Musings on DIY

[Anna Kettle]

I've just had a very satisfactory afternoon hauling ivy off flint walls. I find demolition the most enjoyable part of DIY. Licensed nay creative vandalism. And its not exactly complicated. So long as I remember not to do my back in or pull the wall down, then I can't go wrong.

For several years I have been doing Decorative and Conservation Lime Plasterwork and no DIY at all. Suddenly I remember what DIY is like. Always the novice at doing a job. And when I've finished I look at my work and think that I will make a much better job of it next time.

I've not done a garden shed roof before and the instructions say "Put a thin strip of roofing felt along the ridge" Anna thinks "No I can have a full width piece of roofing felt going right over. And its just lifted off which I suspect is Bernoulli effect and a thin rdge strip would do better.

Yesterday was plumbing which I've done before. Replacing Kitchen Taps. I still cursed at the cramped conditions and wished I could get right in the cupboard and look at the tap at the same time.

Anna

-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plasterwork, plaster conservation / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling and pargeting |____|

07976 649862

[PoP]

You want to try bath taps then. I haven't yet come across a set of bath taps which make the job of connecting/disconnecting simple.

And I do have all the plumbing tools for doing this job.

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Witchy]

"finished?" What is this 'finished' you talk about? :) If I was on me own I'd get something built and functional (and safe) and wouldn't bother about decoration other than a few licks of paint. Mrs Witchy is the one that keeps on at me to get some mouldings or nice decorative bits of wood to make it look finished......which I do and THEN think it looks nice.

If I'd built our shed following the destructions it would've fallen apart the first time it was hit by wind :)

Yup, and like PoP says, bath taps.....grrr.....

-- cheers,

witchy/binarydinosaurs

[Dave Plowman]

I've often wondered why there are so many different sizes of nuts in plumbing, given that the pipe sizes and threads are standard. I prefer to use ordinary spanners that fit correctly, and it needs metric AF and Whitworth ones to guarantee a decent fit between makes.

[mark]

Nevermind the taps where were you lot when I was sorting my bath out fall and got my hand stuck inside the hole the pipe goes out of between the bath and the supply pipes. ;-)

Since I escaped the spiders must have seen the bath is plumbed in as there were three in it this morning...

Mark S.

[Anna Kettle]

Lots of wind last night and when it was light this morning I looked at the damage to the shed roof. The roofing felt has all come off now but the plastic sheeting underneath is intact though for how much longer I don't know as more wind is forecast and I can't do anything about laying more roofing felt until next Saturday.

Thats another DIY thing. With a proper job I'm back there the next day...

Today I have expert visitors coming for lunch and to tell me all about the intricacies of my timber frame. Hopefully by this evening I shall know what was attached to two of the posts before the first floor was put in, the mystery something got in the way and was hacked off. Also why another post has diagonal peg holes in it. I do like the detective work of investigating this house.

Anna

-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plasterwork, plaster conservation / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling and pargeting |____|

07976 649862

[Rick Dipper]

The best way to do bath taps, if before you fit the bath, put long flexable connectrs on them, then fit the bath. Its a bitch if they leek ........

Rick

[PoP]

That's precisely what I've been doing recently. Works a treat, and makes future maintenance so much easier!

However I guess that "real plumbers" would scorn the idea.

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Witchy]

I'm praying you've got a very old solid timber framed house that you're happy living in but have a few naggling questions about its construction several hundred years ago as opposed to a Kevin McCloud stylee disaster that happened during the strong winds :)

-- cheers,

witchy/binarydinosaurs

[Anna Kettle]

So am I! and I hope my strong wind disaster is confined to the shed. The house has been trying to fall down ever since it was built over

500 years ago because it is just slightly higher than the local fen which it is drifting towards. In 1976 a brick garage and kitchen extension was built as a buttress so that problem is under control. I (and my surveyor) am more concerned about the gable end tie beam which has been cut, but as that happened in 1800 at the latest I expect it will last until warmer weather brings the timber framers out of their sheds.

Anna

-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plasterwork, plaster conservation / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling and pargeting |____|

07976 649862