Home DIY

I'd have thought it extremely unlikely that it was a solid wall if it's that recent.

The usual tells are: age of property (pre- or post- 20s 30s), brickwork bonding (stretcher bond for cavity, header / bonded for solid), and wall thickness (9" vs 12").

If it's an extension, it may be in the plans submitted to the council.

I'm not sure how either would affect how you mount the TV - for an old wall, crumbly brick might be a problem, I guess.

I'm going to put 50p on cavity with the inner being block work, concrete or thermolight, dabed with plasterboard covered in old blue plaster (other variations available) - anyway it'll give you a good 3-4" to play with the rawl plug - to be going into the blocks

Many thanks for the replies.

The bracket came with these hefty screws and plugs. The plugs say they must be fully inserted into the concrete/brick behind the plaster, so just wanted to make to check I wouldn’t have an issues.

It won’t be a massive screen, so won’t be putting max load on any of this anyway.

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The old fashion giving the wall a tap in many places (two or three times with a little think in-between before running into anything) tells a lot
Edited in - or just drill a hole, see and feel what's there

Definitely sounds solid. Will drill away

I'd advise binning those generic plugs and buying the appropriate sized Fischer duoplugs but it's your tv

As above, I never use the generic plugs that come with them. Generally go with whatever Fischer ones are appropriate.

This, the duo plugs are now my go-to. they work well in masonry as well as in insulated plasterboard with the appropriate amount of weight per fixing adjusted for what you are drilling into.

Hit a snag when fitting my joist. The temptation is to take out the wall and see if it lowers. Or the sensible option of take everything off drill a bigger hole, Chuck some resin in and go again.

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How worried should I be that this crack has appeared and it appears to flex a couple of mm when I stand on the stair next to it? Probably slightly wider than a £1 coin at the wide end. Stair 2 and 3 are now really squeaky, none of the rest above then are.

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Not very. That’s what I keep telling myself about our stairs.

Hopefully not much as mine is the same.

Would anyone like this - for free?

Collection SW14

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235350164261

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Maybe try a diet in January 🙂

On a more serious note, it's pretty normal. You can try using a flexible filler like Toupret Fill-Flex. I've done that with a very fine scrim on staircases, really time consuming process but it's worked well enough.

My loft stairs are loud as fuck. As are my main stairs, to be honest. I've asked most of the trades who've been in if it's an issue. None have been overly bothered.

Probably cause they’re not going for midnight pees

Thankfully, friend/lodger who lives up there has a toilet on the same floor. As do we on the 1st floor. Very noticeable if our friend comes home late, however.

Finally got a day where I have time to finish off all the little things here. Going to treat the floor and call it a day (after doing paint touch ups and the window shelf).

Need to make floating shelves at some point too.

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So do I not understand how staircases work? Are winders not fixed to the wall? Is the skirting board on the winders just floating and not like a stringer? I guess I don't understand how it can flex so much

Looking good. Cladding for the plinth to match the front of the desk or invisible in reality?

Do you really want to take that all up (just the carpet) to start the investigation? Potentially just splits , wedges moved impacted, or (and I'll use the wrong word) the stringer has dropped or the wall 'moved'.

[Some twat had stuffed a load of gunk (plaster or caulk) on the top of the stringer , it's very easy to cut off (make good) and use appropriate product in a better quantity]

Ha. Rumbled. No cladding atm. Torn between getting some more ply or just glue some spare flooring on it.

glue some spare flooring on it

If you have some spare, this seems like the easiest option and will look good (make the rest 'float')

Do I want to? No, will it eat away at me until I do, absolutely. Think it mainly bugs me as it just appeared over night. House is only twenty years old, if it was old and had been there when I moved in I would probably not of even looked at it twice. Carpet needs replacing so will come up at some point anyway.

[Some twat had stuffed a load of gunk (plaster or caulk) on the top of the stringer

This is the entire house, there is crap caulking/ filling everywhere.

Sounds like you have the perfect opportunity. Remember this is a total guess but there could be a series of small faults - i can't tell if it's possible but after looking for splits and how they're moving under pressure having access from underneath would definitely help