Gow

Supposedly "more resistant to water swelling than standard laminate flooring, making it the ideal choice for kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and commercial areas" and alas I am not getting commission, for promoting this product...

Where is this brilliant tiler nowadays?

I have decided to buy environmentally friendly wood-effect laminate flooring made from wood pulp - Egger Aqua+ (plus). This is the only one of the Egger flooring products which has a life-time warranty and at least it should see me out as I am already over the hill. What's more? It's affordable for me on a tight budget and you know what they say about the Scots?

No it is just one wall and a corner

And another question related to tiling... No jokes please as I've been living in hell for over a year now thanks to a cowboy builder. At the 11th hour I need to find a tiler therefore my question is: How many hours would it take a competent tiler to tile 8m2 with porcelain tiles 330mm x 600mm. The walls will be freshly skimmed. Thanks

Has anyone bought the caravan yet? If not, I will chip in and provide parking space in my back garden which has been turned into a builder's yard since June 2021 when the "so-called" builder knocked down the sun room to build an extension. The first extension was demolished. There were too many faults and deviations from the building warrant. Alas, 15 months later the builder, who has the right to remediate, has not yet completed the task.

I could send you a good dose of rain from Scotland if you can tell me how to divert the clouds and send them down your way. On average, Glasgow was blessed with 885mm of precipitation last month but on the bright side our gardens look lovely! :]

Use bright colours that make the most of the natural light. Pastel colours make rooms look bigger. So far most of the rooms in my wee house are buttercup yellow, similar to the yellow used in stately homes in sunny France. That's where I got my inspiration... My curtains seriously contrast the yellow walls. "No, they said, "you can't use yellow on the bedrooms walls" they cried. Oh yes I can and then they said, "OMG, I never thought it would work and it does". Why follow current trends. grey walls, grey furniture etc. I live in grey Glasgow where an extra touch of sunshine is always welcome.. And, if it had been a disaster, a cover up job would have been easy! Be brave and buck the trend then you won't have to keep up with the Jones when grey is no longer fashionable!

Ps All the roller blinds in my former house were manual and trouble-free on the whole. A friend with the electric roller blinds could not open one them when the mechanism was kaputt. It was cheaper to install a new blind than repair the mechanism!

I lived abroad and had very heavy wooden shutters on the front of the house and added light-weight pvc ones to the back rooms and door. In the 30+ years I lived in that house I only had to have the sash ribbons replaced on two of the windows, two of those with the heavy wooden blinds. All wooden blinds at the front of the house were manually operated and worked a treat. The blinds outlived the house, which was demolished along with the neighbour's house and the land used for a block of flats. Avois Dim did not reply to my enquiry and the extension on my house is turning into a living nightmare so no blinds and no extension for the moment. Apart from the in-built blinds it is also possible to add on a cassette system to the exterior of the house. There's plenty of info online on several French websites. Search "leroy merlin volet roulant". There are also several German and Polish websites where you will find info in English but you have to dig deep because you will be shown a wide array of internal blinds first. Bonne chance!

Photos of the dining room ad a "standard" mess in the back garden due to it being a building site

My 20m2 extension aka 161 days on at 15 november 2021 and counting PROPOSED starting date: 7 June 2021. Workmen arrived on 14 June 2021 to demolish the back garden wall so that materials could be delivered. Construction work started in earnest mid-July 2021 Why so many delays: 1. The builder’s other project was running late and had to be finished first. 2. I asked for “tilt & turn” windows and door in July late in the day but before any windows had been delivered. 3. MOT = 10 days to find a part for the builder's van (Meanwhile his team were at home twiddling their thumbs?) 4. A contractor bricklayer broke his shoulder due to the close proximity of the neighbours’ fence to one of the wall of the new extension. My so-called difficult neighbours have allowed scaffolding to be erected in their garden! 5. A funeral that the workmen did not attend 6. In August the builder discovered that two low telephone cables were causing an obstruction. The first BT engineer quit after being accused of being a “job’s man”. The next engineer resituated the cables two working days later while workmen carried out other work 7. While dealing with Open Reach in August, I was asked to make a 3rd payment in accordance with the builder’s payment schedule. The following day he had a rant in front of his workmen claiming that he was unable to pay them because I hadn’t made the payment. I did so immediately. However this payment is not due until the roof tiles are in place. 8. On 9 October I learned that I should have informed Building Control at the City Council that work had commenced and Stage 1 had been completed. This was remedied on 10 October causing a 7-day delay to allow Building Standards to inspect the work so far. 9. The roof pitch is 12.7 degrees. Currently there’s a shortage of Redland Cambrian. The builder wanted to use his stock of Marley Moderns. Battens were already in place for Marleys. In the discussion that ensured I was blame because the builder failed to see that Redland Cambrians were indicated on his emailed copy of the building warrant. Work halted on 9 October 2021 and since then the builder has only returned to collect scaffolding, costing him £60 a week to hire. That day he coerced me into accepting two smaller “more expensive” Keylite roof windows to prevent any further delay. The correct size of Velux are still not in stock? There’s at least one month’s work to be done here before the project is completed. The current delay concerning Cambrian tiles is supposedly due to a shortage of truck drivers. I requested a copy of the supplier’s bill and tracking details but there was no response from the builder. The only news since 9 October has been through a friend who is acting as an intermediary. The builder has ignored my request for a meeting and although I’ve taken legal advice from a building ombudsman who inspected the site he told me that other unfinished work could have been carried out meanwhile but the builder has got me over a barrel due to the payment I made in August before it is due. I might have coped with the latest delay if workmen had not demolished a wall between the dining room and extension without prior warning 43 days ago. Instantly I emptied the dining room, cluttering the hall and every nook and cranny with the contents of that room. My home is cold due to the hole in the wall and gaps at the external door and in the roof where insulation is missing. For 43 days I’ve been living in a tip. I’m a single senior citizen. Misogyny probably plays a role in this debacle. At my age why did I decide to add an extension to the house? A close relative has early onset dementia. The plan was to move her here to help care for her but the lockdown happened. The 57-year old is now all but brain dead. Hoists have been installed in her home to move the tiny human being about. It is too late for her to come here and to what? A building site.... Photos to follow from another app.

People's Energy, a newish supplier promising to share its profits with its members. Dream on? I was fed up with Ovo and switched to the Edinburgh based supplier Fix Tariff Electricity: standing charge 23.31 and just under 14.2 per unit Gas: standing charge 23.31 and 2.681 per unit Alas I can't do the maths so I don't know if it is a good deal or not...

On the Continent of Europe these blinds are cheap or expensive for the wooden version and the cassette can be installed internally or externally. There is the choice of manual or motorised. roller_blinds.pdf

Once the SER certificate is presented to GCC how long should you have to wait before the said council grants a Building Warrant in normal times and, at present, in abnormal times?

I''ll be your first customer!

I was being flippant - anything would look better than rust!

☹️ Green Green would clash with the masonry red brick wall - recently painted. Everything that has a surface has been painted during lockdown except the fence and gate :00

Not looking for perfection, just worried about the lead in the paint. And the mask, well I doubt I will be able to find one at the DIY store at the moment. Tomorrow I'll try to find another chore that I've been putting off for ever and a day until lockdown arrived. Alas, we're not out of the woods yet in Scotland

Thanks I've filled in an online form and asked for a quote

That's a person, I presume who owns a decent sand-blasting compressor? Maybe it would cheaper replacing the gate posts thus avoiding the risk of breathing in lead paint particles.

I've been stripping paint off the rusty 1930s wrought iron garden fence and gate. There is green paint on the gate post, possibly the original coat so it probably contains lead. Is there a safe way of removing the paint and if there is what products should I be using? So far I have managed to removed one coat of crinkled black metal paint from the railings using elbow grease and a sander. There was only one layer of black metal paint there, no green paint. Thank you

Before and after!.pdf Our council has cancelled all bin collections except general waste until further notice.