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Hi. My neighbour had a flat foof put on his extension in early September 2023. He loves it but doesn't know much about glass fibre. The builders put 1 layer of glass fibre matting on it 4 weeks ago but haven't topcoated it. It's too late to get a proper bond after 4 weeks surely? Why would anyone wait so long to topcoat? Just wondering.

I will be tiling the floor of a conservatory and need some advice on how to proceed. The conservatory is new-build with a cement-based screed. No underfloor heating. Size 5.8 by 3.8 metres 600 x 300 porcelain tiles; 0.9mm thick. Flexible adhesive will be used. I would appreciate guidance on the following: Does this size and environment need an expansion joint? Is this environment suitable for tiling direct to the screed, or do I need decoupling mat? (I have received conflicting advice from tile shops: one saying mat is required, the other saying it is not required). How long do I need to allow the screed to dry before tiling? Should I use a 10mm half-round notched trowel for this, or would another profile do a better job? I have been advised to leave a 5mm gap between tiles and walls, with silicone across doorways (where there will be no skirting board). Does this sound reasonable? Anything else that your experience suggests I should consider/do (and my lack of experience means I haven't thought of)? The screed has not yet been laid, and the builder says depth can be set so that the tiled surface will end up level with the carpeted surface in the next room (so I need to know what I will be putting under the tiles ?).

I'm in the final stage of clearing all the building stuff out of the garage/workshop, ready to paint the walls and ceiling and do something with the smooth concrete floor. The concrete was power floated, so has a pretty good smooth finish, but the garage will be used primarily as a workshop, with a couple of milling machines, a floor standing pillar drill, lathe, bandsaw, mitre saw etc, plus room for building things, like boats and motorcycles. I was planning to just prime and paint the floor, but I'm now in two minds as to whether to lay rubber tiles or mats instead. It needs to be a light'ish colour, as the lighting is predominately artificial, and without having given it much thought I was just going to apply two or three coats of Leyland floor paint (used it before and it's reasonably tough). The area is around 24m2 (it's just under 4m x 6m internally) and I don't want to spend a small fortune on it, as it's only a workshop. Having said that, there are a lot of claims that standing on rubber flooring is more comfortable, and that's quite appealing as I get older! The flip side is that I'm not sure how the rubber stuff would cope with metal swarf. If I did opt for laying matting or some form of rubber tiles, then I'd probably just seal the concrete with PVA to keep the dust down. Some of the fairly heavy tools are on castors, like the metal cutting bandsaw and the compressor, so I can wheel them out of the way when they aren't in use, and I'm not sure how well rubber tiles or matting will take rolling loads, which is another potential snag. Has anyone any experience of garage/workshop flooring on a fairly tight budget, please?