How difficult are these jobs?

frugglewump

Before the damp company comes round they insist i have done the following jobs (and will chareg £50+VAT for a wasted visit if i haven't).I would like people's opinions on how difficult each is & which require tradesmen.

(i) Remove floor covering from next to all walls requiring treatment
- this basically measn take up the carpet in the livingroom & the bottom 3 stairs

(ii) Disconnect and move gas cooker away from wall
- I'm hoping the gas cooker won't be there actually as it belonged to previous tenants. I'm assuming this will need a tradesman as I don't have experience with gas connections

(iii) Remove radiator from wall to be replastered
- the don't mention also removing pipes


Other stuff (nothing to do with damp company)

The house has no loft access at all. Since I have to start from scratch I thought to put in a loft ladder, although I need to check the height of the room first. Best wooden loft ladder i have found is £130 from screwfix.

It's a victorian mid-terrace and I'm rather thinking to get someone in for this as the survey mentioned something about excessive vibration may cause the plaster in the bedrooms to crack & bits fall off.

cattie

No's 2 & 3 you'll need a trademan for. A registered gas engineer/plumber should be able to do both jobs for you. Average price for London is about £50 hour. Cooker should only take a few mins at most, no idea about radiator but hopefully someone else can advise on whether this is a simple job or a big job that requires the whole system to be drained.

The carpet just needs to be pulled back from the wall, not completely taken up, so you & a pal should be able to manage this. Same with the stairs, just pull the carpet up clear of the 3rd step. If the carpet has gripper rods it's fairly easy to fix it back afterwards using a hammer & small chisel.

It would be best to get someone in who knows what they are doing regarding the loft hatch & ladder, especially with what you say about the bedroom ceilings possibly coming down in chunks. :eek:

Mr_Proctalgia

Re your cooker - If it is connected with a rubber hose then it is a DIY job, just push and turn, it will automaitically seal off.

You radiator is easy too, close both valves off (write on the rad how many turns each side took) then using two sets of grips/ spanners slightly loosen the connections to the rad and catch the manky water in a bowl, continue till the rad is drained then loosen the rad connections and lift off.

Get a quote for having your ceilings overboarded and taped or skimmed it isn't that expensive.

HTH

bockster

in my experiance, gas cookers are normally conected with a quick release bayonet type fitting which will self seal when disconected, basically when you disconect, the hose stays with the cooker, quite easy. there should also be a 13a plug for ignition/clock.

re radiator, you should be able to close the 2 valves with plastic covers either side of the rad (noting how many turns to close on each!) if there is a thermostatic valve on one side of the rad, then set it to the coldest setting. now you can undue he bignuts and catch the water that comes out (of just the rad) and then remove it of its hanging bracket, should have said at the start, there is no need to drain complete system.
i would consider this easy to moderate to do. if unsure, feel free to ask more questions or get someone in. also the water that comes out will be quite dirty!

bockster

!!!!!!!,
cross posted while i was on the phone!

Mr_Proctalgia

Never mind LOL

Great minds think alike (and idiots seldom differ) :-)

Ted_Hutchinson

frugglewump wrote:

The house has no loft access at all. Since I have to start from scratch I thought to put in a loft ladder, although I need to check the height of the room first. Best wooden loft ladder i have found is £130 from screwfix.

It's a victorian mid-terrace and I'm rather thinking to get someone in for this as the survey mentioned something about excessive vibration may cause the plaster in the bedrooms to crack & bits fall off.

I agree with the others that the radiator and Gas cooker, can be sorted by anyone with a modicum of common sense. With the loft ladder providing the hatch is the right size a relatively average DIYer should be able to manage to fit it. I would be tempted to leave the plastering the ceiling until you know it is actually necessary. The surveyor says "excessive vibration may cause " he is just covering himself if this should happen. I think it depends on what you put up there and how much excessive vibration you cause putting it up. If your careful you may find the existing ceiling if fine. You will have a better idea if it's likely to be necessary after you have installed the loft ladder and seen how far apart the roof joists are.