Home DIY

Cross post for anyone looking to spruce up their bike storage...

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/294848

Easy.....

If I hadn't got @dbr to make some natty new bike storage then I'd be tempted

If you so wish. Floorboards will be fine in a kitchen but I'd just always go for tiles - I'm pleased with ours which are

Out of curiosity, is fireproofing it required by regs? When we had our kitchen done we had fireproof boards put in the ceiling before plastering but not something we considered for the rest of the house/under the floors.

IIRC it was 33 years ago.

What would fireproofing entail?

It's usually required between habitable rooms but I wouldn't be able to say if it's the responsibility of the owners of the floor below or yours.

Slowed down a bit with this as re-laying the floor took bloody ages. Have also got a floor tile design finished for the rear half of the room which we are having made into mats to make them easier to lay. Should get them down soon, but need to re-level the solid floor again to bring the height up. Anyway, fireplace now fitted and sealed in with bonding plaster.

I've sanded myself, and also hired someone else. I found it works out cheaper to get someone else. However, you need to probably investigate what your existing boards are like and repair where necessary first. Also, you'll want the room totally empty and ready for whoever comes to do the work. I've posted the details of a guy in North/East on the tradesmen thread who is a very good flooring specialist.

Gents, does anyone have any idea what could be causing weak water pressure from my upstairs sinks and showers. I've always put up with it as the showers and taps etc are still useable but it's annoying me as I've just renovated one bathroom and want to tackle the ensuite next, but buying/installing more new fittings only for their performance to be crap is really annoying, thoughts?

The issue has been present since purchasing the house back in 2006, it hasn't got any worse, and the water pressure elsewhere on the ground floor is fine. I'm not certain but I think the system is a gravity fed one, with a cold water tank in the loft, a hot water tank upstairs and a gas boiler on the ground floor.

I was thinking about having a couple of shower pumps fitted, but thought I'd consult the hive mind before calling round some plumbers, any ideas great,y appreciated, thanks.

Could be a number of things. Check and make sure what kind of water system you have first. If it's a gravity system then you can fit a pump like a Salamander, however if you have a sealed hot water system then it is already pumped so hard to increase the pressure. If the upstairs sinks and showers are newer than the original plumbing then they may have used undersized pipes, it helps to use 22mm rather than 15mm pipes when going higher in the house.

Pretty sure this has come up before.

Suggestion that you can get a larger diameter pipe by smashing the old one...? or something similar

Thursdays this year

Tuesdays in 2009. :)

I'm wondering if you have (aged) service valves or tap connectors that are reduced bore?

I was unaware that the option existed until I fitted service valves to both our toilet cisterns a couple of years ago. The reduced bore service valves did not really matter for these, (who cares if the cistern takes a bit longer to refill?), but did have to seek out full bore 15mm service valves for the upstairs bathroom hand basin.

So... I received my Howdens quote. Holy crap, do they think I'm made of money?!?

@amey - You've done your kitchen yet? Howdens has quoted me between £3135.00 and £3641.88 and I asked for as cheap as i could get it on a small kitchen.

Is there a way to push the price way down? Any tricks...

As im about to be jobless, how easy is it to install your own kitchen? (WORST IDEA EVER)

not yet, that will be the last project .. my kitchen isnt in bad shape, its just not aesthetically inline with what we'd like I've allocated £5k-ish for the project.

Are you going ahead with the load bearing wall thingy?

Is that units/surface etc only? Or anything else? i.e. appliances/any installation.

Get them to send you the breakdown. Put it in a spreadsheet and the go and find it cheaper online.

I did this with Wickes for Kitchen and Bathroom - got them to design it, paid for it, got a print out of all the component parts and sizes and then set about getting everything cheaper and got the lot refunded from Wickes.

I'm sure other shops will do it gratis but it was an easy was to have a list of what we needed that I could sort whilst at work.

includes about 1100 for appliances for the top quote.

Our IKEA kitchen was approx 3 without appliances or worktop, so add 1200 to that, fitting - painting, plastering, tiling,putting flooring down (which weve got to buy) is another 3.

Looks good. I'm doing something similar in December. Couldn't think of a better time of year to have a wall removed really.

Can I ask where you got your Bi-Fold doors?

You don't go to Howdens to save money.

Some people earlier in the thread said they liked DIY Kitchens
http://www.diy-kitchens.com/