What "man jobs" have you done today?

Tore down old fence, thankfully posts where still in surprisingly good condition. Rebuilt one side, missus wanted it doubled up for privacy so other side still to do. Awaiting new wider gate and still have to replace two posts to accommodate it. Got a great deal on D&D Tech tru close gate latch and hinges.
 
A right messy job today -Being as it's throwing it down with rain I decided to cut up the long logs that came with the load of logs - Sheeted both side of garage then set up work mate with my bench top on as work space and set up the Log Horse. - That thing has been worth every penny it cost -just clamp wood in - lock it and start cutting with another tool that's been worth every penny -A Lidl/Aldi electric chainsaw. So everything is now ready to be split on the sick splitter -It didn't seem to have much power and found out there is hardly any oil in it -none on the dipstick -Checked all round but can't find pool of oil anywhere. Ordered 2ltrs which hopefully will come tomorrow.

Finally the best project I did age's ago - a Cyclone for the vacuum cleaner -all the saw dust went in container and none went into the vac, -Just suck up what I left after sweeping -the container isn't big enough for amount of sawdust that was there. - Then finally open doors and windows and blow the garage out with Vac blower.

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Finally finished decorating the downstairs khazi, or cloakroom as the wife insists on calling it, having had it tiled.

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The paint is Farrow & Ball light blue estate emulsion, which is a scrubbable paint with a slight sheen, useful as we have a 5 year old boy :/.
 



My good old trusty Nilfisk! I was already half way along by the time my neighbour with his expensive Karcher managed to get the larger patio cleaning dome working. I then finished off with the lance that obliterated the soil and weeds. Again, my neighbour with his lance and it’s multiple settings could barely touch the soil in the gaps.
 
Pulling down an old (It would be interesting to find out exactly how old) Lath and plaster ceiling with the intention of replacing in a manner that reveals the underlying main oak timbers (near enough 12" x 12" )

So far, interesting, It would appear that originally there was no celling and the main timbers, side joists and, presumably, the underside of the original floor boards had simply been whitewashed.

There has also clearly been movement of the building over time since the side joists have partially pulled out of their sockets in the main timbers. However, it looks as if this movement has not been significant since the ceiling was applied and mostly must have occurred shortly (Like within the first century or so! :D ) after the building was constructed.

When I re-lay everything I will get some cheap Vernier callipers from Amazon/whatever and drill and fit them in a way that allows any further movement to be monitored mm by mm.

It is a thoroughly messy job mind! If I can be bothered to set up a photo-whatever account I might post some piccies. Shame you cant just post pics direct to forum (I am sure I was on one forum that allowed this, how they managed to do so I do not know. I am guessing there was a sort of silent link to a photo hosting site)
 
Orionaut said:
When I re-lay everything I will get some cheap Vernier callipers from Amazon/whatever and drill and fit them in a way that allows any further movement to be monitored mm by mm.
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I've stuck plastic discs to some cracks on my walls and ceiling. I can use a Vernier caliper to measure the inside and outside spacing of these, and note it down every month or so. You could do similar with nails or screws, saving you buying a load of verniers.
 
UnLuckyBenski said:
I've stuck plastic discs to some cracks on my walls and ceiling. I can use a Vernier caliper to measure the inside and outside spacing of these, and note it down every month or so. You could do similar with nails or screws, saving you buying a load of verniers.
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Cheap Vernier's (They do not have to be "Accurate" as such since I am making relative rather than absolute measurements) are not expensive but thanks for the alternative suggestion.

 
Participant said:
Finally finished decorating the downstairs khazi, or cloakroom as the wife insists on calling it, having had it tiled.

M0vt68jh.jpg


The paint is Farrow & Ball light blue estate emulsion, which is a scrubbable paint with a slight sheen, useful as we have a 5 year old boy :/.
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Nice. Do you know what wall hung toilet/frame you got? Looking at doing similar.
 
DXP55 said:
It didn't seem to have much power and found out there is hardly any oil in it -none on the dipstick -Checked all round but can't find pool of oil anywhere. Ordered 2ltrs which hopefully will come tomorrow.
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Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but you know that the oil reservoir is to oil the chain continuously to help it cut? It will therefore use up oil pretty quickly. I have that same elctric chainsaw and it probably goes through a full reservoir of oil in maybe 5-10mins of cutting so does need regularly refilling.

You bought chainsaw oil right?
 
A friend phoned this morning, saying she thought she saw a rat scurrying across her garden. She didn't sound very happy at all about it so I nipped over quickly and set a few traps, baited with leftovers from last night's beef curry. :)

(All social distancing precautions were taken - the closest we got to each other was ~8 metres.)
 
alexakasloth said:
@Orionaut how did you find removing the lathe and plaster ceiling? We need to do this with the bathroom in the future, wondering how long it takes.
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It is hard work and very very messy. Lots of dust and it gets everywhere. The dust doesn't just come from the plaster but also the accumulation of other crap (Dead spiders, mouse nests, muck that has fallen thorough the floor boards above etc over the previous 100 years or so) It doesn't take long to pull the lath down but It will take quite a long time to clean up afterwards so it is best to do it all in one go so you only have to do this once.

You also generate far more debris than you might expect, While I cannot comment on your ceiling, the plaster on mine varied from 2-3cm thick over an area of around 12-15 square meters. Make sure that you have a load of rubble bags for packing up the rubbish afterwards.

Are you intending to do this in an "Empty" bathroom or are you going to have to work around installed fittings? (Working around installed baths/showers/units would be awkward. Dust sheets will not be sufficient to protect them. I would actually get some cheap ply and box in anything that could not be removed

You will need gloves, a well fitting face mask (Not the little paper ones, they don't work very well), eye protection (The lath is quite springy and can flick plaster into your face) and thick soled foot ware (The Lath has little nails in it and you will end up stepping on them)

I did it in stages, pulling it down until the dust was too thick to see, letting it settle, and then going in to renew the attack. Be careful cleaning the eye protection. since the dust is quite abrasive and if you just wipe the glasses they will get badly scratched very quickly. (Same also applies when tidying up generally afterwards with any plastic surface)

You will need to take care of any wiring or plumbing that might be in the ceiling space, you do not want to risk damaging it.

If you used something like a scorpion saw https://www.amazon.co.uk/BLACK-DECK...81ZP43YE79A&psc=1&refRID=N3HCZBXSQ81ZP43YE79A then you might be able to make it a bit less messy by cutting it down in sections rather thasn just pulling it down as I did, but it would take a lot longer and it would still be messy.

If I was going to do it again, I would get dust sheets throughout the house (I do mean everywhere) and tape some plastic sheeting over the door to the room that I could lift to get through, it would reduce the spread of dust throughout the house but not stop it. It would still be messy.

Unfortunately, acquiring such materials is not easy at the moment which is why I didn't do it. But in hindsight it is strongly recommended.

If you have other family (Especially children, older relatives) living in the house, it might even be worth putting them in a B&B for a couple of days until you have tidied up.​
 
I have added a new ring main in the garage, 4 double sockets. Beats using extension leads.

Next job is to add a tap into the garage for the pressure washer and disable the outside tap.
 
Orionaut said:
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Thanks for that very infomative post! I will not be tackling this until next year, will likely want to keep sanitary in there temporarily (it will be replaced).
Most of the ceiling is clear of wires, and the pipe work is legacy from the replaced system boiler (to a combi). That's why we want to remove it, as the ceiling had been lowered for the pipe work that came from the tanks in the loft.
Got a 3m half mask here and all the PPE :)
 
kinobestew123 said:
Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but you know that the oil reservoir is to oil the chain continuously to help it cut? It will therefore use up oil pretty quickly. I have that same elctric chainsaw and it probably goes through a full reservoir of oil in maybe 5-10mins of cutting so does need regularly refilling.

You bought chainsaw oil right?
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You read all of my post ? Yes -- The dip stick is in the LOG splitter !!!!!!! and I bought hydraulic oil for the ram :rolleyes:
I have been using chainsaws for 40 yrs
 
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