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You could go over the surface with a brass suede brush to remove some of the soft grain before painting. Colin

I made the most of the turn in the weather yesterday. One lawn cut, a bit of pruning on our 40 foot oak tree and a good selective spraying of Grazon Herbicide to kill the docks and brambles in our meadow grass and banks. Hopefully it will start to act before the rain returns on Monday. Colin

You should not have much heat coming out the sides of the boiler. On our previous house the boiler was housed inside a wall cupboard with about 30mm gap down the sides. Colin

And if you are wondering how to hold it in place, as I did with the same problem some years ago, use cable ties as the original straps/clips will not fit. Colin

Have a drive around your local small industrial estate in search of Architectural Joiners. You will be surprised at what you can get as they generally discount anything less than about 600mm in length and are happy to get a small return on what they have. Colin

I always thought the rule of thumb for span was take the distance and divide by two. 5m is a bit over 16 feet, so no smaller than 8x2, preferably 10x2. Colin

Sorry, but I'd have to say I'd pull the plasterboard off where the bath is. Plasterboard is not really a good idea near showers or baths where a shower may be used above it. I's not worth the risk of your hard work being spoilt a few years down the line when a grout lines fails and water gets...

The proportions seem a little off to me. At 30cm deep, by the time you take in the leg section and short overhang then the drawers are going to be very narrow. I'd go with the golden rectangle proportions of 8-5 for the top, so 800 long and 500 deep. Colin

If you have to use paints it will be water based. They are slightly soft and less likely to chip. For odd spot areas if you needed something shiny then Humbrol enamel would be good. 30 years ago for my boys I managed to find some excellent coloured dies. These could be mixed with with a spirit...

In about 1995 when we lived in Essex I built a workshop at the bottom of the garden. I did not need planning permission. The base was 8x5m and as such I needed building control to check it at various stages. I believe the strike point on the area when they step in was 30m2. The 2.5m you mention...

if you put it in a box it will make more noise. You need to sit the motor on something comparatively heavy to absorb the noise. Colin

Whilst the mitre joint does look nice, I would never attempt it on a solid timber worksurface, especially beech. The level of movement is too great and the joint will soon open up. If you have ever seen beech architrave around a door frame you will have probably noticed exactly what I mean. I...

I lived in Essex for 35 years without problem, then Merseyside for 5 years and similarly no issues. If I noticed any rust on cast iron surfaces it was a rare event and a light rub with 400 grit and a spot of honing oil did the job for the next few years. I moved to Devon in Sept 2022 and things...

When I started teaching in 1982 I think most were Douglas Fir. When I finished in 2017 they were Parana Pine. Colin

I'm aware of three types of zinc application to steel. BZP - electro plated, now usually resulting in a cheap and thin coat of zinc. Hot dip galvanising - the metal goes into molten zinc forming what is usually a far thicker and wear resistant surface. My late father used to work for the CEGB...

John, have a search for "impact" adhesive as opposed to "contact" adhesive. The two look the same, are applied in the same manner and smell the same. The Timebond you initially used does sound like an impact adhesive as it offered you the chance to move things around. As the name implies it only...

If you open your search up to include the likes of the Record 200...

How about going old school and using a senior hacksaw? Last year I had to make a couple of 300mm long cuts in some stainless steel plate. At just under 3mm thick it is thinner than you are working on but not an easy material to work by hand. The cuts were true and a little time draw fileing saw...

We had K-Rend on our previous bungalow and in the two years we lived with it the finish was wonderful, but it is pricey. We paid nearly £14K for it, but this was part of a combined 60mm exterior insulation wrap. It can be applied over some masonry finishes, but it really does need to be taken on...

If you need any more then try here:- https://www.shoppaint.co.uk/products/smooth-masonry-10l?variant=47508418036047 Colin