Spinny

ok thanks. We have chosen a high power motor for the extractor - looks like it would extract a room full of air in 6-15mins depending on the setting.

Well yes. Although the F&B 'All white' is quite a nice soft white. Flooring guy came this afternoon and wanted me to strip the floor protection off to let it breathe and to turn the heating off for 48hrs before they level it. So can't do any painting until they finish coat 1.

1 month to kitchen fit. I am prepared to sand or perhaps spot sand (?) the ceiling if that is what I must do. This problem is messing things up as I wanted to finish the ceiling before the floor levelling goes down. But I guess I can conceivably uncover the floor, have it levelled, then cover it up again to sand/repaint the ceiling. Brewers say sand it, or else prime it all with Zinsser 1-2-3 primer-sealer, then repaint with somethings matt - F&B dead flat, Johnson's Trade, Tukkurila, or their own alternative to Tukkurila - Albany AF1 ceiling Paint. The latter not tintable.

So have people used the Johnstones and the Tikurrila on ceilings in rooms with a kitchen ? Just been talking to F&B and their position on using their own dead flat on a room with a kitchen is ambiguous. On the one hand it is not resistant to mold and so they say mold might occur. On the other their store said it can peel off under moisture. Only positive is they say it can be applied onto their modern emulsion. In our case we have a 38sqm room with a kitchen in it alongside dining and sitting/tv area. The Hob is against the wall with an extractor built into the wall cupboards above - so should suck 80% plus out of the room. Then two ovens at around waist height where some steam/hot air will emerge. Ceiling height 2.6m with 3 rooflights another 0.5m high.

I don't really want anything other than the right colour. In the past, like many people decorating a room, have just gone down to somewhere like B&Q bought Dulux from brand recognition, and the feeling that anything that says 'Trade' means made to a budget price point that suits traders and allows them to maximise their profit. Trade = basic utilitarian. Roller dulux onto the wall, job done, never a problem. SWMBO saw an F&B shop and had a design chat and decided she liked F&B. Whilst expensive, the extra cost is a rounding error in the overall spend, and if it makes her happy fine. We did have a painter's quote, accepted it, paid the deposit, they started the job with a bit of mist coating, then the timeline slipped, then they magically took on 6 months work without telling us and binned our 'contract'. I'd take them to court just to teach them a lesson but I'm too busy trying to get this shitshow complete before we both die.

Am I going to have to sand down the F&B modern emulsion lightly before repainting with something more matt ? (It is 38 sqm !) Is the Johnstone's and the Tukkurila going to be suitable for a room with a kitchen in it ? (i.e. given some moist air from opening oven doors, hob cooking etc will inevitably make it to ceiling level) Can you get these paints mixed to any colour to match the F&B 'All White' ? Don't know what to do with the walls now.

Well certainly. But normally a company claiming to be premium but producing a problematic product will rapidly go to the wall. Honestly I have had so much work researching all manner of stuff to put things right. So I left SWMBO to choose some paint and assumed F&B knew what they were doing. It is just paint and I have painted rooms albeit years ago without problem - usually dulux matt and stuff.

Have spent today applying Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion in 'All White' to a large ceiling. First coat only following mist coating. All seemed fine while applying it with a roller. Now some hours later with some sunlight reflected back into the room (albeit through a polythene cover), the ceiling looks pretty awful. See pics. We were going to put F&B Dead Flat on the ceiling and Modern Emulsion on the walls as the open plan room contains a kitchen. However F&B shop said some customers had done this and had it peel off because Dead Flat is not a suitable paint for rooms where moist air may be present aka Kitchens & Bathrooms. Therefore we were told to use Modern Emulsion. Now it looks like it has a pronounced sheen, and seems to make the ceiling look very poor and uneven. Any advice please ? I thought F&B was supposed to be a premium paint ? Am I going to have to switch to something else which is actually Matt and if so what ? Will a second coat solve the problem ? (PS Mist Coat was applied by rolling away from the window, First coat of F&B by rolling across the window/room on the understanding we would then apply the final coat of F&B by rolling away from the window again.)

You could take a look at this... https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-2pm-gen4/ This can be used for shutters, blinds etc and it has obstacle detection and can then return the shutter/blind to it's original position. Basically electrically detecting that the shutter/blind is not moving normally because of the obstruction. Depends on the shutter/blind making contact with the obstruction, but if it has flex or a non marking edge then that shouldn't be a problem. So you wouldn't have to detect whether the window was open, and it would also stop the blind/shutter if some other object was in the way.

I can only confirm it will be the design that is the difficult/time consuming bit. A lot of younger guys do have 3D printers. There are of course 3D scanners which can be used to produce a 3D model by laser scanning the object desired. Unfortunately I think decent ones are well over £10k so only found in engineering companies. As I write I see Terry has solved it, and is now about to launch an enterprise selling lengths of crenellated copper pipe on ebay for £20 a time ;o)

Parsons Terrier - ours died last year 😢- we sometimes took him down to an agricultural show where you could sometimes see farmers with 3 or 4 of them tied up and raring to go - using them for ratting on the farm.

Not been able to get all 4 downstairs Rads running at full temperature. I have 4 new rads that were installed downstairs as part of our new heating system using plastic press fit pipework (copper upright stems). Two modern panel type radiators - one medium - one small, and then two old fashioned style column radiators - one 4 column medium size, one 3 column medium size. Builders plumber came 3 times to rebalance them and couldn't get tham all fully up to temp, eventually resorting to going behind my back to turn the boiler temp up to 65C and then claiming he had fixed it (not). Have had suggestions it is likely a pipework/flow problem and column rads take more flow to drive them. Replacing all the pipework not an attractive option as much of it is now under glued down boarding. I do have two lengths of empty conduit going back under the floor to the boiler location that were put in in case of future desire to extend the underfloor heating. So if an additional pipe loop was created via this conduit to take a column rad off the current loop, and put it on a second loop of its own - is this going to provide a solution to the problem ?

Thinking about getting a couple of sliding doors fitted across a recess to form a cupboard area, potentially up to ceiling height or near ceiling height - say 2.4m. Kind of like wardrobe doors - doors sliding past each other and top hung. Ideally any bottom track just a groove or pair of grooves/channels set into the finished floor for a seamless walk in look. Any suggestions of suitable slding/cupboard door systems or suppliers ? Anyone done this sort of thing ?

Been wondering whether putting a couple of these in the end panel one above the other would do it ? (TBH I would have hoped the kitchen people would have some recommendations but that seems too much for them) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F2FM14NW/?coliid=I2XH8Y6VFB51BY&colid=3RAUVXUPTJ827&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

The radial is on the other side of the open plan room, it doesn't serve the kitchen area, just the other dining/sitting areas. Wall sockets to power TV, sound bar, lamps, hoover, laptop type stuff. It is a radial as I specifically asked and queried it when it was put in. I was told that things had changed since I put some ring mains in myself 35 years ago, and these days radial circuits were favoured. Sure seems to be 2.5mm. There is an actual ring main on the kitchen side running around between wall side and island. Will just be for kitchen sockets, dishwasher, fridge, wine cooler, and electric rooflight. There is separate cable to the island labelled TAP