MikeGrahamT21

No its pre finished. If you've ever had laminate worktops, its basically just the same as that, but not as thick. Can send some photos of mine if you want?

Duraboard gets my vote every time! Melamine faced Chipboard, real easy to keep clean and doesn't scratch easily unlike PVC.

What have other peoples experiences been on your estate?

I feel so sorry for you having to go through this, I have personally never seen anything quite as bad! While I was reading through my reaction on it all was knock down and rebuild properly. There will be even more that is wrong that you can't see which will all get covered up again through the fixes. I have no idea if this is a possibility or not, i suspect they will really push against it, but I don't see any way of sorting it properly without doing so.

i've certainly seen underground water storage tanks like that before, or maybe septic tank??

You've got yourself a double height entrance hall there! ?

I've got another problem to contend with now, not only the smoke from the multi fuel stove, but now my neighbour has just decided to install a vent from his cooker hood, comes out of his wall like a jet, straight onto my driveway, can always smell what he's cooking, stinks! Can see me needing a charcoal filter when I eventually get it fired up!

True, but it will be a far smaller contact area than before, so will go a good way to reducing noise (id say you'll easily achieve a 75% area reduction compared with the current plaster). You can also put a hefty bead of silicone behind the batten before you screw it on, to soften the contact that it does have further.

Do you have a chimney breast in the house? I found that although in my semi-bungalow that there is a cavity between the houses (which was empty, now filled with party wall insulation which I had blown in), the chimney breast was solid between the two properties, and i find this is where the most of the sound comes through, but obviously depends on how your house is built. I plan on using 50mm rockwool between battens, and then soundblock plasterboard on top when i eventually get round to doing it, only this one room tho and not a massive area so shouldn't cost me too much, and i'll be doing the labour myself. Yeah floor joists is the other, they are often pushed into the walls too far, and touch the other houses blockwork, as I've been replacing mine i've ensure they are in just over 100mm into the wall, but not touching the other house, and that seems to have helped too.

? This is when you employ a fan which is continuous trickle extract with humidty boost!

+1 for humidity sensor, work so much better.

Yeah this is definitely normal, i get it every time i do something! Perhaps i'm just a disappointment lol! It wears off after a few weeks, hang on in there. I always say DIY isn't how good you can do something, but how good you can cover your mistakes up so it appears to look good to the untrained eye...now your all going to think my house is falling apart lol!

Forgot to add this one, not plumbed in yet, but this will be done tomorrow afternoon.

If you paid a plasterer to do the original job, then it should be well in the remit to have them back to sort this bit out.

I'm in the middle of drawing my plans for an extension for building control, which I will post on here in my blog when they are done, but may not be done until November time. Not for a full house, but will give you some ideas of whats required. Its masonry cavity wall too.

Cheers mate. This has definitely been the hardest room so far, i always knew it was going to be though! Glad its done now. Few weeks off, and then the master bedroom floor is getting ripped up! But that should be a straight forward, everything out and everything in job...he says lol

no your right it is a narrow one, it used to be a cupboard there, so its a 610 wide door. In an ideal world i would have put a normal size door in, but its a supporting wall, and I couldn't be doing with ripping out the lintel and putting a new one in for the sake of a few cm's ? its fine to walk through, it'll have to do anyway.

Well finally got another room done, or at least phase 1 before the extension... Cupboard boarded... Plastered... Coved and undercoated... All decorated and the airtight membrane taped to the wall. Just the radiator to go, which gets delivered Friday, will stick a photo up when its done. Been a huge job this one, not helped by lockdown, but got there in the end!

IG do a free design service if you send them specs of your building, they'll run calculations and specify a lintel for the job, i've used it before, and it was pretty quick

To cut your ceiling holes you need one of these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-adjustable-holesaw-with-cowl-29cm-9-piece-set/2571V?tc=TT6&ds_kid=92700055262507123&ds_rl=1244066&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrIjYzoTP6wIVluvtCh3FiwRWEAQYASABEgJg1fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Saves getting an eye and gob full of plaster too

Thanks! Was my first attempt at undercoat plaster, and only my second time plastering, really enjoyed the first time I did it. Managed to get a lovely smooth surface to paint on, few little bits I missed but nothing a bit of easifill and a quick sand won’t cure

Just done this during my lunch hour, squared off the plaster ready for joinery to go on, and put a piece of plasterboard up on the ceiling to fill the gap, lines up bang on to the other second layer which is on rest of ceiling, so even though I thought it was 9.5mm board, it must have been 12.5mm.

Just remember to clean it regularly and this won't be an issue

Been a while since i've updated this, but I have been slowly getting on with it. Yorkshire Water came out and inspected the meter and signed it off, so was able to finally get the floor finished and move on. Floor done, and got some stop beads 15mm in depth to ensure my background coat was the correct depth to marry up the existing coving (bit of an amateur cheat i found online), to save any mess putting new coving up. Extended the cupboard and mounted the MVHR unit MVHR vent for the dining room Background plaster done on right hand wall, half done on left/front wall, but couldn't move at this point! Finally got some bags of multi finish, and this weekend got that on the walls. Next weekend going to get plasterboard on the missing bit in the ceiling where the cupboard used to be, plasterboard the cupboard walls, and then do all the joinery bits around the doorway, and hang the new door.

The unit that i had damaged, the chap who picked it up said he was collecting all the damaged bits for a new kitchen in his council house, so fair play to them really, it was usable, but not worth paying for.