Del-inquent

Looking for bright ideas. I've been asked to make a custom dish drainer, with a drain plumbed to the waste under the sink. There is only one route the drain could take and is tight to say the least. There is about 25mm gap between the window reveal and where the kitchen worktop will be (yet to be plasterboarded) that in can be permanently attached into and fed down to go under the the sink, much like an overflow, but at the end will need to do a 90 deg turn and then have some type of female fitting preferably with a push-fit seal that ends flush with the plasterboard once fitted, with a hole through plasterboard, so that the drainer can be installed but also removed when needed. I can't use copper as it needs a bit of flex to be pushed down into the void. Obviously zero water pressure and the amount of water going down it is going to be a cupful or so at most, I just can't think of any fitting that I might be able to get off the shelf that is a tight 90 deg, no bigger than 22mm and has a nice push fit seal.

with the budget in its current form I intend to close my eyes and wave the hammer around blindfolded, I can’t afford to find any more problems 😂

Had it tested a couple of weeks back, it’s not AIB just asbestos cement board, non licensed, however I am still getting someone in to do it as I don’t want to. Some things are best left to the pros.

They’re in a bad way as is the facia on one end, so work is needed regardless, plus the soffit sit on top of the window frames and have been sealed to it in the past. Ideally I wouldn’t have touched it but it has to be done

Interesting, I’d never have thought that would be sufficient on the width but I do have a habit of over-engineering everything.

No additional fixings used on yours either?!

I guess as it'll be sitting on top of the wall and pinned every 400mm (or thereabouts) plus supported by the fascia, probably should be okay. Can't put a batten on the wall as the wall stops just below soffit height lol

Would you bother with any additional support for the soffit - like ply run underneath the batten before the soffit goes on, or just straight up with some soffit?

We are having all the soffits on our Chalet Bungalow taken out shortly as they're asbestos cement and the window installers want it gone first. I'm just not sure about how to replace them, never done any on a roof structure like this before. There is nothing at all supporting the soffits at the moment, they're just sat upon the external leaf and held in place by a groove on the back of the fascia panel, nothing to attach any replacement to at all. The facia's may well be replaced as well, will have a look at the condition of them once the soffits are down as they're currently capped with UPVC (badly). Soffits are 380mm from wall to fascia. I wanted to replace them with UPVC, cheap and cheerful and as little fuss as possible and if the fascia's do need replacing (pretty likely) I'll use 18mm UPVC ones. How would you approach it?

I’ve got a small (very small) area of external blockwork that will be rendered but due to delays it’s not going to be done until next year now. I’d like to seal / prime it now, just to give it some protection from the elements. Whats a good choice of product that can be got in small quantities? Total area is only 2m2 so don’t really want to pay a fortune for a big tub that will only be binned!

Cheers both, that makes life a lot easier!

Can't get hold of the sparky and need an answer for the kitchen designer on this urgently! A slight deviation from the plan with the boiler install has meant I'm going to have to have a shallow depth cupboard (100mm deep) between countertop and underside of wall cabinets. It'll have a functional door on the front face of it. Can the grid switch for the FF / DW / Fan / Hob ignitor go INSIDE that little cupboard? It would also then make it a lot harder to accidentally switch off the fridge or freezer...

Ah got ya - I need to skim coat as the rest of the wall has lots (seriously lots) of little imperfections all over it, I just wasn't sure what to do about the couple of larger, deeper patches before skimming it. I assume from the depth that trying to do in one hit with the finishing plaster would be a bad idea (would end up 8mm deep in those places!

Thanks Russell. I have a bag of easifill sat here but wasn't sure if it was wise to put under the final skim coat or not. I'll crack on!

I did have a look before posting but didn't have much joy unfortunately! Loads on how to do the actual skim, not so much on prepping a less than ideal finish ready for it.

Quick bump, anyone got any advice before I just go for it? Be much appreciated if I could get a bit of guidance.

Disclosure - I've only done small areas of plastering before, I usually get someone in but budget doesn't allow it on this project. I'm going to be (attempting) to skim a couple of walls. They're generally sound but poor finish where previously tiled. In a couple of places, where multiple fixings had been put through the tiles, and in another where some tiles had been glued to the wall with what appears to be epoxy, the plaster came off the scratch coat. The scratch coat is still firmly adhered to the wall, but in these places the plaster was about 5mm thick. Before skimming I assume I need to fill those areas with plaster. Do I just use some of the multifinish to bring them up to level and let set completely or...? Ive also got one wall that is not very flat where a wall has previously been removed. Deviates across a 1m long section by 6mm in a vertical cup. Best way to level that off?

Had a chat with EWI today, they said primer, two layers of their base-coat applied with toothed-trowl, acrylic mesh between, I could go as low as 4mm total and it would be absolutely fine. It's like they read your comment! Cheers for putting me on the right path there @Redbeard much appreciated.

Yes just 75mm blocks without insulation. Rest of the place is full fill cavity so there will be insulation the other side of the blocks, the hope it to purely get a recessed "panel" effect so it looks planned, rather than to cover up the fact you simply can't get bricks to match. The alternative is to fully render the rear elevation and I'm really not wanting to do that!

yeah was thinking of painting it to match the houses around us, make it look sort of intentional rather than like we’ve just blocked up a doorway and we’re unable to find bricks… cheers I’ll have a look at EWI

As we can’t find anything like a close match brick wise, we are going to block our doorway up with 75mm blocks to give a 25mm set back from outer face of brickwork, then plan to put some wooden slats on for a vertical planter feature. i was hoping to smooth out and paint blockwork before we put slats on, so it doesn’t look like we’ve screwed wooden slats to a concrete block… what is the absolute thinnest option for of render? Is there any way to keep it a few mm thick only, to retain the reveal?

Not that historic, 60's ish. Definitely has a full DPM all round it, both on external and internal structural walls. I've just had a quote from one screeding company (I'm getting pushed for time and considering getting the screed itself done by a pro rather than do it a room at a time myself) but they reckon they only need 50mm deep if I go for their liquid screed. Bit pricey though!

About as air tight as colander at the moment, though in all fairness a lot of that is being rectified in the renovations. Things like the inch gap around the door frame, holes through the walls...

Noted on PIR, ta. I'm guessing those who have said about the damp (a S.E, a friend that's a surveyor, a friend that likes pissing on any ideas he didn't come up with) also are thinking of ventilation strategy, but I'm not sure what I'll need. It's having new windows at some point but I doubt the trickle vents are going to pass as much ventilation as the single glazed, glass falling out, rotten twisted framed wooden ones in there at the moment.

I'm guessing because at the moment the house leaks like a barn with the doors open and this will cure one of those areas of ventilation 😅 Seriously now the carpets are down we could use the place as a vertical wind tunnel. Not so bad in the summer but winter was... testing.