Cropper's Kitchen Nightmares - DIY blog

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Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:22 am

Somehow I seem to have promised to fit a kitchen. As a bit of a DIY newb, expect lots of stupid questions.

First up, the kitchen door , which at the moment opens outwards into the hallway, is to be replaced by one that slides to one side in the kitchen. I can see I'm going to have to rip the wooden doorframe out and fit tracks of some kind for the door to slide on.

Crappy plastic/ accordion type doors are right out.

Anyone done it, or can point me at straightforward instructions / pictures on t'interweb thingy?

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:36 am

You can buy the kits to fit them.
I've got one on my cellar door and it's like a rail with runners along it fixed to a bit of batten. you can then pet a pelmet over it to hide the runners.

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=12029&ts=44159

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:59 am

/\/\ That looks interesting.

Halyley puts things on the stove sometimes, and comes back when the smoke alarm upstairs goes off. The kitchen door is then shut until it stops going off. Will there be a gap around the door when it shuts, or should I use a new door bigger than the hole in the frame?

As always Eater is the fount of all info worth knowing about. Cheers Eamonn.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:13 pm

It's not that hard, the frames come preasembled. Follow the instructions and bob's your uncle.

Actually If you've not much experience with this sort of stuff ask around your friends learn all of their bad habits. And learn from them.
Go to the manufacturers and get the spec sheets. take them home, sit on the dunny and read them like your life depends on them.
At this point your life does as your wife will be saying "it would be better to call a builder" Smile

Then go forth and build it's in your blood.

Just don't spill any.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:19 pm

I dunno about fitting the gap, with a sliding door you're always going to have a bit of a gap around it. As for alarms, fit proper ones. For a kitchen you need a temperature rise detector so that when she burns your eggy soldiers it doesn't go off but when the chip pan goes up it does. You also interlink them so they all go off. A hundred quid or so for piece of mind and safety is a small price to pay.
Thay are pretty loud too - I tested mine once and it was like armageddon...

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:26 pm

Quote:

your wife will be saying "it would be better to call a builder"

We've already had a row because she wanted me to call the guy doing the gas and electric to ask about which way round to mount a cupboard. Rolling Eyes

I'll order the Screwfix thingy. as the door has conventional doorhandles and a latch, I can see I'll have to fit a recess to put ones fingers into and pull the door to. Not a clue what these are called, but I presume I'll be able to fit one where the door handle went through the door. My mate has a jigsaw. would that do it?

Told you I was a DIY noob.

Off to buy a bolster chisel now, so I can beat the crap out of the tiled floor.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:28 pm

Screwfix's technical department are quite helpful too, if you get stuck Roy.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:30 pm

Roycropper wrote:

Told you I was a DIY noob.

So was I once but I asked advice in shops and from friends, got stuck in, and now I will tackle most things. I'm currently putting in a new bathroom and I should really be down in the cellar with a blowtorch Rolling Eyes

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:37 pm

Found the door pull thingys ignore all that. Screwfix are the biz!

Slidy thing and pully things ordered. I needed an overhead spotlight rail too, to get over �50 for free delivery. It will replace the fluorescent light strip. I seem to remember I got a shock when I fitted that despite it being switched off. Maybe this time I will turn the power off at the mains. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:48 pm

Roy

I didn't even have to look at the OP to know who'd posted this one!! Very Happy

BTW

Screwfix are very good- expect delivery this afternoon or sooner!!

Best of luck ( get this right and maybe hayley will let you buys yet another lens!!)

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:25 pm

Hayley will hopefully never notice the difference between the IS lens on its way from HK, and the one it came with. She thinks the telephoto one cost around �100 and was expensive.

She would rather I gave some odd job man thousands to f*ck up something I could f*ck up myself, with you lot to help me.

Heres the kitchen 5 minutes ago, after i decided to pull the wallpaper of the ceiling.

The cats are fascinated, though they did a runner when I gave the floor tiles a few test smacks with the lump hammer.

This don't look too good, caused by the shower leaking a couple of years back. I'm wondering if I can get away with using filler as if I was bodging a rusty car wing, I dont want to be arsed with papering the ceiling before I paint it, whatd'ya think? You can see the previous owner has had a go in the past.

Tonight we're off to B&Q and MFI, so she can look at sparkly worktops. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:32 pm

I would patch it. That can be done pretty easily. Then I would use a primer like KILZ, if you have it there. Then I think I would use a texture paint over that. Just the way I would do it.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:34 pm

That ceiling needs more than filler and a coat of paint.
If you don't want to paper it (which is the cheapest/easiest option), get a man in to put a skim over it.
I've just done up a flat and I papered the ceiling with a blown vinyl then painted it, looks great.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I say completely rip the old ceiling down, whack some new sheets of platerboard up and skim it, I did a kitchen ceiling about the same size as yours for a friend a few years ago, she had that old lat and plaster ceiling, like this:

It was VERY messy taking it down, but yours is plasterboard and will be a piece of piss to rip out and put a new one up within about 3-4 hours.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:42 pm

^^^ That is the best solution.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:56 pm

No professionals, no learning to plaster over the top of my head. that's the sort of thing I'd get my lads to do. Blown vinyl or lining paper plus paint, I reckon. I'll resist the temptation to bodge it with filler though.

Part of the challenge is to keep the kitchen working as long as possible, so we don't have to live on takeaways for too long. The real point of commitment comes when I put the cooker on Ebay (buyer collects) on a 7 day listing.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

You don't need to skim a plaster-board ceiling. There's a technology where you tape over the joints using stuff like polyfilla and paper tape and then sand it to a smooth curve. After that seal it either with an expensive sealer or a PVA adhesive and water mix. Then paint or paper as you want. You may or may not be able to apply that technology to your existing ceiling.

The hard part is getting the plasterboard on the ceiling. You will want a friend or two.

@SP: Don't talk to me about lath and plaster. Have you ever tried to paint a lath and plaster wall where the plaster is rotten, but you want to avoid replastering at all costs? <gibber>

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:27 pm

Roycropper wrote:

We've already had a row because she wanted me to call the guy doing the gas and electric to ask about which way round to mount a cupboard.

The doors go on the side away from the wall. Duh! Laughing

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:11 pm

/\/\ Yes, but this ones in a corner! Laughing

Finished stripping the ceiling, now to get medieval with some floor tiles. I think they are well stuck down, but nothing a lump hammer and bolster chisel wont shift.

P'd off that I have to paper the ceiling, like there wont be enough to do, but it will have to last a while before I decide it looks rubbish. I want the ceiling lights doing and the ceiling painted before the new kitchen units get any where near the kitchen. Blown vinyl and paint will be bought tonight if we can agree a colour.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:30 pm

Roycropper wrote:

/\/\ Yes, but this ones in a corner!

In which case the doors go away from the ceiling. Sheesh, don't you know anything about cupboards? Laughing

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:36 pm

Sorted, SP, thanks. PM sent back.

Callum, if the cupboard door faces away from the ceiling, all the glasses will fall on the floor. Even I know that's not good.

I have smashed up half the floor, but stopped until Moday as the wheelie bin has become too heavy, When I filled it with concrete blocks, the bin lorry struggled to pick it up, and the lid got smashed. They may not give me another free bin.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:53 pm

Roycropper wrote:

Callum, if the cupboard door faces away from the ceiling, all the glasses will fall on the floor. Even I know that's not good.

No they won't. Not unless you can find out a way to get them to stay there in the first place. Also, an empty cupboard is always a clean cupboard which keeps She Who Must Be Obeyed occassionally happy. It's the best possible solution. Trust me!

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:51 pm

Paging Nick Knowles, paging Nick Knowles- DIY emergency in Wetherfield!!!

Don't worry Roy, I 'm ringing now to register my vote!!

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:26 pm

I'm the absolute expert on DIY.

When I need something done, I pick up the phone all by myself and call my handyman. Nobody helps me. You'd be surprised how many things I've done with my DIY method. Wink

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:27 pm

The only two bits of advice I can give are

1. buy one of those gadgets that tells you whether you have water pipes or electric cables running behind the wall before you drill into it.

2. if you don't do that, and hit an electric cable when you drill, make sure the cable is properly sealed again before you fill the hole with Polyfilla you just made up with water. Rolling Eyes

Nothing else to add really. I only came into this thread cos I knew it was going to be Eater's answer to car-crash TV. Laughing

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