the GF has had this idea of putting up some cornice in the living room. i’ve ummed and arred about the whole thing questioning whether or not it is necessary, but to no avail…

whilst i was away last week she has ordered a load of polystyrene (!) cornice. i’ve got a week off now and i know that if i don’t make a start i’m going to get it in the neck….

so i’ve made a start, but §$%&/()= is this gear crap to work with….. not helped by the fact that our walls are about as flat as the Highlands.

there are gaps eveerywhere and this crappy polystyrene doesn’t let you shave a bit off so that you can scribe it to the wall…

#cannotbeӤ$%&ed

Noooo not polystyrene , use the proper stuff and get a mitre for corners etc

Did all our house years ago and was apiece of pith

Oh God, coving.

Rip down the polystyrene and start again with the proper stuff. It’s a pain but it looks nice when it’s finished.

For some reason I hate mowing the lawn, it’s tiny takes less than 20mins but I hate doing it. Odd thing is I love gardening, will happily weed the beds all day long, move plants, plant plants just mowing the lawn boils my wee!

Pick n Mix – I love mowing the lawn, stripes, etc with an old Qualcast push mower but hate weeding and flowerbeds and all that bollocks – fancy a trade of services?

Polystyrene. 😯 FFS dude, I feel your pain.

My #1 hate job? Cementing/mortaring bricks. Mrscamo16, though, is excellent at this hateful task, 😉 leaving me free to work on my wood.

polystyrene !!

NOOOOOOOOOOO take back to the shop and buy some proper stuff, bloody nightmare otherwise!!

i hate any form of DIY

Do people still actually fit coving… Every home-owner I know is trying to get rid of the stuff.

I think you just need to put yer foot down!

I hate mowing the lawn! Any gardening or housework really.

I love washing the cars though

skirting boards.

inside corners are fine but outside corners suck.

Cleaning oven.
Ironing.
Cleaning chiminea.
Vacuuming car.
Dealing with people that tell me they’re “too busy” to sign something off. (yes, fresh wounds).

Poo picking.

We’ve over an 1/2 acre of garden and the dogs always go somewhere new…

And what do big dogs make?

really old building here and TBH it would probably look good, but this polystyrene is such an awful thing to work with…. not helped by the fact the back isn’t a flat surface so it doesn’t sit flush to the wall, i can’t glue my joints/ external corners as i would if it were skirting….

think i’m going to leave the five strips i’ve put up there in the hope that she sees the error of her ways.

i like mowing the grass, just we don’t have a garden… =(

skirting boards are easy… get yourself some 2c glue and glue your external corneres before fixing to the wall… oh, and try and use MDF where possible.

this polystyrene is such an awful thing to work with

Was it a massive saving over the proper stuff, then?

supercove is great. Its paper covered high density polystyrene. usually sold in a pack of 6 x 2.4m for £22ish or 6×3.2m for not much more. If the walls arn’t straight alot of cut and filler will do the job. then calk a fine bead where the coving meets the wall.
The polystyrenne stuff is utter utter tosh.
The gyspum stuff is heavy and hard to fit if you’re on your own.

Cleaning chiminea – easy! Big ass fire & big ass wire brush.

I hate hoovering, cleaning the car, ironing, quite like polishing though…

Emptying dishwasher. Especially when thee is Tupperware to put back in the cupboard of doom.

@alpin what’s 2c glue? Cyano?

2 component…. best onbe is a squeezy tube of glue which you apply to one side and an areosol can that you apply to the other.

no idea if it was cheap (prob not ever so cheap knowing the GF). she wants it put up about 12″ beneath the cieling; like a dado rail, but further up the wall.

i would rather have made my own and be able to glue and pin it to the wall before making good in-situ.

booo.

the dishwashers a cupboard, until there a loads ready to go in, or you run out of stuff thats inside it frank.

There’s no way I’d allow coving to be put up, but then I’m scared by my dads insistence on putting up 12″ plaster coving in all of our childhood homes (it did look good but was expensive and very very difficult/heavy to install when your 10..)

Roger, I would be well up for that. I get some strange satisfaction of pulling up weeds.
Don’t get me wrong a lovely striped lawn is good to look at I just can’t stand doing it. That being said it needs doing again 🙁

Gluing/any adhesives and skirting = the biggest DIY fallacy I have ever heard!

Unless the receiving walls are perfectly flat, you’ve no chance.

It would seem to be a classic tactic of the non-DIY partner, if there has been procrastination over a job, start to do it badly and thus inspire the completion of the desired task by the more competent person. Or in my case realisation that I am no more competent and bring in the experts!

Why use coving at all? I mean, I understand it if your into a bit of Victoriana, but is it necessary?

i’m capable of doing the job… i’m a chippie/joiner, so it’s not beyond me. it would just be nicer to be using something else rather than electrical goods packaging.

@patriotpro… no… it works. you might have to jiggle your corners around a little and throw the angle, but if you want the corner joint to stay closed gluing it is the best way, IME…. not so easy with pine skirting, but i try and avoid that like the plague.

Weeding my back patio, scraping out the crap and pointing it with cement.. Pita. ESP as some of the slabs have dropped a bit and need re-setting.. Here it is before..

I LOVE scraping between slabs and bricks, damn I would love to have that job althepal, could I be a gardener without having to mow lawns?

@althepal – I know that back garden!

Hoovering … invented by the devil

Trimming the hedge. Not so much the trimming, I quite like that, but the PITA job of collecting all the trimmings from the flower borders. If only the grass went right up to the hedge it would be so much easier. Possibly even enjoyable.

Seadog, just put old sheets down, takes minutes to clean up 😉

Pingu66????? (Slightly concerned mode/on)
Still plenty to do pik n mix- feel free!

althepal, would it not be easier to just mow the patio also… 😀

Last time I laid slabs I poured 2″ of very wet concrete, (mixed with small gravel). Then put the slabs down on that, squidging them so the stuff came up the joints. Stayed free of weeds for years, & didnt rock. I do hate slabs though.

Takisawa2- they’ve been there for years (I’m guessing)- had been weeded properly when we moved in 6 years ago, have had a couple of half-hearted goes at it since then but doing it properly now! I have mowed it a coupla times before tho.
Have got rid of most of the weeds now but just need to hack out the dirt and fill them in properly.. As Pingu66 can prob tell you (though goodness knows how..) in the middle there’s a circlular section surrounded by small red mosaic bricks- these appear to have been put in using sand which the weeds love! **** knows how I’m going to dig all those out and fill the gaps..

Not to annoy you any more but Isn’t coving a corner utterly pointless. It was only there in the past when there was a rubbish wall/ ceiling junction to cover

Bit like a bobble hat on a hot day. Which is oddly fashionable

Walking the dog. I don’t do it in case it has a crap. No way am I picking the only thing up in the world that makes me gip.
Don’t like washing cars either, what’s the point? They only get mucky again.

and what do big dogs make?

a south korean foot long sub?

See- making progress, shame I’m back at work tomorrow though..

Don’t recognise it now without the weeds!