Home renovation

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 9:19 am

HI,

Here in the UK we usually call it DIY ( do it yourself) I have a few small projects in and around the house which I have been neglecting for a while, its early summer and I m working from home for the next 6 months, I thought ill take this opportunity to try to do what I m able to do myself and learn something new and get some experience in DIY, plus I know few of you round here are good with your hands so feel free to chime in at any time and it would be great if you could share your experiences whether its painting or putting up some new decking or refurbishing something or other useful tips and tricks would be appreciated. pics would be great!!!

so this my bay window at the front of the house, the white and the black strip that goes across were looking tired and peeling off, forgot to take the pics of it before though...

i sandpapered the wood using p60 grit, and then cleaned it with soapy water and filled in the cracks with some external wood filler, waited a day and then sandpapered the wood filler down so it was flush with the wood as best as i could. I painted the white strip first, it took 3 coats of white external satin paint for the wood, looks a lot better than before I can tell you that for sure.. i did the same with the black strip that was more weather-worn and had cracks and holes in it i use the wood hardener because it was spongy and a tiny bit rotten, the wood was absorbent and i coated it three times, the next day i checked and it was surprisingly hard i tapped it with the handle side of the screwdriver a few times and it felt and sounded solid, then i painted it with the black satin paint.

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 9:23 am

i noticed the felt on top of the by the window was a bit weathered and it looked like it was lined with lead,, lead is dangerous huh, so ill have to get some encapsulating paint and paint it over at some point, lead has been banned in the UK since 1992, even though it wasn't the paint but actual lead covering which was painted with felt paint..

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 9:25 am

the front doorstep not looking too good, you can see I painted it with sandstone around 10 years ago and you can still see some of it, below it you can see some burgundy paint also painted by the previous owner of the house..

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 9:29 am

my 3rd project will be to remove all the bricks from the front driveway because I noticed weeds growing through them, I've been using a wire brush to remove all the weeds but I guess there's no weed fabric underneath or it worn out, so at some point ill have to do this too, not looking forward to it though....

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 9:51 am

the drain pipe at the back that comes down from the roof into the drain gutter 9 the bend) I noticed it was loose barely hanging on, so I got some roof and gutter sealant ( on the right of pic) going clean it first get the debris off it and then use the sealant which is a type of glue to stick them together ill use a garden brick to hold it white it sticks firm...

you know am only gonna use not even a quarter of the sealant and after a while the sealant in will get rock hard, I hear if you put nail in it, it will last longer but not 6 months or so.. people have half used caulk and mastic which just goes hard and unusable, what a waste huh

Butcher Bob · Post by **Butcher Bob** » Fri May 19, 2023 9:58 am

dill786 wrote: ↑
Fri May 19, 2023 9:29 am
my 3rd project will be to remove all the bricks from the front driveway because I noticed weeds growing through them, I've been using a wire brush to remove all the weeds but I guess there's no weed fabric underneath or it worn out, so at some point ill have to do this too, not looking forward to it though....

That's going to be a lot more involved than you think. The brick section in the pic looks to be in good shape. Looks like the weeds are growing in the cracks, rather than through the bricks. If they are just in the cracks, no weed barrier under the bricks will stop that. Dust, dirt, etc. will always find it's way into the cracks, forming "soil"...then weed seeds will find their way into that soil and grow. Their roots wouldn't need to penetrate the barrier below...the roots can just establish in spaces above the barrier. Occasional use of an herbicide sprayed in the cracks would be a lot easier.

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 10:04 am

yeh sorry, i meant the cracks/the spaces between the bricks sorry don't know the correct terminology.

yeh you're right,, they recommended that you use herbicide in August as the weeds will absorb the poison because of the lack of rain and thus will kill it quicker but it looks untidy if I wait till August, ill just use a combination of the wire brush and herbicide then....

dill786 · Post by **dill786** » Fri May 19, 2023 10:09 am

i have quarter of a bottle of glysophate, so ill use that in my sprayer

Post by **roller24** » Fri May 19, 2023 10:41 am

All you really need to do is fuck up the PH of the soil. I dumped some old cooking oil in my garden. nothing grows there.

Post by **roller24** » Fri May 19, 2023 10:50 am

I did half my interior about a 2year ago, maybe more. I should have done the whole job at once, because I never have gotten around to starting the other rooms.