The Home Improvements Thread (2)

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Arzy said:
Unfortunately this is a cold house and doesn't lend itself well to getting sun in where it matters.

The gas looks pretty as it is but it really doesn't provide much heat.
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spend the money on a solar setup and put up 2 or whatever aircons, triple win. (think of the long term costs also of burning wood etc as well as the cleanup etc etc)
 
Steamy Tom said:
spend the money on a solar setup and put up 2 or whatever aircons, triple win. (think of the long term costs also of burning wood etc as well as the cleanup etc etc)
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Already have aircons and underfloor heating in most of the house as well, don't use these as they eat electricity.
 
Obviously daft question, is there ways you can insulate the house a bit better prior to spending the crown on sorting out the fireplace issue?
 
Arzy said:
Already have aircons and underfloor heating in most of the house as well, don't use these as they eat electricity.
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so put in a solar system to power them or at least some of it, even an aircon running at 3kw/h (and most newer ones prob run much lower) is using what ike R9 electricity per hour, im pretty sure a fireplace burns wood at more than R9 an hour :p
 
Question around kitchen cupboards on laminate (or vinyl plank) flooring. I asked before but we've decided to go with kickplates and not open at the bottom.

I've already laid the floor in the braai room (haven't put skirting on yet), now I'm going to put some kitchen cabinets along the one wall. I'm worried about the weight of the cupboards preventing floor movement.

Should I be worried about it, or can I just install cupboards on top of floor? I could either cut out the whole section, or just drill holes where all the feet of the cupboards are?
 
SAguy said:
Question around kitchen cupboards on laminate (or vinyl plank) flooring. I asked before but we've decided to go with kickplates and not open at the bottom.

I've already laid the floor in the braai room (haven't put skirting on yet), now I'm going to put some kitchen cabinets along the one wall. I'm worried about the weight of the cupboards preventing floor movement.

Should I be worried about it, or can I just install cupboards on top of floor? I could either cut out the whole section, or just drill holes where all the feet of the cupboards are?
Click to expand...

You should in theory not install the cabinets on top of the flooring, purely because it will destroy the "floating" and expansion a ability of the floor.

I would in all honesty try remove as much of the floor as possible without damaging it, and then do the cabinets and reinstall up to the point you need with the kickplates.
 
SAguy said:
Question around kitchen cupboards on laminate (or vinyl plank) flooring. I asked before but we've decided to go with kickplates and not open at the bottom.

I've already laid the floor in the braai room (haven't put skirting on yet), now I'm going to put some kitchen cabinets along the one wall. I'm worried about the weight of the cupboards preventing floor movement.

Should I be worried about it, or can I just install cupboards on top of floor? I could either cut out the whole section, or just drill holes where all the feet of the cupboards are?
Click to expand...
When I chatted with installers when insurance replaced laminate floor in one bedroom which had water damage, their very quickly told me to never install cupboards on top of laminate wood. I can't remember the exact reasoning but it was something about the weight on the floor. This was however for a bedroom where the cupboards is from floor to ceiling.
 
SAguy said:
Question around kitchen cupboards on laminate (or vinyl plank) flooring. I asked before but we've decided to go with kickplates and not open at the bottom.

I've already laid the floor in the braai room (haven't put skirting on yet), now I'm going to put some kitchen cabinets along the one wall. I'm worried about the weight of the cupboards preventing floor movement.

Should I be worried about it, or can I just install cupboards on top of floor? I could either cut out the whole section, or just drill holes where all the feet of the cupboards are?
Click to expand...
Cut out the section since you are doing kickplates.. drilling holes, unles you go massively oversized and ensure the feet are exactly center, you may still run into movement issues..
 
ToxicBunny said:
You should in theory not install the cabinets on top of the flooring, purely because it will destroy the "floating" and expansion a ability of the floor.

I would in all honesty try remove as much of the floor as possible without damaging it, and then do the cabinets and reinstall up to the point you need with the kickplates.
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I'm thinking of putting the cabinets down, marking where the kickplate will be, then taking a dremel/circular saw/multitool and cutting the section out.

Thinking this will be easier than trying to remove the floor and relay it.
 
SAguy said:
I'm thinking of putting the cabinets down, marking where the kickplate will be, then taking a dremel/circular saw/multitool and cutting the section out.

Thinking this will be easier than trying to remove the floor and relay it.
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That idea will generally work yeah... My only concern with that would be that would are possibly additionally damaging an extra board when the originally cut board for the edge might be wide enough to be retro-fitted.

(I'm just always keenly aware of making sure of not unnecessarily damaging stuff just in case)
 
if you do make holes for the feet, make them at least 50% bigger than the actual foot
 
Steamy Tom said:
if you do make holes for the feet, make them at least 50% bigger than the actual foot
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Will also have to think about how I drill those holes. I won't be able to use a hole cutter with a pilot bit in the middle, otherwise once that bit goes through the floor board and touches the concrete underfloor then that's the end of that drill bit.

Unless I swop it out the pilot bit in the hole cutter for a multi purpose bit
 
SAguy said:
Will also have to think about how I drill those holes. I won't be able to use a hole cutter with a pilot bit in the middle, otherwise once that bit goes through the floor board and touches the concrete underfloor then that's the end of that drill bit.

Unless I swop it out the pilot bit in the hole cutter for a multi purpose bit
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what you do is cut a hole in a peice of board first, then you use that as your guide without the pilot hole drill bit in. i.e you then place that board flat over where you want the hole drilled and you can either tape it down or stand with two feet over it etc then place the hole saw now without a pilot drill bit into the hole and go nuts

you can go most of the way through and finish it off with a stanley knife to avoid cutting into the floor
 
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SAguy said:
Will also have to think about how I drill those holes. I won't be able to use a hole cutter with a pilot bit in the middle, otherwise once that bit goes through the floor board and touches the concrete underfloor then that's the end of that drill bit.

Unless I swop it out the pilot bit in the hole cutter for a multi purpose bit
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Fortsner bit will be your friend here..
 
Steamy Tom said:
what you do is cut a hole in a peice of board first, then you use that as your guide without the pilot hole drill bit in. i.e you then place that board flat over where you want the hole drilled and you can either tape it down or stand with two feet over it etc then place the hole saw now without a pilot drill bit into the hole and go nuts

you can go most of the way through and finish it off with a stanley knife to avoid cutting into the floor
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Ah, good thinking. Thanks for that.

WAslayer said:
Fortsner bit will be your friend here..
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Ah yes, I'd need to got get one... see next comment

Steamy Tom said:
this would also work, but my method works if you dont want to buy another bit
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Please don't rob me of the opportunity/excuse to tell my wife why I need to buy more things... :ROFL:
 
Cupboards arrived earlier, I ordered from diycupboards - looks pretty nicely put together though there is more DIY installation required than expected.

1618218777584.png

We went with a white gloss wrap finish. I've never installed cupboards before, but to do list for installation as far as I can tell:
  1. Attach plastic feet and prepare laminate floor cutouts
  2. Bolt cupboard to wall
  3. Fit all finishing panels
  4. Attach kickplate
Fortunately they've fitted all the drawer runner hinges, but I'm a little bit nervous about fitting the fronts on the 4 drawer unit, need to make sure the spacing is all correct between them. For the handles on the drawers I'm going to clamp all four of the fronts together and drill a pilot hole through them all together to make sure they are all even and equal.

Then I'm also not sure how to attach the kickplate. They gave a 720 x 50mm piece which they called "Floor filler" with instructions to "Trim to size needed". I'm guess that I use that somewhere in the process of installing the kickplate.

I have asked the contact at DIYCupboards though about that floor filler piece.

If I manage to get this done there are a bunch more cupboards to go, so it's a skill I'd like to work on.
I'll have the quartz tops fitted afterwards.
 
SAguy said:
Ah, good thinking. Thanks for that.


Ah yes, I'd need to got get one... see next comment


Please don't rob me of the opportunity/excuse to tell my wife why I need to buy more things... :ROFL:
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Just buy the things, and don't tell her until she sees the bank statements :P
 
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