Rolling DIY & home improvements thread

So in our lounge is an electric fire built into a fireplace. I want to take the whole thing out, have it plastered and then put a big media unit across it.

e.g. it currently looks a bit like this:

Note it doesn’t have a chimney breast, it’s just flat on the wall

Ultimately we want all trace of the fire gone and to have a lounge that looks a bit like this:

How do I remove the fire? I can turn of the electric but there aren’t any visible screws, fixings. The fireplace seems really secure, so do I just have to go at it with a crowbar?

Is that wall papered or plastered?

painted on plaster/plasterboard

Oh i dunno. Just get smashing.

Make sure you turn the electric off at the fuse box.

Or wear rubber gloves, it’s not really a big deal.

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I want to do the same with ours. I fucking hate it.

our old house was a victorian terrace and because it was cold and draughty the wood burner in our lounge was great as a centre-piece and also practical in the winter, but now we’re in a new build with no reason to have a fire in the lounge and so I hate it both asthetically and practically. want to make a ‘feature wall’ from the tv and storage and maybe paint the wall a darker contrast colour. also need some clever lighting in the lounge because the conservatory cuts off some of the light and so it can feel a little dark at times.

HELLO DIYers
I have been speaking with @marckee about this but hoping someone can also give advice.

So i’ve got a huge bay/lantern window. It’s 5 panels in a circle. I’ve tried to get shutters quoted up to be fitted…no thanks don’t want to spend £3,600. Also got a quote for Venetian blinds. No thank you, don’t want to pay £1,700.

We’ve decided to go it on our own and fit new venetian blinds as the ones we have are ikea and garbage. The current blinds leave don’t meet each other so leave a big gap between the window panes and tbh it looks shit. NOW I’m thinking I just buy my venetian blinds in longer width than I have now so they’ll pretty much meet in the middle. I did want to fit the blinds in the recess…but no my handles are too big and my recess is not deep enough so thats out of the question.

My windows also aren’t the same size…The height from the top of the current blind to the window sill is 180cm.
Here are my measurements.

And how it is
image

These are the ones I want.

NOW PLS TELL ME how big should I order the blinds?? Will 5 blinds at 120cm width mean they meet ok? Or shall I buy 3 at 120 and 2 at 100 for each end window?

I dunnooooooooooo help

Firstly that is a fucking awesome feature :slight_smile:

Secondly though I don’t know, that’s pretty awkward. I would advise pinging that through to the people who you want to buy the blinds from as they will know this stuff.

Shutters are very expensive! Where did you go for the quote?

Yes, first priority is to get a big telescope in there.

Hi. Help please.

Bought an oven extractor hood to install. There is a wire protruding from the wall at cooker hood height that has had a plastic cover screwed over to protect it since we moved in.

Next to the oven, at normal socket height there is a switch and fusebox which I assume controls the wire coming out up top.

I’ve bought a pattress box and plug socket and installed the wires into the back of this, and then plugged the extractor hood into this. Switched it on at the wall but nothing happens. What could be causing this? I’ve plugged the hood into another socket and it works.

Could I have wired the socket wrong? Brown = live, blue = neutral, green = earth, right? One of the wires didn’t have a coloured sheath on it, so I assumed that was the third one.

Could the fuse in the box have blown? Presume that would stop it working.

I suspect that the switch and fusebox (?) at worktop level is a 30amp fused spur for an oven. Do you have a separate oven socket (it usually has a red light and a 30A label on it)?

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RIP, stairs.

The oven has its own socket with a red switch next to it (I think), at a lower level behind where the freestanding over sits. Will check later though.

So this is what I started with:

Now it looks like this:

This is the switch that I think controls the socket:

This one is turned on but the oven has its own plug and socket behind, so think this is for the flat socket next to it? (2nd pic)

I had a look in the little fuse ‘cupboard’ and there was no fuse in there so I suspect that is why it is not working. Thanks all.

That was what I was thinking when you mentioned it yesterday. Please be careful with all this shit, and if I were testing that mystery socket I think I’d be using something less expensive than a cooker hood. Something like a lamp, or better still a circuit tester.

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When I was building my kitchen many years ago I remember getting to within about a centimetre of grabbing hold of a bare wire in a pug socket before I remembered that the plug socket was the dedicated oven loop socket that was still live, rather than the mains ring that I had removed the fuse from. I’m assuming you’re being more sensible than that and turning the whole fusebox off, but stories like this give me the willies a bit.

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I’ll be careful!

Do you know if the cooker hood will still work I take the fuse out of the plug for it? (to use the fuse in the socket on the wall)

I managed to shock myself rewiring the thermostat linked to our thermal store the other day.

Only a few volts (24?) but definitely got the heart going.

Be careful if you’re doing DIY lectrics.

No it won’t. The plug circuit requires a fitted fuse to complete the circuit. No harm in having more than one fuse, just a bit more detective work if one of them blows.

I’d be a bit more curious about why there’s no fuse in the consumer unit for that socket. Have you worked out which slot it corresponds to (and if so how?)