So here's the thing , how do i seal a kitchen work surface?

[worms]

pumice powder

Going off topic, but does anyone know where you can get real pumice stone? Not the reconstituted "mice" that you get in the chemists'. I need a new one for cleaning my Rayburn plate, having now worn away the one that I picked up on a beach a long time ago in a place far away.

 

[sidd]

Interesting. I might get one myself.
http://shop.opal-london.com/oval-pumice-on-a-rope-175-p.asp

 

[worms]

Interesting. I might get one myself.
http://shop.opal-london.com/oval-pumice-on-a-rope-175-p.asp

Thanks, Sidd. Looks like the right beastie! I knew someone on here would have the answer!

 

[sidd]

It wasn't the easiest Google!

"pumice stone" didn't find it
"real pumice stone" only found some in the US
"not reconstituted pumice stone" got it

 

[Penners]

most 'normal' people tend not to live in the midst of such decrepitude. I'm working on it, but it's deceptively easy to 'relax into' such an environment.

That sounds like a very healthy attitude to me. When all is said and done, all you're missing is the 'veneer' of respectability. What difference does a skim of plaster make to what's really important in life?

As for decrepitude, there'll come a day (a long way ahead in your case!) when it will be your daily companion. :wink:

 

[skier-hughes]

Sounds like your 'temporary' worktop might be slipping into permanence. :wink:

Nope.... wood for new worktop has arrived..... so when the bedroom is finished work will recommence on kitchen and worktop will be done hoefully by Xmas, but why put new worktop in place when old temporary one is used for so many diy jobs instead of a workmate!!!!!

 

[Penners]

kitchen and worktop will be done hoefully by Xmas

Ah yes, but - as the old saying goes - which Christmas? :wink:

 

[Flyfisher]

most 'normal' people tend not to live in the midst of such decrepitude. I'm working on it, but it's deceptively easy to 'relax into' such an environment.

That sounds like a very healthy attitude to me. When all is said and done, all you're missing is the 'veneer' of respectability. What difference does a skim of plaster make to what's really important in life?

Very true - and far better, anyway, to have bare but sound walls than superficially clean and smooth ones that hide a crumbling wreck.

As for personal decrepitude being a long way off, I'd like to think so, but the nasty bump that my knee recently endured is certainly taking its time to heal and seems very attached to the limp it has bestowed on me. Aches and pains certainly seem to take longer to sort themselves out these days.

 

[Penners]

Ouch! Knees are nasty, complicated mechanisms. I suspect that all that roofing probably didn't help yours. Roofers are notorious for their clapped-out knees.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

kitchen and worktop will be done hoefully by Xmas

Ah yes, but - as the old saying goes - which Christmas? :wink:

As a project timescale I have to admit that "Christmas" worries me - it is far too specific and SWMBO can hold one to account if you fall into that trap. I've started to define projects in terms of seasons - Summer, Autumn ,etc. If really pushed to narrow it down, I may commit to "Late Summer".

A chap has to have some flexibility for the unforeseen cropping up - such as England making it past the last 16 for instance.

 

[biffvernon]

Back, briefly, to the difference between old and new softwoods, I've recently been making changes to some stud-walls, removing bits of existing and adding bits of new. This photo shows the rather dramatic difference between the old and new 3x2-inch framing timbers. I'll let you guess which is which.

It's not really a matter of old wood or new wood. If you are a commercial timber grower for whom time is money it is easy to see that you are going to have to charge about fifteen times as much for the right hand (in Fly's photo) timber than the left. There are, of course, lots of different species of softwood and some grow faster than others. In different environments the same species will grow at different rates. The further north the colder and therefore the slower, other things being equal. Generally the original forests of Scandinavia grew more slowly than the cultivated plantations that now replace them. Much of the 19th century and earlier timber came from wild forest while almost all now comes from managed plantations.

 

[Flyfisher]

Yes, I agree with all that, and Penners' earlier comments about horses for courses. All fair comments.

My real point in contrasting the two timbers was to highlight the difference between the quality of timber used for the same purpose these days compared to many decades ago. Perhaps fast-grown timber simply wasn't available back then or perhaps our original stud-walls were built to Rolls-Royce standards?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Or perhaps the Victorians cut down and used all the slow-grown forests, and the economics favoured replacement with fast growing varieties?

No sense of the environmental impact of their actions, those Victorians! :roll:

 

[biffvernon]

Or perhaps the Victorians cut down and used all the slow-grown forests, and the economics favoured replacement with fast growing varieties?

No sense of the environmental impact of their actions, those Victorians! :roll:

Absolutely! I'm sitting at a table made from a pretty fair sized mahogany tree that some early 19th century axeman saw fit to destroy.

 

[Flyfisher]

Nevermind that tree, it could be argued that, by presiding over the industrial revolution, the Victorians sowed the seeds of destruction for the entire planet.
Ah, the good old days. :wink:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Maybe the Luddites had a point after all.

 

[Feltwell]

That's something I worry about here whereby I finish a few jobs, become quite pleased with myself and then become quite oblivious of the fact that part of a fallen-down ceiling still needs repair, or that some of the walls are still stripped of their cement/gypsum that was removed two years ago to let them dry out. It's only when I get strange looks from visitors that I'm jolted back to realising that most 'normal' people tend not to live in the midst of such decrepitude. I'm working on it, but it's deceptively easy to 'relax into' such an environment.

I completely agree - you stop seeing things after a while! Or perhaps you know they need doing, they just become gradually less important and slip down the list of jobs as you notice them less and less. With me this especially applies with decorating and finishing touches such as hanging pictures - sorry Joce & Nigel! This is where one of my very blunt friends comes in useful - I don't see her that often as she lives quite a way from me, but when she does come round she will say "haven't you plastered that wall yet?" or similar.

Luckily I can always get her back, seeing as how they plastered their kitchen wall 10 years ago and still haven't decorated! :lol: