|
peanut posted:What is a heating cupboard? The wall on the left has the combi boiler, heating manifold, central control etc, all the pipework. It'll be turned into a built-in cupboard along the entire left wall to hide it all away. The grey cables are all network, yeah, and need to go to the cabinet wherever it ends up. The shortest cable in the bundle will just reach the cabinet if it's all the way on the left in option 2 with enough room to pull it out of the front for (hopefully very infrequent) maintenance, though that would necessitate sitting on the sink.
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2018 14:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 09:31 |
|
|
Why are you considering putting the comms cab anywhere other than where your cables come out of the wall/ceiling? if it goes anywhere else you will have to put some containment in to get the cables along the wall and it makes extra work and doesnt look as nice (especially in a house) Also, why not push the comms cab right up to the ceiling?. Cut the back out slightly if necessary to make it easier to get at the cable route. The dead space on top is wasted unless you are dust or a spider.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2018 14:49
|
|
|
Tomarse posted:Why are you considering putting the comms cab anywhere other than where your cables come out of the wall/ceiling? Space optimisation and visual room size. Tomarse posted:if it goes anywhere else you will have to put some containment in to get the cables along the wall and it makes extra work and doesnt look as nice (especially in a house) Shrug, it's a utility room. Tomarse posted:Also, why not push the comms cab right up to the ceiling?. Cut the back out slightly if necessary to make it easier to get at the cable route. The dead space on top is wasted unless you are dust or a spider. The cable slot is on the top. I can likely push it a little higher but these cables are real stiff and some of them are coming out of the ceiling not the wall. The wireframe is hanging on the closest mortar line because hammering temporary nails into bricks isn't fun.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2018 14:57
|
|
|
The builder just regaled me about his mid life crisis where he became an award-winning porn star. So there's that. Anyway, had to buy a floor threshold to join the main tiling downstairs to the bathroom tiling. loving expensive.  Cost: £32.43 Total: £142,628.04
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2018 12:51
|
|
|
I misunderstood some advice my accountant gave me and as such have a £9000+ tax bill to pay which I thought I had a few more months on. Expect progress to be slow if any.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2018 02:02
|
|
|
That is an impressive misunderstanding. I've been filing as self employed for three years and I live in constant fear of messing it up.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2018 02:07
|
|
|
It's been slow at work and slow on the house (bathroom mostly plumbed, tiling starts tomorrow), so I spent some time reading the building regulations for stairs as I'm designing a set I may build myself unless waved off by people who know better. There's a lot of misinformation out there but best as I can tell if you're building a standard closed-riser straight downstairs-to-upstairs staircase in a house where there may be kids the rules are these: - Measure each going nose to nose - Measure each rise top-of-tread to top-of-tread - Measure pitch along the upper-front edge of the nosings (pitch line) - Rises must be 150-220mm - Goings must be 220-300mm - 2R+G must be 550-700mm - No minimum nosing for closed treads - Treads must be level - Rise & going must be consistent throughout - Min 2m headroom from all landings and pitch line - All landing widths and depths must be at least that of smallest width of the flight - No minimum stair width - No requirement for a consistent stair width - Landings must be level - Min 400mm between bottom rise and nearest door swing - Guarding (bannister and landing balustrade) min height 900mm - No horizontal guards (prevents climbing by children) - Must prevent a 100mm sphere from passing through - Must resist loads given in documents you have to pay for, but which the NHBC say are 0.36kN/m at 900mm. Disclaimer: These are for the UK and change under certain circumstances that are not relevant to me. Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Jan 17, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2018 19:41
|
|
|
Jaded Burnout posted:
Meter engineer chiming in, reading through the thread I'm confident you wouldn't box in everything like the image below but make sure the meter board and the cut-out where your service cable terminates is accessible for fuse removal and alteration. At some point your utility provider is gonna want to push smart meters on you so make it painless for guys like me and yourself, nothing worse than turning up to a job to change a meter and seeing this; 
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2018 20:49
|
|
|
Mystery Steve posted:Meter engineer chiming in, reading through the thread I'm confident you wouldn't box in everything like the image below but make sure the meter board and the cut-out where your service cable terminates is accessible for fuse removal and alteration. At some point your utility provider is gonna want to push smart meters on you so make it painless for guys like me and yourself, nothing worse than turning up to a job to change a meter and seeing this; I promise you I will do my best to provide comfortable access. You're the fourth person to mention it (the other 3 being trades on the job) so I can only imagine how often it must come up. In other news I'm spinning out a project thread for building the staircase. If anyone has any experience in that area or woodworking in general please chip in, otherwise follow along if you're interested and I'll post milestones back here as they happen: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3847934
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2018 17:00
|
|
|
I didn't assemble it (and I know you can't order from here) but our stairs came from Tahara and I kept the catalog because it's like an art book. The carpenters took a long time driving wedges in from underneath to prevent future squeaks. It means we don't have a pretty open underside view, but strength and stability are more important to me. http://www.wood-tahara.co.jp We have style BM-5. (Those prices are pre-cut fees, not materials.) http://www.wood-tahara.co.jp/series/stepsset/311/ Gallery http://www.wood-tahara.co.jp/performance/
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2018 00:25
|
|
|
My favorite thing about our stairs is the inside-wall handrail. It's very easy to use, satisfies height requirements and keeps fingerprints off the main visible walls. Next, we need to decorate it with 200 framed portraits like Hogwarts.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2018 00:30
|
|
|
peanut posted:The carpenters took a long time driving wedges in from underneath to prevent future squeaks. It means we don't have a pretty open underside view, but strength and stability are more important to me. Same. I'm hoping that I can shore it up enough to avoid squeaks while keeping the space underneath the stairs open, but I'll be sealing the underside with ply or plasterboard or whathaveyou anyway so what it looks like internally isn't important. peanut posted:My favorite thing about our stairs is the inside-wall handrail. It's very easy to use, satisfies height requirements and keeps fingerprints off the main visible walls. Next, we need to decorate it with 200 framed portraits like Hogwarts. It does look very nice. Hogwarts photos indeed, or Number 10 Downing St if you prefer.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2018 01:10
|
|
|
dude. finish your house yo!
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 04:23
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:dude. finish your house yo! So. I've not been posting in this thread despite some small progress on the house because the issues getting the builder to show up have been depressing and stressing the gently caress out of me. I'll check back in when it's done.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 14:13
|
|
|
Username/post combo  Would you like to sperg about paint and wallpaper?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 21:01
|
|
|
peanut posted:Would you like to sperg about paint and wallpaper? Sure. Current plan is two coats latex and a top coat of white silk for most of the house, Undetermined Warm Colour for the living room, extra ultra matt black for the cinema room, and I've been thinking about some kind of blue/white gradient wallpaper for my office.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 21:12
|
|
|
OK small update, I guess. Finally managed to get past the tipping point with the builder where the amount I owed was at least a little bit approximate to the amount of work left. Then he had another family crisis and went radio silent for a week. I'm arranging other builders to come in and finish off and I'll send him whatever money's left, if any. He seems to agree this is the best approach. Not ideal since it was really only a day or so of plastering left for him to do but them's the breaks.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 12:41
|
|
|
Well poo poo buddy :/ I hope you get it done and start living like a real people again soon.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 15:49
|
|
|
OK I now feel like I'm back on top of things enough to talk about the project again. I'll provide a proper update soon.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 13:31
|
|
|
OK so where are we. Right. So I went on a bit of a tear and designed a whole staircase. It looked like this:      In the end I decided not to bother since the material costs alone were enough to scare me off, so I'll discuss the design with my carpenter come the time.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:03
|
|
|
Then the downstairs bathroom went in. I picked out the tiles and grout to provide a grippy surface and a continuation of the pattern and colours from the hall outside. The tiler didn't quite get the floor layout right but gently caress if I care at this point.         
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:08
|
|
|
Next the one remaining active fireplace was cleared and swept. Followed by the plastering of the bay windows.      
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:13
|
|
|
Final bathroom fitting (except for the bath front panel)       
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:16
|
|
|
Then we had a bit of a cold snap.  It was also around this time that I had a serious falling out with the builder as he continued to drag his feet. We eventually hashed out this list of remaining actions (might take some squinting).  (brief pause while I copy new photos from my phone)
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:20
|
|
|
I then spent some time laying out the new kitchen. The current "plan" was this: After a lot of workshopping and some harassing of the interior design thread denizens, it's going to look roughly like this:  While I was in ikea buying wireless bulbs (they work OK) I scouted some possible kitchen cabinets and chill sofas.    I don't really like any of them *that* much.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:35
|
|
|
Jaded Burnout posted:Final bathroom fitting (except for the bath front panel) And the shower curtain... Envious of the whole project, though not the cost. Having just renewed my home insurance, I know it would apparently cost £200k to rebuild my house (3 bed semi + garage) from scratch. I guess your place is much higher spec + underfloor heating, but still seems a little pricey for a renovation. Interesting, is that a Japanese style tub bath? Any reason you went with that vs a shower? Oh, looking at your toilet, seems the cistern is in the wall? How do you get to it if something goes wrong? I have bad memories of a toilet cistern in a flat I rented, which required pulling out and lifting a 60kg marble slab to access when it got stuck.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:38
|
|
|
Then the skylights FINALLY arrived. They were delayed by months despite the builder having over a year to get it done. They're loving huge.      The old disgusting ply boards after months of weather.    Loosely fitted but watertight enough.   Some nice light coming in.  Burd. 
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:44
|
|
|
The builder then sent a couple of guys around to do a site cleanup as a sign of good faith. One I didn't ask for, mind, I just wanted the plastering done.  I then had all my guttering replaced in the new colour.   Using the ample bare plaster as a drawing board to show the roofer where the holes in the felt are that need fixing.  I also had him replace the gas caps on the live chimney so I can use solid fuel in it. "You don't have an external water tap, can you fill a couple of buckets for us?" "Sure."  Guttering, chimney pots, repairs £2,650.00 Total so far £145,278.04
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:53
|
|
|
The builder then got another set of roofers in to fix the leaky extension roofs. Turns out the builder didn't use nearly enough resin so water was just seeping through. They resurfaced the side extension and straight up built a new roof over the top of the existing roof on the rear extension. They did a pretty good job but left some of the finishing detail and cleanup which we had to get one of them back in to finish.      I paid them out of the amount I still owed the builder. Here's what £2,500 in cash looks like. It's very fun to have in an envelope. 
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:58
|
|
|
Yay thread's back!  Looks like its coming along well. Any plans for the garden?
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 19:58
|
|
|
It's about this time that the builder fully bailed. I took some time to center myself, which included a new list of things I could get going on until the plastering was finished (which is on the critical path for final electrics, painting, trim, and flooring). I swapped two of my windows around because I wanted to be able to open one behind me while working from home. I should not have done this myself, they must weight 70kg each. But I got it done.  Then I started replacing the builders OK floor screws with some really good ones that I had picked out over a year ago because I loving hate creaking floors.   
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 20:04
|
|
|
Around this time I also got treatment for a sleeping condition which meant I started getting tired (lol) of being woken up early by the sun, so, time to buy and fit a blind.    Cost £290.40 Total so far £145,568.44
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 20:11
|
|
|
And that's us up to date. I'm talking to plasterers about finishing off the builder's work, and dealing directly with the guy doing the rendering outside to get that finished. I'll be finishing the roofs and cladding myself.wooger posted:And the shower curtain... Yeah I added a simple friction one for now, I may never replace it with something fixed since it'll turn into a guest bathroom, but maybe I will. wooger posted:Envious of the whole project, though not the cost. Having just renewed my home insurance, I know it would apparently cost £200k to rebuild my house (3 bed semi + garage) from scratch. I guess your place is much higher spec + underfloor heating, but still seems a little pricey for a renovation. Literally the only parts left from the original house are the roof, most of the external walls, some of the foundation slabs, and one internal wall. It's been really expensive but the price has been appropriate for the work done. wooger posted:Interesting, is that a Japanese style tub bath? Any reason you went with that vs a shower? It is yes, an "omnitub". I don't use baths ever, in fact I've not even used that one yet and may never. But I wanted to have a bath in the house for guests (lots of my friends now have babies) and resale. There's another slightly bigger bathroom going in upstairs which will have a larger shower in it and no bath. wooger posted:Oh, looking at your toilet, seems the cistern is in the wall? How do you get to it if something goes wrong? It's mostly accessible through the button panel, but worse comes to worst I'd access it from the utility room behind. Oscar Romeo Romeo posted:Yay thread's back! I've had some thoughts roughly in terms of getting some lawn, a tree or so, probably brick walls instead of fences, but we'll see.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 20:18
|
|
|
Glad you got back on track, I really like the velux blinds. Good luck with the rest.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 21:40
|
|
|
cakesmith handyman posted:Glad you got back on track, I really like the velux blinds. Good luck with the rest. I’m mildly infuriated that the open and close buttons are swapped on the remote depending on whether it’s a window or a blind being controlled.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 21:58
|
|
|
Jaded Burnout posted:OK so where are we. Right. I gotta ask, how much insulation would it take to do those stairs? (kidding. not implying that your house is anything close to groverhaus)
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2018 22:49
|
|
|
wooger posted:but still seems a little pricey for a renovation. Yeah, this guy isn't really renovating, he's building a new, high spec home whilst having to pay extra to work around the existing building thats already there. 'Renovation', certainly to this kind of degree is often more expensive than new build. It's all very cool though, I didn't realise how unfinished the external still was though. Sorry!
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2018 01:22
|
|
|
Over the last couple of days I've had a bunch of trades round providing quotes. First up is a plasterer in to fix and finish the last few bits. His quote is ~£1300, which when broken down is.. not.. terrible, but quite high. I suspect he's a bit of a perfectionist and that's reflected in the labour costs. I'll get another quote for comparison and see, though the other plasterer I contacted didn't follow through on the quote (this is quite common). Next is scaffolding. The renderer needs access over the top of my bay windows (without standing on the lead) and the guy quoted me £250 cash for 4 weeks of a single lift across the front of the house. This seems reasonable to me and I'll be going with it when all the timing is set. After that my guttering guy showed up to quote the remaining external drainage from the extensions. He's working on that quote now. I did have a builder supposed to show up to quote the last couple of bits needed before rendering can happen but he didn't show up, so I'm going to have to find someone else. The annoyance there is it always takes a few days just to get people on site for quotes, and then lead times for availability, and this is on the critical path for the rendering & scaffold.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2018 08:12
|
|
|
Yay an update! Good to see you moving forward. So what happened with the builder then? Did he just disappear or what?
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2018 21:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 09:31 |
|
|
Guttering guy's quote came in for finishing the extension guttering. £1500. Fuuuck. Lots of labour in that quote, I'm investigating. Also had a builder round just now about the bits needed before the rendering can happen. He's off to do me a quote. I also need to follow up with the cladding company on some questions, and at some point I need to do the planning on exactly when everything needs to happen to get the rendering done AND visit Folkestone to check the colour of the render. It's gonna be tight to hit the planned date of early June and I'm mentally exhausted. I have the next 2 weeks off but I'll be without my laptop while it's repaired aaaaaaaaaaaaa
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2018 13:21
|
|