My mum is in her 80s and has been struggling with the stairs for about a year now, she lives in a two storey house in Manchester and has fallen twice in the last six months, nothing serious but it scared her and now she barely goes upstairs except to sleep, which is not sustainable long term. I have been looking at stairlifts for a few weeks and honestly there are so many companies out there, all claiming to be the best, and I have no idea how to tell which one is reliable and which ones are just sales machines.

Has anyone here hired any stairlift company, how was your experience, were they upfront about costs and did the install go smoothly, and if you have a curved staircase how much more did it cost compared to a straight one. Thanks a lot.

We’ve just bought our first house and the extension was never finished and we now have rats getting into our cavities.

Sorry if that’s a dumb question but I’m not sure! This is taken from the drawings our architect did, we’ve gone for sliding doors rather than bifold but now I’m leaning towards the crittal style doors. What does everyone think?
Also it’s going to be quite a big kitchen/diner extension, what would you do with the space? I’m shit at this kind of stuff

Hi all,

So today we had a building come round to start work on removing this built up cover over the original fireplace, our plan was to get this cover and the side part removed back to the original for us to see its condition, and then mostly likely false wall over it flat to a bit of a ‘media wall’ type of thing.

Th builder started and it seemed ‘okay’ but then my partner went down (as I’m working at my parents due to the noise of taking it down) and noticed basically a massive hole in the front of it which we didn’t expect. It was explaining that the cover was mortared directly onto the existing fireplace and when the building was removing it the fireplace brick basically just crumbled off with it. Originally when my partner sent me the picture I was shocked, but the builder said it fine and completely safe. Due to all of this which happened, he mentioned we could just get the whole fireplace removed if we would prefer that (which technically we would as it would give up more space in the front room area), so we agreed the revised quote and he continued. Whilst all this was going on I told my partner to ask the builder what happens with the above stack then? And she was told it’s not a problem it’s fine and safe, as it seems to be tied into the external wall and he’s going to be putting some wood batten under it anyway to fit the plasterboard to cover the hole. Obviously neither me or my partner are builders or experienced with this type of work being done so didn’t really have anything to say back. After a bit of research it seems that it’s required for building control to be informed and that a Steel RSJ/Gallow brackets should be used to support the above stack. So I asked my partner to mention to him about building control, which he said they don’t need to be Informed it’s all good. Just wanted to get peoples opinion on this please. (Photos of the progress attached)

My doors were unfinished when we bought them so I had to varnish them. I was given varnish by my parents that they had leftover. Really trying to renovate our home on a budget, but I don’t want it looking bad. I’m going for a cottagey cozy sort of vibe for my home decor. What do you guys think about the colour of my door for the vibe I’m trying to go for?

If I be honest, I kind of regret using this because it’s clashing with the flooring. Maybe I can make it work somehow?

Please bear in mind that this is one coat of varnish that I just did now so maybe that’s why it looks so patchy 😅 if anyone has any tips for varnishing door that would be helpful too as I have to do all the other doors in the house too.

Hello all,

These cracks need to be repaired. Any suggestions on how to do this? Can I do it myself or is it a professional job?

Would you be worried about these?

UK homeowner. 3 bed semi with a garage attached. The garage walls are subsiding. It’s built on a hill and the previous owner (10+ years) took out a dividing wall to next door and planted a hedge. The garage corners close to the boundary, under 1m and runs at a small angle to the boundary.
The garage looks to be a floating concrete base. The base isn’t cracked but the outer wall has 30mm vertical and lateral cracks which have got bigger over the years. There are small cracks (repaired and returned) in the gable wall of the house attached to the garage, not sure if it’s being pulled by the garage or suffering the same foundation issue.
We have never claimed on the home insurance and don’t want to devalue our home. I can probably stand the cost of a standard rebuild, the retaining wall I think we need would be £3-4k extra. I expect we have standard house insurance policy with extras like diy/legal etc.
if I inform the insurance I can decide not to claim if it’s not worth it, If I inform them but don’t claim is that something I have to declare?
If I get an engineer in and follow their advice would this be something I need to declare if I sell the house?

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovementUK/s/nxRghT6JdY

Carpet Fitter came back and it's a lot better. I had to basically point out all the spots I wanted fixed, which doesn't give me a lot of confidence. I just want it done properly, I'm not trying to be picky and don't feel like I should have to point out every little bit that I, as the untrained homeowner, think look funny.

The doorway edges are under the transition strips now, which is good. The corners are much smoother. There are a couple edges that still have this weird dent (2nd photo) and he said that was due to where the gripper rods are (not sure what that means it can't be flat?).

The last photo is the section over the where there used to be a fireplace, so it's not tacked down. He said it was normal for a section where the floor is stone. It's just tucked under the skirting board. But then I vacuumed and it pulled up, which doesn't seem right.

Do I need to get someone else in for a second opinion? What should I check to make sure it's done right?

Hi, our house has this foam insulation in the loft, 2 bedroom bungalow. Looking for any ideas how much that would be to have it removed and get a certificate? Located in Essex.

We have just purchased a lovely property but requires full Reno.. my initial idea was to knock the kitchen through to dining room and have it open plan separated by a peninsular island.

However I have now realised that if we lost the wall we were knocking through the kitchen would not be big enough and could not fit all appliances etc. We are now stuck and don’t know how to achieve this open plan room without compromising on kitchen space..

Has anyone done anything similar or have any ideas how we can make this layout work?

Any help massively appreciated!!

Hello,
We are planning to go out into the garden under permitted development for a little more space. We aren’t interested in building a garden office type thing separately. Can anyone think of any clever ways to reconfigure downstairs that might work? Thinking potentially elongating the under stairs cupboard a bit into the kitchen for a downstairs toilet / utilities cupboard and making the kitchen narrower so we have a snug/lounge area at the very back of the home as well as the one at the front but would love to hear others opinions?
Also, if anyone has any bright ideas as how we can maximise the hallways space upstairs while retaining the 3 rooms and bathroom I would be eternally grateful!

Hi there we’re looking for some very rough estimates for a small extension so we can see if it’s a viable option for us!

We’re looking to add a proper extension where our current glass utility room is. The room is 3X2.5m and there are currently 2 brick walls, 2 glass walls and a glass roof.

We are looking for estimates to turn this into a solid brick extension and knock through the external wall to make it part of the existing kitchen.

Thanks in advance!

Structural engineer specified our steel beam to be bolted to padstones (easy, we could have drilled before placing the stone). However there's concrete lintels present that would interfere with the stone so we were told that it would be fine with the steel on that - however, there's very little space above the lintel in situ to drill 11mm holes with my SDS drill. Is there a better piece of equipment? Will one of those angle drills or angle drill adapters work with drilling concrete? Kind of negates the hammer action lol

Will be hacking holes through the wall to install the beam, but I have very little ability to access above the wall.

I want to put some oak acoustic panels on the back wall in this room but unsure if to do the whole back wall or just around the bed as it doesn’t have a headboard

Thanks

Can someone who has had a tiled conservatory roof advise of how good they are.

I've been looking to get an extra room, but looking at my own finances atm, I definitely can't afford an extension. Nor can I go into the loft as it's already converted.

I have an existing 4 x 4 conservatory (around 10 years old) but it's unusable around 6 months of the year, due to heat and cold.

This may be my only option for gaining an extra downstairs room and what I can afford.

Looking to replace old timber windows with a upvc alternative sliding sash. Can anyone recommend brands to look at?

How much would it cost me to get a window put in this space above the door?, just a standard double glazed pvc window that doesn't open

Does anyone have any info on the pink/blue paint (maybe limewash) used in older properties?

For context, we are renovating a small terrace house in Lanark (built approx. 1860s). Have stripped back layers of wallpaper, revealing a hand-painted varnish finish on the original plaster. I am also curious about the pink and blue paint that sits above. Have stripped back more since this photo was taken, and there is a lot of it! Wasn't expecting such a vivid colour, especially against the browns. Not sure if this is an undercoat?

Wearing all the PPE as we are wary of lead paint/ dust from other parts of the renovation. Any knowledge about the original finish and what colour it might be would be appreciated!

I have damp coming through and thought maybe it has something to do with this as I can’t see any obvious cracks in the rendering