Home DIY

I would batten yes. It's cold and drafty, so should suffer from condensation to badly. Would the pointing add any strength?

It's quite possibly not lime render actually, or at least there's bits of cement, all of which probably predates the lime mortar. There's Tyrolean on the outside anyway which pretty much makes the whole back of the house a bit screwed to a greater or lesser degree.

I'll sell this place in a couple of years probably, so not fussed about making it perfect, just need a clean-ish place to store tools out of sight.

all of which probably predates the lime mortar

Cement is relatively modern - lime has been around for thousands of years.

Roughly repointing would be part of the rendering / plastering work - if you're slapping a render on, you'd need to fill the holes in any case. If you're battening, then it may not be worth it, other than to tighten up any loose bits.

Condensation if probably not your concern if it's an outhouse. Being lime mortared, it suggests a solid wall, and lime is permeable, so damp can get through the wall. (Although being stretcher bonded suggests cavity wall - Unless its a single skin, of course.)

If it's lime, it will fizz in vinegar. If it's cement, it makes a ting noise.

What I meant was there's old Victorian lime (mortar) newer lime render, and some cement patching and maybe another layer of render.

It's defo single skin, probably the old thunderbox.

I need to put a wooden building in our garden for my wife to use as an office.
Does anyone have any experience with the type that comes as a kit, that you then assemble yourself?
I haven't got the budget to pay someone to build it (plus I'd probably quite enjoy that bit). But I don't have time to build anything from scratch.

If you decide to get one built, we got ours through https://www.thegardenoffice.co.uk. They were excellent.

You're also welcome to have a nose around it if you like.

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Yep I got a large log cabin from http://www.gardenaffairs.co.uk, bespoke size shipped over from a company called Bertsch Holzbau.

I have a 3.5m x 6.5m with pitched roof and one internal room, with extra thick walls. Cost be about £8.5k all in.

Don’t forget to budget for a concrete base (probably another £1k) and electrics (another £1k).

Took me a couple of days to do the base, using a ready mix pour. Then a day to get the building up for 2 of us and another day to sort the roof. All really straightforward just slots together, no screws or nails needed, even the windows and doors (prepainted and double glazed) just slide into place.

More at the budget end of the scale, we built one of these as a small workshop: https://billyoh.com/billyoh-devon-log-cabin

From memory it's 4.5* 2.5M, and cost about £1800 in 2011. We had builders in at the time - they laid the concrete base for about £500. No plumbing, and DIY electrics (fused spur).

We woodstained the logs as we assembled it because we knew we wouldn't have access behind once it was up.

It took about three weekends to put up. The walls were my husband and me, but we enlisted a taller, stronger neighbour to help him get the doors and window in. He did the roof by himself.

Unless I've repressed some memories, it was one of the smoothest DIY things we did. We just followed the instructions and up it went. It's been up for almost 7 years now and (touch wood) no problems with leaks or rot yet despite not have access all the way round.

Edit 1: I think you'd need insulation or heating to use as a year round office. When we bought it they did have an insulated option but seems to have gone. Perhaps the 70mm logs would be warm enough.

Edit 2: Husband just reminded me as well as going for treated wood we also soaked the ends of all the logs in wood preservative, which took about a month.

Bath front panels... I need a replacement one, what is a high quality option? Can you get adjustable ones? Thanks

Looks really nice, but "logs"?
I'd call those notched T&G 1x4s.

Yeah, but “log cabin” is what they get marketed under these days

Interesting, wouldn't fly over here (Canada).

Actually there is a dearth of exactly that kind of thing over here, wish there were more.

We are a nation of woods(wo)men rather than foresters.

Our bathroom has underfloor heating. A few months back I noticed the grout between the tiles had started cracking. It's got worse, and some of the tiles are now slightly different heights to others. I suspected a leak for the toilet cistern which is hidden in a boxed-out part of the wall. Now I've just noticed a dark patch on the plasterboard wall near the boxed-out part.

Clearly I need to stop ignoring this now.

But who do I call? A plumber, or a bathroom fitter type person? Can one type of trade fix all this for me? Any recommendations for SE London?

I assume you're going to need new tiles etc?

We've just had our bathroom done; definitely recommend the guy. I'll WhatsApp you his number...

Thanks mate. All tiles are intact but they’ll certainly need re-laying. I think the heating element/pipe/whatever will be recessed into some sort of particle board and the leak has made that swell and warp and pop the tiles up. Will this guy be able to sort the leak or do we call him in to sort the aesthetics once a plumber has done that?

He'll be able to do both.

He did everything in our bathroom from full new pipe system to subfloor insulation and electrics.

Can you pm me his number too? (Do you think he'd do catford?)

Just gave him a ring - he reckons the leak will need a plumber. His father-in-law is a plumber but they're going on holiday together this week and aren't available until the middle of September. I've told him I'll find another plumber to fix the leak now and then call him later to get the tiling sorted.

Anyone know a good plumber in SE London?

That sucks.

Without wanting to sound like a south east yellow pages, I probably have the name of a plumber for you. He's the dad of one of the wife's brownie kids...

Let me drop her a text.

Does your wife volunteer for the Brownies?

She's the local brownie pack (?) leader...

Mrs Sparky just started volunteering at one too!

Nice.

Mrs Soul's been doing it for about 5 years now and really enjoys it. Lots of additional work & time commitments on top of daily work & life though...

Yeah. I can't imagine taking it on, but she enjoys it a lot.

I've got a different plumber recommended by @6pt coming over next week, then I'll get your guy in to sort out the resultant mess.