AdamD

We live in a hard water area and have recently got a new en suite which we’re going put in Matte black shower, taps etc and have been advised a water softener is a good idea due to the levels of limescale. Makes sense really as we get an awful lot on our chrome shower. any thoughts and suggestions as to which to get, for a family of 4, 4 bed semi detached average sized house.

Freshly plastered wall - what first coat emulsion:water ratio should be used?

They were in an awful state, so was definitely needed! Apparently they were early days composite as well. Super thin and I saw them as they were coming off, very glad they’ve been replaced!

Need to buy a number of sockets for new loft room And want to get some usb type sockets for some of them. Don’t want to go cheap but not really sure what considerations I should make, ie. I understand that the usb outlets are ‘never off’ ie not like the 3 pin which is switched on and off at the socket. Is that right? If so, are there ones where the usb a or c element can be switched? Thinking of a plate with 2 usb a and 1 usb c - is it dangerous to have too many?

Two options provided by the contractor. I can go back to discuss any cost implications of natural slate.

We’re having a loft conversion and have been asked which roof tiles we want, either concrete edgemere tiles or composite slate tiles. Pros and cons of each? We really don’t know!

How would I determine that? The latter! Ha

Any ideas, anyone?

Got it sorted, new water pipe installed. Unfortunately it was most certainly a leak from our old pipe so no hope getting anything back from the water company. An annoying expense, but a necessary one.

Making this odd noise near the end of the cycle, any ideas? IMG_5778.mov

Yeah I think I’ll call them back. meter box is there correct, lifted it earlier and it was full of water, scooped it out to see it was still running even with the stop cock inside turned off foul sewer - so may be worth contacting the sewerage provider?

Concrete manhole slab is on our drive. See pic. metal manhole cover just behind, I’ve lifted that and there’s no blockages and it’s running fine

IMG_5681.mov

No Our driveway is on a slope and so flows down to the road and I’ve noticed a leak from the concrete slab type manhole cover, not gushing but a steady flow so clearly leaking a lot of water. I can’t get the slab up without damaging it so want to know what my first option is to investigate, or is breaking the slab to get it up the best way?

That’s reassuring as the two quotes we’ve had are in the 69k range, inc flooring and bathroom. Just doesn’t include bathroom tiles (but does include the tiling) which is annoying but hundreds rather than thousands more. We’re down south so obviously paying a premium there, as with everything else. One of the companies did one very similar a couple of roads away and arranged for me to go and see it - very impressed I must say

Crazy money, isn’t it

Really interesting and useful, thanks. I’ll challenge the builders with this when I speak to them about the quotes. not sure what is classes as tall and steep so I’ll get up there tomorrow and measure to, say, the highest point and post here for opinions!

Thanks. I’m a layman so not massively following, whilst I kind of understand what you’re saying. What is typical and how much space may be lost ? can you explain joist uplift and downward thrust in this context please ?

Sorry, what is FF?

Currently have a 3 bed semi detached with two decent sized bedrooms and a box room converted to home office. Have a toddler and baby so need a solution to give them their own rooms and a loft conversion seems the way forward. To move to a bigger house in the area will be another £150k so is out of the question. We have a good loft space and could make it the biggest room plus en suite. Now, budget. No idea really how to forecast this as totally new to it but it would all need to be done by trades. All in company would be best as we want minimal hassle and want it done as quickly as possible, won’t be easy with a 2 year old and a 5 month old baby, but appreciate this will be far more expensive. What we want is a rear dorma and hip to gable at the side for maximum space and headroom. 35 sq metres roughly. We are on the south coast fyi. What sort of ball park budget should be realistic and what other considerations before proceeding?

Where is that?!

Well I got it going again after fully defrosting the freezer coils, thought I’d won then 5 days later it goes again. So am completely at a loss. Not going through that faff again. Clearly something amiss as, like someone said, it should be auto defrosting. any other ideas before I take a sledgehammer to it and buy a new one? ps: I’m not really going to sledgehammer it, although I’d rather like to

Surely this should have auto defrosted and shouldn’t be like this? Defrosted it all manually and restarted. Feels like the fridge is cooling down so hopefully was just something frozen and not allowing air flow. Although need to understand what as am sure it shouldn’t do that.

Yeah that’s the fan and is rotating freely

What to check? Are these the condenser coils in the freezer, or the coils externally on back of unit?