What’s the fiddly-ist DIY job?

karlitob · 01-03-2021 08:29PM #1

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 · 02-03-2021 12:24PM

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 · 02-03-2021 12:28PM

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 · 02-03-2021 12:31PM

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

02-03-2021 12:38PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:26PM

Toilet seats... Drive you stone crazy.

loyatemu · 02-03-2021 01:31PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:35PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:37PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:39PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:41PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:42PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:43PM

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

02-03-2021 01:43PM

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.

02-03-2021 01:46PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:47PM

[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 · 02-03-2021 01:50PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:55PM

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 · 02-03-2021 01:56PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:00PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:00PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:02PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:03PM

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

CoBo55 · 02-03-2021 02:04PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:16PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:17PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:24PM

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 · 02-03-2021 02:25PM

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

You don't need to tell this guy:

sure the place is ruined but the carpet is now mint

crisco10 · 02-03-2021 02:53PM

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 · 02-03-2021 03:28PM

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 · 02-03-2021 03:30PM

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:

What’s the fiddly-ist DIY job?

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