Tennentslager

SWMBO wants me to make something when we decorate the bedroom which is like moving a wall forward 2/300mm leaving a bed alcove which has room for lights and shelves in place of bedside cabinets. She envisages floor to ceiling and the current coving replaced to make good and join with existing. Plasterboard or MDF? The room will be painted out afterwards and a feature wallpaper for the alcove not behind the bed. Cmon the forum, help me out here

Do a test run and see if it butts together...?

Watch it Boris the centimetre police will be along shortly with a fixed penalty notice and the mods will have set up an inquiry.

No it's not the name of a band...can we have a guerilla battalion of sparks who can connect the freezing fuel poor and tap into street lights and mug meters? Of course it's 'illegal' but is it really when we have lashings of energy but it's sold to the highest bidder? @Stones Up the revolution

Bluetak

You've not been to the Gorbals pool 10 years ago at the height of eastern European immigration. The culture of posing (model style) for pics by Polish/Lithuanian young woman in swimsuits was new to the southsiders of Glasgow.

Not if you have a fresh water pool. Or a river, loch or other such nearby, goodness they have public swimming pools in my area...just a thought.

Ach, it burnt down uninsured. But I had 5 great years and sold the plot so now moving on old bean. No point looking back and ruminating ??

I built ma hut off grid and did everything...from planning permission to interior design...wall of maps and wood burner. But there's a sting in the tale...tail?

Can you find another route for the main...cap it in the garden and run it in another way?

Yep that's kinda what was said, he was very nice and not at all pushy

Eventually got a first quote. 11 windows 2 doors plus side windows for one door. U value 1.4 First price £13800 Trade price for tonight only £11700 What you think? Recommended family firm

So the doors were very high? Good spot...the living room door is a tiny bit low as it's original. I had a job getting a big sofa under it. It's a big room, 7m long. The big bedroom to the front is also original but had a skylight above the door so would have been refashioned. All the rest of the doors ( toilet, kitchen, bed 2) are remodeled so would have been made to suit.

Its second floor as in Ground,1st, 2nd. Most tenements are G,1,2,3 but this is a smaller one. I'm thinking the integrity is all in the original floor as this is effectively a floating or sandwich floor. The main run of the 5m is 1.5 in the hall so I'll fix ply there afterwards before a new carpet as the old one is gunned now. In the bedroom it follows a run along the wall which has two wardrobes placed there so never walked on.

Finished floor level ? Now I'm Sherlock I've noticed the step up at the front door, at 150mm it's barely noticeable though...

I've agreed to do the labour so have to cut about 5m of floorboards perpendicular to the grain and dig out the deadaning ( thanks @TonyT) for Kevin to do the repiping. First Q Should I leave a board intact every 6 or so for structural integrity...would still leave room to get a 3m legnth of pipe in there or just rip the lot up with a long skill saw cut?

Then I found it, 22 to two 15mm pipes, one to the kitchen for the cooker, one to the boiler...hard to find because the d*ckhead joiner had put a joist (filler) on TOP of the gas pipe with a srtip of foam. Hard to find but after fingertip investigation we did. The whole lot is to be repiped in 22mm. End of story so far

The joiners came in next and laid suitable filling pieces before covering the whole lot in tons of gravel (WTF, we think for sound deadening) and then new floorboards. Guess what...we found the 22mm pipe coming from the meter and into the hall. Now we know the supply to the boiler is in 15mm but can't find the junction and step down to 15 amongst this shingle.

So, we have a smell of gas and the BG fella has turned it off as there a 20 Mb drop. (Is Mb= millibar?) This is looking for the run of the gas pipe from the meter to the boiler. Kevin the heating engineer has done a few of these before and explains. Seems a method developed whereby the old floorboards were left in place and all the new plumbing and heating was laid first fix ON TOP of the floorboards.

The tenements have very generous proportions with 3m high ceilings and tall casement windows...I was always told these were to let the light sink deep into the rooms as they were built before electric light was common and at a northerly latitude the winter sun can be low...anyway, I digress, but clue one, there is no shortage of FFL to play with.

Glasgow has thousands of tenements build around 1890 to 1910 and many years before and after. My son's rental is c1890 and traditional with 600mm thick walls, from out side in, 200mm sandstone, 100 cavity, 100 brick, 100 cavity, 100 brick. In the 1980s there was a massive refurbishment programme, after years of demolition, the powers that be decided to keep these handsome buildings and upgrade them street by street. Families were decanted (for around 2 years) Andy grants given and the work took place over a decade. Many different methods were used but in the main this involved removing the chimney stacks, re-roofing, sand blasting, new windows and complete remodeling internally. Coal fired were the original heating method but gas engineers quickly became competent at drilling the 600mm walls for many new gas boilers. Old stair head lavvies (it was common to have one WC per floor, often shared by three flats and accessed from the common close) were replaced with new internal toilets. Have a look at this picture and in the next post I'll tell you what's going on...

I think it's about cladding (post Grenfell) and sustainability both in terms of the environment and efficiency. Might lead to a step change in new regs around eco friendly building...there's lots that could be improved don't you agree

Snip Funds a programme of research and professional advice to ensure the Building Standards system in Scotland delivers its regulatory requirements and supports the creation and renewal of safe and sustainable buildings that stand the test of time. Up from £2m to £16m....watch this space.

Scroll down and you get more information including a tab called photos

The Tenement House 0141 333 0183 https://maps.app.goo.gl/tTFz6D52E1egu2d66 Check out the photos here for another time capsule...