What's your most unpleasant DIY task

[Broadback]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently, masked everything, made
a polythene tent, wore a mask, cut it with a cutting disk. Ugh, the
fine black dust got everywhere, including up my nose and in my mouth,
the taste was awful, as it was a toilet pipe I'm sure I could taste the
sh1t, not that I had ever tasted it before. Worse of all the iron in my
mouth reacted with my filling, it was like chewing silver paper.
By far my most unpleasant job what's yours?
I think if I had to do it again I'd buy a reciprocating saw, whatever
the expense.

 

[:::Jerry::::]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently, masked everything, made
a polythene tent, wore a mask, cut it with a cutting disk. Ugh, the
fine black dust got everywhere, including up my nose and in my mouth,
the taste was awful, <snip>

Well you used the wrong type (class) of mask then, didn't you !... Duh.

 

[John Borman]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently,

Wished you hadnt said that I have the job in a few days of cutting through
a cast iron soil pipe cant wait now ) may leave it till after xmas,
incidently what type of mask did you use? i have a P3 mask which is for fine
hazadous dust alos how hard was it to cut through the pipe was it like a
knife through butter or did it take some time, also I take it there were
alot of sparks, the only reason I say this is because I have to cut the pipe
in a small loft area with a very old type of rockwool and I can see the
whole lot going up in flames. And if you connected a plastic soil pipe to it
(as i want to do) where did you get he connectors

masked everything, made

 

[Fitz]

Broadback wrote:

By far my most unpleasant job what's yours?

So far it has been stripping ancient paper off of a kitchen ceiling
that hasn't been cleaned for years.

Imagine a room full of steam.

Imagine standing in a room full of steam.

Imagine standing in a room full of steam with condensed water dripping
from the ceiling.

Imagine standing in a room full of steam with condensed water dripping
from the ceiling, that hasn't been cleaned for probably... _ever_,
since it was last papered - I reckon about 10 to 20 years and it's
covered in congealed yellow fudgey grease.

Imagine standing in a room full of steam with condensed water dripping
from the ceiling, containing melted 20 year old yellow fudgey grease
and it dripping all over your face, your clothes, the floor, running
down your sleeves as you hold the steam stripper up.

Don't imagine the smell. It's rank. Oh and the paper is blessed with
a plasticy layer that refuses to peel off and refuses to allow the
steam through no matter how many times you run the spikey three footed
yellow hedgehog over it.

We had to bin the carpet at the end of the day because it smelt so bad.
Yep. That's been pretty much our worst job so far.

 

[John Borman]

Same here I had to strip the same kind of wall paper which had been painted
with some plasticy paint which again refused to come off but this was in a
room about 4ft by 5ft imagine that filling up with steam oh it was the
toilet btw and stripping round the back of the WC produced some of the worst
smells I could EVER imagine

 

[Charles Middleton]

I like painting - especially glos as it happens. I get a sense of
satisfaction when everything is gleaming white.
Its the preperation I hate - espeically sanding. And as we are aware
this is the key part of any job.
When I moved into my house, the previous owners had rag-rolled the
walls yellow with orange bits in the hall, stairs and landing. This had
to be sanded off which with an electric sander took two days and a lot
of sanding pads. This was by far the worst job I had ever done. Even
wearing a dust mask I was completely yellow, had yellow ear wax and
yellow snot for some time.
CM.

 

[Mungo \two sheds\ Toadfoot]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently, masked everything,
made a polythene tent, wore a mask, cut it with a cutting disk. Ugh,
the fine black dust got everywhere, including up my nose and in my
mouth, the taste was awful, as it was a toilet pipe I'm sure I could
taste the sh1t, not that I had ever tasted it before. Worse of all
the iron in my mouth reacted with my filling, it was like chewing
silver paper. By far my most unpleasant job what's yours?
I think if I had to do it again I'd buy a reciprocating saw, whatever
the expense.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/Skanksville/index.htm

Say n'more.

Si

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

IMO, nothing beats spending hours on something, getting a lovely result, and
then completely wrecking it just as you finish.

Yup - the print head on my trusty old Stylus 600 was blocked, and no
amount of cleaning cycles would cure it. I removed it and left it soaking
in distilled water for a day or so. Then tried forcing water (gently)
through it with a small squeezey bottle - the type ink re-fills come in.
Linked to each ink input in turn with some sleeving. Some jets worked but
not others. Soaked it in industrial alcohol. Tried forcing some of that
through. More jets working. After a couple of days of soaking and forcing,
eventually all the jets seemed clear. In jubilation I went to pull off the
sleeving from the input - careful to do this in line and not break the
tiny plastic pipe. But held the assembly wrongly, and pulled the thing
apart - ripping off the ribbon to the piezo part. No chance of repairing
that.

Anyone got a broken one lying around where the head might be ok? I bought
a new printer, but it's not as good in some ways.

 

[Rob Morley]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently, masked everything, made
a polythene tent, wore a mask, cut it with a cutting disk. Ugh, the
fine black dust got everywhere, including up my nose and in my mouth,
the taste was awful, as it was a toilet pipe I'm sure I could taste the
sh1t, not that I had ever tasted it before. Worse of all the iron in my
mouth reacted with my filling, it was like chewing silver paper.
By far my most unpleasant job what's yours?
I think if I had to do it again I'd buy a reciprocating saw, whatever
the expense.

Stripping the glue from a plaster ceiling after having removed the
polystyrene tiles. I did one room, but the second is still only half
done years later :-( Every so often I think I'll finish it, then I
think maybe I'll strip the plaster and renew it as it seems like less
hassle, then I put it off some more. The plus side is that as the
dining room is a mess I use it as a workshop instead

 

[Rob Morley]

IMO, nothing beats spending hours on something, getting a lovely result, and
then completely wrecking it just as you finish.

Agreed. The output chip in my car stereo died, so I got a
replacement chip from Maplin and fitted it. Hooked it up on the bench
and it worked well, but then I knocked the metal case onto the
circuit board and the magic smoke escaped :-(
Okay, it wasn't hours of difficult work, just getting the chip and a
few minutes soldering, but I was _well_ pissed off, and the stereo
ended up in the bin - so near and yet so far ...

 

[Peter Scott]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently, masked everything, made a
polythene tent, wore a mask, cut it with a cutting disk. Ugh, the fine
black dust got everywhere, including up my nose and in my mouth, the taste
was awful, as it was a toilet pipe I'm sure I could taste the sh1t, not
that I had ever tasted it before. Worse of all the iron in my mouth
reacted with my filling, it was like chewing silver paper.
By far my most unpleasant job what's yours?
I think if I had to do it again I'd buy a reciprocating saw, whatever the
expense.

Stripping the roof off an old barn is the worst lately. The pan tiles were
fine but underneath was a thick layer of straw bound together with
lime-based
mortar. Impossible to stop it flying about. Wonderful drying effect on skin,
especially in the creases.

Peter Scott

 

[:::Jerry::::]

Ammonia based cleaners (Windex) are good for Epson heads.

Thanks, but what has that got to do with the question, or are you suggesting
that cleaning an Epson head (what ever that is) is the worst possible DIY
job ?!...

 

[BigWallop]

Yup - the print head on my trusty old Stylus 600 was blocked, and no
amount of cleaning cycles would cure it. I removed it and left it soaking
in distilled water for a day or so. Then tried forcing water (gently)
through it with a small squeezey bottle - the type ink re-fills come in.
Linked to each ink input in turn with some sleeving. Some jets worked but
not others. Soaked it in industrial alcohol. Tried forcing some of that
through. More jets working. After a couple of days of soaking and forcing,
eventually all the jets seemed clear. In jubilation I went to pull off the
sleeving from the input - careful to do this in line and not break the
tiny plastic pipe. But held the assembly wrongly, and pulled the thing
apart - ripping off the ribbon to the piezo part. No chance of repairing
that.

Anyone got a broken one lying around where the head might be ok? I bought
a new printer, but it's not as good in some ways.

Dip the whole cartridge in metholated spirit and leave it for a day. Most
inks are based on something similar to metholated spirit as their solvent,
so it works wonders on cleaning the heads.

 

[Rod Hewitt]

Thanks, but what has that got to do with the question, or are you
suggesting that cleaning an Epson head (what ever that is) is the
worst possible DIY job ?!...

It is also almost impossible to find Windex in the UK. I think that is what
makes it one of the most unpleasant DIY jobs. All that swimming...

However, the very similar window cleaning product Sprint seems to work as
well in the UK as does Windex in the US - on Epson print heads.

 

[Colin Wilson]

Funnily enough, I was going to say 'laying Rockwool' too; in a roof

space where the pitch of the roof above was incredibly low and shallow,
necessitating me lying full length on crawl boards wiith push-sticks to
lay the stuff. But fitting it *above* you?? Yeuch - I think you've
beaten me there!

I was in a shed the other day (Homebase) and they did a rockwool /
insulation roll that came pre-wrapped in a plastic film, so its only when
you actually cut the roll to length that you expose the fibres. There
appeared to be plenty of expansion room to the film, so it should fill
out fine.

Jobs like this might never be quite as bad again

 

[Tim S]

Dip the whole cartridge in metholated spirit and leave it for a day. Most
inks are based on something similar to metholated spirit as their solvent,
so it works wonders on cleaning the heads.

Isopropyl alchocol is also *very* good for this job - available from
friendly Chemist shops. No impurities either. Also handy for tape heads
etc.

Timbo

 

[RichardS]

I had to cut through a cast iron pipe recently, masked everything, made
a polythene tent, wore a mask, cut it with a cutting disk. Ugh, the
fine black dust got everywhere, including up my nose and in my mouth,
the taste was awful, as it was a toilet pipe I'm sure I could taste the
sh1t, not that I had ever tasted it before. Worse of all the iron in my
mouth reacted with my filling, it was like chewing silver paper.
By far my most unpleasant job what's yours?
I think if I had to do it again I'd buy a reciprocating saw, whatever
the expense.

Removing a lath and plaster knackered ceiling in the kitchen of a 1st floor
1 bed converted victorian flat, whilst still living there. Think that there
was a layer of whatever soot-like substance was used as fire retardent on
top of it as well.

Anyone who's ever removed a l&p ceiling knows what sort of mess I'm talking
about....

Or removing the old loose-fill insulation from the loft space of that same
flat, before reinsulating & boarding. Again, 1/2" of the same soot-like
retardant, and was about July time in a particularly hot summer.

I've done a lot of stuff to my current place, but nothing comes close to
either of those.

 

[Bob Eager]

Dip the whole cartridge in metholated spirit and leave it for a day. Most
inks are based on something similar to metholated spirit as their solvent,
so it works wonders on cleaning the heads.

Possibly useful advice in general - but he's broken it now anyway...

 

[Dave Liquorice]

Again, 1/2" of the same soot-like retardant,

As the property was victorian that stuff probably was mainly soot from
the umpteen coal fires in the neighbourhood. There was no sarking in
my parents house and that had a good 1/2" layer of black dust in it
and that was only built in the 1930's...

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Dip the whole cartridge in metholated spirit and leave it for a day.
Most inks are based on something similar to metholated spirit as their
solvent, so it works wonders on cleaning the heads.

I left it in a sealed jar of IPA for several days, but that didn't clear
it. You need to force the alcohol through the jets.