The secret to successful painting is:
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Buying good gear.
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Washing it well afterwards.
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Lending it to nobody.
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Possibly the greatest advice ever given on this site.
Leaves sticking your thumb etc in the wing-mirror.
Harris brushes (not cheap) will, with proper care, last a lifetime.
No.3 is possibly the pick of the lot. Tip of my cap Sir.
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The secret to successful painting is paying someone else to do it
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This is the DIY thread, but your point stands on it’s own merits.
An addendum - buying cheap paint is a mugs game. Farrow&Ball are overpriced but the standard Dulux will give you the desired coverage and finish.
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I got a fella to paint the outside of the house recently. There had been a discussion on TFK the week before on exterior paints. The conclusion of the forum was that Dulux Weathershield was the tops. The painter asked me what quality of paint I wanted. “It’ll have to be Dulux Weathershield” I said, drawing heavily on my TFK acquired knowledge. Yer man looked at me in a way that suggested “This lad knows his onions, I better do a proper job”. And he did and the Dulux Weathershield is smashing.
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Driving home last night and the whole dashboard goes dark and the radio stops working out of nowhere.
Car running fine, but no speed dial, no fuel indicator, not sure if lights or indicators were working (they were as it turned out) luckily wasn’t far from home and it was day time.
An extensive Google pinpointed a specific fuse that may have been blown. Luckily easily accessible. Over to Halfords today to pick it up. Replace fuse and nothing.
Fuck it anyway. Big bill coming.
Went back out there this evening and Internet suggested plan B was to disconnect the battery from the neutral end, leave it for 20 mins, reconnect and try again. Start disconnecting the neutral end and small sparks are coming out. Google suggests there might be a few small sparks in it, but fuck that I’m not electrocuting myself. Tighten it back up and leave it.
Defeated.
About to call it a day but pull the fuse again and put it back in. Wiggle a few wires but nothing loose I could see.
Start her up and dashboard lights up perfect.
A win for the Internet and total ineptitude
Sell her asap.
Its probably in a ball of ash this morning
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Anyone ever experience patio slabs lifting during warm weather? I’d imagine there is a certain amount of expansion during warm spells but to be lifting this much is taking the piss a bit.
Incredible forces present with thermal expansion. Would running a con-saw along a joint sort it?
What did this end up costing you @Big_Dan_Campbell? Any pitfalls to watch out for?
I had a few lads out to look at mine. Quoting anywhere between 6 and 12.
8k for what I would class as a decidedly average job. 1/3 patio 2/3 artificial grass and a few metes of lawn laid out the front
Why would you only rate it decidedly average anythings you’d do differently next time? Would it be an average 3 bed semi size or what?
There is one larger patio leading off the kitchen and a smaller one in the sun trap at the end of the garden - two different fellas on the same crew laid them. The smaller one is of a far higher standard, slabs flusher and cuts cleaner. It’s a 9/10 job, the one by the kitchen is 6.5 out of 10 with some bang average finishes by two dopes. Also in a few areas where the synthetic grass meets the boundary wall haven’t held up well and are a bit lumpy/bumpy now bit covered over with potted plants.
I have only myself to blame as the crew did a lot of it over the June bank holiday weekend while I was down the country at the Munster final and wasn’t mentally or physically in a place to throw much of a critical eye over it. He did come back and try and rectify some issues but that only took it from a 5 to a 6.5
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That’s a good tip to be around when they’re doing it so. Mine sounds a fairly similar space. Patio on in the back corner and the grass everywhere else. Slabs and porcelain tile type jobs have been mentioned. The fella I’m thinking of going with was all about the porcelain ones as said the finish they put underneath means weeds won’t grow up.
He’s also a big social media head with tens of thousands of followers and said he wants to use mine as a bit of a show garden as the place is in such shite now 
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Have you mortar between slabs? Grand for weed control but you risk lifting like this when the sun shines after a period of dry weather. Lift them, not ideal I know, trim the mortar and put down a porous membrane to limit the weeds and reseat the slabs with at least a 10mm spacing. Fine gravel and silver sand over the top.
They’ll drain the finest and while your weed control won’t be perfect, you’ll have no issues with lifting or cracking.
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@Corksfinedtboy im panelling a wall with planed 2x1s.I was going to fix to the wall with screws and filling the holes.I want to varnish them but will i be able to if i fill the holes will the filler be visible under the varnish?
Decorating is not my forte.
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U get a putty like filler
All colours
Won’t get it exact but near enough
Afaik woodies
But any paint shop definitely
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