-
Wax/Varnish/Staining/Paint - interior doors?
We've small french doors separating our living room & dining room. After much debate (i didn't mind the colour, the wife hated it), the wife seems to have won the debate & there's going to be a colour change to them. They're a dark reddy-brown, sort of mahogany like. She wanted them painted white but i wasn't keen & then…
-
Confused as to which improvements need building inspector
We are in the process of buying a house which had quite a lot of work done on it. Plans were submitted to council, but work wasn't signed off. This was between 2004 and 2011. Vendors say it is because they never actually finished everything they had planned to do. We now want them to get it signed off but what should be…
-
Railings
Hi guys I live on an estate about 10 years old, a few houses have just got permission to put small walls around there front gardens, my question is if I just wanted a metal railing fence would I still need planning permission? It's my front garden which has a small footpath in front the the road?
-
Scott McCabe Associates / SMA Lofts - would you recommend them?
We are currently looking into having a 2 bed, 1 bath L-shape dormer (loft conversion) built. After meeting with a number of companies we are considering going with Scott McCabe and Associates, also known as SMA Lofts. They claim to have done hundreds of lofts in London, but I am struggling to find much feedback, positive…
-
Resurfacing/ ideas for improving concrete path
Evening all, Just wondering if anyone has any ideas about what I might be able to do with our garden path. Its a long concrete ugly thing, maybe 15m. Its horribly rough underfoot, and my 3 boys like nothing more than running around barefoot once the weather warms up, and this path leaves them crying out in pain at some…
-
cost of soffit/fascia and bargeboards
I am looking to replace rotting soffit/fascia and bargeboards with upvc. I have a standard 3 bed semi. Could anyone give an indication of total cost inc fitting or price per metre. Thank you
-
Asbestos
Hi, I have just done a second viewing on the house we are buying and we have noticed that the flue that goes up a central column of the house may be asbestos. The house was built c1990 and still has the original boiler. Is it likely this is asbestos and would it run the full height of the house? Any ideas how much this…
-
Asbestos???
Hi, I have just had a second viewing on the house we are buying and we have noticed the boiler has a flue that goes up a central column in the house that was built c1990???. Anyway my husband thinks the pipe going out the top of the boiler is asbestos. What's the likelihood of that? And it going all the way up? We were…
-
Open PVC pipe sticking out of garage floor.
I have a random pipe sticking out of my garage floor. It looks to me like a vent pipe for the drains. Is anyone able to confirm what it is likely to be? Thanks
-
Damp and mould
I am getting some black mould and damp smell around certain areas of my house- it is detached and therefore exposed on all sides there is also a lot of smell around the house from the damp- the radiator in one of the bedrooms was not working which has since been fixed and it has improved the damp and smell in that room…
-
Commissioning building work
Hi, I'm not a big poster on MSE, but as I'm looking into engaging a builder, I turned to the usual place I look for financial and even legal advice. I should say up front that I've been watching an entire series of Cowboy Builders and found it very educational- there's no way I'm going to open my door to someone with the…
-
Underlay
Hoping someone can recommend an appropriate underlay .. We've got a suspended floor with underfloor heating (water) and biscuit screed with chipboard on top. We're going to be installing an engineered wood floor on top of the chip board but have no idea what type of underlay to get. Can anyone advise us. Thanks.
-
Garage door motor
I have a roller blind type garage door and today I found out that the motor in it has died. I have a choice of motors a 'Somfy' motor which comes with a 5 year warranty or a cheaper 'Neco' version that only comes with a 1 year warranty. I was wondering if anyone on here has any experience of these and could comment whether…
-
Radiator size
I need to replace a landing hallway radiator which is at the entrance of the house near the front door it currently has a 1400x400 double radiator probably over 20 years old and it is not really doing its job as its very cold i want to replace with a 1800x600 or 1600x600 double radiator the bigger gives output of 10976 BTU…
-
Software to save on architect fees?
Hi all, Been looking into buying some software to create detailed building reg plans, instead of paying the astronomical fees that an architect has quoted me :shocked: Does anybody have any suggestions? I've seen a few that are American apparently and people have left reviews saying that the software is useless for people…
-
Minimise water damage
Does anyone have any tips for minimising water damage caused by a leak? We have water coming in through the ceiling (top floor) so I'm arranging for a few roofers to come and quote me for fixing the damage. In the meantime the damp patch gets bigger everytime it rains (every day at the moment). Apart from keeping a…
-
Relaying carpet
Does anyone know if relaying a carpet is DIYable? We have a carpet that has been poorly fitted and the floorboards underneath are rather irregular. I'd like to relay it and take the opportunity while it is up to fix the floorboards, and put hardboard on top with taped joints to prevent air leakage.
-
Extending out the front
Hi, we live in an end of terraced house, where the 2 end houses look similar, but the porches look different. The close we live on has different looking houses, some bungalows, some corner plots with garages etc. What are the chances of knocking down our single skin porch and extending the front of the house to have a…
-
Transporting milk for breakfast
My DH takes about 180ml to work for porridge each day, a recent thing as he's on a diet! Currently, he's using a variety of containers but complains that they all smell of sour milk regardless of how quickly he washes them out. He's thrown out lots of things that I used to use quite a lot. Can anyone suggest what I can get…
-
diagnostics charge for heating engineer
Hi, i just recently had the heating exchanger in my boiler replaced. It broke just before Christmas and so I had problems getting anyone to come out to fix it (I still had some hot water, but it went up and down) the first guy who came told me what the problem was, but then said he was too busy to come as he was working on…
