JanetE

Maybe I'll forgive you Not quite clear what you're attaching the 12mm ply to?? Stick it on the front, tile around it? Stick it behind and fill the gap? Cut it to the size of the hole and attach some way??? Sorry if I'm being thick

We are now at the stage of tiling our (many) bathrooms/en suites and would be grateful for some advice. When the plasterers boarded up around the Gerberit frames they cut large holes in the plasterboard to save them time. We're concerned that when we tile and hang the toilets there will not be enough support and the tiles may crack. Will we need to fill in the gaps at all or reinforce behind? All the frames are hard up against the plasterboard. I've attached photos of the four offending ones so you can see what the problem is.

Wickes! 10% down payment last April, kitchen fitted in the last month, everything hunky dory. Monthly payment just starting. Final 75% due before the end of June! Downside is of course you have to like their kitchens, which we did!!

Ha, join the club

@MrsRA you really wouldn't like our kitchen; it's beige! Probably the same colour as @Declan52 's geography teacher's suit But I am hankering after something like this for the splashback over the hobs http://www.diysplashbacks.co.uk/chilli-smoke-splashback

Our kitchen designer also specified a 50mm gap, but when we checked with the installer it would seem that we need a120mm gap between hobs because of the heat. The hobs are different brands, AEG induction and an Ikea domino gas hob (which was a very reasonable £150) so they cannot easily be joined. I suspect that even if they were joined we would still need some kind of bracing at the front as the hole would be pretty big!

Well I think you have more than answered my question, so thanks to you all. As Terry said we shall be getting the installation done by a registered installer, it's just not worth the worry doing it ourselves. The reason we are having the gas hob is not just as a backup as I aim to use it regularly. We have natural gas here but as the new build is pretty well up to passive standard we are just having electricity. The LPG is a hell of a lot cheaper than getting a gas connection. We have an induction hob and I've heard great things about them so hope I won't be disappointed.

Not sure if this is the correct place for this topic! Just fitting out the kitchen and we are having a 2 ring gas hob as a backup for our electric hob. The cylinder will sit outside and we have to run the pipe through the wall. I know we need to use 10mm copper and I assume the best option is to get a pipe spring so we can fit it without any solder bends. As the hob will use very little gas we see no point in having more than one cylinder. We shall make a box to cover it from the weather. So we need to get the correct connectors for this as well. Terry has done quite a lot of plumbing but not with 10mm for LPG. Would be grateful for your suggestions

Not sure about worktop lengths but we are just fitting our Wickes kitchen and are impressed by the quality so can recommend them !

Thanks for the info everyone. Good to know that the MDF/HDF is a good choice. Will try that website ragg.

We are now thinking about Skirting and Architrave for the new house We had originally thought to have Shadow Gaps but had to give up on the idea as it would have been too costly and also too difficult to find any tradesperson to do it for us. We don't want a varnished wood finish, simply a painted one. So MDF seems to have advantages over wood, no knots to show through and when painted and fitted we think they will look just as good as wood. When checking the MDF suppliers websites we noticed that the architrave comes out at 70mm minimum which seems a bit wide to us. We want a pretty simply design that looks modern, so I am interested to have any ideas and advice and any recommendations of where to get this. Thanks

I would have thought this would be by far the easiest way to get the cable in. This site really is amazing, so thanks to you all for your help.

The planners gave us the thumbs down for PV panels and we hadn't the heart to argue our case at the time with everything else going on. So we plan to install them retrospectively and I'm thinking about cable runs before the plasterers turn up. It would make sense to put in conduit but we need to know where. I assume the cable will be taken through the roof which shouldn't be too much of a problem as we have a services room up there. Where does it go from there? The meter box? The distribution/fuse box? What size conduit will we need? Any thoughts and suggestions gratefully received.

I've been using this countersinker http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-plug-cutter-countersink-set-4-pieces/86253 it's a plug cutter as well but it's a good design because if the drill bit breaks you can just replace it. Twin thread screws are pretty expensive and like most everyone I can't see the point We've got one of those boxes from screwfix too, they work pretty well, though we do have quite a lot of the smaller screws left. Still you can always tip them out and replace with more sensible sizes.

Yes I did mention it to him. I don't think the walls will be a problem but we can make a judgement call when they're finished. Just interested in any recommendations from the experts.

. When the plasterers have finally finished (they haven't arrived yet, 3 weeks late so far) we shall need to buy our sockets and switches. I like the flat style steel type ones!! Be interested to know what makes of socket the sparkies here recommend??

I lined the walls of our current house and painted over, a few years back. Now the lining paper is lifting in places at the joins. I was wondering what kind of glue to use to stick it back?

We've got this continental tap with these connectors and I'm struggling to work out how to connect them to our hep20 pipework. They are 10mm. I've tried the hep20 connectors the metal is too hard and they don't work. Suggestions gratefully received.

Been checking prices on line and the cheapest I can get the clear CT1 is £10.98 per tube v Sikaflex £4.62 !!

This is very helpful, thanks to all. Just a quick question for Nick. Why use ct1 at all, why not just use sikaflex, especially as it seems to be considerably cheaper?? I recall that you finish off with a layer of silicone anyway as ct1 in white turns a nasty yellow colour??

Interested to know the difference between these two and their different applications! All advice gratefully received.

My inclination is for acrylic as I have used this in our current house without any problems. It's always helpful though to have others views, thanks for this

So, time to prime the door frames prior to plastering. What's the verdict, oil based, or acrylic paint? Our decorator likes the oil based stuff best and we really want something that's going to last. So I'm interested in everyone's advice!

We were thinking of having PIR in one of our en suites but decided against it because it you get up in the middle of the night you would be blinded by the light going on. So it will be a switch outside the door for us, no pull switches.

Yep, use it in the stud walls and between your floors in the joists. Strips of fabric or polythene stapled diagonally, herringbone style, should hold it in long enough before plastering. We are just about to buy our insulation for the same job, but ours will be the stuff designed not to slump when pushed into the cavities. It's a requirement now to insulate between partition walls and internal floors, mainly I believe, for acoustic reasons. I know Jeremy used standard insulation packed tight in his partition walls instead of the acoustic stuff as it's cheaper.