Bits and pieces around the house - log

shroomz

shroomz

shroomz

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18 Feb 2010
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Glasgow, UK
I quit my job a couple weeks ago to start a business and in between bouts of navel gazing I've been getting on with some renovations around the house that have been on the list for a while. The house is a bit of a building site after having my heat pump put in a few weeks ago for which I ripped up all the old laminate upstairs. We're going to put carpets in eventually once all the bits are done. My plan, now that I have plenty time but no money, is:

1. Knock out original stud wall built-in cupboard in front bedroom so we can rearrange the room and I get to practice plastering. [Started]
2. Remove electric fireplace (ew), mantelpiece and marble hearth (not too bad just quite dated and the hearth is quite high), check chimney, install log burner [next]
3. Full bathroom change right down to underfloor insulation+back to walls and new ceiling [after log burner]

I have no trade skills whatsoever aside from bits and pieces like a bit of polyfilla and painting when we moved in. I also have a 1960s cavity wall brick+brick house that was originally a council house. What kind of bodges will I find to fix on the way?
 
Step 1: Cupboard

The offending article, already knocked off the wooden door and skirtings:
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Turns out it was a concrete block stud wall, and things escalated quickly when it turned out the builders had knocked out some bricks to set the blocks into the wall. Removing the cupboard meant making a hole straight into my cavity wall with the neighbour:
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Finally cleaned up
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View to left of hole through cavity

It was time to go on YouTube and learn how to lay bricks. I decided to get an SDS drill and with an 8mm bit gently drill the surrounding bricks out so I could replace them. Many had been blown by the original builders so in a couple of places there was hardly anything holding the cavity up. Shows how far you can go without houses falling down.

Playing with drill, removing 2-3 bricks at a time and replacing them as I went:
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Doesn't help the house was built with Imperial bricks around 225mm (although not universally, they seemed to use whatever was around even changing sizes partway up!) and all I could easily get were modern common bricks of 215mm so some of the joints would have had me sent home if I were on site:

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Underestimated the amount of mortar I'd need so was time to go back to B&Q and get some cement and building sand, and mix with plasticiser by hand myself as it is way cheaper. Started to get some consistency by the last couple of bricks. I also decided to knock all the old paint off as it looked like it might be distemper and we'd had trouble painting in here with emulsion when we moved in. Apparently plaster doesn't stick to distemper so I knocked it back to sand+cement or bare brick/block. This stuff was really well stuck, hope the plaster sticks as well.
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Wide chisel bit was MVP for knocking the old stuff off:
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Done, all bricked up and cleaned up, ready for underlayer plastering. Still a bit of stubborn wallpaper to tackle on the ceiling, I had a go at washing it off later with hot soapy water and a sponge which worked OK as there was only a bit left:
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I did the first round of plastering yesterday. Wet the wall down and applied Hardwall for the bottom layer. I massively underestimated the amount I'd need to build out the depth in the bits I'd knocked out and 1 bag wasn't enough for even 1 full layer let alone 2. Plastering finished around lunchtime yesterday while I waited for Mrs shroomz to get me more plaster.
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As far as I could get with 1 bag of hardwall:
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I'd mixed it thicker because that's meant to be easier for beginners to work with and less falls off. To be honest, it was a bit too thick, it was really hard work on the wrist to spread it on and try to get an even finish. I'd made some mounds which, once I realised I was done for the day, I deliberately knocked off to build back up with the next layer:

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Having done my first layer, I decided to check how I'd done for plumb and straight and found the existing wall has huge dips and valleys like +5mm and -5mm in places:
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Bit of SBR to seal all the plaster to end the day and some thinking. I decided I'd seal the whole lot and proceed with Bonding instead so I could build out the valleys on the existing painted wall, then blend into the existing plaster. It likely won't look as good as just skimming the whole wall but by the time I'm done with all these projects there will probably be enough work to get a professional in for a few days to just skim several rooms in one go. Not that I've ever begrudged paying tradesmen and fun as learning this stuff is, I'm rapidly getting intimately familiar with exactly where the money goes when you pay someone to do a neat and tidy job and work quickly.
 
If it's anywhere like father in laws house you might need a SDS drill just to drill holes in wall - Those bricks were hard.

Best of luck and I hope it goes well. Never give up - never surrender. (Anyone know where that quote came from.)
 
Last couple of days update:

Yesterday
2 layers of bonding coat completed yesterday. Took 2 bags to do this lot, even with the 1 bag of hardwall already underneath:
Scratch coat
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I didn't take any pics of the floated layer because it was very late, I think I mixed my first bucket around 11am and finished around 9:30pm.

Today
More SBR to stop suction ahead of finishing plaster because I didn't skim the same day - finished the 2.5L bottle now, in total that did me 2 full coats of this area so it does go rather quick. If I were to do a full room that needed a backing plaster I'd probably go for the 5L bottles.

Then, on to skimming with the first layer of multifinish which I learned goes a lot quicker than the backing plasters which are all I've seen so far. I learned I work too slow to bother mixing a full bucket, it had all set in a couple of hours and I broke one of my cheapo pallete knives trying to get the stuff out. Fortunately, the flexi tub made things easier, I could just stand on it to break the stuff up into removable clumps:
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Then I had a few interruptions with getting the car back from service, and needing to make a trip to the vet for the dog having cut her paw on something, Primula helped said dog with the trauma of getting a temperature check. As a consequence, I did miss the opportunity for the first trowel and really the second too, I wet the wall down anyway and did one trowel followed by polishing. Turned out alright, not something I'd be happy paying for but on par with the state of the rest of the house I reckon.
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I also lowered my ambitions to just getting one wall done per day, so on to the second wall and finishing the ceiling patch tomorrow.
 
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dlockers said:
Like the cupboard job - mainly because I left mine in place and now I can see I made the right decision :cry:
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yeah I feel it's definitely something that escalated quickly. I'm amazed the wall didn't fall down before then. One of the 'bricks" I removed had no pretty much no brick left, it was just the face of it stuck fast by the plaster.

How much stuff is down the bottom of my cavity I wonder, I know I knocked a fair bit down while getting the broken bricks out. Thankfully it's an internal cavity we share with next door.
 
DXP55 said:
If it's anywhere like father in laws house you might need a SDS drill just to drill holes in wall - Those bricks were hard.

Best of luck and I hope it goes well. Never give up - never surrender. (Anyone know where that quote came from.)
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Was it Churchill?
12V DeWalt with masonry bit worked for drilling 8mm holes for rawl plugs but yes, the SDS drill is a whole different kettle of fish for making holes in rock!
 
Skimming done today, painting tomorrow. I was definitely feeling a bit of fatigue in the trap and forearm, ended up trowelling with my other hand for a bit to do the polishing. Didn't get quite as good a finish on the second wall as the first wall but I think fatigue had a lot to do with that. Going to take a couple of days off of DIY to rest up and get stuck into the fireplace next week.

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Looks quite good that plastering!

Remember not to paint it until it has fully dried (unlikely tomorrow) warm days + a window and good ventilation should help this.

When it's dried mist coat it (say 40% water 60% paint). Don't listen to anyone telling you to add pva or similar to paint.
 
I had a team of plasterers replaster most of my house when I moved in. They were powered by ‘special brew’ and did an awful job. Whilst messy a pot of polyfilla and an electric sander can really tidy up a plastering job! I then learnt to do plaster myself and did a better job in the remaining areas.
 
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Buffman said:
Looks quite good that plastering!

Remember not to paint it until it has fully dried (unlikely tomorrow) warm days + a window and good ventilation should help this.

When it's dried mist coat it (say 40% water 60% paint). Don't listen to anyone telling you to add pva or similar to paint.
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You reckon keep waiting? What do I look for? It's been 18-19 degrees here indoors and I opened the windows wide last night with plenty through air
 
Brazo said:
I had a team of plasterers replaster most of my house when I moved in. They were powered by ‘special brew’ and did an awful job. Whilst messy a pot of polyfilla and an electric sander can really tidy up a plastering job! I then learnt to do plaster myself and did a better job in the remaining areas.
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Ye I need to do some bits behind the radiator that got replaced with a vertical one. Tbh although I've got a quarter bag of multifinish left I might just get the sander back out and whap out the polyfilla, and save that until I need it for the fireplace next. We did plenty of polyfilla when we moved in, brings back memories :D.
 
Thanks for the support folks. It's easy to be quite critical on oneself when learning things so finding some validation helps. Even more importantly, mrs shroomz is happy with the work (even if i made the decision to not bother with the ceiling patch beyond a point because a. It's surrounded by artex and b. I was knackered)
 
Been quiet last couple of months as I managed to land a client pretty soon after.

Next job is moving the garden tap to make way for the battery+inverter part of solar going in next week. I'm thinking of pretty much doing what this guy describes as it seems pretty neat:


I've got two snags though:
1. Outside is rendered in pebbledash, I'm not sure whether to chip some of the pebbles out to get a smoothish surface then just use a fat dollop of silicone to even things out between the screws, or if it'll be OK just leaving the pebbles as is.

2. The pipes was done in 15mm plastic, I don't have enough time to learn to solder as well so I'll probably just do it in plastic inside for now as well; I need to have a look how to connect fittings onto plastic pipe.
 
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shroomz said:
Been quiet last couple of months as I managed to land a client pretty soon after.

Next job is moving the garden tap to make way for the battery+inverter part of solar going in next week. I'm thinking of pretty much doing what this guy describes as it seems pretty neat:


I've got two snags though:
1. Outside is rendered in pebbledash, I'm not sure whether to chip some of the pebbles out to get a smoothish surface then just use a fat dollop of silicone to even things out between the screws, or if it'll be OK just leaving the pebbles as is.

2. The pipes was done in 15mm plastic, I don't have enough time to learn to solder as well so I'll probably just do it in plastic inside for now as well; I need to have a look how to connect fittings onto plastic pipe.
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On 2. Find out what type it is. It’ll likely be JG Speedfit or hep2o. You then need a tee or elbow for where it goes through the wall connect copper to the tee or elbow where it goes through the wall. Both brands require inserts into the plastic pipe when the pipe goes into a fitting.

The fittings work with copper too (you don’t need an insert on copper, but make sure the copper going into the fitting is smooth otherwise it can damage the o ring in the fitting).

Alternatively you can use compression fittings between copper and plastic, note you still need a plastic pipe insert for compression fittings too. Most compression fittings come with brass olives. The brass olives is fine for the copper pipe. But get a copper olive for the plastic pipe side.

Where the copper goes through the wall, sleeve it in the next size up copper. So if your water carrying copper is 15mm. Cut a hole through the wall for 22mm copper pipe and put a piece of 22mm copper through, then put the 15mm copper pipe through the 22mm.

Also make sure you fit a check valve or get an outside tap that has one built in.
 
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Mason- said:
On 2. Find out what type it is. It’ll likely be JG Speedfit or hep2o. You then need a tee or elbow for where it goes through the wall connect copper to the tee or elbow where it goes through the wall. Both brands require inserts into the plastic pipe when the pipe goes into a fitting.

The fittings work with copper too (you don’t need an insert on copper, but make sure the copper going into the fitting is smooth otherwise it can damage the o ring in the fitting).
Click to expand...
Probably goes without saying but don't mix up JG and hep2o inserts. I prefer hep2o as it has metal inserts but my plumber did most his work in JG.
 
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