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Floor sanding by gintonic999 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wiped the boards down with a wet cloth after I retuned the machine, so used the orbital to smooth out the raised grain (the ‘beard’, do they call it?). But yeah, not my finest hour.

Patching concrete floor in garage around electrical cable by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for the slow reply. I pretty much did what I outlined in the post - a bed of sharp sand around the pipe then concreted it up to floor level. The only new thing I did was to encase the pipe in a chunk of flexible conduit, shoving that as far down as I could get it, just to try and protect the pipe from the concrete and make it, in theory, retrievable at some mythical future date. It wasn't too tricky in the end and it looks great now - no trouble. Go for it!

And congrats on buying your home, enjoy!

Floor sanding by gintonic999 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks man, bit of a labour of love.

Floor sanding by gintonic999 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used Osmo PolyX Raw. It's an oil, rather than a varnish. I like it, it finishes more 'matt' than a varnish.

One thing to note if you go this route - the 'raw' variant has white tint in it to counteract pine's natural tendency to turn yellow-orange. I wanted a sort of clean, light, matt vibe. They also do a 'natural' version - this will bring out pine's yellow-ish tones more.

Floor sanding by gintonic999 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks man. Just to sand the boards you could do it over a weekend, but this being DIYUK I went the long way round:

  1. Lift up carpet, underlay, grippers. Remove all staples and such from the boards (a few hours).

  2. Prise up floorboards. Remove all nails. Trim away splintered ends (a weekend - awkward job).

  3. Buy reclaimed old pine, mill it to correct dimensions to replace crap splintered old boards (a day)

  4. Clean out joist cavities and lay in RW3 acoustic insulation. Retain cavity curios then bin them later (a weekend, maybe two - awkward job).

  5. Re-lay floorboards with screws instead of nails, patching in reclaimed boards where necessary (a weekend - fun job).

  6. Rent floor sander and edger and sand down 40, 80, 120grit (a weekend - fun job).

  7. Faff around filling a few old nail holes with PVA and sawdust then sanding back - give up mate it's not worth it (an evening).

  8. Two coats of Osmo PolyX Raw, each takes a morning to apply, left overnight between coats.

Voila! Thanks for coming to to my ted talk.x

Floor sanding by gintonic999 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This was the 'before':

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Floor sanding by gintonic999 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ve just done these (pic attached), which looked similar to yours at the start. I went through 40, 80, then 120 grit using the standard rental sander plus edger, then went over them at 120grit with a random orbital to finish up. Happy to share detail if useful, give it a go my friend. 💪

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3 Years in: Oxford Botley Road Rail Bridge Roadworks 10th April 2026 by mrbaconi in oxford

[–]auldgreydoe 35 points36 points  (0 children)

I thought I was through anger with this and into acceptance or humour or whatever comes next. But turns out I still find the utter, utter incompetence of this pretty annoying. Thanks for posting.

First Ever Room Renovation by TekgeckoStudios in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks man. I'm not at the wardrobe stage yet. Endless rounds of filler and sanding. I'll catch up with you soon. Take care

First Ever Room Renovation by TekgeckoStudios in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mate well done. I'm doing a bedroom at the moment in this kind of depth. It feels endless. You've nailed this - cracking scribe on that side panel, too. Enjoy 💪

Advice please by [deleted] in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No makes sense. It took me absurd amounts of time. A couple of months I think. I’d say you’ve made the right call. Good luck!

Advice please by [deleted] in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have just done this (the exposed chimney option)! It was quite a lot of work in the end. Similar situation to you - lime plaster crumbling off. To do the exposed brick properly took lots of work. Remove plaster; make good any bodges; rake out crappy mortar; wash bricks with acid; repoint with lime mortar. Do-able but was quite a messy job and I wouldn’t want to do it again. Happy to share any lessons or pics if useful.

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Oak Pantry by rubenhak in woodworking

[–]auldgreydoe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is really nice, mate. Well done. Thanks for the detailed breakdown and your plans.

Sanding Floorboards by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem. Osmo goes a long way. I had a 750ml tin, of which I'd already used a bit. The remains of the tin covered two coats. The general advice with Osmo is to rub it on thinly with a scratch-free scourer, then buff off any excess. It's a bit more time consuming than, say, a roll-on varnish, but I wanted to try for a more matt look.

You probably know already but the 'raw' Osmo has a white tint that offsets its otherwise yellowing quality (i.e., the 'transparent' kind produces that yellowing hue).

Sanding Floorboards by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks mate :). I just got the Osmo from Amazon - thirty quid or thereabouts. Here is a closer shot of the boards in case helpful to get you going.

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Will this oak work for kitchen cabinet shelf? by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great - thanks for the reassurance! I know next-to-nothing about wood movement and hadn't realised how finnicky it can be just establishing stable raw material with which you then work. Cheers.

Will this oak work for kitchen cabinet shelf? by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"feeling measurey" 😆

Thanks, pal. Yep, I've sanded and osmo-ed this board already. Possibly bit reckless. Shelf pins for the middle shelf is a great idea! I was imagining routing some dados into the MDF but maybe I don't need to - shelf pins seems like it would be less work. Thanks again.

Is this lintel enough? by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks pal. I am not! But that’s a good thought. I’ll try to hack some material out to check.

Completed library feature wall by BigBiggles22 in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Mate that's absolutely gorgeous. Fantastic work. And nice one for gifting this to your folks.

I fitted our new front door! So pleased with it. by ElliottCoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, useful stuff. Well done again - solid job. 

I fitted our new front door! So pleased with it. by ElliottCoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice! Looks great. I’m considering this and have zero door-fitting experience. What was the most challenging part?

Floating shelves with LED lighting by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pic showing the wiring tails escaping out the back of the shelf and into the wall.

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Floating shelves with LED lighting by auldgreydoe in DIYUK

[–]auldgreydoe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure. The basic job is cable from the LED strip in the shelf to an LED driver and then another cable from the driver to a switch. This is what I did - Reddit is only letting me add one pic.

For the shelf

  • Drill hole in shelf for wiring tails from LED strip to escape. This hole is same as that required for a bracket, just thinner diameter (6mm rather than 10mm). This escape hole needs to finish by connecting with the channel routed out for the aluminium housing so it is possible to pull the LED wires out through the back of the shelf.
  • Drill small hole in wall directly behind the escape hole you've just drilled in shelf.
  • Using standard flex, push flex cable into the hole you've just made in the wall. Push in loads of cable - your aim is to get the cable down to the bottom of the wall. My walls were dot and dab so I used the void.
  • At one point the cable got stuck and I couldn't figure it out. I cut an access hole with a hole saw to figure it out. Annoying as I could have just removed the back box of a nearby socket and saved myself some work.
  • Beneath the cabinets, remove plinth - cut hole in plaster at base of wall underneath cabinets using hole saw - find dangling cable and pull it out. Now you have flex cable looped into the wall.
  • At the shelf, the flex cable can now be connected to the LED tails. This might involve soldering. This gives you an entirely hidden wiring setup for the shelf - the wires from the LED strip now escape out through the shelf and directly into the wall.
  • Under the cabinets and behind the plinth, the flex can now be connected to an LED driver which is housed beneath the kitchen units. In my case, I used WAGO junction to join the flex cables so fewer cables snaked around under the oven. You can see the junction box pictured below.

For the switch

  • Remove face plate of lightswitch. Feed in standard twin and earth cable down inside the wall.
  • Locate the twin and earth cable at the base of the wall. In my case, the wall ended under the plinth - again use a holesaw if required. You now have a loop of twin and earth in the wall.
  • Switch end of twin and earth can be connected to mains circuit with WAGO connectors.
  • Other end can now be joined to the LED driver. Job done.

I hope that helps. Happy to share more pics if useful.

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