What’s the fiddly-ist DIY job?

karlitob

Just finished putting in a wall mounted toilet brush holder. Christ!

Even with a drilling guide, the diamond bit slipped a little, so the holes didn’t fully align, so I had to sink more holes.

Of course, I didn’t go deep enough so it didn’t cinch well enough.

But the real kicker was that fecking grub scrub! It’s got to be the most fiddly-ist job around.

Any extension on that?

irishbuzz

I'm not very handy but when drilling tile I've learned to put some masking tape on the tile first and then do your marks etc on top. When you go to drill it will stop your bit slipping.

While you're at it you can use the masking tape on the drill bit too. Line up the wall plug against it and wrap some tape on the bit to guide you on how deep you need to drill.

Hurrache

Preparation for painting. Hate it to the point that when you're ready to do the relaxing part of actually doing the painting you're already fed up.

Springfields

Hurrache wrote: »

Preparation for painting. Hate it to the point that when you're ready to do the relaxing part of actually doing the painting you're already fed up.

100% ...painting pine doors to white is my new pet hate

Springfields

Springfields wrote: »

100% ...painting pine doors to white is my new pet hate

satin wood and mini rollers,
Use cling film over the trays.

CoBo55

Toilet seats... Drive you stone crazy.

loyatemu

I put an awning on our side passageway over the weekend, which involved drilling and mounting onto pebbledash. Jesus christ, if there is a hell, its walls are finished in pebbledash. My knuckles are shredded and the awning brackets are in no way level. After putting the first couple up I realised I needed to chisel off the stones before drilling for the remaining brackets, which worked to an extent, but to get them on properly evenly I would have had to chisel off large sections of the dash which I wasn't willing to do... ugh.

loyatemu

Hurrache wrote: »

Preparation for painting. Hate it to the point that when you're ready to do the relaxing part of actually doing the painting you're already fed up.

there is no relaxing part; as well as the prep, cutting in is a pain, then you get 3 coats on and realise it still looks crap and you can see the brush and roller marks. You also have to get it all done in one continuous go, otherwise your into the hassle of cleaning up brushes etc. I hate painting, it's one of those jobs that you need to do often to be any good at, and who paints frequently if they're not a professional decorator?

Littlehorny

When I read the heading the first job I thought of was trying to get in behind a sink or a basin to fit a tap or sort out a leak.
Lying on your back, trying to twist into a good position and then there's no space for your hands or a spanner. Pain in the hoop.

Littlehorny

loyatemu wrote: »

I put an awning on our side passageway over the weekend, which involved drilling and mounting onto pebbledash. Jesus christ, if there is a hell, its walls are finished in pebbledash. My knuckles are shredded and the awning brackets are in no way level. After putting the first couple up I realised I needed to chisel off the stones before drilling for the remaining brackets, which worked to an extent, but to get them on properly evenly I would have had to chisel off large sections of the dash which I wasn't willing to do... ugh.

Put a canopy over the back door a week ago and know exactly what your on about, pure grief

seamus

I think it has to be doing electrics in awkward locations - such as connecting up a new light pendant, or sockets at the back of a kitchen press under the counter. A combination of having to twist yourself to get access to it while trying to manage small cables and small screws, often with poor light. Drives me mental.

Painting though, yeah. That too. When we got the extension done I painted it all myself. Once I got into a rhythm I was OK, but I basically had to paint the ceiling 3 times. White. Mist coat, OK. Second coat, nice strong white. Third coat, painting white over white. The least satisfying, most pain-in-the-neck (literally) job I've ever done.

CoBo55

Littlehorny wrote: »

When I read the heading the first job I thought of was trying to get in behind a sink or a basin to fit a tap or sort out a leak.
Lying on your back, trying to twist into a good position and then there's no space for your hands or a spanner. Pain in the hoop.

Unreal, a bath is worse. I've given up on plumbing it's just not worth the stress much handier to pay someone.

theteal

Springfields wrote: »

100% ...painting pine doors to white is my new pet hate

6 doors upstairs goading me every time I pass them. I might just spray them

loyatemu

loyatemu wrote: »

there is no relaxing part; as well as the prep, cutting in is a pain, then you get 3 coats on and realise it still looks crap and you can see the brush and roller marks. You also have to get it all done in one continuous go, otherwise your into the hassle of cleaning up brushes etc. I hate painting, it's one of those jobs that you need to do often to be any good at, and who paints frequently if they're not a professional decorator?

When I paint,I get as much paint off the brush as I can..I put it in a plastic bag,tie a knot, the brush wont dry out,and can be used next day.I never clean brushes untill the job is done.

Finding all the bodges made by previous owners down through the years. Find one and you there is another, somewhere, just waiting to ruin your day.

CoBo55

[Deleted User] wrote: »

When I paint,I get as much paint off the brush as I can..I put it in a plastic bag,tie a knot, the brush wont dry out,and can be used next day.I never clean brushes untill the job is done.

That's what my late father in law did, he was a painter and still had his brushes from his apprenticeship.

NickNickleby

Drilling tiles? Here's how I overcame the slipping problem. I take a small sharp nail, place the tip of it right in the centre of my 'x' and tap it gently but firmly to make a break in the glaze. I then get a slightly larger nail and place the tip in the dent I've made, and tap it while rotating it between finger and thumb. When the dent is deep and wide enough I then go at it with a masonry bit in 'drill' mode. I've never had to use the hammer action on ordinary wall tiles, and I always get a clean and accurately place hole.

Gosh, I'm wonderful.

As for fiddly bits (and someone has opened a thread about this just today) trying to stop a leak on an extension roof. Got up last year and used that bitumen paste stuff in the joints on the wall, then applied flashing tape in two stepped layers, thus making the flashing higher up the wall. Had cleaned and prepared all surfaces, so good adhesion, a perfect job!:pac:

Till two weeks ago when we had blasting rain from the east. Leaked:mad::mad::mad: . I suspect it was washed up under the tiles and along to the wall, where it the had nowhere to go but down - inside. The tiles are those foreign steel ones used by the guys who replace glass conservatory roofs. Ah well, another job for the summer.

GreeBo

seamus wrote: »

I think it has to be doing electrics in awkward locations - such as connecting up a new light pendant, or sockets at the back of a kitchen press under the counter. A combination of having to twist yourself to get access to it while trying to manage small cables and small screws, often with poor light. Drives me mental.

.

Electrics when the previous bright spark (har har) has left you exactly 7.2mm of slack on the wires.

+1 on the sink/bath taps, a total curse.

GreeBo

loyatemu wrote: »

there is no relaxing part; as well as the prep, cutting in is a pain, then you get 3 coats on and realise it still looks crap and you can see the brush and roller marks. You also have to get it all done in one continuous go, otherwise your into the hassle of cleaning up brushes etc. I hate painting, it's one of those jobs that you need to do often to be any good at, and who paints frequently if they're not a professional decorator?

Cling film your brushes until you are done, I have brushes like this for weeks/months and they are still perfect. The paint wont dry if there is no air.
You can also use the cling film over the tray/bucket but wont last as long.

Supercell

Drilling holes though the cavity shiite block construction that is my house to fish though cables for the CCTV, then the joys of crawling along the attic space (a foot deep in fibreglass) and trying to get the bastard cable though the newly drilled hole (the cavity block really comes to the fore there as the cable inevitably gets suck in the cavity). My house is a bungalow so the attic space is a crawl space only due to low roof pitch. Fcuking torture. I have one more camera to do and I need to find an excuse to put it off another month or 20.

loyatemu

GreeBo wrote: »

Cling film your brushes until you are done, I have brushes like this for weeks/months and they are still perfect. The paint wont dry if there is no air.
You can also use the cling film over the tray/bucket but wont last as long.

I'm aware of the clingfilm/bag trick, but you still have to plough and get the job done. You can't start one weekend and then resume the next weekend was my point. It's messy, fiddly and tedious, and at least in my case, usually results in a bad job...

NickNickleby

GreeBo wrote: »

Electrics when the previous bright spark (har har) has left you exactly 7.2mm of slack on the wires.

+1 on the sink/bath taps, a total curse.

Or....
when you cut a trap to pull back a section of the ring main, and the cable wont pull back through the wall. Then you realise that during the original build, when drilling the hole to feed the wire, the hole was made too high. So when the floor was installed, the wire comes up out of the floor, behind the skirting, through the wall, down behind the skirting and down past the edge of the floor board into the void.

Liberal_irony

Putting up a postbox on a pebble dashed wall was a fkning nightmare

CoBo55

GreeBo wrote: »

Electrics when the previous bright spark (har har) has left you exactly 7.2mm of slack on the wires.

+1 on the sink/bath taps, a total curse.

Fiddle strings...

Dr_Colossus

Littlehorny wrote: »

When I read the heading the first job I thought of was trying to get in behind a sink or a basin to fit a tap or sort out a leak.
Lying on your back, trying to twist into a good position and then there's no space for your hands or a spanner. Pain in the hoop.

You don't need to tell this guy:

Oink

The wife and I have agreed that from now on when there’s painting to be done I’ll stab my eyes with a rusty knife instead.

Alun

Oink wrote: »

The wife and I have agreed that from now on when there’s painting to be done I’ll stab my eyes with a rusty knife instead.

If only I could get my wife to agree the same

frozenfrozen

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

You don't need to tell this guy:

sure the place is ruined but the carpet is now mint

crisco10

JayZeus wrote: »

Finding all the bodges made by previous owners down through the years. Find one and you there is another, somewhere, just waiting to ruin your day.

This is the gift that keeps giving. Tortured by it.

GreeBo

loyatemu wrote: »

You can't start one weekend and then resume the next weekend was my point.

You can though, that's the point of it
I've gone months doing one frame/door/skirting etc each weekend without cleaning the brush until the end.

GreeBo

NickNickleby wrote: »

Or....
when you cut a trap to pull back a section of the ring main, and the cable wont pull back through the wall. Then you realise that during the original build, when drilling the hole to feed the wire, the hole was made too high. So when the floor was installed, the wire comes up out of the floor, behind the skirting, through the wall, down behind the skirting and down past the edge of the floor board into the void.

Actually that reminds me of the pain when running 10m2 or larger...I shed about 2 lbs just from the skin on my knuckles!:mad:

shanec1928

Springfields wrote: »

100% ...painting pine doors to white is my new pet hate

try a pine ceiling to white. 30 mins in and instant regret, took several coats of sealer and a few coats of paint and its still not 100% "rustic" is what we decided to leave it at!

Supercell wrote: »

Drilling holes though the cavity shiite block construction that is my house to fish though cables for the CCTV, then the joys of crawling along the attic space (a foot deep in fibreglass) and trying to get the bastard cable though the newly drilled hole (the cavity block really comes to the fore there as the cable inevitably gets suck in the cavity). My house is a bungalow so the attic space is a crawl space only due to low roof pitch. Fcuking torture. I have one more camera to do and I need to find an excuse to put it off another month or 20.

i know the pain this was me yesterday, trying to pull cable through the soffit using and existing cable that got caught out of reach. abandoned the job and going to order a set of cable rods.

Tabnabs

Changing the bulb in a 2009 Mazda 3 headlamp. First of all you need to be able to have your hand bend through 215degrees, then the securing clip will only reset after doing the exact same movement for 43 minutes.

Supercell

Supercell wrote: »

Drilling holes though the cavity shiite block construction that is my house to fish though cables for the CCTV, then the joys of crawling along the attic space (a foot deep in fibreglass) and trying to get the bastard cable though the newly drilled hole

I have to laugh at this because I know your pain.
Its even worse trying to do it solo.
Have you taped a straightened wire coat hanger onto the end ?

jack of all

Maybe this is the wrong thread, but yesterday I offered to give a neighbour a hand to repair some leaking down (soil) pipes on his house.
We had to partly disassemble the existing installation and chamfer the pipe ends which had been left ragged by the original installer (resulting in damaged seals and leaks). I took to grinding the (only partially cleaned) pipe ends, resulting in an interesting aroma- burning plastic mixed with burnt sh*te!

Definitely feel the pain of fixing to dashed walls, no matter what you do it's hard to get it spot on.

Supercell

BrownFinger wrote: »

I have to laugh at this because I know your pain.
Its even worse trying to do it solo.
Have you taped a straightened wire coat hanger onto the end ?

I got cable rods after the first one, problem is the camera cables are coax so have big bulbous bits on the cables , three of them...and cursing and swearing surprisingly doest help them go through smoothly. The drills CCTV installers use must be wielded by Arnold Schwarzenegger types because to drill a bigger hole balancing at the top of lean to ladder would take Arnie muscles or maybe a fcuking rocket launcher.

karlitob

loyatemu wrote: »

there is no relaxing part; as well as the prep, cutting in is a pain, then you get 3 coats on and realise it still looks crap and you can see the brush and roller marks. You also have to get it all done in one continuous go, otherwise your into the hassle of cleaning up brushes etc. I hate painting, it's one of those jobs that you need to do often to be any good at, and who paints frequently if they're not a professional decorator?

I actually like painting and I’m blessed with a short term memory that often forgets how hard the prep and clean up yet. The kicker is spending hours online trying to justify 500€ on a sprayer and wondering will it all just be the same problems anyway.

karlitob

seamus wrote: »

I think it has to be doing electrics in awkward locations - such as connecting up a new light pendant, or sockets at the back of a kitchen press under the counter. A combination of having to twist yourself to get access to it while trying to manage small cables and small screws, often with poor light. Drives me mental.
.

Totally forgot about those pendant lights. Had a crap drill, couldn’t drive screws well enough into space above, and then having to connect a giant pendant to the ceiling while holding it, and then securing to terminal connector while stuffing the thing into the small screw on yoke that goes against the ceiling. Pain in the ring.

mloc123

BrownFinger wrote: »

I have to laugh at this because I know your pain.
Its even worse trying to do it solo.
Have you taped a straightened wire coat hanger onto the end ?

This is my method alright. 500mm long drill bit and a straightened wire clothes hanger (which are hard to find these days)

Dufflecoat Fanny

wipers and car light bulbs

GreeBo

Dufflecoat Fanny wrote: »

wipers and car light bulbs

ah wipers arent too bad once you get the hang of it, but the designers who hid the bulbs need to all be powersanded to death.

I have to replace a front parking sensor on my car and I basically need to strip the whole front end off (hence the new part is still sitting here on my desk a year later )

cnocbui

karlitob wrote: »

Just finished putting in a wall mounted toilet brush holder. Christ!

Even with a drilling guide, the diamond bit slipped a little, so the holes didn’t fully align, so I had to sink more holes.

Of course, I didn’t go deep enough so it didn’t cinch well enough.

But the real kicker was that fecking grub scrub! It’s got to be the most fiddly-ist job around.

Any extension on that?

Doing a shower in black granite 18mm thick floor tiles and cutting a massive 120mm hole in one of them to fit over a Hans Grohe ibox in the wall and not be out by so much as a mm, using a hand drill and a diamond core bit.

CoBo55

cnocbui wrote: »

Doing a shower in black granite 18mm thick floor tiles and cutting a massive 120mm hole in one of them to fit over a Hans Grohe ibox in the wall and not be out by so much as a mm, using a hand drill and a diamond core bit.

Brown underpants job:):)

Dr_Colossus

cnocbui wrote: »

Doing a shower in black granite 18mm thick floor tiles and cutting a massive 120mm hole in one of them to fit over a Hans Grohe ibox in the wall and not be out by so much as a mm, using a hand drill and a diamond core bit.

120mm drill bit? Didn't know such a think existed and what did that cost in the name of jasus.
Could you not have cut it with a 115mm diamond blade in an angle grinder. Should be handy enough when the hole is bigger than the blade, I've used same to cut 100mm holes in 10mm porcelain tiles which took some time.

cnocbui

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

120mm drill bit? Didn't know such a think existed and what did that cost in the name of jasus.
Could you not have cut it with a 115mm diamond blade in an angle grinder. Should be handy enough when the hole is bigger than the blade, I've used same to cut 100mm holes in 10mm porcelain tiles which took some time.

That's the plug I cut out. I use it in the kitchen for putting hot things on the wooden counter tops it has a piece of cork tile glued to the mottom. The smaller one is the one for the shower head pipe, which was also bang on. Used a smaller diamond core bit.

What I did was I made a mockup of a tile out of 18mm marine plywood. Cut a hole in that and then clamped the wooden form onto the granite slab as a guide and then put the core drill bit in the hole, attached the drill and went very very slowly with lots of checking and water. I went in from the polished outer face in case of an ugly break through event which made measuring accurately far harder

No, I couldn't use an angle grinder. I can't recall the exact price of the core bit but i think it was around €50 or so. Still have it. I should sell it.

I had an exact number of slabs, so no spares and little chance of getting one as it was a deal on some leftovers from a special order job from the stone suppliers.

listermint

Don't touch your consumer board. But in the past if you had to pulls anything bigger than 1.5 sq cable into your board you'll know cable does not like to be bent the sheating also is not slick and likes to catch and drag on all surfaces it's basically designed to slowly rub everywhere and resist and and all types of lateral movement.

Cables are big pricks.

embraer170

Lots of jobs on modern cars.

Changing the oil and oil filer was an easy job on every car I have had until I got a Golf 7. You have to jack the car up and remove the panelling under the engine compartment (just to change the oil filter).

awec

Fcuk painting.

alchemist33

GreeBo wrote: »

ah wipers arent too bad once you get the hang of it, but the designers who hid the bulbs need to all be powersanded to death.

I have to replace a front parking sensor on my car and I basically need to strip the whole front end off (hence the new part is still sitting here on my desk a year later )

Problem with the wipers is it's so long between changing them that I forgot the knack of doing it.

cnocbui

awec wrote: »

Fcuk painting.

Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer sorted it.

GreeBo

alchemist33 wrote: »

Problem with the wipers is it's so long between changing them that I forgot the knack of doing it.

And the weird thing is that its only *after* you do the second one that you remember the knack!:o