Graham's Top Tips

[FamilyWiggs]

Of that list I've never tried roofing, but I'd give it a go if I could try a small one to start with .....

... and if you were on your own you'd be getting your welding mask, chainsaw trousers and plumbing hat on.

Zebra, please don't go up a ladder onto the roof after donning that lot!!! :shock:

 

[LadyArowana]

There is no shame in getting good tradesmen in though - I can lay bricks for example to a reasnoble standard, but a decent bricklayer can do it to at least a comparable standard and 10 times more quickly than I can!

Time is always the issue for me. I wouldnt mind giving some things a go, but simply can't take ages over it at the moment. I quite enjoyed being on site every day when we renovated the apartment and the builder was happy for me to assist. In fact, more than happy when there were awkward jobs better suited to tiny hands..... the light fitting for example that had to have it's individual little globes attached to the frame, and the edges of some oak steps/ sills that needed finishing. I was surprised how much similarity there was between making jewellery and DIY actually. The tools are like huge versions of what is used on a bench, and even the soldering the plumber was doing worked in the same way. Getting electrical wires through tricky places also little different to trying to thread a cord through a particularly difficult bead or carving and so rather than a dental floss "thing" we used a bit of plastic trunking .... worked well, much to the electricans surprise.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It's hard as a girl though, there's lots that just seems impossible. I wouldn't do roofing, plastering, welding, soldering, tiling, chainsawing, wiring, plumbing, brick-laying, log-splitting

Nonsense nonsense nonsense. Many things may seem impossible to start with, it's just a question of getting going. Of that list I've never tried roofing, but I'd give it a go if I could try a small one to start with (leaving aside for now the matter of how good it might turn out!). I'd never tried any of those before I tried them.

Perhaps it's having a clearly very capable man around that makes you leave it to him, and if you were on your own you'd be getting your welding mask, chainsaw trousers and plumbing hat on.

I'm going on a lime plastering course on Friday, so excited!!!

All the very best with your course, I am quite jealous, and admire your spirit very much! I suppose I do get lazy and leave a lot to Chris that I could do myself, but then again, he doesn't do one single domestic duty so it's fairly balanced.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Reading back on this thread, I wonder if Joce ever found the reason for the hot water from the cold tap?

The only time I had this, it was a faulty central heating pump which led to an over-enthusiastic oil-fired Esse over-heating. The emergency overflow had been plumbed to go back into the cold water header tank, so when the water boiled in the Esse, it overflowed to the cold system, the cold system heated and we got hot water out of the bathroom cold taps (kitchen colds were on the rising main). On that model of Esse, the burner was gravity-fed with no thermal cut-out on the fuel feed.

Interesting - but I don't think that's what's going on in my case. Somehow, beciause no non-return valves were fitted and the two water systems are very very low, they get intermingled. The supposedly clean well water that goes through an expensive filter is coming out bright yellow -it must be mixed with the rain system. We don't dare drink it.

 

[Zebra]

I suppose I do get lazy and leave a lot to Chris that I could do myself, but then again, he doesn't do one single domestic duty so it's fairly balanced.

Of course, if you were to divorce him, I'm sure it would do wonders for your DIY skills. Now, why didn't I go into relationship counselling?!

 

[Feltwell]

Genuinely a top tip......

If buying linseed paint from a decorator's merchants rather than mail order, get them to put the tin in the "shaking machine" they use with their tinting machine to mix ordinary emulsion, and give it a good shake up.

Why? Linseed paint seperates on standing, you end up eventually with a sludge of all the pigments at the bottom of the tin and pure linseed oil at the top. The Holkham tins always seem to be full to the very top - so they are a sod to stir properly the first time without spilling some!

I ran out of paint just before putting the last coat on a pair of driveway gates. Bought a new tin, mixed it as best I could without spilling any, it looked OK in the tin so the first coat went on one gate. The next day I gave the now not-quite-so-full tin a good mix and gave the other gate a final coat.

The first gate it turns out had too much linseed oil and not enough pigment, so instead of a nice buttermilk colour it came out looking tobacco stained from the yellowness of the linseed oil - it looked like the once-upon-a-time long ago white ceiling above a smoker's armchair, not nice. The second gate looked fine.

So, rather than hanging my new gates today, I've had to give the first one yet another coat - this will be the fifth..... :roll:

 

[Penners]

Top tip from me (somewhat belated, perhaps :wink: ): don't paint your gates! Just oil them. If you paint them you're simply booking yourself a tedious repainting job in a few years time (although linseed paint should put off that evil day for a few extra years).

 

[Feltwell]

Might be OK with hardwood Penners, but with softwood I reckon they need the paint. I suspect oiled softwood wouldn't stay looking good for too long.

 

[Penners]

I suppose that depends on your definition of "looking good". Granted it wouldn't look pristine after its first winter, but if you're happy for your wood to look silver/grey (which I am) then you shouldn't be too ashamed of it. Re-oiling after a few years is just a matter of filling up an old spray bottle with teak oil and squirting it around. Or use a brush for less waste.

You may by now have gained the impression that, at Penners Towers, labour-saving takes precendence over aesthetic niceties. You would be right!

 

[Feltwell]

I think it depends on the surroundings of the gate. If the gates were down the side of a house or for an entrance not directly next to the front of the house then no paint is fine, but for a gateway between fairly "formal" brick piers fronting the road in front of a typical late Victorian suburban house - I'm not convinced oiled softwood would look right, I think you'd have to either stain it to look like hardwood or paint them. No rights or wrongs as ever, only opinions!

I shall post a picture up when done, as you lovely lot helped me in the choice of gates in the first place....

 

[Penners]

for a gateway between fairly "formal" brick piers fronting the road in front of a typical late Victorian suburban house - I'm not convinced oiled softwood would look right

I think you're absolutely right. In "formal" urban surroundings like that, it would look a little too bucolic. Which is why I so much love living out in the Back Of Beyond, where such niceties are meaningless!

 

[Feltwell]

You can't keep a good thread down.....

Top tip - when sending instructions on how a fuel tanker for use in the Middle East should be signwritten, make sure that the person who is going to make and put the stickers on
a) Can read & understand English
b) Can spell
c) Is not completely stupid.

 

[Penners]

In 2010:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259745/Welsh-road-sign-error-Swansea-Councils-office-email-reply-ends-road-sign.html

 

[Feltwell]

When I went upstairs last night to say goodnight to my daughter, I was greeted with "Dad - my radio's broken, the words sound really funny." She'd tuned to a Welsh-language station by mistake.

 

[Penners]

Tell her it's what people sound like when their tongues are broken.

If that doesn't bring Gervase and/or FW out of the woodwork, nothing will... :wink:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Welsh is a beautiful sounding language.*

Rwy'n cymryd y tir uchel moesol!

8)


*From a distance of about 25 miles

 

[Feltwell]

*From a distance of about 25 miles

That's about where I am then

 

[Penners]

Welsh is a beautiful sounding language.

From a distance of about 25 miles

Which, coincidentally, is almost exactly the distance at which bagpipes sound melodious.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Which coincidentally is also the distance at which the 6 fingers and 3 thumbs of your average Norfolk native appear to be the regular five-digit hand.

(Dons tin hat and ducks for cover) 8)

 

[Feltwell]

I would if I was you - you're just within striking distance from where I am :twisted: