What "man jobs" have you done today?

[UTT]

Mineral wool type thing stuffed in the gap?

 

[theone8181]

When I say daft my sockets are around a foot off the ground, hardly that low (96 was when the house was built). They just look unsightly when high up and low down they're a bit more hidden (obviously imo).

 

[dlockers]

Mineral wool type thing stuffed in the gap?

That's not a bad shout... I have some spare from the loft insulation job too.

 

[ChrisD.]

Finally got round to buying and fitting a water butt. It's not going to fill quickly as it's on the garage drain pipe, but it just wouldn't work using the main house one.

 

[DXP55]

You would be surprised how much water can come off a garage roof - I have a 50 gallon drum on shed and that soon fills up. Along with summer house and green house - Also you will be surprised at how quick you can empty them with a few watering cans.

 

[adidan]

Just picked up the very same water butt @ChrisD. for my house now the tenants did a runner. As @DXP55 says, they do full up surprisingly fast.

Speaking of which new light switch fitted and heading for my second trip to the tip of the day to ditch their scummy junk they left behind.

Cleaner booked in, carpet and flooring ordered (extra 10% off for it being Easter a bonus).

Busyish day I guess.

 

[ChrisD.]

Ah good to know. I will of course be checking it. Needs some water in it to weigh the thing down but I think it’s secure enough for now.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Finished terminating the kitchen circuits yesterday and headed home for family Easter today.

Still got 3x cables in the ceiling I need a second person to help pull. Main feed from consumer unit, and two switches.

Back at it on Thursday as in-laws are staying on Saturday and will probably want mod cons like light bulbs and kettles

 

[dlockers]

I’d foam it but I’m by no means an expert.

Mineral wool type thing stuffed in the gap?

Went with mineral wool in the end.

-----

My hands are seriously FUBAR'ed and the boards are just killing my motivation, so I've ordered 11 22mm chipboard boards. Realistically I'm going to be much better off with these as the other 6 rooms in the house will be identical...this way I know I can butcher the boards on the way up and save a fortune in time. It also means I don't need to mess around overboarding to get a decent level.

I'll also save about the same amount by only needing a fraction of the screws lol.

I'll just tack them down and then when I come to doing the floor make a proper job of it.

 

[Macky]

Painted upstairs door frames today. Had a bit of an epiphany that DIY, repairs, maintenance and improvements don't all happen as one "big bang". Progress is iterative. Even if you're only chipping away with a few small jobs a week, over an extended timeframe, progress will be clear to see!

 

[233]

Finally unboxed my kranzle pressure washer that’s been lying in the hallway since December. Pressure washed the decking and back patio with rather pleasing results

Added bonus is it’s now in the shed and Mrs 233 is no longer cursing me for falling over it

 

[ChrisD.]

Speaking of which new light switch fitted and heading for my second trip to the tip of the day to ditch their scummy junk they left behind.

Ha, I was at Homebase 3 times today. I bought a reduced/returned butt, got home and I hadn't noticed that some oaf had drilled a 300mm hole in it, it was too big to hold the pipe. Went back and exhanged it for a brand new one at full price, fitted that and realised I'd left the bloody tap at the bottom on the butt I'd returned, so back I went.

Also bought some cheap garden chairs and there's a load of marks on them where they'd been stacked, so need to go again in the week (3 times was enough in one day!).

Luckily Homebase is not too far from home.

 

[gingergundog]

Finally got round to buying and fitting a water butt. It's not going to fill quickly as it's on the garage drain pipe, but it just wouldn't work using the main house one.

Dude gets a slimline but it looks like you got room for a bowser

 

[IvanDobskey]

Prepped the decking to paint yesterday, only for it to chuck it down all day today. Guess I should take more notice of the weather forecast

 

[Armageus]

Wet day today put a stop to anything in the garden, so got round to putting up a roller blind in the kitchen that arrived a couple of months ago (Although to be fair the kitchen hasn't had one for 14 years, so what's another couple of months )

Thoroughly recommend blindsbypost - great quality blinds made to measure, with free fabric samples to help you choose

 

[Richie]

Lawn renovation complete. Got it cut, scarified, manually core aerated then top dressed with 70/30 mix before overseeding.

About 10 mins after I finished, a nice bit of rain to get it soaked in. It's meant to rain over next few days which will help get the seed started.

Probably took me a total of about 5 hours all in for around 60m² of lawn

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Made some significant progress in the garden in the last few days. We've gone from a boggy muddy mess to somewhere which is not far off completion. Jobs were:

1) Fit new 2.4m fence posts at the back just beyond the retaining wall to reinstate a fence line at the edge of our boundary. Was a real pig to do as it was a sloping muddy mess.

Managed to get them fixed into the ground as far as possible with spikes then cemented them in.

2) Then set about painting about 45 x 4.8m 38x19mm battens so they could be cut to size and installed in-between the posts to create a slatted fence.

3) Started to paint the side fences too but they are absolutely drinking paint so think it may need a couple more coats to get a nice consistent coat on - or we may decide to keep the washed out look.

4) Had help from the brother in law and a few of his lads to shift in 5 tonne of top soil to bring the level of our lawn up and then lay some new turf down

5) Our kamado BBQ arrived so that got built and burnt in!

6) Oir Aldi garden bistro set arrived too which we put together and can start to use now.

Just have to wait 4-6 weeks for the grass to root in and establish before we can take down the little wire fence we have and officially "open".

only remaining jobs to do are finish painting the fence, shift in a tonne or so of slate chippings to go at the end of the garden and round the borders and then give the patio a jetwash as I was a bit liberal/careless when painting the battens!

I know all of this is useless without pics but I'll try and upload some tomorrow!

For anyone interested in some pics of this.

This is the garde, after my last stint of work. Sleepers installed to give garden a new edge, some weed membrane at the back and up the side which we will eventually fill with slate chippings. Main lawn area has been rotovated and i've tried to level it by hand, with a rake not fit for purpose - after this the level of soil gradually sunk as it was compacted by rain and what not.


Next up, over 40 x 4.8m battens painted and ready to go. You can see where I've put the new fence posts at the back.


Said battens now fixed into 2 sections of fencing.


Next up was shifting in 3 tonne of top soil which the BIL brought over.


About a week later another 1.5-2 tonne went on and was flattened with 25sqm of turf laid on top of it (again by the BIL, thankfully!)


I ran out of battens to complete the back fence but that's been finished now too so its all level (just need to chop that one fence post down to size). I've also covered all of the joins with arris rail vertically which makes it look a lot tidier.
The wire fencing is still up to keep the dog off there for at least another month until the lawn has bedded in. Bought a little sprinkler for the lawn but thankfully we've had some decent down pours.

It's finally starting to feel like a garden!

 

[PermaChanged]

Got the gravel side drive sorted, it's a bit rough around the edges but functional!

Also managed to tear up the flowerbed which ran down the right hand side of the main driveway too to create a much wider space - all of this is being done so that we can maintain plenty of parking and also create a garden.



Edit: Skips, compactor and digger have just been collected

 

[ChrisD.]

You would be surprised how much water can come off a garage roof - I have a 50 gallon drum on shed and that soon fills up. Along with summer house and green house - Also you will be surprised at how quick you can empty them with a few watering cans.

Can confirm, it's over half full already.

 

[Cadder]

Looking for bright ideas on a job I'm looking to start soon. We've got carpet over MDF stairs. We have been wanting to get rid of the carpet for some time now and stick to hard flooring/stairs. I am struggling to come up with ideas to make the MDF look presentable.

Do painted MDF stairs look OK? Such as contrasting colours on tread and risers.

After that it's figuring out what to do at the bottom where the stairs meet laminate, as well as the final step on to the landing if we lay laminate there too.