How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

If you’ve not bought the lino yet, don’t. Lots of fitters supply and fit only to mitigate risk of fitting badly stored or damaged lino.

We used Cavendish de Verre, mainly cause they agreed to use the lino we’d already got… 😬

Cheers! Haven’t bought it yet, but good advice and can totes understand that.

unless someones used the hashtags your onto plums searching on instagram for something, could go through tiles instagrams but that again would be a bit fruitless if they dont mention what it is.

Cheers.

Given the shit people (including myself) post about online, I'm amazed it's so hard to find a real in situ pic of the colour options we're weighing up. Mainly we just don't want grout that's noticeably darker than the stone.

Anyway... Here's our before photo for inside work starting tomorrow.

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The guy who did my tiling (and who is currently tiling my hallway) had a pack of grout samples to show me when he asked me to choose what I wanted.

If you're doing it yourself I would assume similar are available online no?

Otherwise I can ask him on Monday which grout he used that he had the sample range for

https://www.stonepavingdirect.co.uk/prod­ucts/black-limestone-paving-garden-patio­-slabs-900-x-600

Could do, in the car, but I suspect 14 big pavers would bottom-out a Corsa?!

i want to build a deck in the back garden and also some fencing. What sort of material should I be looking at - I want something that looks alright but won't need constant painting or maintenance. I live in Glasgow so it'll need to be very weather proof.

Composite is supposed to be hardy and requires little care. But it's plastic...

Pressure treated softwood might do as long as it wasn't made up on a Friday - and it will be relatively cheap to replace when it finally rots. Make sure the joists and footings are hardy - you don't want to be replacing that.

Composite is probs what you want, it does go quite slippy tho.

Yeah you seem to be able to get internal stuff all day long, just not external.

Although sika do do samples for their equivalent product.

But if he does have easy joint samples /competitor samples that would be super helpful.

Lol. Each one is proper heavy.

In all seriousness though for anyone else in a London terrace, due to their size 15 is enough to cover a nice area.

I spoke to my tile guy. I hadn't realised you were talking about external work.

In short his response can be summed up as htfu.

Whatever you go for will be so changed by the elements that it's not going to make a huge amount of difference.

Choose a dark grout / filler if that's the look you want and make sure it has the elastic properties you need. His opinion was more along the lines of getting the right stuff for the job rather than what it looks like as that will most definitely change. So don't stress on it.

Cheers for asking.

Fwiw we're trying to choose between different colours of the same product. And with all due respect to him, why does he bother carrying a sample book of grout when grease and cleaners most definitely change whatever he puts in? 🤔

We've parked the decision for a bit anyway as it takes a while to deliver. But I think we worry that even with fading, jet black risks being too much of a highlight/contrast. Plus if we seal it, then it will probably protect from fading.

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Im wondering about using corrugated metal sheets fencing, anyone done or seen this?

I found this product called COR-TEN (https://cor-tenroofing.co.uk/ ) which looks good, but i suspect expensive.

As far as I can see you can only get galvanized sheeting otherwise, which id have to chemically treat to get it to rust...

You won’t get galv to rust, unless you sandblast the galv off and end up with plain steel. It can be blackened though.

That corten roof sheet looks great, you may spot it popping up a coffee bar front sometime soon…

If you have a windy garden (oooo er) then you probably want to consider how to let the wind travel through too. We have two different panel styles in our garden, one without gaps which take a battering and others with gaps that rarely move when its howling.

which id have to chemically treat to get it to rust...

By this I meant chemically strip the galvanzing off allowing it to rust, as opposide to mechancially like sand blasting - Either way, it sounds like too much effort. I cant see anywhere to get plain steel in corrugated.

For futher context, the pannels are going to attached to exisitng posts and supports so they dont need to be strucutal at all.

Do you happen to know how much it costs per sheet out of interst?

@spotter you might find some "rustic" corrugated roofing sheets from marketface or gumtree. Probably need to pick and choose the best ones based on look and condition.

Its not windy so im not really worried, however there is a breeze which is part of the reason I want to do this.

You see our neighbour have 3 dogs (rottweiler, beagle cross and a miniature dachshund), they never walk them, or take them out of the house as far as I can tell which means:

• They are all super agressive, and will charge our existing fence as soon as they see you through it, snarling, growling and very agressivly barking at you.
  
• Their garden stinks as its astro turf on top of decking - which is basically a huge sponge for the large amounts of dog piss and shit that is left to fester upon them.
  
  

As such when the breeze blows the smell is unbareable, and even when it doesnt you can be minding your own buisness and suddenly the hell hounds have seen you.

No, the neighbour isnt interested in sorting this situation really.

Yes, i am really rather pissed off about it.

I spoke to the neighbour on the other side of them and he mentioned a solid pannel fence really helps with both the smell and blocking the sight lines of the fucking dogs.

Any other suggests for cost effective, non ugly solid fencing pannels would be welcomed.

I found these, but they're quite pricy.

https://www.slattedscreenfencing.co.uk/horizontal-fence-panels/larch/solid-larch-panels/

I was curious enough to give them a call. Corten sheets are 2400x1100 and £198 ex VAT and carriage. He didn't quote but a double palette is around £12o ex VAT from experience.

Cheapest inc. carriage for galv corrugated is Metals4U

Many thanks, I'll have to work out how much I need and compare to the price of the above.

Have a look at trench sheeting too if you want that industrial look.

https://safefence.co.uk/trench-sheets-rerolled.html

Corten Cor-ten normally isn't that cheap. In case you haven't checked Google images much it changes as it ages.

Some suppliers sell preaged stuff.

Nobody would sell non-galvanised corrugated iron. But you might be able to pick up old stuff that's started to rust from somewhere. If you'll pay more than scrap value I bet a farmer would sell you some - they're always up for making a profit.

@spotter urgh that really doesn't sound pleasant at all.

Those solid larch panels are lovely actually.

You could get fairly cheap-ish closeboard (I think they are called) panels and paint them if mundane brown/green isn't your vibe.

@hugo7 Ah i didnt realise it changes colour like that. I also just found out, as it rains you get run off from the coating too which wouldnt be so good for the garden i feel.

After doing some more research I found this stuff

https://www.steelroofsheets.co.uk/products/corten-effect-corrugated-sheets/

Which is a poweder coated effect on galvanized steel, which means its stable in its colour and finish for 25 years. Also works out a bit cheaper than actual Cortan too... that being said it would still cost £1500 for us to do one side of the garden.