How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Possibly not, I think built in washing machines are slightly shallower plus they have a recessed lower part to allow for kick panels.

It was built into the current kitchen (I wish I had paid more attention to how before the kitchen was dismantled on Monday 🤦‍♂️) so it should be OK but I clearly need to do some checking....

It should be obvious looking at the washing machine if there are bits where the door can attach.

We're thinking about getting an architect to help us with the extension and (relatively minor) internal rearrangement of our new place. Partly it's for their expertise in suggesting ways to achieve what we want to with minimum fuss (e.g., through smarter materials specs), partly to check that our plans for how the flow of the place will work aren't daft, and partly to draw up plans and engage with planning feedback.

It's possible that, if we can assure ourselves that our plans are not daft, that we might be able to just use an engineer and a builder, but the architect has said that whatever route we take we'll want a measured building survey, which would be £1k right off the bat. Does that sound like a sensible starting place?

Yes.
For the same work I was quoted on average about 10k.

Mind if I PM you @chrisbmx116 ?

Fire away!

Can anyone recommend someone to tile my patio? My builder has been very open and said he doesn't like doing this kind of work as it gives him a bad back and has costed accordingly at £2.2k for 33m², so I'm on the look out for someone who might be able to do it cheaper (and has availability!)

That's a pretty decent price for something that size! I was quoted between 2 and 7K for 10m²

~£100 per sqm for tiling is the mid-range price, so it sounds like you have a good offer there.

Low-range is ~£60 per sqm with typically cheaper tiles and worse attention to detail.

@chrisbmx116 @JonoMarshall thanks both. He's a good guy and I rate his work. He's fitting our kitchen and tiling the floor at the moment. The kitchen tiling was £500 which what made me think £2.2k was pricey. They're 800x800 tiles and about 30kg each so I don't blame him for not really wanting to do it!

As a slight aside, has anyone ever used dry fit patio tile pedestals? They look like they could be cheaper than the £600 ish in adhesive I'll need.

https://www.accessflooringshop.co.uk/categories/external-plastic-pedestals/?sort=priceasc&page=1

If he doesn't want to do the heavy lifting tell him to get a labourer in on day rate to do the heavy grafting. Shouldn't add much to the cost, or may even lower his shitlist quote.

Then you do the daily cash to the labourer?

Not sure if they're the same thing but I used these as the base for a shed

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Jouplast-Plastic-Adjustable-Decking-Risers---50-to-80mm---Pack-of-10/p/149406

They were amazing - super easy to use and get the frame level.

Asked in DIY thread but realised this might be a better place to ask (although now thinking it's probably the same people in both... but anyway).

Anyone know where I could find just the hinge mechanisms for something like this pull down shelf system?

Our new kitchen cupboards go all the way to the ceiling but the top is mostly wasted space as we can't really reach, so thought something like this would be great. However, I don't really want to spend £250... and the cupboards are very narrow (345mm internal) so I feel like I'm going to have to make my own anyway. Maybe my Googling isn't up to scratch, but I can't find anywhere selling just the hinge mechanisms.

Don't any of the kitchen suppliers sell spares, which you could butcher to extract the parts you need?

EDIT: you could find a kitchen supplier selling a similar/same solution and get in touch to say you have their pull down drawer but the mechanism has broken... they might not typically sell spares but if they pride themselves on customer service, might send you something in the post. They can only say no.

SDS may be able to help. They have a lot of Hafele stuff
https://www.sdslondon.co.uk/hafele.html

A friend of mine recently laid their own version of a micro cement-esque floor using Kabric Floor products. It was previously a poured a smoothed concrete floor. Finished result was pretty good. In case anyone is keen for something similar

is your friend brittany bathgate

No her partner Dean

Eg the bloke that built the house

What's the max depth I can fill with some kind of self levelling compound?

We've got some wonky concrete which is angled and higher than some floorboards in another part of the room. If been looking at ways to bring the boards up but what if....

We put some thick (16mm and above) ply/hardboard down over the floorboards. Then self level the wonky concrete up to the thick ply, then board over the whole thing.

I've seen some that do 10mm in 3 hours but is there anything that'd do 20mm. Can you do two sets of 10mm? I don't want to grind down the concrete or dig it out because it looks like a wet sandcastle underneath it.

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Yeah that’ll be fine. Just go nuts.

You come and do it, shit bird.

Plenty of levelling compounds that will do a thickness greater than 20mm. I forget the threshold but you may need to mix an aggregate to help make up the total thickness. Give Ardex tech support a call and they will give you the 411 oj the ideal product.

Personally I would replace your floorboards with the 18mm ply/substrate to ensure a better fix down to the structure but you do you.

Thanks - will give them a ring in the morning but realistically needs to be something I can walk in and get somewhere tomorrow for reasons of kiddo being away for a day or two with grandparents.

What's the reason for taking away the boards? I'd need twice the ply to come up to the level of the wonky concrete then. Doable but expensive unless there's a really solid reason to sack off the boards?

I'd still have a lip at one end of the concrete (it's just shy of 30mm at its tallest (a thin peak about 40cm long) but I figure I might be able to sand/grind it down?