Home DIY

Sorry, not clear again - writing in a blind rage at the state of the kitchen.

We're already semi looking at vinyl so would like to know what else is out there and can easily be put down on wonky floor. It may well be that we need to put 'something' down to tidy it up enough to put something more rigid on top, but just wondering if there's something I'm not considering beyond solid wood / bamboo / laminate / engineered / concrete / rubber / resin / tiles.

We've got rubber dot tiles on wooden underfloor (ply i think).
Yeah is ply.
Awaits "why the fuck did you do that?"

Oh I see.
1 - I'm still drawn to proper linoleum; gorgeous colours, relatively green, feels great underfoot.
4 - How about soapstone? Outrageously expensive around here, but maybe you're closer to supplies than me.

Looks great, do you have the link to that flooring please?

Does anyone have experience of fitting an egress basement window?

Thanks @jv
Look for just_best_timber based in Poland when searching on eBay.

Zibi was my contact, the quality is astounding solid oak parquet battens, a few duff pieces to be expected, but overall and for the same price as a decent laminate. They stock 22mm, 16mm and 10mm thickness all t&g and a host of lengths and widths. I’m happy with the 10mm thick pre finished. My batten size is 350x70x10mm, not sure if this has been continued looking on ebay. They do have good rep also great communication which is reassuring. Despatch in the UK is via local firms, just make sure you get delivery date and time. Battens are packed in manageable boxes also a win arrives on a pallet to your door/ pavement. In less than a week from purchase.

\2. I spent a while looking for similar. There's nothing normal. I either found 12v stuff or American stuff. I did find one option but it was many thousands of pounds so wasn't realistic.

Edit - it appears to be impossible to start a post with 2. without the forum weirdly thinking I want that 2 to be a 1.

Well 2 become 1 according to some.

My parents bought a second hand kitchen just before the lock down and collected it two days before restrictions started, so its been an absolute pain in the arse. They had the old kitchen which they had started to dismantle, and the new one in the living and dining rooms and unsurprisingly joiners weren't too keen on making it fit when it needed an extra 300mm base unit and a replacement sink unit as it was like Swiss cheese from the plumbing.
Getting a couple of extra base cabinets should have been not too bad, except there wasn't any stock available, so a close match had to do, with the big difference being 10mm less depth at the rear of the cabinets.

Today's epic was getting the sink out, and moving the plumbing 200mm along and getting it sat in place ready for the worktops being measured up tomorrow...Like, thanks for that.
The main pipes under the floor, were imperial size but had more fittings than pipe from previous changes, so they were pulled out for a fresh start. Also replace and reroute the boiler condensate pipe which had 11 fittings in a 2.5m long pipe.

It still needs the outside tap connecting to the bottom shutoff, but I'm fairly happy nothing leaked and it looks a darned site better than before, even with a compression tee being substituted for a squashed inline solder fitting at 8pm.

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Bottom 2 photos are the old setup? That bottom pic looks interesting...

What lantern is that you’re using? Need to get something like this for a camping trip...

1. Vinyl or even cork.
   
2. No idea.
   
3. Strip back to bare joists etc?
   
4. Corian. We tried to avoid it but it just works...
   

Some of these are nice, some are hideous https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/products/forbo/

Over to you to get it RIGHT.

Collapsible black diamond jobby. Has a torch in the base too.

https://eu.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_GB/orbit-BD620710_cfg.html

Cheers!

1. Yeah, looking like it tbh...

2. No cork. Had cork walls and ceilings in a flat share in Clapton (with semi retired pornographer live-in-landlord Mike Hunt) and I still have nightmares about stickiness. Presume for vinyl/marmoleum etc I'd need to put ply underlayment down? I can staple it with treated staples to the existing wood boards, but how do I get it to stick to the concrete? And 2mm? 4mm? 100000mm?

3. And leave them bare? You monster. There's a bedroom above and it's already so loud it's daft.

Bottom 2 photos are the old setup?

I'd be ashamed to post any pics if the bottom work was mine. It was just a shambles and a made for a useless cupboard.

That bottom pic looks interesting...

I found out today that upwards sloping waste pipe fucked me over as the sink wouldn't drain. Well, it would but slowly and under the floor 😞
The goop that had collected in the low point must have gone down the cast iron stack that finishes just under the boards and blocked it. Fortunately the outside leg to the drain was easily accessed and flushed out with the garden hose pipe (now connected)

Being as the outside tap pipework needed to go around the waste stack under the floor, I resorted to a short length of plastic after a couple of attempts to get the the copper lined up.

Shelf cut out and feeling kinda happy with how it looks.

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Am a fan of the Ikea flat sink wastes at the mo, very handy.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/lillviken-water-trap-strainer-1-bowl-10311539/

Haha yeah that’s what I was thinking upwards waste is always going to be fun ! Tidied that job right up and more accessible now for future. Nice work.

"Let's retile the bathroom" has turned into a fucking nightmare. Taking the old (1kg each) tiles off took little more than a pull with one finger, as we've discovered the previous owner's builder stuck them onto bonding plaster, eeep. I moved the bath and found the corner floor was bouncing a good inch or two - old plywood gets taken up and surprise surprise the floor joist was basically gone from rot.
New joist in, braced, new floor ply put in and self-levelling poured on. All of this caused by whoever plumbed the bath in never bothered with a trap, and had hacksawed and pushed together two different diameter pipes together to create a Franken-wastepipe. So it's been leaking for 10 years, plus they'd not sealed the bath. Fucking arsehole.
I've now cement boarded and drylined everything so it's all new, ready to be tanked and tiled properly, and after days of washing in the kitchen sink, finally got the bath plumbed back in... only for my wife to be rushed to hospital for an emergency C-section, and our first child arriving 5 weeks early (they're both doing great)

The last 3 weeks have been an absolute trip!

Tbf dude, sounds like you handled it like a pro.
And congrats!

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare and more. Look at it this way- you found the problem now, not when there had been more even more damage.

You dealt with it like a dad! Congrats and welcome the wall new ttt.

I have a bag and a half of Thistle Multifinish, in date, that I'm not going to use - it's yours for free if you can collect from SE9. DM pleez.

Is there an easy way to find out if the LED downlighters that I have installed are dimmable, and whether they need a trailing or leading edge dimmer, without taking one out for a model number?

Hello - so, we had a leak from the neighbours above flat, eventually fixed, resulting in a hole in the kitchen ceiling. I've got a coupe of guys coming to quote on Friday but I'd really appreciate it if anyone with relevant experience could confirm/correct my vague understanding of things:

Work required: cutting back any damp/compromised plaster board (and cutting to a more easily-replaced shape?), fixing new plasterboard in, skimming, painting?

Likely cost: Small job but probably needs a minimum of two visits to allow for drying (I think we'll paint ourselves depending on quotes) - assuming ~£150-200 daily rate does this feel like 2 half-days or more than that?

Cheers!