Recent content by 88v8

Urrgh, I was thinking that it might be a hundred years or more. It's not worth doing anything about the render until you know why it's cracked. Are the cracks all in much the same area? Or distributed around the house? Are there similar houses nearby? Is it on an estate? Have a look, see if...

The render is cracking. Was it cracked before it was painted? How old is the house? No use filling or painting over it, it will crack again. Yes, to a degree you do need to worry as damp will get in behind the render and eventually the render will start to blow off, especially if we have a...

A bit late, dare say you have done summat by now... I would sand it with a detail sander, see if you can flat it to a taper edge. Then try one drop of the lining paper and see. If you are wallpapering over the lining paper, I would think you'd be OK. Matt paint, perhaps OK. Anything shiny...

That second one looks like a plasterboard join that should have been scrimmed, or perhaps over a stud. In a corner or against wood for instance, I use decorator's caulk, in a tube, flexible and seems to last well. In plaster, good old Polyfilla, the powder stuff, it goes off quickly, grips...

Painting an old internal door. Part old paint, part sanded to bare wood. Oil primer, oil undercoat, Sikkens AZ oil topcoat, all of which I've used before. After sanding, I used a tack rag before painting. Sanded between coats as well of course, and tack rag again. The rags, kept in their...

Spray in warm dry conditions. Several light coats. Observe the time between coats, as per the can. That way it will last.

After removing the paint, electric fittings can be polished up like new with Solvol Autosol metal polish. On woodwork, try sanding the paint down, see if you can get a sharp edge. If you can, then repaint, but if it keeps flaking then the adhesion is not good, burn it off and start again...

Bad luck! It's a pain finding that the PO was a decorating slob. Where it's loose you'll be able to get a scraper behind it and take most of it off in sheets. Where it's stuck, you either rub down to a fine edge, or take it off with stripper, I used Peelaway 7 which doesn't need neutralising...

So, thankyou, I got as far as cutting out some of the grout, then the project evolved as one might say, and in the end no tiles were removed. One reason was that although the tiles are white, or appear white, it seems there are a gazillion shades of white, and I couldn't match them. Doesn't...

Google, a source of dodgy ideas sometimes, but here is this chap using a multitool to get behind the tiles. Albeit they are quite newly affixed. I could try that... and the water. I'll let you know.

I need to remove three 6x3" tiles from the top of a row. Preferably unbroken. I'm raising the tiling height above them and I can't just go on up as they are rolled edge so the grout won't stick or will look too thick. I'm also concerned about loosening the nearby tiles. I've cut out the grout...

Over what height? Leaving aside potential issues with shower enclosures that may be harder to fit alongside a leaning wall, if the wall is flat, the lean doesn't matter, the adhesive will easily cope. If it's a bit wavy it's easier to lose the waves with smaller tiles. Otherwise you have the...

Interesting, thankyou.... As a rule I've been using the shower on its middle setting, but a few weeks ago I turned it up to high which is 9kw. Perhaps that accelerated the failure. It seems rather odd that a switch should be so poor at switching. Just as well light switches work better. I...

Our 9kw Mira shower has just eaten a second pullcord switch in ... not many years. An MK, in this case, about 3 years old. The neon glows faintly, but no power to the shower. I switch it off after each use. Do I need to, or can I just leave it on?

Quadrant... was it this? And did you stick it to the tiles, or to the wall beneath the bottom row of tiles? And what did you stick it with? It does of course depend on the wall and the tiling being near perfectly flat. I guess silicone may be OK if one uses it regularly and knows how to get a...