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I'm contemplating grasping the nettle and to try to put a smooth surface on an existing tamped concrete floor in my garage. The garage is attached to our house, has a damp course and I also think there will be a damp proof membrane under the floor slab as I have no issues with damp. The main...

Sadly the guys who did the bifold doors in my daughter's new home were not up to the job and I am trying to sort. Amongst other problems one of the brush seals in the underside of one of the doors has slid out of place and been mangled as the door closed. The builder/installer is not...

You know when you’ve lived in the same house for a long time when stuff you originally did has to be replaced. We installed a deck out the front of our home in 2008, and it was even the subject of a write-up on this very forum. I was happy with the result at the time … … but by the...

My daughter has spent the last 12 months demolishing a grotty hovel set in a glorious ⅔ acre garden and replacing it with a self build 6 bedroom mock Georgian detached house. She and her husband have been project managing the build, and in a moment of weakness I agreed to build them an island...

Just finished this to go in the corner of our kitchen/breakfast room. it is 134cms across and made from 24mm ply with a sunburst veneer of 2mm American Cherry and Birdseye Maple, separated with a 3mm string of sycamore and ebony. The legs are solid cherry. Finish is a single thin coat of Osmo...

A previous test set up in 2012 compared Osmo UV Oil and Sikkens Cetol Filter 7 Plus on Iroko, and it was not long before Sikkens showed its class. But would that be the same on other species of wood? And how would it compare with Sadolin? That's what this new test is set up to establish...

About a year ago we retired our old 32" TV and bought a new 50" Panasonic smart TV after I convinced the LoML that I could adapt our existing TV stand to take it. I was as good as my word, and this is what I came up with. Smart piece of chipboard (floor grade of course) with a piece of...

Haven't posted much woody stuff this year as I have been busy doing other things. Mods - you must decide whether this belongs here or elsewhere. Having completed our kitchen extension and refit, the garden was a scene of devastation and needed re-landscaping. This was the scene through our...

I haven't posted anything I've made for a long time as I've been busy re-landscaping the garden, but we needed a new log store. SWMBO didn't want an eyesore up against the house so we agreed that she would be the one to go up the garden and fill the log basket with logs from our store behind the...

I've just refurbished my front door, and have finished it with one coat of Sadolin Ultra base coat and 2 coats of Sadolin Ultra Walnut. The can says touch dry in 4 - 6 hours, and re-coatable after 16 hgours, yet 24 hours after applying the top coat, it is still tacky, despite the outside...

My daughter is considering having an engineered oak floor laid in her 1930's semi in Kingston Upon Thames. She's busy getting quotes, and her favoured one gives 2 prices, one of about £20/sq-m using a Wickes product, and the other in European Oak for about £50/sq-m, plus fitting in each case...

Guys - I know we've had a similar thread before but I can't find it. I've just done a "quick and dirty" face-lift of my mum's kitchen to make it more user friendly for an 83 year old in the early stages of dementia and overall it works well. However, I made the shaker doors/drawer fronts...

I've been asked to install an eyelevel single electric oven for my Mum, who is in her early 80s. Budget is around £450, but could stretch a little further for the right piece of kit. We like the idea of the Neff "slide and hide" range as it's a small kitchen and it would also prevent having to...

My daughter has old aluminium double glazing. The seals are shot and the draughts coming through are horrendous. From the photos I've been sent, it looks like the outer layer is a fibrous brush type seal, and that someone has stuck some sticky back foam rubber seal over a slot where I presume a...

After much prevarication I have finally got started on building an upholstered corner seat for our kitchen, which needs to be suitable for sitting up to the table for meals and also be comfortable for relaxing, drinking coffee (or wine or beer), watching TV etc. I am using this thread by...

Picture the scene. New Year's Eve, and getting ready for guests to arrive. I had just stepped out of the shower, and was half dry when the phone went. Cursing profusely I left the shower room to answer it, and less that 10 seconds later there was a thunderous crashing sound, which just seemed to...

About 3 years ago we started building a kitchen extension. This was the night before we knocked through from the old kitchen into the extension. Breakthrough day. Then reseal the gap with a 12mm OSB wall. ... and put the old units back. I’ve done a thread covering various...

RIP John Fortune who died today. His interviews with "George Parr" aka John Bird were amongst my favourite viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-oIMJMGd1Q Love this one from October 2007, broadcast during the week the financial crash really got going.

When not avoiding international incidents, with only moderate success, I was lucky enough to visit the Getty Centre in LA just recently whilst visiting our son in California. It's not just art and sculpture in there - there is some inspirational furniture and carving as well. Here are a few...

We've just been to San Francisco to see our son, Russell, who lives there. As part of the trip, we spent 8 days driving an RV up the Big Sur coast from LA to San Francisco, and after finishing with our RV, we were supposed to go with Russ to stay in a lodge in the Yosemite National park -...