How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Yeah this is my worst nightmare. Next door neighbours just put a carpet over it. Interested in how yours pans out.

Your floor should be flush with that - is that the finished stairs?

Like this

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What options so I have for a usable staircase in a Victorian terrace? I don't really want it to look like an afterthought.

Early days but I'm wondering if I section off one of the bedrooms (office anyway so no bother) and fit a full staircase.

Or do I just fit a small ladder and keep the larger sized room?

Sounds like bullshit to me. You can’t fix a 20mm height difference between top of finished tread and finished floor level with a nosing. Stairs should all be equal rise from floor floor to meet b regs.

Landing step on my loft extension (outside rear room with another few steps up to the top) has a slightly thicker step, maybe to account for this. Can't say I have ever tripped on it or noticed tbh. I'll add pics shortly.

I would just make sure they have a plan and it is sorted. Once the underfloor is up against the top step I imagine it will be harder to make good.

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Also what @Sheppz said! I haven't actually measured to see if the steps are equal.

Yeah something is not quite right about his response. I've got a call with him on Thursday so will have it out with him then. Will look at measuring the steps to see if they are equal as well.

For a loft? Can't you fit it above the existing staircase? Like this

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/67609398

That's quite impressive I think and looks like tidy work

Was the screed for UFH? Is that length of time standard? Is the area totally off-limits when it is drying?

Rule of thumb for screed is that it cures at approx 1mm a day. I forget how long it is unusable for.

Fast drying screed such as Ardex A38 is walkable from 3hours and ready for floor coverings from 4. Clearly more expensive than regular screed but a no brainer.

I think the 1mm a day only holds for relatively thin depths? if you have it deep to say bury UFH then it increases. Ours took months to go off enough to be able to lay LVT on.

edit: 1mm a day for under 50mm, 0.5mm a day over 50mm is I think what we worked with.

It was for underfloor heating.
I believe it was near 100mm of wheelbarrowed sand cement screed.

It was totally off limits for 2 days, and we had some first fix electrics the following week (approx 5 days after).
No flooring or kitchen units advised for at least 40 days, longer the better subject to temperature and humidity.

We got roof, plumbing and electrics etc sorted in the meantime, but with summer holidays it meant that it was about 80 days between doing the screed and installing kitchen and flooring.

The structural concrete part of the room (old kitchen diner) was usable a lot quicker, but did benefit from latex self level after.

I have some cute cat paw prints in the screed where there was a bit of exploration going on.

Our existing house was built on a concrete beam and EPS system, so the existing kitchen diner area had to have UFH embedded in a structural concrete slab. This area is on a seperate UFH loop, and therefore the room doesn't quite heat up evenly when the UFH kicks in. Once at temperature though, its all fine.

Originally we had thought to go for either electric underfloor across the whole space, or part wet and part electric, but our builder recommended we go for the wet system for better heating, efficiency etc.
He had expected to take up normal screed which would have come up pretty easily. Instead they spent 3-4 days gunning up 20m2 of 100mm concrete slab.

I'd definitely try and ask for quicker drying screed if I move and renovate/extend again.

Various knock on effects of having big gaps between plumbers/electricians/kitchen fitters/carpenters means that I've had the kitchen installed now for almost a month, and the plumber is coming to connect gas hob, complete sink and plumbing work only this Friday.
And I've missed the window of time for our decorator who is now on 2 weeks holiday, and has a 2 week job booked in somewhere else when he gets back.

Yep, ours was a nightmare, we have the pumped in liquid screed to cover the UFH. From memory it took nearly 4 months until it was ready for the flooring, in the end we ended up installing the kitchen before the flooring, which means if we ever want to move our island we will have to patch the flooring.

We ended up moving in and living on a dusty floor for a couple of months, was not fun!

After watching too many YouTube videos I thought they would pump the screed in, but instead I had a couple of sweaty guys with wheelbarrows and and a screed guy who had finished by 11:30am.

Lo-tech still works I guess!

I think after the builders barrowed in 150sqm of concrete 6 inches deep for the sub floor I don’t think they fancied doing the screed the same way!

That’s a pretty serious amount of concrete and screed!
I bet you’re glad you don’t have to find that much sand and cement in this market…

I’m glad I’m glad I don’t have to find any of he materials!

Currently in the process f building a big shed in the garden, very glad I planned ahead and bought the steel and timber over a year ago!

Does anyone have any recommendations on where you can get help deciding what radiator will better suit a room? By that I mean, we've getting a woodburner installed and a 600x1700mm on one wall for the whole room (the room was knocked through by previous owners),
the rad imo needs to be repositioned elsewhere to accommodate our sofas but not sure which option will be ideal

1. reposition rad to a column rad on wall (adjacent to bay window) - however I don't see enough heat being produced for the room at all other times so will another one of the other side of the room (location needs to be determined however)

2. ditch the bay window seat ideal and stick a bay window rad there inside - where is a good place to look for one (5 window bay)

3. ditch the 2 sofas and go for a nice long 3 seater instead but wont providing enough seating when people come over

I want to install a new consumer unit in the shed. Got in touch with building control to get it all signed off properly and they haven't responded in more than 10 days.

Hard to say without a pic…

You don't have to use your local authority building control, there are other companies that can do it for you and might be more responsive.

Stairs went in yesterday. Next week should see it all fully plastered, roof dome in and some more electrics and plumbing done. Tiler and carpenter coming to size up and will hopefully start and finish week after. Then paint and carpet. Windows will arrive in next fortnight. Roofer is ill so don’t know when the tiles go on, but watertight as it is.

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