Rich

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 doo

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

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 en

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

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

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

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 up

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 probab

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

So, what exactly is the "Going green - energy efficiency and recycling" forum all about. Well, without meaning to patronize, its exactly what it says on the tin! Share all your ideas, info and findings on how to go green, be greener, save energy consumption or even generate your own energy.. Also, lets here all your thoughts, arguments, news and trends on recycling and tell us if you recycle and how? It does seem that every council in the UK has a different way of recycling so lets here how your council does it and do they make it easy for you? Lets here absolutely everything you have on doing

Hey Griff so how much did they charge you for the drill bit in the end if the other place wanted

I got one of these 109 piece drill/driver sets recently and managed to score a bit of a bargain from eBay buy snagging it for

Hey Griffsp Thats actually something I never thought of.... Might go get something like this from screwfix then.. Wiha Contractor Diamond Bit Set 10Pc Pretty cheap @

This thread is for anybody who owns the DEWALT DC385 18v XRP Reciprocating Saw: Retail price for the DEWALT DC385 18v XRP Reciprocating Saw is around £200 so lets here from anybody who has one and what you get up to with it, how much you paid for it and what its like to work with?

This thread is for anybody who owns the DEWALT DC390 18v XRP Circular Saw: The current retail price for the DEWALT DC390 is around