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Thank you so much @ProDave! I've googled RCBOs and it appears that the water heater is already an RCBO (rest are fuses) so it appears they can all be replaced. It is a plastic fuse box. Does that affect it at all? Thanks again.

Hi everyone I've been told that I need a EICR before I can have tenants move in. I've spoken to an electrician today who says that the fuse box (image attached) needs replacing. I just want to find out whether my fuse box will fail the EICR if it's not changed before I fork out £600 for a new fuse box and a report. I did ask the electrician last week but he hasn't replied. Thank you for your help.

Thank you Terry. What’s the slow fix?

Hi everyone Our build is nearing completion after under going a major overhaul. It's a duplex victorian town house in London and we own the two lower floors (ground and lower ground). We've noticed some rather odd 'bubbling' on the side of one of our walls (in the hallway on the lower ground floor). On the other side of this wall is another lower ground floor property. Before we renovated the house we did notice damp in this same area. A couple of months ago we asked our builders what the 'bubbling' could be and they said they didn't know as they had damp proofed it already. In the last couple of weeks we've seen the 'bubbling' get worse and now the skirting is cracking away (see image attached). We asked our project managers about this and they say it's the paint. I find this hard to believe as this is not happening anywhere else in the house. I never saw how our builders damp proofed this area but I think they laid some screed? (we visited when they laid the underfloor heating and I didn't notice anything then). Does anyone know what this could be or what we should do? I have more pictures (including those during the build) that I can attach if that helps? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

Thanks everyone for being so helpful I never considered the cleaning aspect and I imagine that cleaning finger prints from glass is a lot more work than dusting spindles. For that reason we're going to go with spindles. Thanks again

Hi everyone We are nearing the completion of our project and the next step is to decide whether we want a glass or wooden/metal banister. I think both look great and I just can't decide between the two. Part of me thinks the glass would open up the space and show the boiserie but I also love a more traditional look and think it would be more in keeping with our home (victorian property). I would love to have some of your opinions on what you think would look nicer in our home or if there's anything else relevant that we might have not considered. I've attached a couple of images of our staircase at the moment (still a construction site) and image of what the glass should look like and a couple of images of the type of spindle/banister design we are after. Thank you S

Thank you so much @PeterW you have been immensely helpful! We decided to go with another provider for a composite door and it’s come to just over £4,500 inc VAT which is a lot cheaper and they’ve got really good reviews too. We have a secondary door which we are considering putting a smart lock on. We were going to go with Yale but after your suggestion of Ultion locks, we are looking at their smart locks too which seem just as good, if not better. thank you again s

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies. They only stole some builders tools but they had put paper inside the lock and the police said that this is because they wanted to come back again later. @PeterW thank you. What do you mean by 6.4L - 4 - 6.4L.? This is what one company has quoted us for:- Security Level Door size 1940x1450. With two glazed side panels. Cludding: External: EDM, RAL colour Internal: UMIDAX, RAL colour Glazing: Side panel P6B security glass Main lock: FIAM ISEO R6, key/bturn, securiti level 6 Total cost:- £6,000 plus VAT i have no idea what any of this means other than P6B is burglar resist glass. does this price sound reasonble? thank you all again

We are looking to get the front entrance of our property redone after a break in, and we’ve had quotes of £7k - £9k to do something like this (see image attached) with P6B security glass and steel lined doors. Is that sensible, or are we being burgled (again)? Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks S

Thank you all very much for your help and suggestions which we have put to our joiner. I think we will just play it safe and have a fixed panel around the TV. Thank you again.

Hi all We are having some joinery work done and I have a question about push to open doors. I've attached an image of the joinery design we are after and an inspiration picture to show what we are trying to replicate. Just to explain, there are 4 push to open doors on the left (490 x 1550) and 1 push to open door on the right (490 x 1550). We asked our joiner if it's also possible to have one giant push to open door surrounding the TV (1760 x 1550) as we don't want to see a seam running down the middle. The joiner said that this is impossible but I can't see why. It's not a terribly big panel and it won't have to hold the weight of the TV as this should be attached directly to the back wall. (btw TV size in the image shows 55" but we are having 65" instead so the panel should weigh even less). If it can't be done, is there any other option available that doesn't involve a seam? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

There’s no law about auto closing doors as far as I’m aware

Hi everyone We are having some joinery work done (see image attached) to create a hinged door to our kitchen. The door will have a crittal style look and it will have to be fire rated. Our joiner says the doors are timber and they will be glazed and spray painted/lacquered. We have been quoted £900 for the door. Does this seem reasonable? I've asked a few other places but they say they are not open at the moment due to the ongoing pandemic so I don't have anything to compare. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

Thank you everyone for your help, lots of really great advice. I’ve contacted a couple of companies where their m2 prices are between £35 - £50 which is a lot more reasonable! We were just led to believe that Porcelain Tiles had the best value and offered the biggest trade discount than other suppliers. So much for that.

"Super comment" from my husband who is laughing in the other room haha

Thank you both, I just had no idea what to expect really. ? @Conor do you remember the name of the company at all?

Hi everyone I hope that this is the right section to be asking this. We've asked Porcelain Tiles (company recommended to us by the person managing our project) for a quote to supply the flooring of our kitchen, 3 bathrooms and the floor for our small entrance way. The price they're come back with is almost £21,000 plus VAT (excluding delivery). This includes a 30% trade discount too! For example they have quoted for the entrance "4.5m2 Onyx Sense Bianco Polished 1500 x 3000 x 6mm @ £154.70/m2 +VAT = £696.15 +VAT". The price per m2 ranges between £118.30/m2 plus VAT to £154.70/m2 plus VAT. Having never done this before I am quite shocked at the pricing. Is this normal or is this just what porcelain costs? Our kitchen is due to be delivered in 4 weeks and time is running out to pick the flooring and i'm half thinking that we should just have wood flooring instead. Does anyone have any experience with this or recommendations? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you S

Thank you both, that's very helpful. We had suggested to our builder to do just that, add some mdf planks to surround the tv and then plaster over but he says it can't be done. I'll have to go back to him and check again. Thank you again!

It might be a bit late now but the law society's function 'find a solicitor' can be helpful search tool. You can also check to see if they have a Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation or some similar accreditation. Any reason why you want a specialist land conveyancer in that area? A conveyancer/solicitor elsewhere in the country should be able to do the same job.

Hi everyone We are installing a recessed TV (1237*767) in the bedroom but are having trouble deciding on the width of the air gap around the TV. We want it as small as possible really. There will be vents in the back of the niche to allow warm air to escape and we feel that a 10mm gap should be ok so as long as we can get a wedge down the side to get to the mount. Has anyone had any experience with this before? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you S

We don’t need a fire rated door for our kitchen if we have smoke alarms in the downstairs bedrooms and corridor. Problem solved! Thank you everyone for your help.

Ah thank you Jeremy! That completely slipped my mind.

We are a two storey. The kitchen is upstairs with a guest toilet and living dining room. Downstairs are the two bedrooms two bathrooms. Do you mind sharing where it says we don’t need a fire door? I believe you but I just want to have some evidence to show the building inspector/our builders. thank you so much!

Thank you for your replies. Our kitchen leads out into the hallway and I’ve attached a plan for you to see (sorry I couldn’t find one with measurements). We didn’t want our kitchen door to be visible at first and had initially planned on a pocket door but because of an upstairs neighbour’s pipe work that runs through our home we couldn’t incorporate one. We decided on a bi fold door instead and had intended on keeping it folded away to the left behind the stud wall but we are struggling to find one.

We need a fire rated door for our kitchen and had planned on having a crittall style bi-fold door . However, after hours of searching and making enquiries to various companies (e.g. tod’s doors) this doesn’t seem possible. Is it correct that bi-fold doors can’t be fire rated? Any help/guidance would be appreciated. Thank you