Help with kitchen renovation/ 1st house.

[newhome]

I have a recirc one and it's ok. As Peter says just recharge / wash / change the filters. You will be moaning about the draught if you vent the roof!

 

 

[zoothorn]

No Im defo going recirc hood/ filter.. about to buy one today.

 

Started tiling cooker/ top 2 walls area.. 2 sockets Im leaving a gap for as I cant face it! even thought of taking out sockets & replacing away from area. but not poss really. Last b'stard job of kitchen these 2 are mind: I can see some light at job's end!!

[zoothorn]

Is it imperative to take off the socket fronts/ expose the back box, to do the tiling around socket job? is this the only proper way to go?

 

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, zoothorn said:

Is it imperative to take off the socket fronts/ expose the back box, to do the tiling around socket job? is this the only proper way to go?

 

 

Yes or it'll look shit.

 

However...you could tile up to the sockets leaving a little gap around them to make sure you can remove in the future then undo them and fit white finger plates.

 

It'll still look shit imo but it might work for you!

 

 

[zoothorn]

[zoothorn]

Anyone know anything about electric hob circuits? this one gets going quick/ good.. but ferociously hot so at lowest on dial a strong simmer, & @ 4 its max ever needed/ boiling very hard (so 5-10 wasted). I wonder if I can get the dial 'range' redone somehow, or if these 'drift' out over time, or, if there's a problem with it. Or, its just par for the course for a ceramic hob.

[newhome]

Par for the course. Mine is induction but I use P or 9 to bring up to temp (gets very hot very fast), drop to 5 for cook / fast simmer and 3 for keep warm. Never use much in between TBH. You don’t really need all of those settings I imagine. I’m no cook tho so maybe someone of cordon bleu standard uses all 10 settings. Leave it be and you’ll get used to it. 

 

[zoothorn]

But newhome what I mean is I don't have the luxury of '3 for keeping warm' (I wish!). My minimum, is '1.. for a fast simmer'. I can't put it to 0.5 as its a switch on-off pot that 'bumps on' @1. To slow simmer I have to park pan 2/3rds off- 1/3rd on, & even so the heat catches the side if left for 10mins. The max side of dial is n/a, as I only need to get to city-wok-hot, which I get to @ 5 (so half of dial 'range' is suspiciously redundant..).

 

Anyway, most of tiling done.. damn nasty job @ sockets without electric cutter (but drill bits great- yet another Onoff essential buy!).

 

Not a perfect job, walls badly out means annoying gap at the corner, & fiddly slivers I can't seem to cut to finish the LHS edge.. but progress/ spurred me on for the ~last leg this week.

 

Thanks chaps!

 

 

[Onoff]

For someone with no tile cutter well done that man!

[zoothorn]

Quite a few broken tiles, wrong/ clot way round efforts, sweat n tears went into these damn sockets- whole day just finishing off back area.

 

Damn contoured/ relief tile design mean cutting off silvers for the 2 wee gaps LHS isn't possible without a leccy cutter tho.

 

 

[Tennentslager]

Damn fine job @zoothorn

[PeterW]

Looks brilliant - just grout the corner gaps and just stand a pot of kitchen utensils in the corner and no-one will know ..!

[Onoff]

If you get sick of looking at those missing tiles on the left just glue a strip of stained timber up there. Just a blob of silicon on the tiles and you can remove later if you get access to a tile cutter.

 

Btw, what size are those tiles? Mate has just done his kitchen in white subway tiles though I can't remember if they're bevelled. I could get one, cut a couple of slivers and post to you.

[zoothorn]

If I could cut tiny slices I could fill it. My grouts the daft 'jasmine'/ cream colour (tiles look better now ungrouted with dark lines.. than other side of kitchen grouted!) so filling like so will stand out. I think white silicone's the only thing maybe.

 

 

 

[zoothorn]

1 minute ago, Onoff said:

If you get sick of looking at those missing tiles on the left just glue a strip of stained timber up there. Just a blob of silicon on the tiles and you can remove later if you get access to a tile cutter.

 

Btw, what size are those tiles? Mate has just done his kitchen in white subway tiles though I can't remember if they're bevelled. I could get one, cut a couple of slivers and post to you.

 

Hey thanks.. std 20x10cm. I just got the lower, wider one cut in fact.. but other one only left is a mite smaller & nigh on impossible but I'll keep trying 1st. fiddly b'stard.

[zoothorn]

Just had a minor blip.. a can of worms tho? one socket front seemed to shift backbox out a bit when screwed into it. Opened up, & backbox not fixed in with 2 centre screws to block behind, but 2 small screws, in boxes upper corners- ?. Lamp on it.. & all dark behind/ looks like a void.. which I wonder might be into cavity > cold getting in? urgh..

[zoothorn]

I thought bingo! foam! but then hang on: I can't just whack some in via the vacant backbox scew holes, into the cavity behind.. because of the big (5 core?) cable it'll be in contact with.. can I?

Edited December 16, 2018 by zoothorn

[Onoff]

2 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

Just had a minor blip.. a can of worms tho? one socket front seemed to shift backbox out a bit when screwed into it. Opened up, & backbox not fixed in with 2 centre screws to block behind, but 2 small screws, in boxes upper corners- ?. Lamp on it.. & all dark behind/ looks like a void.. which I wonder might be into cavity > cold getting in? urgh..

 

Void behind socket? Socket loose?

 

Get the Hoover in there and suck out what loose crap you can. Pump No Nails or similar in thru the screwhole. Push a Rawlplug through the back box hole into the No Nails. Allow to set. Put screw in.

 

Or redrill where there is something behind the back box.

[Onoff]

2 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

I thought bingo! foam! but then hang on: I can't just whack some in via the vacant backbox scew holes, into the cavity behind.. because of the big (5 core?) cable it'll be in contact with.. can I?

 

What 5-core cable?

 

Just No Nails around the sides of the back box if room then.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Onoff

[newhome]

2 hours ago, zoothorn said:

But newhome what I mean is I don't have the luxury of '3 for keeping warm' (I wish!). My minimum, is '1.. for a fast simmer'. I can't put it to 0.5 as its a switch on-off pot that 'bumps on' @1.

 

You can get heat diffusers / simmer rings that are used for tagines, coffee pots etc but I don't know if you can use them on ceramic hobs. 

[zoothorn]

3 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

You can get heat diffusers / simmer rings that are used for tagines, coffee pots etc but I don't know if you can use them on ceramic hobs. 

Heat diffusers-! now that sounds ideal. will look into it- thanks.

[zoothorn]

4 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

What 5-core cable?

 

Well whatever big cable supplies this (LHS in pic above) socket + cooker switch jobby. Two 3-core big f-off cables then.

 

I'm just not familiar with what sort of size cavites lurk behind backboxes.. cant judge as lamp not illuminating any back to cavity (so might I be pumping in a whole tube to fill a cavity the size of a buick..). Is foam defo -not- the tool for the job here?

[newhome]

10 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

Heat diffusers-! now that sounds ideal. will look into it- thanks.

 

Triple check that you can use them on a ceramic hob! I don't want you coming on saying the thing has shattered into a million fragments! 

 

[zoothorn]

Dont worry it'll be shattered by other means before then- Im so used to whacking my big f-off metal curry spoon on the edge of my pan or wok with my other crap 'leccy hob, that sooner or later Im going to forget/ go at it hammer & tongs as usual, & inadvertantly smash the fkr up.

[zoothorn]

27 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

What 5-core cable?

 

Just No Nails around the sides of the back box if room then.

 

Do you mean grab adhesive? pink grip stuff for eg. Got two tubes so could try that. Ive got it fixed just about acceptably, with its 2 screws in backbox top corners.. so its more Im concerned with plugging the cavity re. cold than something better for it to fix to. So defo not foam?