Rich

Hiya reallylight

Have you got any "Before" photo's, so you can show us the "After" version later?

Hi,

I used to run a forum and always found it best to start off with only a few forums, just to make it all look more active. At the moment having so many forums but not many posters just makes things look a bit empty and uninviting.

Small groups of people shouldnt be limited to there discussion by what others think they should talk about right?

Dont look at it as not having many posters, look at it as all the different things you surely have an opinion on?

If your not posting in any of the forums, then we assume you have no opinions on anything?

This is pretty difficult to offer advice on because you will need to book an appointment with your local building inspector who will need to assess this type of floor before the slab is cast so, once you've got your damp-proof course and membranes are ready, book an appointment with them so they can come and examine the installation work.

Hi

Please can someone give me a step by step guide to lay a concrete floor for my conservatory, I'm confident I know how to do but just need reassurance, I'm also wanting to lay piping down for under floor heating, the type you connect to the radiator.

Thanks!!

Hi there

The first thing you should do is check to see if your conservatory needs planning permissions, and if so, seek guidance from the planning department at your local council.

Many councils have varying regulations and the type of sub-soil your property is built on can also affect the requirements.

Where we live for example, all properties are built on clay, so foundations dont need to be as deep, nor require as much re-enforcement as the same type of property built on soft soil for example.

So, first point of contact, get in touch with the council.

Nice one Alan, thats a great tool for saving hours of mess with actual paint brushes.

Welcome Alan, great website you have there.

Hiya John

Welcome to TDF, glad you stopped by. Who is your mystery builder?

I guess you will want to keep him a secret while he's working for you now?

Hi John

Welcome to TDF, glad you found us and decided to join up...

Thats quite a career so far. What exactly were you doing in the navy woodworking? I cant imagine many post's in the navy for a carpenter or joiner

All the best

Richie

To anybody reading what this knobhead has written, they were TOLD in advance NOT to spam our website or post email addresses, but ignored it for their own benefit, so what would they do with a makeover on your property..

Will they listen to you? Of course not, their going to do what suits them.

So, to the knobheads at -=talkbackThames=-

Hi Alan

You can get a lead paint test kit from:

If you would like to purchase a Lead Test Kit, please contact:-

J.H. Ratcliffe & Co. (Paints) Ltd.

Telephone: 01704 537999

As listed on the Focus website here:

Removing Old Lead Paint Safely at Focus

Well, I'll get the ball rolling with my own review of:

Ray Hallet Carpentry from South London.

Having recently purchased my own house, the front and rear doors of the property were not in great shape and needed replacing as soon as possible, so I ordered my new doors and frames from XL Joinery but they were solid oak doors and frames, and pretty expensive too.

Despite being a very nifty hand at DIY, this was one job I just did NOT want to do, as these doors were a 2 man job, and I had 200 other things to take care of, so after treating and priming the doors, the timber yard I purchased the doors from gave me a recommendation, who was too busy, but recommended another carpenter, Ray Hallet from Battersea.

After arranging to come and look at the job, I specifically made it crystal clear to him on the inspection that both the doors and frames need installing and finishing, and the only thing I should be left with is to paint the doors.

Ray assured me that this was not a problem and that both doors could be done in 1 day as he would bring his father with him but would cost

Hey Drystone...

Plumbing pipe (20mm blue plastic) is only

Right, well despite what you may have heard or been told, Estate agents are a fast dying breed as there is absolutely NO legal requirement for them at all in the purchase or sale of a property.

All you need is a good solicitor (Preferably both parties using the same company) and everything goes so much quicker.

Especially as they charge these nutty rates of around 3%

So what have you heard or been told about estate agents and there requirement in any sales / purchases?

ok, so here is a little peice of advice when dealing with builders and the materials needed to complete a job...

ALWAYS DEMAND RECEIPTS FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE INITIAL ESTIMATE!

I have a builder working for me at the moment, and in the course of the job to replace our entire bathroom it was discovered that our incoming water mains pipe needs replacing due to bad flow and a kinked lead pipe.

So my builder tells me he can replace the problematic section under our living room floor for

If you think about it for a moment, trying to put a high enough current through the battery to weld the tag to it is at least going to shag it out and at most make the battery explode in your face.

Hey

Excellent point Nigel, highlights my point about soldering instead of welding.

Soldering only relies on heat, of which you can easily keep away from the batteries by actually soldering the small joining tab first and putting it in place before the solder sets, whereas welding is just asking for trouble.

Even without the current, the extreme heat (Albeit for a few seconds) would damage the battery as batteries do have small temperature limits (Check with each battery for these) but also, as Nigel says, welding relies on passing a current through the item to generate its heat, so you WILL end up with a dead battery, but one thats really well held together though

Thanks Bob

I think a picture of what your doing here might actually speak a thousand words.... Show us what your doing?

Hi Bedge

When you say external faces, I assume you mean the outside edge of your fireplace, the parts that face into the room, not the parts that have the woodburner beside it right?

If so, this would be better off if it was plastered properly instead of just plasterboard, as plasterboard dries out even more and becomes very brittle when heated to the degree that will probably happen if its next to a woodburning fireplace, although modern fireplaces are really well designed and throw heat directly out the front but you may want to consider heatproof screed.

Why not post a photo of the area in question so were all clear on what your intending on doing?

Hiya Black bob, welcome to TheDIYforum

I assume your referring to "Calcium batteries" which ideally shouldnt be spot welded as this is too hot and will damage the batteries.

You will often find that these are simply soldered together, then the strength to hold them together comes from the plastic that you shrink over them which holds them all together.

The solder is mostly just to ensure good electrical contact and isnt actually for any strength, and if you have any old cordless telephones, take out the battery pack and once you remove the plastic wrappings you should see that the connections are simply lightly soldered, especially where the batteries are not all in a straight line, little peices of copper are soldered over the terminals to join them together.

See the image I've attached to show a typical rechargable battery pack for a radio controlled plane.

Hope this helps Bob?

Got one of these, and they last forever on 1 battery!

I did some nice new 14mm oak flooring and managed to make every cut for 2 whole rooms on just one battery and it still wasnt dead.

The blade it comes with is really good quality and I've used this to cut full sheet 18mm plywood subflooring too without any hassle, and it doesnt splinter the plywood too if you push it through fast enough.

Managed to lay an entire upstairs subfloor in 18mm plywood and didnt have to go outside to cut anything, just cut the full sheets in place and drop them on the floor and the DC390 just loves it.

For a small circular saw, its fairly lightweight, but cuts through full 18mm plywood sheets at amazing speed, and yet is cool enough to also do 14mm oak flooring without splintering the edges..

This is 100 times better than my old Black and decker firestorm circular saw

(Incidentally, the B&D burnt out trying to cut through plywood sheet)

The safety catch on it is a pain in the arse though, its a bit fiddly, right when you line up the blade to start cutting, pulling on the safety catch is akward

Damn good peice of kit though.. worth the cash

Yet again, I bought one of these in my 7 peice kit and was not really too sure what the heck I would ever use it for but it came in the kit anyway so what the hell!

Turns out this beast has got me out of a few tight spots when removing all the old nasty floorboards in my house where I didnt want to disturb the plumbing pipes around the radiators

All the floorboards in my house seem to have been put down with the radiator pipes coming up through a tightly cut hole in the old floorboards, rather than having a floorboard cut around the pipe (Original floorboards from the 1930's)

Just flip it upside down and let the blade go down through the floorboard beside the pipe and bingo, floorboard comes out without disturbing the pipes, and you can cut right up to the wall with it too

Takes the same 18v battery as the DC925 drill and again it is a bit heavy but this is really made for heavy duty jobs anyway.

I've also buzzed through lots of the branches on a tree right outside my kitchen window too and got the job done in minutes...

Cant praise these tools enough, you definately get what you pay for...

Hey everyone...

Well, about 4 months ago I splashed out on one of these monsters and I have to say, the first thing I noticed once I got my hands on it was how god damn bloody heavy it is! This thing weighs a ton!

However, this was soon found to be for a good reason... Its built like a tank...

Dewalt's saying of "Built tough" is an understatement...

This has ripped through old cement ceilings in seconds, goes into brick like it was butter and the weight of it keeps it feeling extremely stable regardless of what its drilling into...

If it was much lighter, I think the torque alone would probably break your wrist as it is extremely powerful for just an 18 volt cordless on 2.6ah

I've even gone through 8 inches of concrete with it when putting in a new water mains pipe through the living room sub-floor and it didnt stop once or show any strain

The hammer drill action on it is totally awsome for heavy jobs like that.

My builder who seems to turn up everyday with huge boxes of "Makita" equipment has often asked to borrow my Dewalt DC925 when he has something serious to take care of, like making the new 9 inch waste pipe hole in the outside wall....

Yes I know, a 9 inch waste pipe hole in an outside cavity wall sounds a bit much for an 18volt cordless but I asked him to try it and see if it could do it...

His reaction was that his 24v SDS would not have gone through it as easily or as quickly

One thing I did find excellent too was how easy it is to fix these things if something minor goes wrong.

I made a bunch of 86mm holes in my ceiling for downlighters, but as you can imagine, drilling upwards with a huge hole cutter means what went up, must come down, straight into the trigger of the new DC925!

Next thing I know, my trigger is stuck and the drill wont switch off as bits of plaster and board all got jammed in the trigger, but not to worry...

Just undo the screws holding the entire handle together and the entire handle opens up so you can clean out any crud with either a can of compressed air or just blow it out and scrw it back together, worked a treat

So, if you want something that can drill through almost anything, ignore what dewalt recommend using it for, its far better than their recommendations, but it is VERY HEAVY! so you will need a bit of muscle to carry it to where you want to use it.

I wouldnt recommend it as a cordless screwdriver though, its just too heavy for this if frequently used as a screwdriver

I would without any reservation recommend the Dewalt DC925 to anybody who wants a drill for life, this thing totally kicks ass over ANYTHING you will find in B&Q

Anyway, if you want to get it at an excellent price, just look on ebay for them, I bought my 7 peice Dewalt kit on ebay and everything is excellent, even the price!

Hey Drystone..

Thats an awsome treehouse based on the conditions you had to work in, and the materials given!

whats holding the cross sections of the supporting timbers together, is it just nails?

You could have used some of your instant grab on it to seal the joins in the roof too?

Do they actually use it?

Hey Drystone

This sounds like a great idea and sounds like it will work perfectly well.

It might be best to use speedfit plumbing for this as its flexible, and relatively cheap, and very easy to just push all the connections together.

It also comes apart in seconds too if you ever need to remove it during winter.

Be sure to take some snaps and show us how you get on if you do set this up

This thread is for anybody who owns the DeWalt DW703 Mitre Saw:

Retail price for the DeWalt DW703 Mitre Saw is around

Hey all

Heres a great invention for the home owner looking to save some serious cash!

Wind Turbine electricity generators from Windsave.com

I was in B&Q were I first saw these and after chasing staff around the store looking for info on these, it was easier just to call the company themselves.

They charge