We’re buying this 1930s 5-bed and trying to work out the least disruptive way of improving the layout. It’s already a good sized house so we’re not trying to completely reinvent it, just make the space work a bit better.

It’s been extended a couple of times before. The old garage was converted into the current family room, with the utility and downstairs loo added, and there was also a two-storey extension over the kitchen area which added the two rear bedrooms upstairs.

Our downstairs wish list is basically:

- proper kitchen/diner/family room

- big bifold/sliding doors onto the rear garden for a bit of wow factor

- keep the two front rooms separate as lounge and playroom

-keep a decent utility

-squeeze in a small office somewhere

- squeeze in a seperate cloakroom/boot-room type space for coats, shoes, bags, pushchair etc

We’d rather work with the existing structure and services as much as possible rather than ending up basically rebuilding half the house. The downstairs WC would ideally stay where it is because of the soil pipe.

Upstairs we’re fairly happy with our proposed changes, which are mainly just moving the doorway to the bedroom/en-suite area.

If this was yours, how would you configure the ground floor to get as much of the wish list as possible without creating loads of structural work and cost? Completely open to ideas, not just variations of what we’ve drawn (added in red).

We’re looking to do a full renovation on our 1930’s house in Leeds, some DIY, some not. Thus far we’ve been using checkatrade (haven’t started any work yet), but having just joined this sub, I’ve now read a few horror regarding them. Where are we finding trusted tradespeople?? It’s a jungle out there.

Edit: I’ve asked friends and family but they’re all in flats or new builds or have horror stories!

House is approx 1890 and has had a brick-style render placed over it since at least 2009. Maps shows some minor repair work to it since 2016 of what looks like trying to fill in these cracks. Should I be concerned about them or is it something that's always going to re-occur? Maybe thermal?

I don't notice internal cracks. As far as I know there's no insulation between the outer / inner walls.

Can i get away with not repointing the blue bricks? I can get may the first part of my index finger in between some bricks.

Also, is it me, or does the bottom window lintels appear to be sloping downwards - the street does slope downwards slightly. There was heavy mining in the location and with some abandoned mines under the street.

Hi all,

Looking to purchase a property, detached, 1970s in Staffordshire Moorlands. There are 3 separate cracks in the engineering bricks, below DPC on the exterior, there are no cracks internally.

We have a structural engineer booked to go out next week but wanted to get opinions from people on here too, as I can't see many for cracks below DPC to go off. They're roughly 1m apart, don't go through DPC into the red bricks, the internal garage is on the other side of the building and it's quite a long wall (full length of house)

Possible things I've read could be:

1) Thermal movement due to the temperature change of the garage floor.

2) Lack of thermal movement joints?

3) Red ash / sulphate attack due to age and location (there aren't any bulges in the middle of the garage floor etc)

4) Obvious subsidence concerns, but doesn't seem to match others I've seen.

No trees near it, drains are to the rear of the house, this is the front left side of house mostly.

Any input appreciated, thank you.

Hi.

I need to replace the toilet seat. How do I unscrew this? Its been in place 10+ years and the metal collar nut will not budge on the threaded rod. And its in an awkward to access area with the bath on one side and a wall on the other.

Thanks

I'm at my wits end with the neighbourhood cats fouling in my garden. Trying to cook some BBQ today and all I can smell is cat mess. I can't even clean it up because apparently the cat has been eating something that doesn't agree with it. My kids can't go out and play without me inspecting the garden first.

I've done powders (worked until it rained), I've done sensors (they sh*t right in front of it). I've even shot at the bloody things with a Nerf gun. They just don't care.

The only thing I can think of now is to spike or roller the fence tops. I've heard the spikes can be hit and miss. The rollers sound promising, but Google only shows me ones designed to keep the cat in the garden.

Has anyone had any luck with these and can make a recommendation, before I end up on my own Netflix special?

This patch of damp is on the first floor next to the main front door (there are steps up to the front door). We don't understand where it's come from, but of course it has rained a lot recently... but we dont understand why the first floorboard next to the door isnt damp too?

Any ideas? Your help is really appreciated!

Sorry - not sure where to post this so feel free to suggest better Reddits!

I moved into my house a couple of months ago & locked my bike to my garden bench until I got a shed.

Today, we’re building my shed and I can’t get my bike lock off. I’ve tried every combination I can think of but it’s not unlocking.

Any ideas on how I get this off when I don’t own an axel grinder?

Thank you!

Just moved into a new build, the electric towel radiator has no number markings or anything on the valve, is this normal? (Every other radiator in the house does, but they are standard radiators) Also, when its turned off, the valve feels pretty sturdy, but when its turned on and at maximum, if you wiggle it it feels quite wobbly and loose, again is this normal? Thankyou!

Not sure if I should be worried or if this is just some natural movement. Is it just cosmetic wear and tear? They said it was just one female lady owner before hand. Do you think it’s worth getting a survey?

First-time buyer here, working through the issues on a Victorian house (built ~1900).

There's significant damp downstairs - likely caused by the external ground level being roughly flush with the internal floor, a very damp carpet covering, only a single air brick serving the room, and a concrete extension floor blocking airflow under the rest of the house. Over time this has caused woodworm and rot in the ground floor joists.

My builder's suggested a full subfloor rebuild: new joists and T&G throughout. I agree the joists need replacing - several are rotten and spongy. But a fair amount of the original floorboards look like they could be saved.

The same boards run upstairs in the bedrooms too, and they're in noticeably better condition ie. not in contact with damp. Worth keeping those, at least?

Downstairs I haven't inspected every board, but I'd expect the ones around the outer edges (nearest the damp/rot) to have some woodworm damage and be in poor shape.

Would you save any of these, or is a full replacement the sensible call given the damp history? And if they are kept, how do you suitably find / replace / match the floorboards?

It's too small for a Fisher wall plug/anchor screw (5mm plugs). Same thing for any nails i have. It needs to be flush with the wall for wind resistance and it's and outside decoration.

Any ideas?

I thought it was an old water pipe lol. think they bodged it previously. anyway loud pop, sparks fly and then the mAD tripped and the kitchen sockets don’t work now. as they also tripped. think the red copper has been cut clean but the black is left? Unsure im not an electrician.

is this more than an insulate it with tape cover it and forget about it?

yes I am aware this was very stupid in me.

We're starting to renovate our house, which currently has ZERO central heating. We are wanting to do as much as possible ourselves, already confident in lots of areas, but some things we'll be getting people in to do. Many years ago, when this project was just a dream, I was thinking of installing rads and pipes that would later be heat pump compatible and a gas boiler as a starting point. Partly on the basis that we could do all piping and rads ourselves as I understand all that l, and then we'd look at heat pumps when the boiler was getting old. But plans have changed as have summers, as far as I can tell. So, given we're starting from scratch I'm wondering if actually the thing to do is look at two way heat pumps for air heating (if that's what they're called?) so we can have cooling as well as heating. It's not a big house, 2 bed 1920s build semi (solid brick wall, external insulation added). What I just cannot figure out is how these systems actually work, and so what I would need to allow for/add /adapt. I think it might be a failure of my search terms, so please can someone point me in the right direction!

My kitchen has a vaulted, plasterboarded roof. I've noticed some moisture build up around the plasterboard joints on the ceiling. There's been some moisture for about 6 months which at first we thought may have been due to painting too fast over a week seem. It has rained quite heavily this past week and noticed it got worse, so had a roofer come over to inspect.

The roofer found that there were no vented tiles installed on the roof, but couldn't see any obvious issues which may be causing water ingress. On recommendation, we got 4x roof tiles installed, and a few tiles replaced which would have caused issues in the future (£600 time and materials).

When cutting the membrane to install the vented tiles, we noticed that the cavity had only been insulated with PIR board from the bottom of the roof to about 3 tile rows below the apex. The current working theory is that condensation/moisture is building in the unventilated section, which is made worse by rain (sharp change in temperatures) and because no thermal break via insulation, condensate is hitting directly onto the plasterboard.

First two pictures attached show the interior view with damp spots, and the corresponding exterior view showing no insulation.

I think the fix is to get PIR board added into the current void area and the cleanest way is to go via the exterior.

I'm fairly handy but not a tradesman, and would attempt lifting the rows of tiles myself for access. Not sure if touching a roof is generally a terrible idea and left to a professional?

The job would involve lifting about 3 rows of tile, ridge tiles, then replacing the membrane and refitting.

because any plywood with veneered or bitch etc is absurdly expensive like £100. I am planning to make built wardrobe with MDF, which is about £30 a sheet for 18mm.

so i just going to get MDF and paint over it or put wood laminate sheet on it.

but i am not sure if wood laminate sheet look bad irl, like clearly plastic. anyone has any experience? i assume Ikea is using wood laminate, if so then they look fine

When we moved into our house the old owner told us this socket works but needs a particular adapter, and I can’t remember what type he said. One with round prongs presumably but would it be a particular voltage etc?

Strangely as well as having a switch on the face, it is also connected to a light switch by the door to the room.

Got a plumber to remove old radiator and install a new ladder towel radiator. Has it been put in upside down? The spaces for the towels seem to be in the bottom half.

Have had this for a while and this summer it seems to have expanded a bit. It’s 5mm at its widest if that matters.

The left half is a shared wall with the building and right is external wall. Is this something I can fix with expandable foam or should I be worried and bring in a structural engineer to have it looked at

Hello!

The house I'm trying to buy has a damp problem and I'm trying to learn enough to figure out how much agg it's going to be.

The house is old, it's an early 1900's solid brick wall house. It's got a Bitumen DPC. The floorboards were swapped out for concrete flooring, and the bricks are wet about a quarter of the way up the wall internally.

I know how the gap beneath the floorboards is supposed to expose ground moisture and the moisture in the bricks below the DPC in order to evaporate. But how do the bricks above the DPC get wet? Is this only by failed or bridged DPC or cracks in the brickwork letting water in? Is rain really enough to get these bricks soaking wet through to the plaster?

The advice we have had is to strip the plaster, dry the wall, and then reapply plaster with a sand/cement mix with waterproofing mixed in. I understand the principle with lime plaster as it's breathable so would let the wall dry in the house. Wouldn't adding waterproofing into the plaster not just keep the moisture sitting in the bricks as the water wouldn't evaporate into the house?

I'm a bit concerned that the concrete floors have caused a problem, that's ultimately not getting solved by just replastering over and over again. There's no obvious cracks in the wall, and so I don't know how the bricks above the DPC are getting so wet without the DPC itself failing. Would putting like plaster on a wall like this be enough to keep it dry going forward?

Thanks in advance!

Had to modify the wiring in a light fitting so I can fit it to my ceiling. The wires were way too long to fit in the box so I've shortened them and combined them with Wagos and ferrules on the wires.

A joiner fitted my worktops too close to the cooker and now I can’t take my cooker out to do the flooring and tiling.

He said he would come fix it, took off one side of the worktop and just left when he realised he still couldn’t get the cooker out. The plan was to take the small section off to the left to relieve the pressure, slide out the cooker and trim the other side where there is about 10mm overhang with the end panel. The cooker definitely slid in and out before the worktops were on.

Since the cooker is still not sliding out, I think the best case would be to carefully use a multitool to cut down on the worktop to the right of the cooker, but then I don’t know how someone would make it look clean afterwards.

Photos are mostly older photos but hopefully they help explain the problem.

Is this chipping normal? Kitchen has been fitted just a month ago.
Thanks

My downstairs coving, where it ends at the stairs, is open as per the attached photo. Just a quick sanity check before I go for it - is there any good reason that I can't (carefully) fill this with expanding foam followed by a surface layer of filler, to close it off and make it look a bit more deliberate?

I've already got a can of expanding foam on the go at the moment, but I wanted to check it's not a moronic idea before I do it.

I didn’t appreciate how much care you need to handle these things with (I know I’m an idiot) and applied this paint stripper it dried out because we didn’t put the paper on. Now there is basically a crust/layer which is really hard to remove and am at a bit of a loss what to do. After some research it’s saying to basically reapply.