hi Meercat, Mathy is right again, the d/washer has feet to make it level, like your washing machine, freezer and refrig, so get a torch so you can see the feet, and then get a flat spanner to fit the nut and turn either way so you can get it level.
There maybe a cover plate on the d/washer held on by pushing it on or small screws, again use your torch and have a look.
It only takes practice to put both hinges back onto the vanity or maybe someone can help you, that'show the doors are originally put on, and yes it can be annoying when you're doing it for the first time.
You will have to remove the pebbles if you want to lay pavers, you can't put them on top of the pebbles they will keep moving.
Level the ground and fill in any holes with sand, then put brickies sand on the path and make sure it's even, and you can leave the waterproofing mat down, it's probably to keep the weeds away.
If you don't want to keep the pebbles someone will buy them off you, and if so, get them to do the heavy work of removing them by themselves, if they're cheaper than what the garden supplier sells them for, they will be snapped up quickly.
We'll turn you into a Handyman yet. Geoff.

Thanks Geoff. Il get down to see whats happening with the feet. Only concern, will i be able to get up..Ha!🤔

meercat xx

Hi Geoff

I just need your help on re painting my kitchen. Is it really important that I clean all the walls and ceiling with sugar soap? Can I just paint over the walls and ceiling without the hard yakka?

What is the worst case senario if I dont? I have just finished painting most of my home with Dulux....and now just staring at the kitchen.....a bit stuck...

Any advice would be appreciated...Paul

Hi Paul

Basically, you need the walls to be clean to ensure the paint sticks. I regularly paint walls without sugar soaping, with no ill effect.

Your problem is the fact that it’s the kitchen. Kitchen walls are a bit notorious for getting a bit greasy, no matter how fastidious you are about cleaning. I don’t paint kitchen walls without cleaning/sanding.

I hear your feelings about sugar soap - all that scrubbing, everything gets wet, you have to wait for it to dry.

So, 2 options:

1. Use one of those sponge mops you can buy for the floor, that use a lever to wring out - they at least make it a little less messy. Ok for the walls, a bit tricky for the ceiling, unless you buy one with a swivel head. Sugar soap is slightly abrasive, make sure you use a version that doesn’t require rinsing.
2. Buy a pole sander (essentially a sanding block on a swivel head) - use 180 grit paper and lightly sand the walls and ceiling (make sure you wear a dusk mask). Achieves the same result, vacumn afterwards and you’re good to go.

In kitchens, #2 is my choice, it’s quicker and, despite the dust, less messy. If you have splash backs and tiles, there generally isn’t too much wall in a kitchen. Ceiling is a bit of a nuisance tho’

If you want an “in between” approach, make sure that the wall around the stove/oven is really clean, anywhere near the dustbin and around the kitchen sink - those are the horror areas!

Lastly, you’re using Dulux, an expensive paint, you don’t want to be wasting either the paint or your time by not doing someprepping, and having it peel on you.

Cheers M :)

hi Paul, sorry I'm a bit late but Mathy has great advice as usual.
There is another cleaner to wash the walls, ceiling, range hooh filters, fan covers, bbq tops anying that's greasy and I always used another product other than sugar soap and a hint of its name well it starts with Tric-----, it comes in a yellow plastic container and is sold at all paint stores, it does a fantastic job, not only to clean walls, ceilingsa especially in the kitchen because the grease fumes spread, so the kitchen walls in the kitchen do need to be washed, not so much so for walls in the loungroom unless there is a smoker and the paint colours have been affected.
I also use the mop as Mathy has suggested, it's quicker, faster and cleans much faster than doing it by hand and hopping up and down a ladder.
If you don't clean the kitchen, sometimes the acrylic won't actually cover the walls, so in other words, it's like putting a bandaid on after you've had a hip replacement, it won't last.
If you use oil based paints it will cover the walls but still won't last that long, and when oil based flakes it's a pain to scrap, so you will have old paint that sticks and where you have scrapped it off so the surfaces won't be even, that looks terrible.
It's not hard yakka if you use the mop, just keep changing the water, but don't use that water for your plants, they'll be dead next day.
By the way, clicking your fingers won't work, it doesn't do a Jeannie or Bewitched won't work either, I'm sorry to say. Geoff.

Thankyou Mathy and Geoff for taking the time to help out with your advice :-)

I might go with option B and give the kitchen walls a light sand with the pole and swivel sanding pad using#180 instead of using a bucket and cleaner

Unfortunately I dont have Barbara Eden here to help me out....lol

Have a great day everybody

Paul

hi All I'm just wondering whether anybody has a this common problem, if you turn your tap on does the water come out from your handle, causing water to always be on top of your basin, but as soon as you turn the tape off the water stops, but you have to keep cleaning the top of the basin every time it's turned on. Geoff.

Safety tip

You might know of those long strips of galvanised steel used to allow shade cloth to grab onto.

When drilling through the holes of the strip into the mountt (in my casectiday it was 20mm steel tube) never hold the strip with your hand. Always use multigrips.

If the drill bit catches on the strip it can grab, then you have a dangerous cheese cutting mangled strip spinning at hundreds of revs a minute

Luckily minor cuts.

Tony WK

and Duly Noted with thanks TonyWK....OUCH!......ewww!!

I have just learned an important tip....How is your hand...besides minor cuts Tony?

that would have been scary....for me anyway..

Paul

Hi Geoff,

I have had this problem, can’t think that I’ve ever resolved it. Have you tried changing the tap washer?

geoff said:hi All I'm just wondering whether anybody has a this common problem, if you turn your tap on does the water come out from your handle, causing water to always be on top of your basin, but as soon as you turn the tape off the water stops, but you have to keep cleaning the top of the basin every time it's turned on. Geoff.

Tony! That’s a big ouch, I’m glad you weren’t hurt too bad. And many thanks for posting the after the event safety tip :)

Hi Mathy! That was a good safety point from Tony....ouch!!!

Really appreciate your help with the painting advice too. I will be going with a swivel head sander on a pole with 180 sandpaper with a dust mask instead of the washing and scrubbing...Paul

hi Mathy, I'm pleased you've replied because it's quite simple.
Turn your water off at the mains, take handle off, then remove the whole spindle, grab your handle to the spindle and put it on, turn it as if you are turning the handle to stop water until it becomes 2 parts, take the long part of this spindle and you'll see a little black round washer, it's called an 'O-ring' size 8.5, put a small screwdriver under it or just break it.
Go and buy one or a packet of O-rings then slide it on to where the other one was, then reassemble the spindle and you might as well change the main washer while it's apart, do the same with the other tap, see how it goes. Geoff.

Gday one and all. Not sure if this was the thread we were talking about ride on's in , mowers that is , ahh,.

Had to push mine back from around the corner again today , damn. Never stops near the house , runs perfectly , so after that parts all finished and l'm sure l can trust him , l venture round the front stretch to finish that part. At first l stick close to this end so that if he does stop l don't have far to push it. And as get quietly more confident that l can trust him enough to start doing the far end, l get up there, and he stops. arrrgggg.

It waits for me , l'm sure of it, and as soon as l'm settled in , wham , gotcha. l think someone evil's taken over my mower.

hi Randomx, I know how you feel, ride-on mowers are great when they're working and the same happened to me several times, stopped and wouldn't go at the bottom of a hill and yes always the furtherest from the house, so I take it down the mower repair man who always says to me 'what on earth have you done this time', rather than say 'hi Geoff how are you and I'm sorry, not again', he always made me feel an inch tall, even when I took my chainsaw, whipper-snipper and lawn mowers down to him.
A most unapproachable tradesman. Geoff.

Ah mate ,take it to someone else and hey , if he fixed it properly it wouldn't be stopping right .

l put mine in to and he sent back worse , not taken it back to him.

But hey that's funny can't believe yours waits until your down the bottom to stop too. On my other ac block it slows pretty steep. The mower always waited until l got down to the bottom part to stop. Couldn't push it up that part but l discovered if l left it 30 mins , it'd start again. So l'd go back up and have a coffee or something , go back down and try again later and it usually start again ,, got a bad bad sense of humor my mower.

Now at this place he's up to his old tricks and waits until l'm up around the corner.

hi Mathy, did you work out what I was saying about the tape washer. Geoff.

Hi Geoff, sorry, yes I did. Replacing the o-rings. That’s a really good point to pay attention to when fixing your taps. Washer can be fixed, but still have blinking water going where you don’t want it! Tank, cheers M :)

I wondered if you could give me some advice. Recently my son removed my wall oven & knocked down the brick surround. I have bought a flatpack tower with space for oven & microwave with pot drawers at the bottom & a cupboard above. I will also fit narrow cupboards next to the tower to fill in the extra space left by removing the bricks. My son removed the bricks so they finish below the floor level leaving a rectangular shaped hole edged with bricks. My plan is to place pieces of wood across to make a platform level with existing floor. I will then build a plinth for the cupboards/ oven tower to sit on the platform. .

My issue is the bricks are not perfectly level so the wood doesn't sit flat. What suggestions have you got to ensure the wooden platform is level & secure.

Thanks mathy, but l dunno about the hill or petrol. Could be something in it.

My brother said it stopping on me could be a petrol thing too , hmm. something else to fix , great.

Hi ElizabethCP

I cant answer your post as I am not very handy...unfortunately...I know that Geoff is loitering around here somewhere and will get back to you....good question by the way.....My Best...Paul

hi Mathy, you might need to use a reseating tool, it cleans where the main washer sits, and this can change direction to where it sits when you turn the tap on, the reseating or resetting tool will clean where the washer sits, in other words over time there maybe a build of grime so the washer and bottom of the tap won't sit evenly, the tool will stop this.

The ride on can stop when the petrol is low and if it's facing a direction where the petrol is being drained away just like a car where the petrol doesn't go through the carbie, only one option.
hi Elizabeth, from what I gather is that you want to build a stable platform to use so that your oven, microwave and side cupboards can sit on it, so there are a few ways to do this, however can you tell me how high it is from the ground, and just correct me, the old oven has been removed, so can you see the bearers and joists that are holding up the entire floor for the house, if you can then buy some timber some size as the existing joists 90mm x 35mm, you can use pine if you want to, then try and put 2 lengths the length to sit on the bearers.
The bearers sit on top of the stumps, then the joists sit on top of the bearers, then the floor is attached on top of joists.
If they are a tight fit then chip a little piece of wood of the timber, not too much, so they will sit on joists, then force a piece of timber under them to make a tight fit.
Once you have the new joists in place then nail your flooring down on top of it, and away you go.
If I've misunderstood your email then please let me know. Geoff.

Sorry Geoff I obviously didn't explain well enough. Theoven was set in brick surrounds which have been removed to just below floor level. The bearers & joists all finished at the brick walls. What is left is a brick rectangle sitting on the ground. I presume there would be concrete in a trench under the bricks so they are stable. The back wall is a load bearing wall between kitchen & living room therefore remains full height. Originally the oven sat on a rough wooden from with legs resting on the ground which looked rotten particularly the section sitting on the ground. This structure sat inside the brick rectangle, Because the remaining brick walls are very secure my plan was to sit the platform on top of the bricks. I have just put agnews water putty on top of the bricks to level them & then put cement sheet on top & patted it down until the spirit level showed it was level.

Hi Elizabeth,

I had the same question as Geoff, couldn’t get a clear picture of the geometry. You’ve explained it excellently. Agnews WP is a great hard filler, and it sounds like you’ve solved the problem yourself. If you’ve got the levels correct, you should be able to pop you cabinet on the top. Just one question, are the outer edges of your cabinet going to be sitting on the existing brick walls underneath? If not, then I’d probably have a think about the size of fixing that’s going through the cabinet into the wall at the back - use something longer if the cabinet is mostly being supported by the cement sheet. Hope that makes sense, cheers M :)

It would be easy if the cupboard fitted directly on the bricks. Unfortunately the back is a full wall so nothing to rest on The oven tower is smaller than the brick frame so I will have to lay wood across to make a platform. Just have to get the wood level. Once everything is in place I'll need to work out how to finish the joins with walls and ceiling

Sounds like you’re all over this Elizabeth. Given nothing to rest that back on, make sure the fix from oven tower to wall is a good one :)

Elizabeth CP said:It would be easy if the cupboard fitted directly on the bricks. Unfortunately the back is a full wall so nothing to rest on The oven tower is smaller than the brick frame so I will have to lay wood across to make a platform. Just have to get the wood level. Once everything is in place I'll need to work out how to finish the joins with walls and ceiling

Hi Geoff, Mathy. How r u going?

Thanks for ur tip to Mathy..how to change a tap washer. Iv put it on my list of diy's.

Hubby thinks he's fixed it..he just turns off the tap under the sink.😂

meercat xx

Hi Geoff.

Re Taps. What does a "reseating tool" look like. Is it a "t" shape? Im sure there is one lurking in the garage with the "o" rings.

meercat xx

hi Meercat, the resetting or reseating tool does look like a 'T', you screw the tool into where the spindle screws in, then turn the tool backward and forwardwards, then stop, undo the tool and wipe it clean, then screw it back in and do the same again.
To change the washer turn off the water mains, take handle of tap, then with a spanner undo the spindle pull out the washer, if it's a washer in the bathroom you may need a long pointed pair of pliers to pull the washer out.
There is a washer that says it stops all leaks, it has a large black rubber wall, but in fact this washer won't last too long, the trick is if the nossle is long like in the kitchen and after you replace a washer there, just jiggle the nossle for the water to run out, then you will know if changing the washer has worked. Geoff.