canalsiderenovation

We have a house name and we really wanted a solid oak front door (initially thought about double doors) made and we liked the idea of the name being carved into the front door. That said we will have electric gates eventually so the house name will be on the gates/post

Is this any good https://www.nu-heat.co.uk/underfloor-heating/upstairs/

Try www.shuffs.co.uk I'm really impressed with the range of products generally (although they have a showroom near my parents).

I'd made enquiries with Sigma if there was a nearby showroom and whilst there isn't they did say that they distribute to a number of independent retailers under the brand Masterclass Kitchens. Whilst I suspect it would be much more expensive, it is useful if you want to go and view their products...

I'll check out Nolte. Thanks! Our builder will be fitting. From what I've read I don't believe Sigma have their own fitters and we would rather just use the joiner/builder on site. Actually no I used https://www.merchanthouseltd.co.uk/ It's a small company and at the time I paid over £500 less than anywhere else for my worktop and quartz fitting. That said I took an envelope of cash I'd been saving for and begged them to do it and I think they felt sorry for me in the end!

We want to find good quality kitchen cupboards and units. We will source worktop and appliances seperately as I've got some good contacts re granite and quartz worktops from when I had my previous house. Previously we had Wickes gloss which was fine but I found the cupboards (and pan draws especially) didn't particularly like the weight of the Le Creuset pans and generally the Blum hinges always needed tightening (think this was more to do with quality of the units as oppose to the units themselves). I've read favourable things about DIY Kitchens. I've stumbled across a company called https://www.sigma3.co.uk/our-showrooms which I think we're linked to County Kitchens. Has anyone heard of them? They have quite a few products we like the look of online.

@Bitpipe today we went to our local timber yard (actually we went looking at internal doors, but ended up on a right mission at umpteen places looking at doors, kitchens, bathrooms, skirting and a whole range of other stuff and have enough brochures to wallpaper the house now)! We ended up with about 10 different samples. We really like the profile you posted and seems to be the best budget option needing as least maintenance. It only came in 7ft lengths at our local timber yard but I'm sure it would come in longer lengths elsewhere. @Ferdinand @Barney12 @lizzie our little three foster kittens have gone now so I can't blame the dust on them anymore although the ecologist found signs of mice so perhaps it's them ? I think the fact we have our windows and doors open a lot (to air the house) and there is always agriculture activity in the fields nearby (maize, combine harvesters, hay etc) that this contributes as well.

Hi@AliG I love your fire! The stepped skirting is lovely but is my cleaning idea of hell! I do like the idea of the curved one posted by @Bitpipe. @Bitpipe do you have any pictures of your skirting?

Nope, we have an endless supply of seasoned wood currently as when we moved in bunkers were full and we have a wood too and a there were numerous felled trees. On the canal the cottages opposite are on solid fuel too (though again seasoned wood mainly, it's always available on the canal) and that's without the narrowboats going past so if I was worried on health risks I've picked the wrong house!. We will keep the wood burner but our main heating will be ASHP when the renovation is done.

That skirting looks pretty good (and cheap) and as you say avoids the dust. We currently have pencil skirting and it's terrible for dust (I think the wood burner makes dust worse and as it's our current only form of heating as the oil heating knackered last year we are using it a lot). I'm dreading winter as we basically need to move the bed etc into the living room and treat it like a studio in the hope we can manage til the renovation starts next year and we can find somewhere else to live!

At the moment we have a 24ft long lounge/living room (albeit with a stove in a true 1970's brick fireplace in the middle) and white skirting just over 3' high so quite small compared to the room size. Bigger skirting just equals more painting and IMO actually drawing attention too it! ? Have you gone for a maintenance free option? Any suggestions?

I'd not heard of shadow gaps, but with the OTT hoovering and mopping by the OH I can foresee issues to do away with skirting altogether (as much as I hate it), she's bad enough with the naff vinyl im the lounge and kitchen let alone hard floor throughout! Recessed is not something I'd seen though so will definitely look into that. The alternative would have to be something as maintenance free as possible, likely white we don't want oak and to have a particular wood shade.

Whilst cleaning my mum's house this week, it occurred to me how much I really hate skirting boards! Now granted my mum's are those fancy lots-of-annoying-groves-type which are a pain to dust and have yellowed slightly and we current have the basic kind, but I just hate skirting board generally. I know we are going to have to pick skirting boards are some point, but please no glossed skirting boards! What do people have? Do skirting boards ever look nice? Also, randomly at the same time I was thinking about underfloor heating and flooring. E.g. tiles or whatever and would this be put in before or after skirting? (I have no idea what what we will put on the floor - that's a whole new topic)!

Excel clad the company who manufacture the plastisol sheeting have said they can fold up a highline gutter from the same material as the sheeting which can be folded in various dimensions to suit our requirements so that could be an option.

? Thanks I'll take a look. Apparantly you can get RAL7016 uPVC guttering to match the cladding........

If we went for similar to the design above the handrail would be on the wall so descending would be on the side of my dominant (right) hand - good point though!

It looks really good, but when you are trying to get a king sized mattress up them it creates a whole range of issues!

On that pic I like couldn't you just have a handrail on the wall - but not on the other side and just have glass on the other side? Other half says people would still grab onto the glass. My argument is as it's only our room and the gym upstairs it would only be us going upstairs!

Had a spiral staircase in the last house. It was a nightmare! I'm actually quite pleased it's straight stairs but just can't see anything that jumps out at me...

Sorry I'm confused, what would look better?

I wish places would only put pictures of stairs that comply with building regs, I'm getting unrealistic expectations! The other half doesn't like those ones now so stair design continues ?

Our roof and cladding is 3' corrugated plastisol RAL7016 and the architects have put on the building regs for UPVC guttering. I can't help but think this will look awful against the metal. Any suggestions?

I really like the open appearance and glass on the design of these stairs (though not the white and white oak, I'd probably prefer it in black and oak). Our architects are currently working on building regulation plans and have sent me through what they have so far (I swear we have the slowest architects ever, at least 5 weeks since we had the decision re planning or perhaps I'm just being impatient!) We have straight stairs and I'm looking for some inspiration.... But then they have put this: Timber stairs to comply with BS585 and with Part K of the Building Regulations. Max rise 220mm, min going 220mm. Two risers plus one going should be between 550 and 700mm. Tapered treads to have going in centre of tread at least the same as the going on the straight. Min 50mm going of tapered treads measured at narrow end. Pitch not to exceed 42 degrees. The width and length of every landing should be at least as great as the smallest width of the flight. Doors which swing across a landing at the bottom of a flight should leave a clear space of at least 400mm across the full width of the flight. Min 2.0m headroom measured vertically above pitch line of stairs and landings. Handrail on staircase to be 900mm above the pitchline, handrail to be at least one side if stairs are less than 1m wide and on both sides if they are wider. Ensure a clear width between handrails of minimum 600mm. Balustrading designed to be unclimbable and should contain no space through which a 100mm sphere could pass. Does this mean we have to have a handrail and couldn't have a design like the one below?

I don't know if anyone is close to Shropshire but I'd been in to a local firm called Excelclad at Prees https://www.excelclad.co.uk/ and got chatting to a local contractor who came round to chat about our plans (all before we got permission) just to check out my thoughts on materials, insulation etc and I was able to drive by a property they had done work on. I was concerned as we have 10 Velux windows on our plans... The contractor details are https://www.facebook.com/www.jcooperandsons.org.uk/ As I said I've not used them but maybe worth checking them out specifically if you are looking at a corrugated steel roof like we are.

Aside from Internorm, I haven't seen any other company that do alu-clad PVCU mentioned on here, so if anyone has any other suggestions for alu-clad PVCU companies that would be great. I do like the Internorm product and hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have our building regs plans so can start to get quotes.