Recent content by Phil

There's a well respected technical college in Anglesey, North Wales that does a year's course covering bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing, electrics and painting/decorating or plastering. You do about two months on each trade which obviously isn't enough to make you totally proficient, but as with...

Helpful advice as ever - thanks Grand.

Got to brick up a small fireplace for a friend and hardwall/multi it. The sides and top edges of the fireplace opening are formed with angle beads. Would you guys recommend hacking the beads out to create an uneven edge so the new plaster blends in better, or should I leave them in and just...

I was on the phone to a builder in North Wales this morning and I asked him why they sand/cement/pebbledash all the old stone houses there instead of using lime renders like the original builders. He admitted he would prefer to do all his restorations using lime but reckoned the damp climate in...

Many thanks for all the helpful advice guys. Goody - I haven't got a cottage yet, I'm in the process of looking for one. I know Anglesey well and guarantee when I find one, it'll have lime/horsehair interior walls and either bare stone exterior walls or crappy pebbledash if one of the local...

I'm thinking of buying an old stone cottage in North Wales to completely renovate from the ground up. I was intending to re-render all the outside and inside walls in lime to help it breathe and because I hate pebbledash which is what all the local builders use. However, someone told me...

God, you must be doing well Tony. Rang the Hilti depot in Stratford this avvo and they wanted 485 notes for one of them with collated screw magazine attachment thingie :o :o

Great post Nelly. You've summed up brilliantly what 98% of the people in this country think.

Andy - where's the best place to get sand for internal/external rendering in the mid-Essex region? What's your opinion of the B&Q plastering sand?

Interesting vids, but Christ they've got some rough brickies in the Ukraine :o They sell those Knauf depth beads in Wickes.

Sorry, are we still talking about the anal probe? Bought my girlfriend a rampant rabbit couple of xmas's ago, but the ungrateful cow complained it was too big!? :o

I assume using beach sand is a complete no-no for rendering? I met someone on Anglesey a few years ago who filled a trailer load down the local beach and got his mate to render some outside blockwork with it :o But then anything seems to go in North Wales ::)

Thanks for all your replies, guys - that's put my mind at rest. Just back from B&Q with some skim beads and clout nails. A pro-plasterer behind me in the queue with about 15 bags of Multi on his trolley got chatting and told me my clout nails were too short for fixing the angle beads coz they...

Chaps, I've got to skim a friend's kitchen which he's boarded himself (badly!) and on the window reveals he's used some offcuts of green coloured plasterboard. Is it Aquapanel board and can you skim the green side ok? Also, in one place where three bits of dabbed on board meet in one place(!)...

Well set out website mate, but too many grammatical errors, which might appear trivial but are the sort of detail that higher end clients will notice. You don't use any apostrophes at all e.g. days work should be day's work. Incorrect use of capital letters e.g. 'P' every time you write...