsser Gardz and have finally found a local supplier. From what I can tell Gardz is basically a drywall/ plasterboard sealer (with better...

My interpretation of your advice is that if the cracks were of any concern that you would -not- suggest digging into the existing mesh joint, but rather suggest taping and feathering over the existing join. In this specific case, the cracks are very minor, hairline, and I have every reason to...

PrenticeBoyofDerry, thanks for taking a look at this problem for me. The mesh tape is just the bog standard nylon or perhaps fibreglass mesh joint tape that is typically sold for the purpose of joining seams. (It is what you would buy at any builder supply right next to the plaster board. At...

I have a few very fine vertical cracks that have opened up in my plastered walls along the (insulated) plasterboard seams. I know that these joints were meshed, and that the plaster dried slowly and did not crack or craze with age. They resulted from specific trauma :oops: > In one case, the...

If you become confident that it is distemper, then Zinsser have a guide for painting over it here: http://www.zinsseruk.com/how-to-guide/how-to-paint-limewash-distemper-walls/ which references their AllCoat solvent based primer/finish coat. I know that Dulux has a similar product, also solvent...

@phatboy, @Joe-90 (indeed all) I apologise if I have left the impression with you or anyone that I have “ignored” the advice I have received here. I have been carefully considering it all (arguably, perhaps too carefully), even if I haven't launched into a course of action yet. However...