What "man jobs" have you done today?

I’ve got a chandelier style light in my living room, is it simple enough to turn it back to a traditional light?


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Captain said:
I’ve never tackled electrical wires like that before, suppose I could follow a tutorial easily enough.
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First document what you've got so you can recreate it - typical 3 wires:

L+N supply

L+N ongoing feed for the next lighting point

A 2-core wire that sends and returns power to/from the switch. These should be marked with brown on the blue conductor but YMMV.

Get those figured out (especially the switched live one basically) and the rest should be easy :)
 
Changed my French door locks to some nice avocet locks. Was a bit of a pain for the slave door as I had to remove a full strip with about 20 pairs of screws in, some of which were short and didn't need removing (but weren't the same side all the way up). Ive noticed I didn't put the strip back at quite the right height so might need to adjust it. What's worrying is that the screws just go into the upvc of the second door rather than anything metal, I assume the overlap on the inside, and the main door having multipoint locking into the strip would hold it.
 
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Captain said:
I’ve never tackled electrical wires like that before, suppose I could follow a tutorial easily enough.
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If you're going to a ceiling rose it will be dead easy.
obviously isolate the mains supply first then, one by one move the wires from that choccy block into the blocks that will be on the ceiling rose.

That way there is nothing to think about, you're literally just moving wires.
 
Just wondering if anyone on here has ever redone the sand on block paving? I thought 1 bag would cover it, but then read a bag is only good for about 29 sqm (my drive is about 70). I've not cleaned it before, but is the assumption that all the sand will get blasted out of the cracks when a pressure washer is used?
 
theone8181 said:
Just wondering if anyone on here has ever redone the sand on block paving? I thought 1 bag would cover it, but then read a bag is only good for about 29 sqm (my drive is about 70). I've not cleaned it before, but is the assumption that all the sand will get blasted out of the cracks when a pressure washer is used?
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Yes I did our last driveway a couple of years ago after I jet washed it.

I used kiln-dried sand on a very hot day and it looked great for about three weeks.

Then the rain blows it out, the weeds take hold, etc. and it quickly ends up looking like it did before.

I've been researching polymeric sand, i.e. contains polymers that harden the sand in the gaps, but supply and cost seems to be a big issue so I'm likely to just use kiln dried when I do it again this summer.
 
theone8181 said:
Just wondering if anyone on here has ever redone the sand on block paving? I thought 1 bag would cover it, but then read a bag is only good for about 29 sqm (my drive is about 70). I've not cleaned it before, but is the assumption that all the sand will get blasted out of the cracks when a pressure washer is used?
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The amount of sand lost depends on the type of pressure washer tool, how much dirt rather than sand you need to blast out and how big some the gaps are. I don't use the specific patio cleaner tools that blast straight down unless I want to remove more sand/dirt for a first clean/re-sand.

Once you get a good regime of cleaning, treating again moss, lichen etc and applying a sealer then block paving maintenance is pretty easy. I now only pressure wash our drive every 18 months but I do use sealer and also patio moss/lichen chemical (I mix my own to save money and avoid the harsh bleach based ones) and the result is it looks good right through next to the next clean.

I did it recently and the before and after wasn't that different so that shows how well it lasted - a big change from the moss, lichen and dark spot covered drive we had when we purchased.
 
Simon42 said:
The amount of sand lost depends on the type of pressure washer tool, how much dirt rather than sand you need to blast out and how big some the gaps are. I don't use the specific patio cleaner tools that blast straight down unless I want to remove more sand/dirt for a first clean/re-sand.

Once you get a good regime of cleaning, treating again moss, lichen etc and applying a sealer then block paving maintenance is pretty easy. I now only pressure wash our drive every 18 months but I do use sealer and also patio moss/lichen chemical (I mix my own to save money and avoid the harsh bleach based ones) and the result is it looks good right through next to the next clean.

I did it recently and the before and after wasn't that different so that shows how well it lasted - a big change from the moss, lichen and dark spot covered drive we had when we purchased.
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I did think it might be a "how longs a piece of string" question. I've not cleaned it before smd it's a few years old I've got a wand and the circular brush attachment for my pressure washer.
 
theone8181 said:
I did think it might be a "how longs a piece of string" question. I've not cleaned it before smd it's a few years old I've got a wand and the circular brush attachment for my pressure washer.
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Forgot to add, when I first did mine and blasted out most of the joints I used 4 bags for our 135 sqm drive, but since then I use about 2 per go as there is no need to blast the joints out fully now. The sealer binds the sand even though I use an acrylic based which I prefer to resin as the latter can really glue the sand and blocks solid which affects drainage and makes it hard to take blocks up for ducting, drains etc.
 
Started with an oil and filter change on the car and then got the Vango 600XL Air out to check for organic growth (Can recommend 10's of packs of silica gel packs and a vacuum sealer bag) and got all the 1000's of bits you take camping out to check as well.
 
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I built and fitted a new gate when we moved in three years ago, but in that time it has sagged a huge amount :(

So I took it all apart, realigned it and glued all the joints before screwing it all back together and refitting it.

Took longer than expected.
 
I took up carpet grippers in a room. Sounds easy until I tell you it's 30 year old concrete. The nails had actually pulled chunks out the floor as it takes a long time to fully dry. I've nailed grippers on other floors downstairs and now it just bends the nails(ended up uding glue), but in the new extension it's much softer.
 
The Bosch Series 8 oven main element died, so replaced that - involved taking the oven out, removing the top and back panels before the internal panel. They have it screwed from the back and the element has a connectors on the back side too. Put back together and works perfectly.
 
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IvanDobskey said:
I built and fitted a new gate when we moved in three years ago, but in that time it has sagged a huge amount :(

So I took it all apart, realigned it and glued all the joints before screwing it all back together and refitting it.

Took longer than expected.
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If you are over 30 then there is no such thing as a quick job. In fact they take longer and longer and longer the longer you live.:D
 
Got the portable aircon out of the cupboard the other day; the ladies bedroom was 27+ so I wanted to take the edge off. Didn't really make a dent tbh and it was "hot" moments later. Hardly worth the 75p!

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DXP55 said:
If you are over 30 then there is no such thing as a quick job. In fact they take longer and longer and longer the longer you live.:D
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You aren't wrong there :p

I can usually bank on any job taking at least twice as long as my initial estimate.

I'd put it down to being 50 now, but it's probably more down to being a bit OCD over imperfections :p
 
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