diy
i HATE having to deal with other peoples bodges, but my solutions are probably shocking bodges that would offend others.
Decorating a house for my sister, i came to one bedroom which had a layer of woodchip, which had been gloss painted a few times, then covered with another layer of woodchip, which had been painted plenty of times too. No amount of scraping, use of a steamer or any other method could get that shit off without destroying the plaster underneath. In the end I clad the entire room in 3mm hardboard then decorated over that. Probably a bit of a bodge on its own, but it was the easiest solution I could think of.
The floors in this house would make a tradesman cry. The house had a subsidence problem decades ago and as a result, the whole house sits at a noticeable angle. Some previous owner had attempted to "level" the floors by putting battens of varying sizes down over the floor boards and re-doing the flooring in thin chipboard. It was a complete nightmare and was falling to bits, so I started ripping it up to do a proper replacement floor, then noticed that whoever had fitted the gas central heating had run all the water and gas pipes between the original floor and the chipboard overlay. I replaced the chipboard with decent plywood and left it at that.

I once rented a flat where the bathroom had wood panelling up to a dado rail and wallpaper above that. Fine, except the numpty landlord had fixed the sink to the wood paneling and not the wall behind it. First morning in the new flat and I leaned on the sink while brushing my teeth and pulled the fucker off the wall.

oh, and if you ever need to know where your water pipe is in a wall or under a floor, get me round to hammer in a nail. I will hit the fecking pipe, guaranteed. Ive done this on 4 seperate occasions now.
(dave likes cheese, Thu 3 Apr 2008, 18:59, Reply)