Nickfromwales

£10k “grants” handed out like sweets. Ffs.

That would be sensible, ergo “not going to happen any time soon”….. 🤦‍♂️

Hi, and welcome Are you in a conservation area, or area of outstanding natural beauty? Listed? We thrive on info here, so get the fingers tapping on the keyboard and then ideas and info can be forthcoming! 🙂

Lift the 5a one as much as possible, then same for the socket to see if you can hide this. Plasterer was shite, decorator equally as guilty. Just unbelievable that this incredibly low standard of work could have escaped the 80’s and still be so prevalent today in 2026. I bet neither of those two tossers houses look like this. Utterly embarrassingly low standards from these people. The ‘fix’ is to remove the outlets, PVA the openings, apply EasiFill and allow to dry fully, then sand and paint, then, repeat if necessary, and paint. If you have a PM then send the bill to them.

The youngster may turn out to be a better fitter, be more meticulous, work with you out of respect, and do a good job. Just speak with him and explain your concerns, and see how he responds. Sounds like the product isn’t a top shelf option and the repeats are the fleas coming with that dog. For want of a better phrase, Champagne job on lemonade money? Feel free to tell me to FO, I have thick skin.

As long as you don’t put them on prematurely, and they damage the surface.

Maybe reach out to @craig as he’s the resident ‘lord of fenestration’

I'd like to say yes..............but............

+1, I've just eaten.............. lol

No need to shut off the water

It would all need to be excavated out, prove and prep the sub-base, then lay a major reinforced fundamental slab. Then build up off that. Settlement of new works will be the crux, so this will need to be done a-la adding a new basement methinks (hard packing etc). Will need a contractor with experience, and very good commercial insurance. Look into collateral warranties also, as a doomsday parachute, in case the contractor falls over mid / post project.

Get the fitters to leave them long, and ask if they’ll be happy to come back and trim them properly for you ‘as and when’.

I feel for the guy, having been through similar myself. This is a very difficult industry in which to pick one’s self up from, and restart, as you have to ask people to entrust a lot of money up front, and only your trading history and client references can perpetuate this. When little fish get knocked by big fish, it causes irreparable, or sadly often terminal amounts of damage. They seem to be genuine, and if so I wish them the best in reestablishing their business (and reputation). Thanks for taking the effort to post these details, a lot of people read them.

With SBR + tile adhesive, I honestly think that the screws will do the square root of (expletive deleted) all. I can’t tell you not to fit them as I’m not warrantying the job, plus they cost so little we’d both be fools to not do so / advise you not to do so. So….”do so”. 👌

If I had the chance to build that house, and move my family into it, I would make a point of stepping, bare-footed, onto each step, and proclaiming the slight indifference of temperature of the adjacent flooring elevations….. No. We’d just be happy. Chill out ffs. 👍👌😎

They’re not exactly ‘colour-sympathetic’, but why is this ‘dodgy’? Is there more to this?

What he said. DEFO not what HE said. #medievalbobthehygieneoppressor

A sober moment; when have you ever been to a dwelling with heated steps / stairs, or actually GAF? Genuine question btw. If you're genuinely up at night worrying about this, consider the fact that these are part of an insulated structure and will acclimatise to the ambient, or thereabouts all by themselves. If SUPER worried, lay the tread tiles over XPS insulation tile backer boards to allow the aforementioned naturally occurring temp balance to maximise its potential. On a side note, I wish my problems were like yours. Shall we just tell him to run faster?

Does this affect the structural integrity of the building as a whole, or is it entirely isolated to this one ‘flat’?

Happy days 👌

That flat bit is where you apply an adjustable spanner, and the offending item will unscrew anti-clockwise and come out whole. Then a soak in Viagra, as @ProDave uses and swears by, or maybe just WD40 or a quality ‘release agent’ will get this moving again. You can use google to match the part and maybe get a new replacement, but that’s down to luck tbh.

It’s quite refreshing to adopt this approach, even up to today where I had an opinion, client had another, point raised, pros/cons/caveats discussed comprehensively; clients choice was the “winner”, ownership of the decision removed from my hands, and on to the next problem we went.

I’ve used him for over 25 years zero jobs have ever curled so no worries there, but nobody would argue with any sensible garnish of belts and braces. Unless the additional actions were administered to the detriment of the job and that then caused a failure that would otherwise not have occurred if ‘left well alone’.

Can you post some pics from the 60’s please, just to be sure it’s a robust solution.

It’s only the internal that needs to be airtight, the external only needs to be weathertight. Also, it’s prudent to have the pipes fall to outside, vs be laying flat (or worse, accidentally falling to inside), a good general rule of thumb for possible ingress of rainwater. I would break the pipe insulation where they become exposed outside the frame, and weather-tighten there, then change to the higher spec UV resistant Armaflex insulation, setting that in to a generous ring of CT1. Wrap that exterior insulation with duct tape, where the renderer will be striking it, to keep it in good order. Once rendered, cut the insulation to leave 30mm or so remaining, complete the plumbing, and dress the UV res insulation back to that.