Whats your.....

[Globalti]

Two bathrooms and a downstairs loo, gutted and completely replumbed and refitted. Somebody else did the wiring and plastering.

Here's the downstairs loo before; smelly, gopping, dark and completely unsuitable for bog reading: (note the box to the right of the pan where the soil pipe came forward before going down through the floor)

And after, clean, fresh and well lit:

I even put a nice little home urinal at the other end for boys to use:

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Forgive me, but when I first read that post I had this image in my mind!

Similar, but with a lot more swearing!

 

[661-Pete]

Two bathrooms and a downstairs loo, gutted and completely replumbed and refitted. Somebody else did the wiring and plastering.

A few years ago when we had a new bathroom built I wired up the lighting myself. Including correctly threading the wires into trunking and neatly sinking into the walls, then re-plastering over the channels. Not allowed to do that now. B***y H&S jobsworths think they know it all better than I do!

Mind you, until a few years ago all electrical appliances were sold in UK without plugs (remember how the man at Currys always used to ask "will you be needing a plug for that sir/madam?"). Which meant that every householder no matter how unskilled had to play at amateur electrician from time to time. Sometimes with disastrous outcomes (I knew a chap who was a TV service engineer, doing house calls. He told me a tale or two about plug wiring nightmares!). At least that has been legislated out now...

And after, clean, fresh and well lit:

Looks fine, but why oh why is it standard* practice to hide the cistern away in a box or in the wall, so that you can't get at it for if the ball-cock sticks or similar reason?

Personally I prefer the old-fashioned high-level cistern and chain. At least that sort never blocked...

*should that be "Ideal Standard practice"?

 

[Globalti]

Looks fine, but why oh why is it standard* practice to hide the cistern away in a box or in the wall, so that you can't get at it for if the ball-cock sticks or similar reason?

Personally I prefer the old-fashioned high-level cistern and chain. At least that sort never blocked...

I know - it's a Geberit cistern, German I think and we've got three in the house, all hidden. So far they've been 100% reliable. You can remove the top and take out the working bits from above. There's no ball, just a tiddly little plastic float.

 

[postman]

Went to paint a small bedroom for a female at church .

Still here 20 years later.

Married her .

 

[ChrisKH]

You name it, I've tackled it. Some great bodge jobs but equally surpassed myself with others.

I'm particularly proud of the carpet tiles I laid in my last house which were industrial sized (i.e. the type you find in offices) which I cut by hand using a Stanley Knife and laid overnight. With a broken & dislocated left shoulder. I told Mrs KH my shoulder was hurting, but she wouldn't believe me until I took my shirt off to go to bed. The agreement was I could play rugby but only if I laid the tiles afterwards.

 

[montage]

superglued a mates locker shut

 

[TheDoctor]

I made an interior door out of tongue-and-groove once.
Inspired by this, I made a worktop out of thicker tongue-and-groove for on top of a fitted set of units in the dressing room.
And I once made a front pannier rack out of the handles from a Tesco shopping basket I found in the garden.

 

[661-Pete]

Probably the toughest DIY assignment I ever did, was tiling the bathroom floor - the same bathroom that I mentioned doing the wiring for.

Problem was, the builders had installed and plumbed in the basin and WC pedestals, resting straight on the bare floor screed, before I got in to start laying tiles. That meant I had to tile around the pedestals rather than under them as is normal practice. That meant a lot of cutting around curves.

Tip. If anyone is considering taking on this sort of job, beg, borrow, or hire a powered tile cutter. I tried to do it all by hand with a simple tile saw. It took hours to cut even a single tile. And the wastage! I remember how one tile snapped in half just as I was completing a complex curved cut on it. I must have sat down and wept. But in the end I still used that tile, laying down the two pieces and grouting in the crack. Luckily the break was mostly concealed behind the pedestal. It's still there, as I write this.

Never again.

 

[4F]

Fitted a kitchen. Had serious reservations however when the truck with all the boxes turned up and wondereing what the hell I had taken on but 7 days later all finished. Hardest thing was plumping in the dish washer due to choosing the location right next to the stack pipe. A few evenings of swearing later and all sorted.

 

[simonali]

Mind you, until a few years ago all electrical appliances were sold in UK without plugs (remember how the man at Currys always used to ask "will you be needing a plug for that sir/madam?"). Which meant that every householder no matter how unskilled had to play at amateur electrician from time to time. Sometimes with disastrous outcomes (I knew a chap who was a TV service engineer, doing house calls. He told me a tale or two about plug wiring nightmares!). At least that has been legislated out now...

I remember a chap I worked with bringing in a Flymo strimmer from home, complaining it kept tripping out the MCB at his house. When I checked inside the plug he had stripped all 3 cables right back to the outer sheath and they were all touching together in the plug housing!

 

[Maz]

I really like working with plywood. here is Sammy; who works for me sat a recently made flat pack for storage plywood picnic table that I made:

My Ferret box:

and one of the several plywood boats that I have built:

These are just fantastic. I love the boat. Was that made with a template or your own design? I wish I had a workshop to do stuff like that.

 

[661-Pete]

I remember a chap I worked with bringing in a Flymo strimmer from home, complaining it kept tripping out the MCB at his house. When I checked inside the plug he had stripped all 3 cables right back to the outer sheath and they were all touching together in the plug housing!

And I remember a colleague, who was a competent electrician, telling me about a friend of his who only thought he was. This friend brought in a record player for my colleague to look at. It had no earth lead and a metal case, but the friend had got around that by connecting the casing to the neutral wire from the mains. His argument was, "well the neutral is joined to earth at the substation, isn't it?"

Anyone here care to explain the flaw in that?