Jun 11 2008
Buying and assembling: my life
Last week we started hunting for a new pan set, as we didn’t own any ordinary pans. We have a couple of Le Creuset cooking dishes but they’re not very practical for a lot of things — you wouldn’t whip up a chocolate sauce in one!
We found a nice set in Frasers, but it was the last in stock and one of the pans had received a substantial dent in the side, quite near the base. These things were quite sturdily built so it must have been some serious force that made the dent. We decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, even with another discount added for damaged goods. We found the pans for slightly cheaper online and they arrived through the post yesterday afternoon. (It’s interesting to see who comes snooping when you get stuff delivered to your work address. Some people you never expect turn out to be big cooking enthusiasts!)
The next problem is one of storage. We bought some metal kitchen shelves to store these shiny new cooking implements, but that means drilling and stuff, which I’m not really sure about. I don’t really know how to secure shelves to walls. I am a failure as a man. :-(
I have been more successful in other areas of the kitchen. Despite initial confusion (read: complete bafflement when reading the instructions) we now have two beautiful sliding bins under the sink, for separation of packaging, tins and ordinary food waste. This isn’t just rubbish, this is an Integrated Recycling System.
We also have a dining table and two chairs. I have run out of steam to assemble the other chairs, but with the window seat that still leaves room for four people to sit down together (provided they move the flat-pack boxes of course). If I get my act together I may get some photos of the new place online soon. It’s mostly boxes though…
If you are after more kitchen equipment, and are willing to come away disappointed, go to Tk maxx.
To secure shelves to walls, you need to figure out if the wall is plasterboard, or brick. Acquire correct drill for said material, drill holes, insert rawl plugs, screw shelving into rawl plugs. Admire handywork. Oh yes, don’t forget a spirit level so that you can admire level handywork.
Also, I still have a sitting chair you can have, although some kind of arrangement for transporting it to Leith would have to be arrived at.
Shelves: Yeah, it’s the “figure out if the wall is plasterboard or brick” part that I have no experience with: it makes a tap-tap-tap-thunk-tap-tap-thunk-tap-tap noise. So there are clearly different things behind the wall. I guess that suggests plasterboard with occasional wooden posts?
Chair: How big is this fabled chair? We shall have to think about transport.
It flat packs (you’re overjoyed to hear this, no doubt) and weighs about 10 kg I would say. So it’s transportable by bus, if indeed a bus travels from morningside to leith. According to this (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S69805464) the packaged thing weighs 12 kg, but I don’t have the boxes any more, so it’ll be a bit less.
According to http://www.lothianbuses.com/routemap.php the number 16 goes from Morningside down Leith Walk.
If you’re going to go drilling holes in your walls, you might want to invest in a pipe / cable detector to be on the safe side…..unless you already have reliable information about the wiring and plumbing layouts in your new gaff.
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9288716&fh_view_size=6&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=pipe+detector&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search&ts=1213209539801&isSearch=true
One more fact…. this is an Edinburgh flat. Walls will be neither plasterboard or brick as such (unless this wall is a new/refurbished wall…. which it isn’t).
Edinburgh flat walls are not flat, but you know that….
Edinburgh flat walls are usually lath and plaster in front of stone/brick (probably stone in your situation). This means that unless you are fairly careful drilling, your hole mysteriously becomes larger than the drill bit as lath’n’plaster tends to be a bit crumbly sometimes.
ALSO (and that was a big also) if you are intending putting anything heavy on your shelves, lath’n’plaster may not hold it (speak to Granny H if you want the saga of the cupboard which fell off the wall etc etc…. you probably won’t want to, but suffice to say, it was messy and sad)
Personally, if you are hanging shelves, I would follow the guidance above re spirit levels etc as crooked shelves are sad. Ditto pipe/cable detector, as a dead Dougal is pretty sad too. I have never had a pipe/cable detector and seem to have lived to tell the tale. Not sure why!
I would mark your wall where you want to fix the screws, then use your drill to make a nice deep hole through the lath’n’plaster into the stone behind (I suppose you need to feel your hole into the stone to about2.5cm); drilling with your hammer action engaged works best, makes a suitably macho noise, but it’s best to drill a bit, then withdraw a centimetre, then drill on etc, to stop the bit clogging.
If the hole in the lath’n’plaster is a tiny bit big, do not fret. This might come to your advantage. Use some red plugs (which I will give Paddy to bring up); these have the joint advantage and disadvantage of having no flanges/collar/sprockets (this last detail is yumor). Push the plug THROUGH the lath’n’plaster hole and onward into the stone. Use the screw to do this as it is suitably slender.
You will need a good long screw for this method to work and you may find that the lucky bag of screws that Helen bought does NOT have the required selection, but B&Q Easter Road is surprisingly handy mid-job.
Of course if you sink your plug into mortar rather than stone (odds 100+:1) then it will fall off the wall. Then you have to bodge on by repositioning your shelf laterally and doing some Polyfilla work later to patch up.
Sadly, the only way to become a true man is to fix your own shelves, and failure can sometimes dog the path to true manhood.
It IS the only way.
Good luck, fellow traveller.
ah….
I also meant to say, use a relatively fat screw (ie a 10…. or whatever the metric equivalent is)
Off to work, now
k
er….
have you been bold yet?
or would it be helpful if I volunteered my services?
Happy either way
Ken