Jennifer Moore wrote:
1. Kitchen worktop of the kind made of thick chipboard with melamine
(or something resembling melamine) covering/edging.
a) The main new bit is going around the sink, and the fate of the old
bit was to get wet underneath, expand and crumble. I'm thinking that
before we install the new bit I would like to paint the underneath of it
and all exposed edges with some very waterproof paint or varnish
Put on a couple of thick coats of gloss paint or varnish (not
water based stuff), until it's sealed. Extend for about 6"
around the cut on the underside. Yacht varnish would be fine,
or any exterior one.
b) In another place I have a chipboard edge that is destined to be a
melamine edge, if you see what I mean. (This is not on the bit around
the sink, and will rarely get wet.)
I have some matching edging, but what I don't know is what kind of glue
is best for sticking it on. Advice?
Evo-Stik impact adhesive. Coat both surfaces with a "comb".
Let dry as per instructions. Join. N.B. you only get one shot
at it, so make sure it's positioned accurately before you
touch the surfaces together. Press together firmly.
The edge in question is straight except for a little corner just at the
end, so probably it'll be one long bit and one short bit, although an
alternative would be to round off the corner and bend it all in one
piece. (The corner angle is convex and fairly shallow, much gentler
than 90 degrees.)
Any clues about successful sticking-on and cutting-to-size would be
useful too, e.g. best thing to cut the edging with, and whether it's
likely to work better doing the curve or the two separate angles.
Is this the stuff you trim after sticking on?
2. Little ceramic tiles with house numbers on. What would be the best
substance for attaching them to the house?
Silicone sealant, applied in a couple of blobs. Support the
tile 'till it sets.
I think when I've seen similar things in the past, they've always been
inset into pebbledash or some such. But our house is just brick on the
outside.
It has occurred to me to wonder whether in the long term they'll get
levered off by frost or something in the absence of some surrounding
support. If that might be a problem, one possibility would be to screw
a (nice looking) little wooden batten underneath (and probably above,
more for symmetry than structure), and then sort of fill in with something.
But the tiles aren't heavy - about 50g each, and about 5cm x 10cm in
size. And obviously it would be less work if there were some kind of
sticky putty or cement which would just kind of glue them to the house
without a surrounding framework, and which could be smoothed round the
edges at an angle to help any rain run off. I do rather suspect that
some such sticky stuff exists, but what would it be called?
If you want to get the tiles off, the only easy way is
with a bit of cheese-wire (ir thin picture wire stuff)
pulled behind with a sawing motion.
3. Neglected external woodwork on a windowframe.
The paint has worn off, and luckily it's good old well-seasoned wood so
it hasn't gone rotten, but it has gone a bit shrunken and ridgy. So I
figure if it gets painted like that, the uneven bits will catch the
water which is not what we want. So presumably it needs filling to be
flat before it's painted. So would that best be done with just any old
external woodwork filler or what?
I'd prime it first, before filling. Various adherents (!) of
resin and car body filler will probably tell you about it.
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