What "man jobs" have you done today?

What screws do you use for screwing the loft boards down through the top of the loft leg? The top is quite thin isn't it, compared to screwing 2" or more into wood.
 
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danlightbulb said:
What screws do you use for screwing the loft boards down through the top of the loft leg? The top is quite thin isn't it, compared to screwing 2" or more into wood.
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4x30mm as recommended by Loft Leg

Wickes Single Thread Zinc & Yellow Screw - 4 X 30mm Pack Of 200 | Wickes.co.uk

Wickes Single Thread Zinc & Yellow Screw - 4 X 30mm Pack Of 200
www.wickes.co.uk www.wickes.co.uk

www.loftleg.com

Raise Loft Floor Above Insulation | London, UK | Loft Leg

Looking to build a raised loft floor? Create loft storage above insulation with Loft Leg. Loft Leg raises the loft floor to prevent 270mm of insulation from being compressed. Made in the UK.
www.loftleg.com www.loftleg.com
 
Definitely wouldn't be arsed with the smaller boards. I used chipboard not OSB

Edit: Wickes is £7 delivery for the big boards FYI
 
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danlightbulb said:
Did you guys who have done loft boarding use OSB or chipboard panels? And did you use larger 600x2440 sheets or the packs of 3 smaller boards you can get from DIY shops?
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I used the pack of 3 OSB Loft boards from Wickes

OSB Loft Panels - 18 x 300 x 1220mm - Pack of 3 | Wickes.co.uk

OSB Loft Panels - 18 x 300 x 1220mm - Pack of 3
www.wickes.co.uk www.wickes.co.uk

Larger boards would have been preferable (as my Joists aren't all evenly spaced - so ended up wasting quite a few boards cutting them to either just over 2/3 length or just over 1/3 length to bridge gaps and then placing the next full board). However I had no way of transporting bigger boards, and would struggle to get them through the loft hatch anyway.
 
I used chipboard loft boards, they are slightly bigger than the OSB ones. The difficulty is getting anything much larger into the loft.
 
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No, they are solid once you have the boards on them. They are all interconnected by the boards which also have tongue and groove edges to slot into each other.

If you have the height, go for the larger versions so you can get the full 300mm under them. 170mm usually means you are restricted to 250mm insulation on a standard 70mm roof joist.
 
seems as we had above freezing temps today I made a start on the back fencing.

Put 3 of the metal posts in. They are 3m long and I’m putting them in 1m for a 2m fence. Spacing them 90cm apart as a bit of overkill.

The 3rd one I couldn’t get my hole any deeper than 700mm as I hit some bricks or rubble so I’ll use cut the top off. This will be my plan going forward if I can get them 1m deep then I will but if not I’ll just cut them to size

 
Had an interesting experience there. Added a socket to our ring in the bedroom I'm renovating. Had the MCB for the ring off. But then managed to trip the RCCB several times when connecting wires to the socket. Does the MCB only cut the live and the earth and neutral are remain protected by the RCCB? I noticed a tiny spark when touching the neutral terminal and was like wtf?!, I switched the circuit off? Could it have been static from shuffling on my knees or something?!
 
Wikihow suggests you can spray the bar stewards

This doesn't seem wise... especially if the almighty dlockers won't touch it
 
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Macky said:
Had an interesting experience there. Added a socket to our ring in the bedroom I'm renovating. Had the MCB for the ring off. But then managed to trip the RCCB several times when connecting wires to the socket. Does the MCB only cut the live and the earth and neutral are remain protected by the RCCB? I noticed a tiny spark when touching the neutral terminal and was like wtf?!, I switched the circuit off? Could it have been static from shuffling on my knees or something?!
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Correct, the MCB only disconnects the live wire. Neutral stays in circuit and it's kind of a pain - I had left a lot of cable loops and when I would cut them to add a face plate, the snips were shorting earth and neutral. I learned this the hard way!

You're tripping the RCD because you're bridging neutral and CPC ("earth"). This gives the current flowing through the neutral conductor two paths to ground basically, and the RCD notices that the current flowing through the live and neutral conductors isn't the same.

Now, when I work on a circuit I switch off the MCB and I lift the neutral from the neutral bar in the consumer unit. It's that, or just turn off all the electric basically.
 
LuckyBenski said:
Correct, the MCB only disconnects the live wire. Neutral stays in circuit and it's kind of a pain - I had left a lot of cable loops and when I would cut them to add a face plate, the snips were shorting earth and neutral. I learned this the hard way!

You're tripping the RCD because you're bridging neutral and CPC ("earth"). This gives the current flowing through the neutral conductor two paths to ground basically, and the RCD notices that the current flowing through the live and neutral conductors isn't the same.

Now, when I work on a circuit I switch off the MCB and I lift the neutral from the neutral bar in the consumer unit. It's that, or just turn off all the electric basically.
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That's really useful, thanks.

Annoyingly, just had the same MCB trip I had a few weeks ago which seemed to be caused by a loose terminal in the socket. Just checked both sockets and the terminals were tight. Perhaps it was when they were screwed into the wall the wires were too close to one another or something!? Trip doesn't happen instantly but seemingly randomly. Has to be related to me working on them as it's been fine for weeks.
 
I caught my first rat finally using one of these electric rat traps. I'm not sure if the fact it's electric made it more or less "manly" but I felt quite satisfied as it had been haunting my kitchen for quite a few months. I'd never seen it before as it was rather inconspicuous however my kid had and they told me it was massive! They were right.
 
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