Be Excellent To Each Other

This here thread is for showing off your impressive (or not so impressive) DIY stuffs.

For example, I discovered that the bath was leaking when I went into the pantry and was faced with this:



Luckily, no major damage was done, just some soggy plaster.

And some missing plaster, it would appear.

I helped build this extension when I worked for a builder.



Does that count?

Ah, no, that was me. I chipped off anything that was damp. There's a air vent in the back corner there, too.

We've had to do so much since buying this house. The guy who owned it before was a complete tool and every room we embarked on revealed more of his bodging which was why I was dreading doing the kitchen and why, when it came to it, we pretty much just took off and nuked the site from orbit. He worked for a building company too but as some sort of project manager Still at least his work is always easy to dismantle (apart from that he seemed to enjoy using as many different types of screw as possible to hold one thing up).

Nope. Think bigger.

As DIY? No. It's kind of the opposite.

Huh. I can't find any pictures of my dad's shed, but I helped build that for free (even if I did ruin the drive while digging the foundations).

Old kitchen:






Dismantled:










Last night:






Still a fair bit to do mind.

Looking great though!

Yes it's looking nice and clean and modern. Good work.

The bits that still look shit will stay looking shit but they're under the counter so it doesn't matter. I've also got five meters of LEDs for under-cabinet lighting* and I'm going to overclock the microwave to fuck.

*I actually do have this, I got it from dealextreme for cheaps.

Very much

Two old ladies lived in this house before us and they must have had a son or something that enjoyed using filler and as many different sized screws as he could lay his hands on.

Also, when we moved in... all the interior doors were sliding doors. Who on earth thought that would be a good idea?

Is that a serving hatch or a hole into a hall area?

Did I tell you about my 'original' fireplace?

My house has had 2 owners since it was built, the old lady who died there and us. The old lady's son told us the wood burning fireplace and tiled surround was original. The lying fuck. When I came to take it out (it took up a Lady-Gaga-boob of the room) I discovered that not only was it not original (no more than 25 years old) but it was pretty much balanced on a piece of 4x2 and some rubble from the *orignal* coal-burning fire. It was an absolute cunt to get out as well, necessitating the removal of an alarming amount of chimney breast and a very worrying moment where the wall 'settled' as me and my dad hauled the hulking lump of steel out of the hole.

Still, when the chimney sweep came to sign off the flue, he gave us £40 for the scrap metal.

Nice lighting, have you tried cropping them square?

My kitchen floor has been the bane of my life since I moved in, there was this cheap shitty landlord carpet down which got ruined in days, lino was put over the top, then we had the flood and the carpet underneath has gone mouldy. Have had to order new lino and will have to rip up everything/move the fridge freezer/a load of storage boxes/table and bench set. It can go in the hall and knocked through (already separately linoed) utility room. First major problem I can see is that I won't be able to get the old lino/carpet out of the back door with everything in the way.

My kitchen floor has a lake underneath it. At some point I expect Jason Vorhees to burst through the floor.

Neither, it is art.

It's actually what was a window before there was an extension built so it just goes into our back room.

Did you plaster it yourself?

No we got a plasterer in.

WTFF?

Yeah, carpet in the kitchen is bad enough, but putting lino over the top sounds bonkers. Wouldn't it be all smooshy?

I'm assuming vinyl rather than lino. It might actually be OK if the carpet was particularly thin and nasty. But I wouldn't

I'm off to the DIY sheds now to look for a float valve (used to be called a "ballcock", puerile humour fans) as ours seems to have fallen to pieces last night if the torrent of water pouring out of a pipe above the door was anything to go by. Yes, I switched it off.

Can lino/vinyl be put over the top of floor tiles? Not carpet tiles, like hard, cold (ceramic?) tiles.

Yep. We have that in our kitchen

Cool, ta. Our kitchen is being delivered on Saturday, installation begins on Monday and it's just occurred to me that I've not given a thought to the flooring. Well, I have. I want something like this http://www.carpetright.co.uk/vinyl/piazza-limestone-anthracite-3.html but I really need to get around to ordering it.

I can't wait to have our kitchen done, it'll be so nice to have a decent amount of storage space I'm well aware the actual fitting process is going to be hellish and I'm not looking forward to it at all!

Quarry tiles perhaps? If you use Amtico tiles or laminate it may be ok as is, otherwise you can put some self levelling compound down first to make it smooth enough for vinyl.

1/2" ball valve repair kit GET (from Focus of all places) and it matched the 40 year old valve, what were the chances...

The tiles we've got at the moment are like these http://www.photoshoptextures.com/floor-textures/white-tile-texture.jpg and I want to put slate effect vinyl down over the top. Providing the vinyl is of decent thickness/has underlay that should be ok shouldn't it? The floor's fairly level and the ridges between the tiles we have in place at the moment.

Err, this is Beex.

We have done our kitchen up (it has taken a while) but looks loads better, and I can now do loads of stuff I hadn't done before, plumbing, tiling, grouting, shouting

Well, vinyl is always 2 or 3mm thick, and is glued down with no underlay, so you will be able to feel any ridges that are there now. But if it's reasonably smooth then it shouldn't matter too much.

I was going to go for slate effect stuff too

Ours is pretty much the same. On top of quarry tiles, there's a few edges visible, but it's warm underfoot. Warmer than the tiles anyway

I like the idea of DIY but haven't been quite brave enough to try much myself. As we lived in a flat I was reluctant to ,ess with anything that might affect people below us. I think in a house I would be much more bold.

In the flat I ripped out a brick fireplace and put in a new modern one, ripped out a fixed door (but got someone else to make good and hang the doors, changed lights and put up shelves, ran a few cables. All minor stuff.

My dad was really good at DIY. He built an upstairs extension (coming out from a sloped roof), knocked through walls, fitted central heating (pipes, boiler, radiators), rewiring, decorating, roofing, fixing cars, welding pretty much the whole lot really. He was an air conditioning engineer, so was used to doing things like that. I used to 'help out' but it was usually of the 'pass me that spanner/hold the hoover while I drill' type, so I can generally see and talk about what needs to be done but might not actually be able to do it myself.



Are you chucking it out? Just cut it up first with a new stanley blade. Watch your fingers (and your legs too if you're kneeling down).

Did you fit the flooring yourself or did Carpetright (or whoever) install it for you?

If a zombie had wooden flooring, would he put it down himself or get someone else to do it?

Carpet is really really thin and nasty - this is my mother's house, I rent it off her and she turned round and said "I'll replace it when your father replaces mine" and genuinely expected this carpet to stay clean - given that you couldn't even hoover it that was never going to happen. To keep the peace I said "the carpet's still there mum" when I put the lino down and she was happy. Now the flood happened I have the excuse I need to rip the fucking thing up and send her the bill for the new lino. I'm fitting it myself because this will give me major brownie points as my mother is into the whole women being self sufficient thing.

Renting of her seemed like a great idea at the time, now the house is falling to bits and she won't friggin' fix anything.

It was fitted by MEN who were subcontractors for Carpetright.

We had the kitchen floor and a bedroom carpet done at the same time and it only took about 45 minutes. Proper jahhhhb.

Actually thinking about it, I may derive a great deal of pleasure from attacking the floor with a Stanly knife while it's still down.

For the love of Pete, be careful! Wear gloves! And kneepads!

Yay, Dimmers' old sig!

Was that from anything?

I can't wait to sleep in your new kitchen. Lino over the tiles would be much warmer on my back.

From Blue Jam, a Chris Morris thing on radio 4 like a zillion years ago

Oh piss. I have Blue Jam, Jam and Jaaaaam. You'd think I would have recognised it.

You obviously did, subconciously
I think I had to ask too but I remembered the bit once it was explained.
The crazy welshmen?

Just removed old flooring an dI have officially never smelled anything so bad in my life. I was nearly crying as I tore it up it was that bad. The naked floor is covered in neat disinfectant right now. On the plus side I did not slice my hands up. New lino is here, unfortunatly the glue for it isn't yet.

Bad in what way - glue, or rot? If it's rot, and timber flooring, you may want to check it out before just putting the lino back down.

Rot and holyfuckidon'twanttoknow but the floor underneath is hard stone, not going to be putting new lino down untill I've disinfected and let it dry a few more times. Smell mostly went with the old flooring and it's warm enough to have windows and back door open.

Oh fine, if it's a concrete floor it's unlikely to be a problem.