DIY

Posted on 2003/07/06 21:39:56 (July 2003) by john.

Maybe it's not so bad after all.

I always used to pour scorn on DIY, especially when I saw it on TV. This was probably for no real reason other than basically it was something I didn't do myself, and therefore, in my very blinkered opinion, it must have been crap.

Over the last few days, however, I have become increasingly upset about the state of my bathroom carpet. I think it had started to rot. I personally don't think it's a very good idea to put wall to wall carpets in a bathroom, in fact I think all bathrooms ought to be like the type you get in hotels and Japanese homes which you can more or less flood up to eye level without any real worry of anything getting permanently damp.

So, I boldly decided it was time to try and redo the flooring in the bathroom. I went to B&Q, got a very modest bit of linolium with pretend wood finish (3m x 2m for 25 quid), a tape measure, a sort of stanley knife thing and a painful aluminium ruler, and set to it.

I'm not in any way very good at this sort of thing, so along the way I did bodge it in a couple of places, even the classic mistake at one point of confusing inches with centimetres, and ending up with a section a good foot too short. I seem to recall NASA famously suffered the same slip-up at one point, and there were a few more million dollars at stake there, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it too much. Incidentally, the bits where Chie took over are noticeably neater and better fitting. That's the Japanese for you.

All of that aside, I have surprised myself with how proud I am of the whole thing. Sure, it's a bit rough around the edges (actually quite literally in this case), but it is such a dramatic improvement over what was there before, and, most important, the bathroom feels clean again.

Having lived in rented accomodation all my adult life I've never really had a chance to do anything significant in DIY terms, and for the most part have never really wanted to. Today though has given me a glimpse of why people find it so rewarding. I think I'd still consider people who devote most of their lives to it disturbingly insular, but a moderate dose I think I could probably learn to enjoy.

By popular demand (?!) here's some pictures. I didn't take any "before" shots so you'll just have to imagine a manky old bit of brown carpet. The second picture does reveal an unfortunate split, but we'll stick a mat over that and you'll never know it was there.

Come on then John the tool man Hawkins, show us some pictures!

Posted by Simon at 2003/07/07 09:36:23.

Good for you John! Especially in using a Stanley Knife without major personal damage. Clare has banned me from using Stanley knives unsupervised.

Posted by dsp at 2003/07/07 10:13:27.

Have added some pictures.

Posted by John at 2003/07/07 10:27:29.

I have some filler for you to run around the edges with dude... ;-)

Posted by tom at 2003/07/07 11:30:40.

..also do you want to help with some tiling...

Posted by tom at 2003/07/07 11:31:12.

I'm good with matches if you get sick of the whole flat.

Posted by Rob Lang at 2003/07/07 13:50:55.

I put some tiles up once. I sure it devalued the house when we tried to sell it. I also once tried to mend the stairs. So disastrous was my effort, that I had to pay a carpenter to come and fix them back together before the house fell down. I have tried DIY, and I have learned my lesson. Don't get too enthusiastic about lino, or emulsion paint, or even parquet flooring. It's all an evil con by the building industry. They lull you into a false sense of security by making you feel that you can mend things (because you've completed a really simple job). An then - hey presto - you house is about to collapse and you have to pay an arm + a leg (or other limb of your choice) to have it mended. Do not be fooled.

Posted by Jimmy at 2003/07/07 14:28:58.

PS your lino looks like quite a nice job.

Posted by Jimmy at 2003/07/07 14:29:40.

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