Rolling DIY & home improvements thread

We ordered way too many for our kitchen, but Topps happily let you return any unopened boxes, which we did.

Oh phew!!

Make sure you do it within 60 days of purchase though.

  1. You can return any resalable Products to us within 60 days of purchase for a full refund (excluding delivery charges). Only full boxes of the same tiles will be refunded, or individual tiles with an RRP of £10+ each. You must return the Products to a Topps Tiles store along with a receipt as proof of purchase and a refund will be made via the original method of payment. Topps Tiles reserve the right not to refund if the Products are deemed as not being in a resaleable condition, if there is no proof of purchase, or if the Products are returned after the 60 day period. We aim to process all refunds within 10 working days.
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Update: Spray-can radiator paint is great. We no longer have a gold radiator in the bedroom.

New pain: fucking woodworm tracks in the floor. The joists appear to be mercifully untouched and it looks like it’s just two boards. We’ve ripped those up and got some treatment to put down. Fingers crossed!

Photo time: Our dining room floor sanded up an absolute treat. Prepping it was a ball-ache, but sanding it was fun. I’d happily do that for a living.

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Boring tile anecdote: we found some we like in Homebase to go in front of a fireplace, but they were part of a box that contained 4 different patterns - all clashing colours. Who thought that was a good idea?

The GF and I emptied out a bunch of packs on the floor in the aisle and filled a box with enough of the ones we like.

:grinning: Love it.

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Homebase seems to be getting worse and worse since that Aussie lot bought it. They really don’t seem to give a shit about anything.

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Won’t even deliver to our postcode. smh

Ok so I’m getting LED spotlights fitted and I want them on a dimmer switch.

The LED spotlights I have are 6W 220-240V and the dimmer switch is 1/2W 300W/VA.

will this be ok?

Tough to say - not all LED lamps are dimmable and there’s several methods for dimming them; either by varying the voltage (the old school way) or using one of a couple of digital signalling methods (which usually requires an additional cable), so you need to make sure the switch and lamps use the same method and any additional cabling that’s needed exists between them.

So the led lights I got are defo dimmable but the builder said to just make sure the dimmer was an LED dimmer and not a regular dimmer.

Some might say it’s the builder’s job to give you this information.

He’s a bit…vague.
He asked me to get grouting for the tiles BUT HOW DO I KNOW HOW MUCH

Honestly I’ve found this whole thing quite impossible.

now who knows where my stop tap is?!

we had to buy grouting. a large bag was fine. i know this isn’t helpful but still :woman_shrugging:

Yes, you’ll need a proper LED dimmer for them to work (I think it’s to do with the differences between leading-edge and trailing-edge methods of dimming).

1/2W 300W/VA means that it is suitable for both one-way and two-way lights (i.e. two-way is where you have a light controlled by two switches at opposite ends of the room), and that it is capable of taking an equivalent load of 300W (for halogen and incandescent).

The rule of thumb to apply is to take the maximum rating of the dimmer switch (in this case 300W) and divide by 10 to get the maximum LED bulb load. So, you have a dimmer switch with a maximum rating of 300W (rule of thumb translates to 30W), meaning you can run five of your 6W dimmable LED light bulbs through it.

Yeah I’ve gone for a 10kg bag. He said he can buy more if he needs it but still

OH so i’m having 4 x 6W dimmable ones on so it’ll be ok on that switch?

It should say on your property survey where the stop tap is/are.

If not, then most properties (it does depend on age though) have a stop valve outside (usually in the drive or where the water meter is in the street), and a stop tap where the supply first enters the property. This is typically under the kitchen sink and will be the first tap after the pipe comes in from outside.

A plumber will only need to turn off the latter to do his work.

Yes

I don’t know where mine is either. Have used the one in the street before, but think there should be one in the property too.