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Posts Tagged ‘grain<’
I’ve recently sanded down an old wooden table I’m rather fond of and finished it off with a high lustre polyurethane seal. I wish I could claim all the credit for the final effect – just don’t tell anybody I used ideas I gleaned from a retired London Painter living in the village not far from me.
• Work in the best light – That does not mean under blazing overhead light that shines back in your eyes.  What is does mean is natural illumination streaming softly through doors and windows at a low angle. This emphasises the grain that you must accommodate, and turns imperfections into shadows that you can easily see. If you don’t have natural light available, set a desk lamp at one end of the bench.
• Choose the right sandpaper – Sandpaper comes in different colours, although there are no industry rules. Some suppliers use colour to highlight different grit size. Others use it to indicate different types. Choose three strengths of paper designed for the job in hand, so you can work progressively from coarse to fine.
• Use sanding tools – The chances of achieving a level finish using bare hands are low, because fingers are creative things, not mechanised machines. Use a sanding block for a smaller piece of work,  and a power sander for a larger job. Bear in mind that power tools are more productive. Use finer grit paper to counteract the effect.
• Use a jig – Wrap sandpaper around a reverse shape to sand right into a tricky corner, and move your work gently up and down against it. Work carefully – the results can be quite dramatic.
• Check progress as you go along – Put a used nylon stocking over your hand and run it gently across the surface of your work to find rough spots. If you’re a guy though, perhaps you shouldn’t admit to wearing pantyhose in the workshop?
You won’t need to Find a Painter to do a hobbyist job like this. But you will need to get Painting Quotes on Mr-Skill for wooden doors and window frames. Trust me. I tried that. You don’t want to go down that road alone.
Tags: angle, bench, block, check, choose, coarse, colour, door, find a painter, fine, finish, grade, grain, grit, jig, lamp, level, light, london painter, natural, nylon, painting quote, paper, power, progress, reverse, rough, sand, sandpaper, seal, shadow, shine, size, smooth, soft, stocking, strength, table, tool, window, wood, work
Posted in Painting & Decorating | Comments Off
Posted in Tiling & Flooring on Jul 19
A wooden strip floor is a thing of almost ageless beauty if properly maintained, and can add thousands of pounds in value to a period home too. Unfortunately, there was a post-war period when valuable floors were covered over and horribly neglected.  If you have the patience a home repair is possible. If not, you can Find a Flooring Contractor nearby you, right here.
The first challenge is to find a matching strip, or strips. There are places in the City where salvage flooring is stored away, although only London Flooring Specialists know of these, and I doubt very much whether they will pass the knowledge on to you. In olden times floor planks were cut from the hearts of trees for extra strength and were close grained. These days, softer outside wood is used with broader grain and a lighter finish. This leaves two choices – either scour the demolition sites yourself, or bite the bullet and shuffle the floor planks in your home as necessary.
Removing a plank is not that difficult, once you discover that the trick is to carefully cut through the tongues and grooves on both sides of the affected plank, taking care not to spread the damage as you do. After that make  several long diagonal cuts, and pick away at the remains until you have cleared it away completely, and removed all the nails.
Prepare the replacement board for a precise nudge fit, removing any tongue and groove before you size it. Drill a few holes through it, and attach twine to nails on the bottom side, so you have a way to pull it out again if it gets stuck. When you are quite satisfied, epoxy glue it in position and hold it down with bricks while the glue is drying, definitely no nails required here.
This can be a fun job for the enthusiast on a rainy Saturday afternoon, but the cause of family conflict if things to not work out right. Another alternative could be to get some Flooring Quotes on Mr-Skill, and leave the job, and the frustrations to the experts.
Tags: cover, cut, demolition, drill, find, find a flooring contractor, fit, floor, flooring quote, grain, groove, heart, London flooring specialist, maintain, neglect, remove, replace, salvage, size, strip, tongue, twine, value, wood
Posted in Tiling & Flooring | Comments Off
Posted in Carpentry & Joinery on Oct 10
This advice targets handy persons who choose not to find a joiner for a hobby project. Despite the proliferation of power tools, many craftspeople still believe in hand-held manual saws. This is because they remain more in control of a  tool that is literally an extension of their hands, and are thereby able to produce results closer to what they have in their creative mind. There are four main types of hand-held saws. Each one has its own unique intended purpose.
A Rip Saw is the most common saw in use for cutting wood, and is what most people call to mind when thinking of a saw. It cuts along the grain of a piece of wood quickly and without too much trouble either. Rip Saws with smaller teeth make a cleaner cut, and shorter ones are better if you are cutting through smaller piece. A long saw with large teeth cuts the quickest, although the result may be weak and a little wavy.  Be careful with a Rip Saw – if it slips, it can rip your hand badly too.
A Crosscut Saw cuts across the grain. Its knifepoint teeth produce a much finer job if you have the time. A mitre box is necessary as this saw may stray off course despite the brace along the blade. This is a true craftsperson’s tool – when in a hurry try to remember that a joint created along a grain will not hold as well as one across it.
A Coping Saw (or Fret Saw) is for cutting intricate shapes through  thin sheets of wood, to create scrolling and other patterns. This is an artist’s tool, and definitely not to be hurried. If you are in a lovingly creative mood and wish to produce that perfect work of art, then use this mini-masterpiece at your leisure. If you are in a hurry, rather buy a power tool and force the wood to do your pleasure.
A Hack Saw is a crude tool used to cut through metal and through thin strips of wood or plastic too if a precise cut is not required.  The thin blade wanders easily through a longer cut, especially if the blade is not tightly set. Note that the saw teeth are directional and must face in the direction of the forward cut, and that the saw will only penetrate your work on thast stroke.
For a larger project around the house, it may be better to get carpenter quotes. Joiners in London especially use experts, because of the price of wood in the City.
Tags: carpenter quotes, carpenters london, control, coping saw, crosscut saw, cut, downward, find a carpenter, find a joiner, grain, hacksaw, hand held saw, handy person, joiner quotes, joiners london, manual saw, power tool, ripsaw, scroll saw, stroke, teeth, tooth, upward, wood
Posted in Carpentry & Joinery | Comments Off
Posted in Cleaning Services on Sep 28
I read somewhere that toast always falls to the ground jam-and-butter side down. While I do not know whether this is true or not, I do know that the best way to attract a cigarette burn is to fit a new carpet. This is why a good carpet installer always leaves a few scraps behind. If you have a burn to repair, and no matching scraps to do this with, then  you may be able to scrounge a patch. If not, remove a small piece of carpet that lies permanently under solid furniture and use this. Some housekeepers in London are capable of doing a job like this – others may not be quite as dedicated.
o Remove only as much of the carpet pile as is necessary. Cut between the pile and avoid straight edges and sharp corners. Do not cut through the underlay, because this will be the link between the carpet and the patch.
o Identify a matching section of the carpet scrap. Carpets often have grains, and there may be repeating patterns too. Cut out a patch slightly larger than the hole that you are going to fill, again avoiding the pile (if the patch is large, it may be useful to make a paper template first).
o Dry fit the patch. If necessary trim it, or begin again if you got things badly wrong. When you are happy with your efforts, align and glue the patch to the underlay with non water-soluble contact adhesive, taking care to avoid staining the surface of the carpet while you do. After waiting 24 hours for the glue to dry, carefully cut away any loose strands with a small sharp pair of scissors, and your repair is complete.
This can be a rewarding weekend job to do. If you do not enjoy this type of project, why not get housekeeper quotes at Mr-Skill and find a housekeeper to do the job for you?
Tags: burn, carpet, cigarette, cigarette burn, cleaner quotes, cleaners london, contact, contact glue, cut, find a cleaner, find a housekeeper, glue, grain, housekeeper quotes, housekeepers london, loose, mat, match, patch, pattern, pile, remove, repair, rug, scrap, scraps, strands, template, underfelt, underlay, water-soluble
Posted in Cleaning Services | Comments Off
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