How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

credit to DIY kitchens - they are picking up the old panel free of charge and refunding me for it, and removing delivery fee for the new panel, too. Got there in the end.

More space.

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^ clearly been a leak in the shower tray for some time…

I'm trying to avoid ripping my bathroom out, but I probably have to for a lot of reasons.

One of the reasons is that it smells of drains when the window isn't open. The smell is worst from inside the bulkhead that contains the toilet waste pipe and the shower bilge pump.

I think the issue could be one or more of:

1. Shower bilge pump stinks. But it should be a sealed system, and it appears to work (I've been told that if the seals fail, it stops working).
   
2. Gap/open joint in the toilet waste pipe (downstream of the u-bend, upstream of the connection to the soil vent pipe). The toilet flushes fine, so I believe the vent pipe isn't blocked externally.
   
3. Durgo (air admittance) valve stuck open somewhere behind the walls. I don't see how this can be the case though, as the shower bilge pump syphons the basin trap, implying that there isn't a hidden vent on that, and I think that the toilet is connected to the soil vent pipe therefore not using a durgo valve.
   
4. Cracked external sewer pipe somewhere below the ground, allowing foul odours to come up through the building foundations.
   
   

I want to make sure it's not (4) from the list above. How to confirm? Smoke or air pressure tests might be difficult because the drainage system (external) is shared with another flat. And to make it worse, the drainage system doesn't have any external manholes, just gullies. Even the disconnecting manhole (between private and public sewer systems) is concealed below driveway finishes.

If I pay to have a new bathroom put in, and there's an issue somewhere below the foundations of the building, I will be gutted.

Any advice?

Edit: having written this out, it occurs to me that the external drainage is likely below ground but not actually below the building. So I think the answer might just be crack on and have a new bathroom installed. However it would still be nice to figure out the cause of the issue

Yeah it’s nice, I just know that having seen how much our use of the house has been improved by making alterations that the garden would be the same. Plus wfh I want to have a purpose built office

Speaking of which if anyone has used a good company for that then let me know

Both waste traps?
Ours were full of horrors due to long hair, which as a baldy was still down to me to fix.
Only way was to unscrew and get at the ‘matter’

Cheers, I did wonder. But the smell isn't coming from the basin. Albeit probably a good idea to clean out the basin trap anyway.

The shower "trap" is actually not a trap per se, it's not accessible as the waste goes through a bilge pump. The previous owners made it into a wetroom shower but they didn't adjust the invert level of the connection to drainage externally, so the pump is needed.

Of course the pump is inaccessible behind a bulkhead which also protects the electrics against being in the shower spray zone. There's an access panel but it is too small to do any meaningful work.

Nuke it from orbit etc

I need a new front door and window.
What is the cost of creating a porch?
What's the cost of converting a downstairs toilet into downstairs toilet plus shower?

Just so I can say "FUCK OFF".

Have you drawn a birdseye view of it and drawn out how you use it? I found this really helpful for working out how to redo our back. I used light crayons to then highlight sun/shade spots.

My 2p says that you're starting from an amazing place.

• big paved area - that's good surely? If not get some pots or big planters to break it up
  
• an ugly ‘stone’ wall step thing - I would work with this rather than against it. Bringing the lawn to the same level would be extortionate for no gain. Add a physical or visual block. At one end of the scale tall see-through plants, at the other a taller wall with built in seating. Then cut into the lawn with some sort of shallow step.
  
• lawn - useful for a kid. Just go to the garden centre and buy plants for the other side.
  
• a deck - isn't this for the current log cabin? Why don't you use it? If its shit make it more interesting, see point below
  
• The log cabin - sounds good. It's the thing at the back left? I would turn that whole area into a 'room'. Maybe something slightly Japanese themed with water that will be nice to look at out of the office/garden room.
  
• Other - I'd use that interesting and mature planting on the left to build into a kids adventure area. It's next to the lawn for ball games and running, and I think from other pics it's in line with the view from your kitchen right?
  
  

Here's my drawing:
Zone 1 - patio with wall and/or seating steps to lawn.
Zone 2 - kids area - play shit and lawn (that tree is begging to be brought into a kids area)
Zone 3 - home office and peace garden / future bunning area for your kid(s) - using matching materials to join the indoor and outdoor space, etc.

Other than the garden room I don't think it requires removing much or going mental on the build.

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Did you use the "cable ties with notches cut in" method?

Honestly, I’ve never heard of DIY kitchens putting a foot wrong. Glad they were able to sort you out!

Urgh - we've just lost 300mm of bathroom floor space because of how the house builder fit the bathroom...

We were hoping this waste for the sink and toilet could be buried under the floor but it's not going low enough where it's boxed in the currently built out wall. That means that we now need to box that entire area rather than have the vanity flat against the exterior wall.

We're moving to a pocket door which means the floor space is basically staying equal as we're gaining where the door was but it's not going to look as spacious as I was hoping.

It's also cost me £500 in not being able to reuse the existing loo.

Balls.

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Is the vanity unit built in or freestanding?

Freestanding. 420mm projection

It was like this when we moved in so no spare tiles or idea what the control box is. It's already a two way diverter so adding a third would probably require something a bit different (and I do want to try and avoid replacing tiles).

I had a quote for a porch last year of £7k.
This would have been the most basic bitch porch going, probably painted render, single pitch lean to style not a gable end [sorry if terminology not up to scratch]. It would have included removing a cantilevered concrete canopy. I am in the sticks.

My parents paid similar for something slightly larger 2 years ago, it has leaked ever since at the interface with the wall. They are even sticks-ier.

Front door I fitted myself. It was a PITA because it had no frame. If you have a frame and a door that fits the aperture it would be easy. Cost is the length of a piece of string.

Ah no, I have a bit that could become a porch just by sticking another door / frame / all that side stuff (i have no idea what these words are) in front of my door (thanks to the design of the building).

Careful there are no pipes / sewers underneath as you’ll need foundations which if too close will need pipes moving (£££££) or another solution “build over? I forget the name) again (££££). Our porch idea was scuppered due to the above and if it’s on the front over a certain size 3m squared? You’ll also need PP…!

Why not a custom/modified vanity that builds on top of the boxed in soil pipe?

This was going to be my suggestion - would probably be a better use of space

Thought about this but it would be too clunky.

Toilet will have to be hidden cistern anyway so still being boxed to 1m (actually about 1100mm so level with the windowsill). having a basin at 1.1m would be daft so you'd have a box there, then an inlet with a box underneath to house the pipe, then a setback or custom vanity.

This is going to be the cleanest look even if it means lost space.

Most useful thing I did was build a simple SketchUp model, geolocated it and then made some crude sun path maps. It meant I tweaked the layout I was thinking of for the better. Really depends on your site and how you want to use it - but broadly speaking - sunny spot for breakfast coffee - semi shaded area for lunch (if you don’t want to buy a parasol) - sunny area for late afternoon drinks / summer evening meals. We didn’t have a lot of money, the garden was too small in area for a separate play zone - but the kids were little so a lawn made sense - now they are older (9/11) the lawn is pointless and I would absolutely get rid of it. I’m very into the idea of dividing gardens into rooms . Agree with @hugo7 that ripping out mature shrubs comes at a cost later on - so leave / save what you can. Dan Pearson’s book “home ground” was my primer.

Any opinions on what these are? To me they look like cracks but there's also a gummy aspect to them. I don't want to dig around in case I make it worse...

Are they cracks that have been filled with something?

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Looks like stray sealant/silicone and a lazy arse who didn’t have a clean rag, some cleaner or a jumbo tub of trade cleaning wipes.