Gondor's Grumblings

[Gondor]

Speaking as a former general building labourer (jack of all trades) I can tell you that it is rare to find a room where all walls are plumb and square.

Your tiling looks OK to me.  Good job.
I would advise against black grout.  It will look very harsh against the white tiles.  A dark grey would look better IMO.
Also be aware that dark grout will leave a stain if you get it on gloss white paint.

Right, that settles it! I will go with the white.

Gondor

[DogfighterZen]

Speaking as a former general building labourer (jack of all trades) I can tell you that it is rare to find a room where all walls are plumb and square.

Your tiling looks OK to me.  Good job.

When i was in my early 20s, i worked as a tile setter and finisher apprentice for over 18 months, doing complete 5 floor buildings from the garage levels all the way up to the penthouse with 4 apartments on each floor and i can also tell you that you've done a good job. What Fred said is right and the guy laying the tiles isn't guilty if the walls aren't square so, it happens to the best and you've dealt with it very well.
Re the grout, i used mainly white, grey and something like light earth brown but it all depended if it was on walls or the floor. Floors would be mostly grey but again, it depended on the color of the tiles that were chosen by the buyer/owner of each apartment but black was not used at all.

[Gondor]

Beleive it or not, this was my first go at anything more than an edgeing strip. It would have been nice to put the tiles up without any gap, all butt jointed against each other but I chickened out of that as the slightest mistake is likely to be amplified across the whole wall and just now reflecting on it I would have had a simmilar problem near the sink as I have near the tap end of the bath. Butt jointing the tiles would have also meant I would have to be very very carefull in placement of fixings for the shower or anything else if I wanted to get them to be between the tiles so I just have to file a notch rather than drill a hole.

Gondor

[Rheged]

I recently helped an elderly couple in our village  carpet tile their dining room.   Their house is  originally  seventeenth century timber frame with nineteenth century additions.

The words right angle, straight edge and parallel  were not in  any of  the builders dictionaries..............but it was fun all the same!

[PR19_Kit]

Sounds like my house, but mine was built in 1856,

As you say, no right angles or parallel walls anywhere, and my lounge and main bedroom both have six walls............ 

[Gondor]

Oh I know about walls not being straight, in my previous flat, a council one dateing from the 30's I think, the only right angle in the bathroom was where the boards went around the bath. This ment that when the rectangular tiled paturn of the carpet was laid, as per carpet fitting practice, with the door used as the starting point, there was a very noticable slope to the pattern of the carpet.
In this flat I will be haveing fitted a vynal floor with a checkerboard pattern to it and I will ask the fitter to use the long side of the bath for alignment.

Gondor with eight walls in his living room 

[kerick]

I recently helped an elderly couple in our village  carpet tile their dining room.   Their house is  originally  seventeenth century timber frame with nineteenth century additions.

The words right angle, straight edge and parallel  were not in  any of  the builders dictionaries..............but it was fun all the same!

Even if the house was built all straight and true it would have settled and sagged after all those years so there it goes anyway.

[Gondor]

Well today was pay day so I went into the Hobbycraft store nearest to my work and came out with a couple of 10/0 paint brushes. Hopefully that will take care of any fine detail work I need to do for a while.
Also got a message saying when my vynal floor for the bathroom is arriving, after the time I would be home tomorrow if I had been at work. Oh well, typical. At least I can make a start on the grouting and tidy away most of the tools etc ready for when the new floor gets laid.

Gondor

[kerick]

Don't ever use black grout! It will leave black dust everywhere! Ask my buddy about it.

[Gondor]

Yesterday I went shopping for Grout. I found something that I was hopeing would be available. Grout in a tube.
To be a bit more specific it's in one of those cartridges what builders use for sealing windows and the like so it has a nozzle and the mechanisim is fits into has a trigger to squeeze to apply the contents of the cartridge fitted. I had images going through my mind of a Grand Designs episode in the middle of France where an older couple had bought the big house in the village and they were restoring the building which had been just a shell. I was remembering them doing the pointing where he was up some scaffolding useing cartridges filled with mortar to do the pointing while she was filling empty cartridges with fresh mortar, so I was thinking that would be an ideal way to apply grout and fortunately someone has already had the same idea so I was able to buy a cartridge which I hope to start using later today.
The post today brought two items. One a book which I have listed elsewhere. The dust cover is a bit tatty and it generally shows its age but its not as if its a book to be shown off. Also there was a letter saying that there is a recall and free exchange of a pump for my car    which is slightly worrying as it may affect the braking. I need to get the front discs replaced in a couple of months anyway so I will have to find out how much that will cost and get it done at the same time if not too expensive which will mean a day off work possibly ad the work on the car for the recall is expected to take three hours and the garage is at least ten miles away.
Isn't life great 

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Isn't life great 

Gondor

But it tends to be better than the alternatives 

[Pellson]

Isn't life great 

Gondor

But it tends to be better than the alternatives 

Quite so!

[Gondor]

I was being sarcastic! 

Anyway, grouting has been going on at a fair pace! The cartridge works well for getting the grout into the gaps, it's all a matter of how much pressure to apply to the trigger and how fast to move along the gap to get the right quantity of grout in place. I have though managed to find an easy method to remove the excess grout which although it causes a bit of a mess, is easy and quick leaving nothing that a dustpan and brush or hoover can't cope with. I might even get the grouting finished by this time next week!

Gondor

[Gondor]

So many things to do.... so little enthusiasm

Due to all the talk and pictures of F-101's in the forum I went and bought one of the newer Revell ones off eBay today when I say it as a buy it now in my feed. Also I received an Airfix B-57B to be converted into a PR3 or 7 following a thread on Britmodeller. It's nice when someone does all the working out of the problems before you start your own 

Bought more grout on the way home. Looking at this weekend to be finished apart form some woodwork and the taps so I am guessing that certainly around about the latter half of March the bathroom will finally be finished 

Another pick up on the way home was a couple of 2 meter lengths of 15mm x 15mm L shaped bar for my next project. Strengthening and keeping straight the shelves in my biggest book case. I need to buy some wood, 15mm x 15mm square should do and some 15mm long countersunk screws. Then all I need is to get the shelf flat and to decide how many screws I intend to use. The idea came from watching a video on YouTube about how to strenthen an IKEA bookcase. I have decided to add the metalwork as well for added strength as I have a few BIG books and the shelves are or a reasonable length so I though the extra support would not go amiss.

Gondor

[Pellson]

So many things to do.... so little enthusiasm

Due to all the talk and pictures of F-101's in the forum I went and bought one of the newer Revell ones off eBay today when I say it as a buy it now in my feed. Also I received an Airfix B-57B to be converted into a PR3 or 7 following a thread on Britmodeller. It's nice when someone does all the working out of the problems before you start your own 

Bought more grout on the way home. Looking at this weekend to be finished apart form some woodwork and the taps so I am guessing that certainly around about the latter half of March the bathroom will finally be finished 

Another pick up on the way home was a couple of 2 meter lengths of 15mm x 15mm L shaped bar for my next project. Strengthening and keeping straight the shelves in my biggest book case. I need to buy some wood, 15mm x 15mm square should do and some 15mm long countersunk screws. Then all I need is to get the shelf flat and to decide how many screws I intend to use. The idea came from watching a video on YouTube about how to strenthen an IKEA bookcase. I have decided to add the metalwork as well for added strength as I have a few BIG books and the shelves are or a reasonable length so I though the extra support would not go amiss.

Gondor

That Voodoo is obviously a reboxed Monogram, so the best Voodoo in Gods scale there is. I'll be looking forward to that!

The shelves - just make sure that you somehow support the front of the shelves as well. I have seen too many heavily laden shelves just folding down along the wall, leaving very ugly holes in the wall. Hence, I mainly use selfsupporting racks or cupboards rather than shelves.
An option is obviously to build shelves yourself, with vertical members integrated ever so often. Such a box contrution will, if properly attached to the wall, carry a lot of weight without any risk. They also look good, an example provided below:



Nope, not my shelves in the pic. There aren't any models, are there? 

Thanks for the F-15EX parts show, Alistair. Basically, it seems that you would get away with some blobs and antennae on an ordinary F-15E as long as you're cheating with the engine exhausts. At least for a foreign EX, say a German one..