Home DIY

I’m guessing you mean modern engineered herringbone?

It needs to be very flat. I’ve had a couple of frustrating experiences of struggling to get it tight on imperfect floors. Even then you’ll struggle to eliminate creaking. Because the panels are locked together, movement in one bit of the floor is transmitted. I’d recommend finding a product that can be glued down.

Cheers, sounds very useful to know.

It'll be 10 or 20mm solid oak parquet flooring with tongue and groove and unfinished.

There's glue residue on the surface of the floor but that only sits a mm or two proud and I wouldn't have thought would cause an issue but the floor as a whole has some raised areas.

Edit: Also, I'd prefer not to glue down but I guess this would only be ok on a totally flat surface.

I have fears of something like this in the bathroom of the place I've bought. There's cracking on the grout and some of the tiles have very small movements when you stand on them.

The whole house has pretty shit flooring fitted but we're fine replacing the rest as required as we don't particularly like it.

I’ve never fitted it but imagine you’ll be gluing it if it’s natural wood on concrete.

The problem is that if you throw one bit of T&G out, it passes along the rest of floor.

How big are the planks? If they’re long enough, you could put battens down. That way you’re screwing it onto wood which would give you some adjustment up and down.

They're 30x6cm and they'll be going down in herringbone pattern.

I'm thinking I should put down self leveling now anyway.

Not late as I've not actually done anything yet!
I'm vegan though so hide glue doesn't sit comfortably with me (not that I know for sure modern variants are made with animal substrates).
For context this is for refitting mouldings around glazing in an external door. They were originally held in with what felt like a type double sided tape. It was strong enough, but pulled apart relatively easily and was somewhat elastic. I think I'm just going to use veneer pins when I fit them back.

Bear in mind that self levelling is not auto-magically self levelling. It flows so that it should level itself but it's easy enough for that to not work. You are expected to rub it down to perfectly flat.

We've also hit a similar problem, except we only discovered ours the day the floor fitters came round to rip up carpet 🤦‍♂️ It's basically sand and gravel. I think the fireplace previously had a surround extending all the way to the wall, therefore no floorboards - They suggested to dig it out, fill with concrete and then use a self-leveling compound.

Does this sound like the best approach? Anything else we would need to look out for/consider, apart from the DPC levels?

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Yeah, I'm watching all the youtube videos. Seems reasonable enough.

I didn’t have any window keys when I moved in here, and the windows were all unlocked, invalidating the insurance. These guys sorted out the problem

This main struggle I have with it is estimating the required quantities. It's also difficult to do the entire floor in one go although that would seem like technically the best approach. I've not used it very often though.

Anyone got experience of timber window repairs? There is rot to the soffits of the windows in my flat. I've struggled to get anyone to quote for repair works on these - perhaps it's not a viable business model? I've talked to window installers and they all just want to put new ones in. Maybe I am asking the wrong type of contractor.

It seems to me that then small upper panes could be removed (hinges are screwed to the soffit, visible from inside). They might need to be repaired. The timber soffit would probably need repaired, likely cutting back the timber locally and splicing in new in situ. Then they'd generally need repainting and the sand mastic would need renewed. Perhaps some localised timber repairs to the cills also.

(and the windows need a clean! they are difficult to access for cleaning)

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I'd have thought it would be lousy with window specialists up there? Even though they aren't sash (or are thy - I can't tell), it may be worth talking to a sash repair specialist, as they do wood well.

Re-doing burnt sand mastic is a piece of piss though, so at least that bit is well within DIY territory.

It's not great for access but doable. I can understand why people don't want to do it though. I know I wouldn't. It's difficult access for sure.

Not sash - they're pivot windows. From the 1970s, probably. Not perfect, but new sashes are around £5k for this bay, so I'd rather repair if possible. I;ve tried a few window specialists but no dice so far - maybe I just need to persist!

As @Airhead says, it's not great for access as it's 1st floor. However there is a front yard below, so scaffolding or an access tower could be used. If I were to DIY something I'd certainly go for a tower rather than a ladder.

access

Indeed.

Plenty people are willing to install whole new windows, but I guess that would reduce the amount of in-situ work.

I suppose I could try taking one of the upper panes out from the inside, and see whether I could access the soffits myself. Perhaps remove one or two screws carefully at first, lest they come out in a shower of rotten wood dust and beetles.

I can't tell from the photo quite what is going on but I would have thought you could splice a repair in there with Repair care. It's worth looking at some of their videos and maybe track down someone local who has done their course.

Is this in Edinburgh? If so we have just decided to have GR windows do a bay, who seemed happy to repair a rotten sill and frame although. We decided to replace with double glazing in the end but weren't pushed to at all.

Thanks. I'll look into that.

I'm not completely sure myself what is going on, but if I can get any closer access from the inside I should be able to gather more photos and perhaps sketch out the situation.

Yes, Edinburgh. Thanks for the name, I'll get in touch with them.

If you're vegan it's no go as hide glue (even the modern stuff) like almost all traditional glue is made from boiled bits of dead animal I'm afraid.

Also it's not really appropriate for what you would be using it for as condensation would eventually cause the glue to fail.

I'd out a thin bead of glazing putty either traditional linseed oil ones or modern mastic tube stuff. Behind the bead and then fix the beads with panel pins.

Mumsnet style am I being unreasonable post:

I bought some dimmable LED bulbs from Screwfix a year and a half ago with a three year warranty. They're LAP (Screwfix own brand).

Today one died, tripping our consumer unit. When I switched it back on the dimmer switch (also bought from Screwfix but in 2012) had stopped dimming. I'm sure this is because the bulb failing (and probably shorting) meant that the rated wattage of the switch was exceeded before the consumer unit tripped.

AIBU if I ask Screwfix to replace the dimmer as well as the bulb? Their faulty bulb blew it up after all?

Is there s legit way they can question your surmisation?