Porthole

Hi Can someone please tell me if it is normal to have kitchen and utility sink waste (including dishwasher and washing machine waste) coming out into an open gully outside? I know my parents used to have this but thought this was a bit old fashioned. Would you normally have a closed pipe? Thinking of stray food which gets caught in the grill of the gully! Thank you!!

Thanks for all your replies. Sorry for the delay. In the end we had to change the sinks to blanco ones as kitchen fitter was used to them. Never know what to expect!

Hello Please can you help as the builder is struggling to fit a compact sink waste into the space we have. There is a bins drawer under a blanco sink which doesn't leave too much room for the u-bend waste trap (apologies I'm sure this isn't the right term). There is about 90-100 mm between sink pipe and top of bins unit. Does anyone know of a compact sink trap (u bend) which can be used? Many thanks!!

Hi there Have kitchen fitter on site and we have a 760mm ceramic sink to fit into an 800mm unit. Kitchen fitter is not sure how to create a frame to support this. He says that it is too heavy. The unit given is just a 800mm unit with 2 doors on the front. He said that it should have a different unit. Can anyone please advise. It can't be that difficult to build a supporting frame but fitter is saying he has never done before. Please can you help- we thought this might be straight forward but clearly not! Thanks again!

Thanks for your comments - interesting. Sounds like Speedfit fittings are unreliable - wish we'd known before or were at least given a choice. We would have paid more for peace of mind. The builders did not do anything last week for one reason or another but are supposed to be coming tomorrow to cut out the wall and investigate. We haven't slept too well this last week with every water sound giving us concerns for fear of another deluge. The faulty connection is likely to be the hot supply in the photo below. Left connection. Can anyone advise on how the new connection should be made please? Also, if the wall is opened up, should I insist on all other connections being re done in say copper connections although, it might be difficult with space. They are cutting the wall from bedroom side not taking out the tile where the valve sits. Thank you.

Hello We had one of our speed fit connections come loose the other day. It was the pipe going from hot water tank in loft to shower valve on first floor. So we had hot water at mains pressure gushing through the ceiling onto our belongings. Builder came back, took out piece of ceiling and found loose pipe which we worked out is the hot water feed to shower valve. Tomorrow, the builders will cut out a piece of plasterboard the other side of the valve to take a look. Can the speed fit connections just come loose ie we're we just unlucky, or is it bad workmanship? I will be looking closely when they inspect the pipework to see what kind of inserts they have used. They use Speedfit JG ones. Would you say it us foolish to use the ones without the superseal behind a shower valve which you cannot access unless you break the tiles? Thank you very much - your views are welcome. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow as I'm worried they haven't done it properly which means the whole house is a mess, from a plumbing point of view.

ok thanks all. Builder is insisting on using 6 by 2 timbers perpendicular to existing ceiling joists. There will be 11 timbers at 3.6m each. I'm a bit worried this would add alot of extra weight to the loft - not sure if that is a good thing structurally - has anyone any experience of this? Structural engineer is on holiday right now. Thank you

Hello Having carpet fitted shortly and there are holes in the floorboards e.g. where old radiator pipes were poking through. Can you please advise on best way to fill? Builder just foams everything but I think there will be a dip in the carpet for the larger hole. Can all purpose wood filler be used? Thanks - any comments kindly received - carpets fitted soon so need to work out what to do asap so it all dries!

Hello Please can I get your views on whether sharp sand is ok between the drainage pipes in the ground or do I need to insist on pea shingle? The builder is constantly cutting corners so it is difficult to trust what he is saying and the latest thing is whether pea shingle should be used instead of sharp sand. I think it should be pea shingle but he insists on sharp sand being the same. Any comments gratefully received. Thank you

ok thanks. The builder said that 200mm was what was needed for buildings regs - clearly that is incorrect. He suggested using 6 by 2 timbers and putting the insulation in between that so that it is more stable than loft legs. He thought that loft legs were not that great?

Hi there I'm in the process of getting the loft insulated and boarded. The builder agreed to put 200mm rockwool insulation down and board the loft. We have noticed it is only 1 layer of 100mm rockwool equivalent between the ceiling joists. We are now also wondering how he should board the loft as you need ideally 270mm rockwool then this is higher than the ceiling joists so will be difficult to board. We've researched different methods such as loft legs or PIR boards with hardboard stuck to them to get a boarded insulated area in the middle of the loft for storage. I'm sure there are many views on the best approach but just wondered if you could provide some useful tips on what to do. I'm having to confront the builder tomorrow so your prompt response would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi there I am thinking of laying hardboard on top of my floor boards as there are quite big gaps in them and thought this might help reduce the dust which makes the carpets black. Just thinking of 3mm hardboard. Can someone please advise how best this is cut and attached to the floorboards. Would a stapler gun do? I am not sure that the builder will do this for us so is it something which is easily done? Would these boards be laid abutting the skirting boards and the grippers just put on top? Thanks very much

Ok thanks all - I think we will leave it for now. Actually some of the gaps are smaller - my husband had measure one particular room but the floors are a bit uneven as it is an old house.

Hello Be grateful for advice on this. The carpenter seems to have cut the bottom of the doors so there is a gap of 35mm between the floor and bottom of the doors. This does seem a bit of a big gap if carpet is 10mm, and underlay is also 10mm thick ? Not sure if we should be putting something on top of the floors to bring them up otherwise there will be a draft and unsightly gap. Any advice much appreciated.

Hi there I have been asked by the builder to source a fire door which can be cut for the under stair cupboard. The size is approx 600 x 1690 mm for the actual door. Can I just buy a fire door blank and get them to cut it? I know that you are not meant to cut some doors but is that ok? Be grateful if someone could reply promptly as they need asap (as always!) Thanks so much

It will be porcelain tiles

Hi - be really grateful for some advice on this. We've had screed laid close to our newly installed sliding doors but there is a gap in the screed between the screed and frame of sliding doors. Please can someone tell me what should be used to fill the gap. Also should the insulation be removed. There are packers upon which the cill of the doors sit which means the dpm can't sit flat on the concrete below, so not sure how it should all be done. The image is taken from directly above with packers sitting on a concrete base. Hope that makes some sense.

Thanks all for your comments. We've had a difficult relationship with the contractor and he has us over a barrel a bit as we need to move back in as no where to live and we need to rely on him finishing the overall job. Any form of criticism has not gone down well and resulted in a fictitious charge for something out of spite - which has made it all rather stressful. We've asked him to do things properly all the way through but now, it's become even more difficult. We've had a word with the plasterer but he just said it was a hand finish so not going to be perfect. They builders have put a scratch coat on the walls, and are about to put hardwall on before plaster skim. Do you think that it would be a sensible option to suggest putting plasterboard onto the walls as that might lead to a better finish? The builders seem to be fixed on using hardwall - not sure why - they said something about it give you less build up off the wall compared with dot and dab plasterboard where you need at least 30mm off the wall. I assume that it will be harder to get a good finish when using hardwall undercoat as opposed to plasterboard which can be skimmed. Your comments gratefully received. Thank you.

ok thanks - coming round to fact that we might need to get it skimmed afterwards. Upstairs - too late as painter as painted and tried to sand mist coat. Downstairs is in process of being plastered by builders. What is the rough cost of a plaster - is it £200 a day? How much might they do in a day? Thanks

Thank you - the decorator has got this sander but I think he may need something more industrial. I remember previous decorators using a circular type of sander

Hello Our solid walls have Thistle Hardwall and Finishing plaster skim on them. They are however quite bumpy and I would be grateful for any tips on how to smooth these out. Our decorator isn't part of the contractor's team and blames the plastering for poor quality work. In our old house, our builders did the decorating and I do remember them sanding furiously for a day with masks on, after the first coat of white paint. The end result was quite good and the sanding compensated for poor plaster work. I need to suggest that our current painter does this but not sure what type of sanding, grit rating etc to use. Please can you advise. He won't be happy me asking him to do this though. Is this the best approach? Also before bring up the poor plasterwork with the contractor can someone please tell me if it is common to have more uneven plasterwork when hardwall is used as opposed to plasterboard. Thank you!!

OK great - thanks for putting mind at rest

The new stuff actually says it is solvent based (Hammerite no 1 anti rust beater) , rather than water based? Is that ok then?

Thanks all for your comments and for clarifying it is galvafroid - no wonder I couldn't find it anywhere!!

Hi there Be grateful if you could please help. The builder has done first fix and put towel rad supply pipes in coming out of the wall. They are rigid pipes which are attached to flexible pipes further down. They are hardwalled into place but a bit wobbly. Does this matter? The rads will be fixed via their fixing points, but thought the pipes might be more secure than they are. Thanks very much.