X201
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Post by X201 on Dec 15, 2022 7:35:46 GMT
Final bit of work on the living room today - electrician connecting up the lights.
Four months of work finally completed.
Then just loads of aggro sorting out the mess it’s created in the rest of house. Can barely get through the door of the one bedroom aka storeroom
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Dec 20, 2022 20:34:57 GMT
So, we just had a leak from the upstairs toilet which brought a chunk of ceiling down, thank goodness I've been coming home early from work this week as the missus probably wouldn't have had much of a clue what to do, bless her. I was sat having a cuppa when I suddenly heard water falling and ran out to find the bowing ceiling was about to fall off and water pouring through, I whipped the stopcock off which obviously stopped it (thank goodness that worked), then after some slight manipulation a massive chunk of ceiling fell off.
It seems it started leaking from the joint where the feed pipe enters the cistern, fortunately there is an isolation valve to the toilet feed but that was also leaking a bit too. Calls to various plumbers was a complete waste of time, even the so called 24hrs ones. Anyway a call to my brother (ex gas fitter but 200 miles away) and I'd changed the isolation valve as soon as, really quite easy, all rather fortunate I had the time to nip off and get the bits and the leak happened where it did, could have been plenty worse, 5 days before Christmas!
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nexus6
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Post by nexus6 on Dec 20, 2022 20:55:53 GMT
That’s a fucker - sorry to hear this has happened.
You seem remarkably calm. I would have checked out mentally long ago. I hate the idea of water damage in my house.
Good luck getting it all fixed up
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Dec 20, 2022 21:08:35 GMT
Like I say, could have been worse, occurred when we weren't all out for hours, a leak behind the bath or over the top of the kitchen or the electrics could have tripped out too etc ... I was in full panic shit my pants mode for about 3 mins!  |
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mrpon
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Post by mrpon on Dec 20, 2022 21:15:53 GMT
Oh no, the wood chip.
Every cloud.
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Dec 20, 2022 21:19:20 GMT
It's everywhere! Came off pretty easily where it was wet mind!  |
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Post by Zuluhero on Dec 21, 2022 21:41:29 GMT
I'm still trying to find my central heating leak. I'm dreading that image.
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richardiox
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Post by richardiox on Dec 21, 2022 22:32:51 GMT
I've had a weird one last 9 days. No cold water other than the kitchen tap. Water flows in to the house fine, only one mains source (stop tap cancels the one working cold tap in kitchen). Water cylinder is still fed so we have ample hot water, just not cold. So washing machine out of action and shipping buckets of cold water from kitchen sink to cool down the bath and flush the bogs.
Two plumbers been round, first got stumped by it and sacked us off. Second came round said he had diagnosed it to a pressure release valve. Forked out £150 for a new one and new expansion vessel which he fitted yesterday... And didn't fix the problem. Says he's never seen anything like it which always bodes well.
Pretty sure there isn't a leak as no signs after 9 days. Mains pressure is fine as evidenced by kitchen cold tap. And in doing the replacement valve yesterday he's caused a drip drip slow leak from the pipe used to top up the boiler, boiler pressure way too high and less pressure to kitchen tap than before. Feels like Im about £300 deep and worse off than before he came round.
Next stop is holes in floors, walls and ceilings to try and track the pipe once it disappears behind plasterboard. If the guy ever gets back to me. This thread is great for "yeah but it could be worse..."
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Dec 22, 2022 3:37:45 GMT
I'm still trying to find my central heating leak. I'm dreading that image. The fear is real! |
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Post by freddiemercurystwin on Dec 31, 2022 14:03:51 GMT
Started building a fingerboard half pipe for my lad yesterday, having promised I'd make it about a year ago, thought it might be an afternoon job, day and a half later I'm still not finished! Kinda making it up as I go along, some very dark tones emanating from Mrs Mercury as to what 'important' DIY I could have achieved in that time. Finally got round to finishing this after 3 months, it didn't quite work out as well as intended, I originally intended to use some long flexible floor tile samples I had at work for the curved deck but found they were too brittle to punch my nails through so resorted to making my own flexi-ply using the mitre saw, though that was quite difficult as my mitre isn't super accurate so it wouldn't cut a consistent depth groove across the width of the board (it varied by about a mm from one side to the other) especially as the ply is only 4mm and I had to get the depth of cut just right so I could actually bend it but not so thin that the top layer of ply would split. I could have easily bought some proper flexi-ply but it costs a fortune and this was always supposed to be a scrap wood project. So the deck has ended up with some slight undulations and some very tiny splits which you can't really see in the pics and hopefully they won't affect it's use but apart from that it'll do.
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Post by SnowmanRR on Dec 31, 2022 21:29:00 GMT
So, we just had a leak from the upstairs toilet which brought a chunk of ceiling down, thank goodness I've been coming home early from work this week as the missus probably wouldn't have had much of a clue what to do, bless her. I was sat having a cuppa when I suddenly heard water falling and ran out to find the bowing ceiling was about to fall off and water pouring through, I whipped the stopcock off which obviously stopped it (thank goodness that worked), then after some slight manipulation a massive chunk of ceiling fell off.
It seems it started leaking from the joint where the feed pipe enters the cistern, fortunately there is an isolation valve to the toilet feed but that was also leaking a bit too. Calls to various plumbers was a complete waste of time, even the so called 24hrs ones. Anyway a call to my brother (ex gas fitter but 200 miles away) and I'd changed the isolation valve as soon as, really quite easy, all rather fortunate I had the time to nip off and get the bits and the leak happened where it did, could have been plenty worse, 5 days before Christmas!
Blimey, puts my leaking roof into perspective, hope it’s all sorted. I’m just hoping for a few rain free days before the roofer gets round. |
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minimatt
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Post by minimatt on Jan 11, 2023 15:06:41 GMT
Any wooden flooring advice? Looking at engineered wood top layer as solid wood is unlikely to be available in suitable thickness, plus expansion/stability worries, and I'm far too much of a snob to go for plastic laminate.
Small ~4.5m2 ground floor hallway
Subfloor is suspended floorboards over typical underhouse crawlspace.
Total available thickness is only about 18mm max, as four other rooms (three carpeted, one tiled) come off this hall and too large a variation in heights is going to look odd.
With that in mind, first question is ~12mm boards + ~6mm underlay or 16mm boards +2mm underlay, or just go with 18mm boards and no underlay to speak of? Aesthetics mean the boards will need to be layed in same direction as underlying floorboards rather than perpendicular as is best practice, if that impacts on this choice (leans me a little toward a thicker more substantial underlay, but this just a hunch)
Vapour barrier needed? I'm leaning toward not, as the subfloor should be pretty well ventilated and worry that vapour barrier might cause as many problems as it fixes here (obv. different if this was a solid concrete subfloor), but if it does no harm & might add to thermal efficiency then I'm all for it. Same theme - worth taping up floorboard gaps while I'm here?
Float, glue, nail or screw? Figure it's a bit too small to go full floating as the whole floor might move if someone were to do a particularly Wicked Skidtm. Glue seems messy & I think would rely on the underlay being also fixed? My 18g nailer is a bag of shite and my 16g runs off a compressor I no longer have, so leaning toward floating underlay and using those lost head screws through the board tongue & the underlay & into the subfloor. But then, if each run is fixed down does that constrain expansion movement? (But with it being only ~1.5m wide, and engineered rather than solid I can probably ignore expansion?)
Will be removing skirting boards, multi-tooling bottom of door frames and then refitting skirting boards as I hate the look of those scotias hiding the edge expansion gap. Have chop saws, track saws, circular saws, usual collection of hammers, chisels, bigger hammers, planes etc but are there any fun tools I can justify (or hire) to make the process easier?
Threshold bars - the tiled room to wooden floor one will be easy enough, but wooden floor to carpet has me a little stumped - the existing carpet-carpet thresholds are those thin brass things with a carpet gripper built in on each side. Can't seem to find any (nice) bars with a gripper on one side and plain on the other - do you just use a regular plain t-shaped threshold bar and add a seperate regular carpet gripper rod just underneath it on the carpet side?
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Post by henroben on Jan 11, 2023 15:28:04 GMT
Any wooden flooring advice? Looking at engineered wood top layer as solid wood is unlikely to be available in suitable thickness, plus expansion/stability worries, and I'm far too much of a snob to go for plastic laminate.
Small ~4.5m2 ground floor hallway
Subfloor is suspended floorboards over typical underhouse crawlspace.
Total available thickness is only about 18mm max, as four other rooms (three carpeted, one tiled) come off this hall and too large a variation in heights is going to look odd.
With that in mind, first question is ~12mm boards + ~6mm underlay or 16mm boards +2mm underlay, or just go with 18mm boards and no underlay to speak of? Aesthetics mean the boards will need to be layed in same direction as underlying floorboards rather than perpendicular as is best practice, if that impacts on this choice (leans me a little toward a thicker more substantial underlay, but this just a hunch)
Vapour barrier needed? I'm leaning toward not, as the subfloor should be pretty well ventilated and worry that vapour barrier might cause as many problems as it fixes here (obv. different if this was a solid concrete subfloor), but if it does no harm & might add to thermal efficiency then I'm all for it. Same theme - worth taping up floorboard gaps while I'm here?
Float, glue, nail or screw? Figure it's a bit too small to go full floating as the whole floor might move if someone were to do a particularly Wicked Skidtm. Glue seems messy & I think would rely on the underlay being also fixed? My 18g nailer is a bag of shite and my 16g runs off a compressor I no longer have, so leaning toward floating underlay and using those lost head screws through the board tongue & the underlay & into the subfloor. But then, if each run is fixed down does that constrain expansion movement? (But with it being only ~1.5m wide, and engineered rather than solid I can probably ignore expansion?)
Will be removing skirting boards, multi-tooling bottom of door frames and then refitting skirting boards as I hate the look of those scotias hiding the edge expansion gap. Have chop saws, track saws, circular saws, usual collection of hammers, chisels, bigger hammers, planes etc but are there any fun tools I can justify (or hire) to make the process easier?
Threshold bars - the tiled room to wooden floor one will be easy enough, but wooden floor to carpet has me a little stumped - the existing carpet-carpet thresholds are those thin brass things with a carpet gripper built in on each side. Can't seem to find any (nice) bars with a gripper on one side and plain on the other - do you just use a regular plain t-shaped threshold bar and add a seperate regular carpet gripper rod just underneath it on the carpet side?
Do you mean something like this for the carpet? Gripper on one side, smooth finish on the other? Or are you after something to join between carpet and laminate? Door carpet bar
Actually, looking at it I should buy one... I've just got used to stepping over the little stabby bits of the gripper rod where I removed the carpet! |
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minimatt
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Post by minimatt on Jan 11, 2023 15:59:25 GMT
ooh sorta like that - aye, ooh yeah bit of googling - like this one but a bit adjustable in height, or something like this t-shaped bar (but nicer) and just bang a gripper rod down on the carpet side |
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Post by technoish on Jan 11, 2023 16:02:21 GMT
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Post by Nemesis on Jan 11, 2023 17:19:01 GMT
It's everywhere! Came off pretty easily where it was wet mind! /innuendobot page |
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Post by elstoof on Jan 11, 2023 17:57:35 GMT
Why put flooring over the existing flooring? Just rip it up and lay engineered boards directly onto the joists?
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minimatt
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Post by minimatt on Jan 11, 2023 18:39:02 GMT
I... um... is that a thing people do? I'm fairly handy but I've never done a floor and I'm making it up as I go along. I mean, would need to use considerably thicker engineered boards than I was envisaging as ~12mm + 6mm underlay is never going to be strong enough to take even the most svelte hobbits. And some of the existing floorboards will span rooms which means cutting at points which may or may not be supported by joists...
But like I say, never done a floor before, if this is something that is done then I guess I need to go back to the drawing board
edit: I think I might have fallen for a jape
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Post by technoish on Jan 11, 2023 18:51:16 GMT
I'd talk to the supplier of the product you want, they will get advice on best performance of their product!!!
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Post by elstoof on Jan 11, 2023 19:11:26 GMT
You don’t need an underlay if you’re putting wooden boards onto wooden joists. If you want to stiffen it up or add some extra thickness lay some ply on the joists, then board over the top. Tongue and groove boards are best fixed with lost head screws, piece of piss with a drill driver. Good quality engineered boards should be 21mm thick, the top ~6mm should be solid wood and 15mm ply. I’ve got that throughout my house, attached to joists in a few rooms, over ply in the dining area and glued to concrete in the kitchen extension. No need for vapour barriers if the concrete is well isolated
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minimatt
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Post by minimatt on Jan 11, 2023 19:16:36 GMT
Wait this makes no sense? You're saying I should cut out the existing subfloor to put down a new plywood subfloor?
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Post by elstoof on Jan 11, 2023 19:17:54 GMT
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Post by elstoof on Jan 11, 2023 19:21:10 GMT
If you’ve got standard spaced joists over a crawl space and you’re putting thick boards down, why do you need a subfloor?
Pretty much every Victorian house built had pine boards laid straight on the joists and nailed through the top, no need to over complicate it unless you want to put parquet/tiles/laminate etc down
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Post by khanivor on Jan 11, 2023 19:29:20 GMT
You’d be best to take up all existing flooring and put plywood sheets down as your subfloor. Then install the wood on to that with a rented flooring stapler. Gluing is a massive pain in the ass and not recommended unless you’re installing on to concrete
You’ll most certainly need an underlay of moisture barrier. Not an option especially if installing above a crawl space
If you’re not worried about being able to sand and refinish in the future then engineered wood is fine. If you think you might want to be able to maintain the floor over a period of extended time, say at least a decade, then go for real prefinished wood. Height differences can be overcome with transition pieces. You can get wood transitions which will lip over on to carpet
I’ve a decade of professional wood installation experience. With caveat that this is in the US. Available products might differ in the UK. But wood is wood.
Also, make sure you bring in whatever wood you’re going to install and have it acclimatized for at least three days before installing
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minimatt
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Post by minimatt on Jan 11, 2023 19:38:00 GMT
Ok I'm not surgically cutting out the existing floorboards (the subfloor) to then replace with a plywood subfloor (if the roof is any guide, our 1950s floor joists are most assuredly not consistently levelled), or planing joists level to fit replacement prettier engineered boards which satisfy building regs for strength. Appreciate the effort Will look at some other ideas. |
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Post by elstoof on Jan 11, 2023 19:44:13 GMT
Quality engineered boards are solid wood all the way to the tongue, you can refinish them as many times as you can solid boards. You don’t want to be sanding 1/3 the thickness off either
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jeepers
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Post by jeepers on Jan 11, 2023 19:45:31 GMT
I’m a bit confused too (but also entirely ignorant about this).
I live in a typical Victorian home, with pine floor boards as elstoof mentioned. I’d always assumed that were I to re-do with new engineered boards, I’d lay them on top of the pine.
Is the ply because it’s dimensionally stable and prob. flatter than the pine boards in place? Is the worry that wood movement in the pine boards might unsettle the new boards on top?
Genuine questions. My understanding is likely wrong.
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Post by elstoof on Jan 11, 2023 19:50:34 GMT
Laying floor on top of floor is a guaranteed to be recipe for squeaky floors at some point in your future, Victorian style pine boards are a doddle to pull up and replace
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jeepers
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Post by jeepers on Jan 11, 2023 19:55:34 GMT
Laying floor on top of floor is a guaranteed to be recipe for squeaky floors at some point in your future, Victorian style pine boards are a doddle to pull up and replace Cheers! That makes sense. |
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Blue_Mike
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Post by Blue_Mike on Jan 11, 2023 20:21:26 GMT
My girlfriend has just bought a house and it basically needs gutting to a shell and re-doing from scratch, so I expect I will be asking a lot of questions in this thread in the coming days on how to: 1) build/destroy/paper/paint/assemble/wire/affix things I've never done before, and 2) stop her from making the kitchen look like the outside of the Shoreditch branch of Labour And Wait.
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