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Property/DIY

If your house is a bit wonky how do you put stuff up?

17 replies

BedBugged · 01/10/2014 17:45

Shelves , pictures and suchlike?

With a spirit level which makes everything look wonky

Or by eye so they actually are wonky but at least in line?

OP posts:
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lavendersun · 01/10/2014 17:54

Our house is very wonky - if you put it up straight it looks wonky and if you put it up by eye it looks wonky - I gave up and don't bother measuring any more - seems to look fine!

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SqueezyCheeseWeasel · 01/10/2014 17:56

By eye, mostly

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Soonish · 01/10/2014 17:56

No use a level. Really.

We just bought the wonkiest supposedly-normal house in the known universe - had to put up ply for radiator mounting and I swear the heating guy walked in and said 'you cannot be serious' as they were all at a 15 degree angle to the floor, but hold a level to them and they're pretty much perfect.

Funny thing is the rads are also level (obviously!) and they align with the window sills, which looks perfect, but the floor has a life of its own Grin

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Soonish · 01/10/2014 17:56

In fact I may need to put the sofa on bricks at one end.

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lavendersun · 01/10/2014 18:08

I think that there are probably different wonkiness-es (good word). As in a new ish

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MummytoMog · 01/10/2014 19:52

I do it by eye - our house sank at one corner at some point and everything slopes down towards it. I do least worst by eye. Sadly, electrician used a spirit level. All our sockets look wonky.

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meadowquark · 01/10/2014 23:28

I put my DS1 chest of drawers in the corner of the bedroom - the drawers open as the chest leans towards the middle of the room. So I push DS2 cot bed to keep the drawers close, and move it when I need to open - sorted :D

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Soonish · 02/10/2014 17:26

Ours is about 100. The thing is some things will be level and others won't.

If I'd gone with the floorboards initially, the radiators under the windows would have looked utterly dreadful as they wouldn't have lined up with the window sills.

No one really looks at the floor once furniture is in, so I think align your work with whatever is visible near to it, if you must - but I guess with rads or other functioning stuff, you have to hang them level anyway or it affects their performance.

It's a habit I guess. But I want to be able to put things on my shelves without them rolling off!

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DollyParsnip · 02/10/2014 18:17

We had an immensely old and wonky house! The radiators were spirit level straight but looked odd as they were so off so we got radiator cabinets to cover them and levelled them by eye. Curtain rails were a nightmare so we did them as close to the ceiling as possible, and had loads of drape on the bottoms so there wasn't a defined edge (the windows were massive which helped).

We also had enclosed bookshelves which we could adjust subtly from underneath so things stayed put (the floor ran out into the edge so it could be raised from the back).

Also used one thing to get the level - usually the top of the window- so everything was out to the same angle. Sounds mad but it seemed to fool the eye more than having different levels.

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Soonish · 02/10/2014 19:59

I sometimes just wish the world was completely flat. Then I think about it too much and get the fear and have to lie on the floor holding on. sigh

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MsHerodotus · 02/10/2014 20:11

soonish Grin

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Anticyclone · 02/10/2014 20:42

I would align the object you are fixing to the wall by eye to the nearest straight line in the room. Then it will "look" correct.

Our radiator is aligned to the window sill as that is only an inch above it.

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IDismyname · 03/10/2014 07:06

I line stuff up along the floor if it's a low level thing, or parallel with the ceiling if it's a picture or mirror.

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AngelinaCongleton · 03/10/2014 07:10

A mixture of by eye and level. Whatever looks best. And screw units to wall if in danger of toppling.

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AnitaManeater · 04/10/2014 19:24

We rented a house with very saggy wonky floors. We used a spirit
level and paperback books to level out chests of drawers and beds etc. We found the wonky floors were pulling our cheapo flat pack ikea furniture apart!

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youbethemummylion · 04/10/2014 19:28

Our house is very wonky. The terrace got bombed in WW2. They pulled loads of houses down until they got to ours and thought nah leave that one its only a little bit broken! We just do it by eye as if its actually straight it looks wonky as hell. Tradesmen hate our house, nothing is a simple job.

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BuildYourOwnSnowman · 04/10/2014 19:30

We had such a sloped floor ds kept rolling out if bed. We levelle that one

In the rest of the house we level to the closest line. So hanging a picture to the ceiling, sockets to the skirting board etc but I two we level to the higher - so radiators levelled to dado rail not floor and mirror to ceiling not fireplace. Fireplace is easier because we have a couple of ornaments on it which draws the eye away from the wonkiness

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