I am trying to put together a list of the most deceptively difficult DIY tasks that shouldn't be taken on by a novice...like plastering a ceiling? Anybody got any other good suggestions?
Thanks S
Thanks S
Hardest DIY jobs
- Thread starter swanbournian
- Start date
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I can do most DIY jobs around the house and have a few qualification and experience to back it up.
Electrics, plumbing, dry-lining/plastering, tiling.
But I hate woodwork, so fitting doors and skirting, I try to avoid.
I have done it, but I end up being like a bear with a sore head! but it looks so easy
Electrics, plumbing, dry-lining/plastering, tiling.
But I hate woodwork, so fitting doors and skirting, I try to avoid.
I have done it, but I end up being like a bear with a sore head! but it looks so easy
I did some of that Karndean stuff last year, bl00dy stuff.
First few metres were a right pain, but once I got used to the amount of adhesive to spread, it started going down quite nicely. Ended up making a decent job of it.
After I hired a roller that is!
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I think it's probably a flawed idea, as reading this list makes it clear to me that everyone has jobs that they find easy, and those that they find hard. For example, loosenup doesn't like papering a ceiling, I think it's as easy as pie. However, I absolutely detest woodwork and try to avoid anything but the simplest jobs that involve it.
Yeah, but I think that there are certain things that everyone finds tricky...plastering in tight spaces - around window frames??
Fair enough. Couldn't say myself, as my involvement in plastering has never extended beyond filling in electrical chases, patching, or filling gaps between sheets of plasterboard when dry lining.
At this present moment in time I'm sure the hardest job has got to be .....decorating.
I'll explain.
I'm currently on snagging duties and have been for a month or so, and so have a vanfull of paint, mastics, timber, screws of all different sizes, sand, cement, cleaning equipment and all the other paraphnalia that goes with it.
A lot and I mean a lot of the snagging regards decorating defects or is decorating related. There are places to re sand and repaint and to touch up and the most infuriating is overpaint to be cleaned off. I've scrapped paint off glass, slabs , light fittings and door furnature. The decorator I sometimes work with is a chap in his late fifties, Trevor, and he is a good decorator from mixing up extact shades to blending in new repairs to look like it's been there for 300 years or more , he can pretty much do anything. I asked why "cutting in" seems to be a thing of the past and his reply was that levels of training have gone down and refered to many of todays "decorators" as nothing more than brushhands.
To be fair most of our work is restoration related and materials can be akward to work with. On the one job the snagging list had over 250 items for the painter in one room alone, a courtroom about 10 metres or so square, and we were blessed with a architect who was almost anally picky.
I'll explain.
I'm currently on snagging duties and have been for a month or so, and so have a vanfull of paint, mastics, timber, screws of all different sizes, sand, cement, cleaning equipment and all the other paraphnalia that goes with it.
A lot and I mean a lot of the snagging regards decorating defects or is decorating related. There are places to re sand and repaint and to touch up and the most infuriating is overpaint to be cleaned off. I've scrapped paint off glass, slabs , light fittings and door furnature. The decorator I sometimes work with is a chap in his late fifties, Trevor, and he is a good decorator from mixing up extact shades to blending in new repairs to look like it's been there for 300 years or more , he can pretty much do anything. I asked why "cutting in" seems to be a thing of the past and his reply was that levels of training have gone down and refered to many of todays "decorators" as nothing more than brushhands.
To be fair most of our work is restoration related and materials can be akward to work with. On the one job the snagging list had over 250 items for the painter in one room alone, a courtroom about 10 metres or so square, and we were blessed with a architect who was almost anally picky.
anything your trying to do when your other half is trying to help
J
joinerjohn
Hardest DIY job I have ever done was,,, changing the clutch on a Hillman Avenger I owned many years ago.
Just got the car up on ramps when a local farmer decides to chuck pig manure over his fields. Every 20 mins or so he'd pass me towing this muck spreader, filled with the smelliest, sickening stuff, I'd ever had the misfortune to smell. A job that should have taken no more than a hour and a half, stretched to almost all day.
Just got the car up on ramps when a local farmer decides to chuck pig manure over his fields. Every 20 mins or so he'd pass me towing this muck spreader, filled with the smelliest, sickening stuff, I'd ever had the misfortune to smell. A job that should have taken no more than a hour and a half, stretched to almost all day.
Tiling and wallpapering are my achilles heel...not that I can't do them as such, more that I have no patience with them. I can do plumbing, electrics, joinery plastering and bricklaying until the cows come home, and really enoy it even if my plastering and bricklaying is a little dubious...but the tiling and papering, no thanks!
No-one else think that putting up curtain rails is the worst? I hate it - never managed one that I am really happy with. Holes normally end up too big and/or the rail is wonky or a bit loose! Never know what's behind - lintel, steel beam, 2" soft plaster (as in our house....) the list goes on. Hate it with a passion.
Oh, and guess what I have to do in our new kitchen..... Thrice.
Oh, and guess what I have to do in our new kitchen.....
Thrice.Strangeways 9 month left, a couple of courses came up, plastering, which i hated, but should of took but did Paint and decorate which i'm good at.
Along the course, i had to prepare and gloss a wall, about, seven yards(21ft) long and over twelve foot high, i mixed my own paint, which was allowed, but added linseed oil, all the lads said i'm a pro, then i told em. what i had done.
next day dragged in the office, was called a "bit" of a cheater, i told him my dad taught me,( how many people get called to gloss walls nowadays?)
What was the linseed oil there for, if i couldn't use it?
How many people under 30 yrs old can gloss a wall?
All aswers on a tnread please
Along the course, i had to prepare and gloss a wall, about, seven yards(21ft) long and over twelve foot high, i mixed my own paint, which was allowed, but added linseed oil, all the lads said i'm a pro, then i told em. what i had done.
next day dragged in the office, was called a "bit" of a cheater, i told him my dad taught me,( how many people get called to gloss walls nowadays?)
What was the linseed oil there for, if i couldn't use it?
How many people under 30 yrs old can gloss a wall?
All aswers on a tnread please
Lining ceilings is no more difficult than doing walls as you can put tight creases in the lining paper when concertinaing it.
I agree re the floor screeding- especially self levelling if you dont have a mixer
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