Soldato
Finally (after having it since January!) Got round to having a coat hook rail as well as a door to the cloakroom (handle next)
What "man jobs" have you done today?
- Thread starter jaybee
- Start date
Made a little 'lighthouse' lamp/ornament using part of the rootball from an old tree we had removed from the garden as the 'rocky coastline' and a branch for the lighthouse itself. A small LED just below the semi-opaque resin 'glass' does the lighting duties. (no - the light doesn't rotate 
)
)
Soldato
I have been working on this desk/shelving for the alcove today:
The desk is made from a length of furniture board (400*2000) cut into 3 lengths and joined together with jointing plates and glue, brackets on all 3 sides.
Need to do a few tweaks tomorrow so the shelves fit where the old walls narrow then apply a finish.
The desk is made from a length of furniture board (400*2000) cut into 3 lengths and joined together with jointing plates and glue, brackets on all 3 sides.
Need to do a few tweaks tomorrow so the shelves fit where the old walls narrow then apply a finish.
Soldato
Two simple jobs that turned into a nightmare.
How easy is it to unscrew the old tap and screw a new one on - I thought it would be easy to- first off the thread on the trap hardly had any metal stop at end of thread so lots of PTFE tape - then when tap was tight it was up side down - not good - What I needed was a few washers -Even my 40 yrs of hoarding might turn into looking for rocking horse poo - But lo and behold tucked away in a mustard jar was a load of fiber and copper washers - out of all of them there was two copper washers that fitted perfect. - put them on -some PTFE tape and wipe of joint seal I still have from stripping down my Triumph twin engines in late 60's and perfect - wife likes it - The pipe at back is for hose - the one on is only a shot bit so it sits just above a watering can.
Job number two - My hose reel has suffered sun damage so bought a new one - easy - four holes and done
Chinese rawl bolts are a funny size - 8mm too small 10mm too big- in the end after faffing about I binned them and started again - Found some tried and tested eyelet wall fixings and used two of those (all I could find) and two big screws- Assembled it all - plugged it in and turned on - you guessed it water all over the place from joints - So off it came and put it together with just water pipe part of reel - sorted the leaks and put it back on - No leaks -- Started to wind the hose on and on the towards you pull on the handle it swung away from the wall - can't have that so found another eyelet -fixed that behind reel and cable strapped reel to it -
Been a long hard day
How easy is it to unscrew the old tap and screw a new one on - I thought it would be easy to- first off the thread on the trap hardly had any metal stop at end of thread so lots of PTFE tape - then when tap was tight it was up side down - not good - What I needed was a few washers -Even my 40 yrs of hoarding might turn into looking for rocking horse poo - But lo and behold tucked away in a mustard jar was a load of fiber and copper washers - out of all of them there was two copper washers that fitted perfect. - put them on -some PTFE tape and wipe of joint seal I still have from stripping down my Triumph twin engines in late 60's and perfect - wife likes it - The pipe at back is for hose - the one on is only a shot bit so it sits just above a watering can.
Job number two - My hose reel has suffered sun damage so bought a new one - easy - four holes and done
Chinese rawl bolts are a funny size - 8mm too small 10mm too big- in the end after faffing about I binned them and started again - Found some tried and tested eyelet wall fixings and used two of those (all I could find) and two big screws- Assembled it all - plugged it in and turned on - you guessed it water all over the place from joints - So off it came and put it together with just water pipe part of reel - sorted the leaks and put it back on - No leaks -- Started to wind the hose on and on the towards you pull on the handle it swung away from the wall - can't have that so found another eyelet -fixed that behind reel and cable strapped reel to it -
Been a long hard day
Associate
Where's that reel from? I've just seen similar from Toolstation and I could do with a new one. Rate it so far? Were the leaks from the 2 connectors on the reel itself?
Soldato
Pud
You are right - got it from toolstation - it was the connectors but fixed easily - like I said for the way I want it (as picture) it swung round when winding in but overall seems OK for £25 - Bin the supplied fixings and get four better ones. and they won't slide up the slots on the fixing holes - so small don't know why they even had them.
You are right - got it from toolstation - it was the connectors but fixed easily - like I said for the way I want it (as picture) it swung round when winding in but overall seems OK for £25 - Bin the supplied fixings and get four better ones. and they won't slide up the slots on the fixing holes - so small don't know why they even had them.
Associate
Cheers, just picked one up. I've got plenty of decent fixings left over from other jobs so that wont be a problem. I'm liking the look of the hose connector on the side pointing at 90degs from the axle rather than in the middle in line with the central axle of most reels, so hopefully this one wont have a tendency to kink the hose there.
Edit- have you used it yet? Looking at that 90deg brass connector, there are only 2 orientations where the water will flow and it's 'open', as the brass connector itself rotates. So it seems that as the reel spins it will continuously go from 'open' to closed twice through each 360deg spin of the reel? Is that the case?
Edit- have you used it yet? Looking at that 90deg brass connector, there are only 2 orientations where the water will flow and it's 'open', as the brass connector itself rotates. So it seems that as the reel spins it will continuously go from 'open' to closed twice through each 360deg spin of the reel? Is that the case?
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Love this, nice cloakroom!
Where would a novice DIYer such as myself get that wood/look on the left hand wall?
Can I rock up somewhere and buy or am I at risk of slicing my fingers off after purchasing some timber?
Cheers
Where would a novice DIYer such as myself get that wood/look on the left hand wall?
Can I rock up somewhere and buy or am I at risk of slicing my fingers off after purchasing some timber?
Cheers
Finally (after having it since January!) Got round to having a coat hook rail as well as a door to the cloakroom (handle next)
Soldato
Youre looking for tongue and groove cladding - https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-General-Purpose-Softwood-Cladding-14-x-94-x-1800mm/p/9000033759
You shouldnt slice your fingers open but wear some gloves just to be on the safe side
Soldato
If you look closely at that hole in nozzel you will see there is a water gap all way round inner spindle -- I thought the same as you till I looked closer.
Associate
Indeed there is 
Spring time, so time to work on the lawn.
Day 1.
Manual hollow core aeration!!!! Back breaking stuff. Originally hired a machine but the company cancelled on me last minute. Raking up the cores was also quite an effort. Spent the whole day on just aerating and collecting the cores.
No pictures as I was too knackered and still annoyed with the hire company.
Aeration I tend to do in the autumn, but I had already prepped the lawn so decided to carry it out in Spring anyway as I have a bit of time off from work.
In general, I aerate once a year and scarify once every two years. My soil type is mainly clay based.
Day 2.
Top dress and bring up a few low spots in the lawn. Not that many as you might be able to see in the photos, but still used approximately 500l of topsoil.
Over-seeded with some fresh perennial rye/red fescue mix. Had good results last autumn with this, so went with it again.
Slight issue with the spreader, but still worked ok. May replace this next year though.
Used approximately 4kg of seed for the over-seeding. Also used a little for a few bare patches.
Then applied fertiliser with the same spreader. Brand was by Ivison with NPK value 11-5-5. Decent amount of nitrogen to feed the existing grass but not too much that it crowds out the new grass seed and hamper germination.
Finally watered the lawn well.
Done.
(Photo before applying fertiliser)
Day 1.
Manual hollow core aeration!!!! Back breaking stuff. Originally hired a machine but the company cancelled on me last minute. Raking up the cores was also quite an effort. Spent the whole day on just aerating and collecting the cores.
No pictures as I was too knackered and still annoyed with the hire company.
Aeration I tend to do in the autumn, but I had already prepped the lawn so decided to carry it out in Spring anyway as I have a bit of time off from work.
In general, I aerate once a year and scarify once every two years. My soil type is mainly clay based.
Day 2.
Top dress and bring up a few low spots in the lawn. Not that many as you might be able to see in the photos, but still used approximately 500l of topsoil.
Over-seeded with some fresh perennial rye/red fescue mix. Had good results last autumn with this, so went with it again.
Slight issue with the spreader, but still worked ok. May replace this next year though.
Used approximately 4kg of seed for the over-seeding. Also used a little for a few bare patches.
Then applied fertiliser with the same spreader. Brand was by Ivison with NPK value 11-5-5. Decent amount of nitrogen to feed the existing grass but not too much that it crowds out the new grass seed and hamper germination.
Finally watered the lawn well.
Done.
(Photo before applying fertiliser)
prob not a man job but assembled and put into place a new bed
became a man job as mattress alone was 75Kg, had to be got upstairs and wouldn't fold and only had handles on long sides , about bloody killed me
ignore the crap on the missus' side and the fact that I can't iron
became a man job as mattress alone was 75Kg, had to be got upstairs and wouldn't fold and only had handles on long sides , about bloody killed me
ignore the crap on the missus' side and the fact that I can't iron
prob not a man job but assembled and put into place a new bed
became a man job as mattress alone was 75Kg, had to be got upstairs and wouldn't fold and only had handles on long sides , about bloody killed me
ignore the crap on the missus' side and the fact that I can't iron
Dreams mattress by any chance? Our is a superking and i can tell you its chuffing heavy! The lad who delivered it carried up on his side i thought about what his poor spine must have gone through! Like that bed though we are thinking of replacing ours for something similar.
one of these in a superking
https://www.silentnight.co.uk/silentnight-geltex-ultra-3000-mattress-medium.html
had a label on it saying it was 75Kg
one of these in a superking
https://www.silentnight.co.uk/silentnight-geltex-ultra-3000-mattress-medium.html
had a label on it saying it was 75Kg
Frame was only £290 off Ebay, obv cheaper in other sizes, missus spent more than that on bedding in Dunelm
Soldato
Thanks
It's actually MDF pre-routered to look like tounge and groove.
I went for that instead of traditional t&g as the room is so narrow I didn't want to lose any more or the width than i had to with battens etc and having to adjust skirtings and architraves.
A few places sell it online (and a few sellers on eBay) but I used
http://www.chilterntimber.co.uk/product/tgv-beaded-profiled-primed-mdf-long-groove-bead-butt-g416/
I also got it pre cut (length) to fit between the top of the skirting and the ceiling.
Fixed with nonails and a few retaining screws, it even came pre-undercoated
Hardest part was man handling them as they were quite heavy !
Extended the patio with left over slabs and bricks. Lots of left over brickwork finished.
Reduced a garden wall by one brick. One of the neighbours complained to the local authority and I had a surprise visit by the planning enforcement team. It was one brick too high for about 1.5m then it stepped down. Officially it was too high so I was asked to reduce it to 2m or apply for planning permission.
Reduced a garden wall by one brick. One of the neighbours complained to the local authority and I had a surprise visit by the planning enforcement team. It was one brick too high for about 1.5m then it stepped down. Officially it was too high so I was asked to reduce it to 2m or apply for planning permission.
Soldato
Making progress - started in October last year.
Now got to this stage - I am finding it hard going these days.
Just got to edge the far end and up left hand side then rake and rake then seed.
Now got to this stage - I am finding it hard going these days.
Just got to edge the far end and up left hand side then rake and rake then seed.