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Posts Tagged ‘strip<’
Posted in Electrical Work on Jan 23
The last thing you need in any circuit is a dry joint, by which I mean two wires twisted round each other or even worse. In a home, this can cause the power to keep on tripping, while in the low voltage world the result is a random electronic fault.
 From time-to-time it’s necessary to get a soldering-iron out. Before you rush around looking for an Electrician Quote it might just be possible to do the job yourself.
• Preparation Clean both parts that you are planning to solder into a joint. Hardened, damaged wire is a recipe for disaster so make sure everything is shiny new by stripping off a fresh end. While at it, remove any vestiges of solder if you’re repairing an existing joint. That’s because solder does not stick to itself at all well when not fresh.
• Tinning Heat each surface in turn until it just melts a bead of solder. Work this back and forth until you see a little amber liquid appear. That’s the tinning that’s the meat in a good joint. It will be HOT. Allow the material  to cool down naturally before you touch it with your hands.
• Soldering Mount the larger of the pieces to be joined securely in a vice. Heat up its surface until solder melts instantly on it. Place the other tinned piece in the pool of solder, remove the soldering iron, and wait until the surface of the melted solder goes slightly dull. Allow the joint, which will be HOT to cool naturally.
If you have a soldering iron that’s in good order and you have the time, you don’t really need to Find an Electrician, do you? But beware one thing, and that’s a bad joint. A London Electrician I know tests his apprentices’ work by seeing whether he can pull it apart.
Tags: bead, circuit, clean, cool, dry, electric, electrician quote, electronic, find an electrician, flux, fresh, heat, hot, joint, london electrician, melt, preparation, remove, solder, solder iron, strip, tin, tinned, vice, wire
Posted in Electrical Work | Comments Off
While replacing glass in a UPVC door (or window) is something professionals usually do, there may be times when you have to do the job yourself – like over the Christmas break.  You could do the job yourself provided you can lay your hands on a suitable pane of glass, but do wear gloves and work carefully. At other times it makes far more sense to Find a Window Fitter on Mr-Skill.
- Examine the door frame around the damaged glass to determine from which side it was fitted. One side will have an unbroken line over a strip of rubber. On the other side there will be four pieces of beading that clip in to hold the glass.
- Take up a sharp putty knife or paint scraper and work it under a bottom or a side piece of bead. Hold your other hand out of the way in case the tool slips. Carefully prise out the bottom and side beads, except the top one which will still be holding the glass in place.
 Have an assistant hold the glass in the door frame while you take out the top bead. Hold the pane on both sides while you gently lower it out. Be careful! Wear gloves. The edges will be razor sharp!
- Install the replacement pane in the reverse order, taking care not to crack the glass by applying too much pressure. London Window Fitters often use the trick of applying a little dishwashing soap to the recess in the window frame, when pressing in the final bead.
Under normal circumstances we would recommend that you get Window Fitting Quotes instead and perhaps on Mr-Skill too. That’s because you run the risk of injuring yourself, if for no other reason than that the job may be a little bit unfamiliar to you.
Tags: bead, beading, bottom, broken, clip, crack, damage, dishwash, door, find a window fitter, fit, frame, glass, harm, injure, install, knife, london window fitter, pane, pressure, prise, quadrant, replace, rubber, scraper, sheet, side, soap, strip, top, uPVC, window, window fitting quote(s)
Posted in Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
Posted in Plastering & Drywall on Dec 05
After a builder installs a window, or a window fitter replaces one, there’s usually a gap between the window and the wall on either side. Experienced London Plasterers know how to close this in with rendering. In this article though, we focus on a more modern  technique that uses strips of plasterboard instead
This job is nominally within the target range of anybody who is good with their hands. It does require a fair degree of patience though, and those with delicate chests might prefer to avoid doing it on account of dust. Should you decide to go ahead yourself, then these are the essential steps:
- Cut sufficient strips of plasterboard to complete the job. lf the gap is deep, consider using several layers of board as opposed to balancing a single one on large blobs of glue, and being able to finish off the job immediately. When discussing Plastering Quotes you receive on Mr-Skill with bidders, find out how they propose to the job too.
- Apply proprietary dry-wall adhesive to the brickwork on one side of the window. Push a
 plasterboard strip into place using a square edge and spirit level to keep it true.
- Add further layers of strips using the same proprietary dry-wall adhesive, until you have built up to the desired level and flush with the window frame.
- Repeat the process on the other side. Now you can add the angle beading where your work interfaces with the wall, tidy up generally and redecorate.
Of course the third method would be to Find a Plasterer on Mr-Skill, and get on with something else that you’d prefer to do instead. We select contractors with extra-special care, to make sure that each and every trades person we introduce is the best.
To benefit from their expertise and brilliantly lower prices, all you need to do is to Post Your Job for free!
Tags: adhesive, angle, angle beading, bead, brickwork, builder, decorate, dust, find a plasterer, finish, flush, gap, glue, layer, level, london plasterers, new, patience, plaster board, plasterboard, plastering quote, process, push, repeat, replace, square, strip, tidy, wall, window, window fitter
Posted in Plastering & Drywall | Comments Off
Posted in Tiling & Flooring on Sep 21
Wood-Effect laminate flooring has become popular in recent years, as folk discover how quickly they can change a room around, and how easy these floors are to keep clean too. But everything has its downsides and laminate flooring certainly is no exception. The only way to protect yourself from  problems is to Find a Floorer who does the job correctly in the first place.
• Peaking occurs when boards are too tight up against each other and the centres begin to bulge. This is almost invariably causde by a lack of free expansion space around the perimeter of the room, and can be corrected.
• Buckling and Warping are the result of water damage or moisture that could come from underground or might even be in the air. For this reason I have yet to meet a Flooring Firm in London who would consider laying laminate flooring in a bathroom, especially near a shower. Another possible cause of buckling and warping is the absence of an effective balancing substrate.
• Gapping between boards should not occur at all providing they are allowed to acclimatize before being laid. If they do open slightly under very cold conditions, the chances are that gaps will close as the room warms up again.
•  Mould and Mildew are warning signs of high humidity that ought to be carefully controlled, not simply cleaned away. The solution is to root cause the underlying problem and address it.
• Chipping on corners is a sign of abuse during installation. Make sure your Flooring Quote describes the manner in which the work will be done. If it mentions the use of a mallet and tapping block (which are unnecessary in the first place) move away and look again. If the damage happens subsequently, then I’m afraid you bought a poor quality floor.
Another way to avoid these hassles is to Find a Reputable Flooring Firm on Mr-Skill. That’s because we reference-check our tradespeople to make sure their lower prices do not come with loss of quality. How’s that for winning both ways.
Tags: avoid, board, buckle, bulge, cheap, chip, clean, cold, control, damp, expansion, find a flooring firm, floor, flooring firm in london, flooring quote, gap, humidity, laminate, mallet, mildew, moisture, mould, peaking, poor, price, problem, protect, quality, strip, substrate, tap, tight, warp, wood, wood effect
Posted in Tiling & Flooring | Comments Off
Posted in Tiling & Flooring on Aug 16
There’s nothing quite like the beauty of a wooden floor in good condition, especially one that’s been treated to bring out the natural colour. Moreover wooden floors are far easier to keep clean too, so no wonder they have been popular for so long. Is your wooden floor looking a bit tatty?  Perhaps you just moved into a neglected, older home? No worries. The situation is quite easily recovered, provided that the underlying state of the floor is good. Either Find a Floor Sander Here, or tackle the job yourself as follows:
o First, lay your hands on a good quality rented floor sander which should not cost more than £60 a week at most. While you’re at it, rent a floor edging sander too. You will also need a varnish applicator, a mop and bucket, a hammer, a floor pad, and, of course the varnish.
o Stay out of trouble and close the door into the rest of the house, or mask the opening off. Inspect the floor carefully for anything that could rip the paper in the sander. Patch any larger gaps with strips of wood hammered tightly in, and fill the smaller ones with papier mache tinted with water-based wood dye.
o  Sand the floor as instructed by the hire-shop clerk. There are too many different sanders to describe the process here. After you have worked through the process from coarse paper though to fine, vacuum thoroughly and wipe down with white spirit to remove every scrap of dust.
o Apply a coat of varnish, and let it dry completely. Lightly sand by hand to key the surface, wipe it down with thinners and apply a second coat. The more times you repeat the process, the more beautiful the gloss and the more durable the finish will be – which is why London Flooring Services always achieve such high quality results.
If you feel a little intimidated at the thought of sanding floors, when why not consider getting Floor Sanding Quotes from Mr-Skill instead? All our tradespeople come with personal recommendations, and you can see what other customers think about them right here too. How’s that for another good idea to make life easier?
Tags: apply, beauty, bucket, clean, coarse, coat, colour, door, dry, durable, dust, edger, find a floor sander, fine, floor, floor sanding quotes, gloss, hammer, hire, london flooring service, mask, mop, natural, neglected, pad, papier mache, patch, popular, rent, repeat, sand, sander, seal, strip, tatty, treat, vacuum, varnish, white spirit, wipe, wood
Posted in Tiling & Flooring | Comments Off
Its amazing how many homes there are across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom where the beauty of their bathrooms are spoilt by a grotty run of silicone sealer around the edges of the bath. To make things worse, some cowboys even add silicone on top of silicone,  until the effect looks really dreadful.
No Bathroom Fitter in London associated with Mr-Skill (or any others located elsewhere for that matter) would dream of doing anything as unprofessional as that. If they did, we would delete them from our system with a single click of our system administrator’s mighty mouse.
Here’s how you could expect the job to be done, if you decided to Find a Bathroom Fitter Here.
o Cut away carefully behind the old silicone on both sides with a sharp Stanley knife, taking care not to scratch the surface of the bath if it’s one of those new ones that scratch so easily. Peel as much of the silicone away as you possibly can. If it is really grotty behind it, you may like to use disposable gloves to protect your skin.
o  Clean the area thoroughly with a good disinfectant soap, and dry it well with paper towel.
o Pop down to your local hardware shop and buy some proprietary silicone remover, a tube of mould resistant silicone, and a caulking gun. While you are there, study the instructions on the silicone tube, to find out how to neutralize it when its job is done, and what safety precautions to take when working with it too.
o Using the silicone remover, strip every vestige of remaining silicone around the bath, and tidy things up generally. Now’s the time to attend to any grouting that might need cleaning off and tidying up too.
o Obtain a roll of the thinnest “sellotape” that you can find, and mask off around where you want the new silicone to go. Take your time here, because this is what will make the final difference.
I’ll continue in the next blog. Meantime, anytime you need to Get Bathroom Fitters Quotes to do a complete bathroom upgrade instead, we have some really good ones listed on this website.
Tags: bath, bathroom, bathroom fitters london, bathroom fitters quotes, blade, careful, caulk, clean, cut, effect, find a bathroom fitter, glove, grout, gun, hardware, knife, mould, peel, remover, seal, sellotape, silicone, spoil, strip, surface, tidy, tube, wash
Posted in Other Craftsman Services | 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 Mar 21
A touch of tongue and groove panelling that was so popular in Victorian times adds an interesting accent to any room, especially when softened with a colour wash effect. To get a professional finish you might need to <a  href=”http://www.mr-skill.co.uk/carpentry-and-joinery/”>Find a Carpenter to do the job for you, unless that is you have a feel for wood and are quite handy.
To begin with, source the panelling. If you can get planks without any knots at all then this is perfect. If not make sure the knots are tight, and fairly evenly distributed too. A mate of mine once told me that the owner of Seamless Carpenters London refuses to buy panelling at all unless he gets to choose the strips himself. Here is how to go about the job, referring to the drawing opposite:
o Attach the furring strips (otherwise known as battens) to the wall, making sure that they are right at the top and bottom and in the middle too. If the wall bends a bit adjust this with spacers so that when the job is done, the panelling will be true to the floor.
o  Mark out the positions of the panels on a fitted furring strip to determine to what extent you may need a cut piece, and decide where this will go. Cut all the pieces to length with a suitable electric saw, remembering to work outside the house to control the dust.
o Remove the tongue from one cut piece of plank using a sharp Stanley knife, file the cut smooth and sand it down evenly. Starting at one or the other of your work (left if right handed, the opposite if you are not) fit the panelling making sure it remains spirit level vertically
o Nail the first piece on to the battens through the wood using panel pins with the groove in the direction of your work, punch in the nail heads and fill the holes. After than, you just slide the tongue into the groove as you go along, securing each successive piece with nails driven through the back groove into the furring strips.
After fitting all the planks, you just have to secure the edge pieces all around, and your first tongue and groove job will be complete, bar finishing and painting. If you prefer, you could get Carpenter Quotes from Mr-Skill, although that way you might miss out on all the fun.
Tags: batten, carpenter quote, carpenters london, cut, edge, file, find a carpenter, find a joiner, finish, furring, groove, joiner london, joiner quote, knot, nail, panel, panelling, pin, plank, sand, strip, tongue, tongue & groove, tongue and groove, wainscoat, wood
Posted in Carpentry & Joinery | Comments Off
Posted in Plastering & Drywall on Feb 16
 Although working with drywall is not difficult in theory, in practice this can be quite a different thing. This is because it is large, unwieldy and fairly brittle too. What follows is just a summary so you know what to expect after you Find a Plasterer from Mr-Skill – in practice you need to know far more than this to do the job yourself.
o Build up a wooden framework first. The finished job can only be as good as the structure it covers so take time here and make sure the joints are good and strong.
o To cut to size mark and score a cutline deeply. Fold the board back to snap it through, and then slice through the backing with a sharp utility knife.
 o Attach the panels with 1-5/8” screws, starting with the row of panels against the ceiling. Make sure the joints are snug and that the screw heads are indented without damaging the outer covering.
o Seal the joints and screw heads with proprietary filler / edging strips, sand down and paint.
Now that you know what is involved you can safely get Plasterer Quotes from Joe’s Plasterer London or somebody in your local area, and monitor progress to make sure they get it right.
Aren’t you glad you found Mr-Skill?
Tags: brittle, cut, cut line, drywall, find a plasterer, frame, framework, indent, joint, knife, paint, plasterer london, plasterer quote, plastering job London, plastering quote, sand, score, screw, seal, slice, snap, strip, unwieldy, wood
Posted in Plastering & Drywall | Comments Off
 It can be quite tempting to decide to strip away old paint instead of attempting to recover a painted surface. There can be considerably more to the process than meets the eye though – it can be time-consuming, laborious and quite dangerous too. While Mr-Skill provides the following information in good faith we cannot guarantee it under all eventualities. In fact we really do think that you should consider getting a Decorator Quote instead.
o Conduct Research. How old might the paint job be? This can provide a useful clue to the materials used and the right stripping procedure to follow. Depending on the application you could burn the paint off, or use a chemical stripper. In the former case be aware of fire hazards, in the latter beware of chemical burns. It is also possible to remove paint manually using a paint scraper – this is the hardest but perhaps the safest way.
 o Wear Protective Clothing. We cannot over-emphasize this point. If burning paint away wear safety goggles, a safety mask and heat resistant long-sleeved gloves. If using chemicals substitute more appropriate gloves and wear overalls to protect your clothes and skin. For manual stripping you just need a pair of good strong gloves and loads of patience.
When I was a supervisor doing Painting Jobs in London we refused to do a burn-off job without a liability waiver and a fire extinguisher handy, and never used a chemical stripper where ventilation was inadequate. My motto is why take a chance just to save some money – Find a Decorator who is competent instead.
There are many rated ones on Mr-Skill that you could trust to do the job for you and save you hassles.
Tags: bore, burn, chemical, chemical stripper, clothing, decorating job london, decorating quote, decorator london, decorator quote, find a decorator, find a painter, glove, goggle, laborious, mark, material, paint, painter london, painter quote, painting job london, painting quote, recover, scraper, strip, surface, time consuming
Posted in Painting & Decorating | Comments Off
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