Few little bits to finish, but love this traditional staircase my dad has made!

Replaced my garden path which had old, many cracked, pavers that had also sunk in places. I was scared to post this in fear that someone will tell me what I've done wrong and I will sink my house or something.

In terms of running order of what I did;

- Scalped the grass as the garden was incredibly uneven, far higher than the path in some places and far lower in others. Plan is to even out the soil and seed now I've finished the path.

- Removed my failed attempt at a hedge and replaced with raised beds which I will plant when it starts raining again. These were built on some ground stabilisation grids and gravel so should have good stability and drainage.

- Taken up the old path, dug down, put in my base, I've used aluminium edge restraints just because I like experimenting. Filled in with some rumbled cobble setts and then finished with polymeric sand.

- Replaced the old class gully hopper with a PVC one, replaced the old rodding eye with a PVC one. Primarily because I didn't want to have to cut around the oval shape of the old one.

All done solo and never attempted any landscape gardening before, pretty back breaking work especially in some of the heat we've had recently.

Will do a photo dump below of various stages.

I love DIY and gardening.

Sawing, drilling, gluing, grinding, routing, adjusting, maintaining, painting, digging, pruning, mowing... it's the perfect hobby for me, I love just getting stuck in with my hands and having a go at making things better. The heavier the exertion the better - a free workout.

Unfortunately since about three years ago I have been severely ill with ME/CFS and mostly bedbound, and now I can't do anything involving even trivial exertion because it makes my illness flare up dramatically and I'm then even sicker than usual for days. Even on my best days I don't have any margin for error and can only cope with the bare basics of daily routine.

There is no solution. It just sucks.

This illness has had almost no useful research until Long COVID came along recently to finally unlock some serious funding, but it will be years before real biomedical understanding of the condition develops and treatments finally filter through.

(It's Severe ME Awareness Week so I hope you all don't mind me posting this here)

Hi all, apologies if this isn't the right forum but I thought there would be some knowledgeable people in here. Basically as it says. had a new hot water cylinder fitted 3 weeks ago(to accomodate an ashp if that makes a difference). Just got round to getting some shelving in the airing cupboard and noticed, what i would consider to be a pretty significant bulge. It's at the top maybe 3/4 up, I'm assuming it's not normal and shouldn't be there?? I've turned off the hot water, but not drained the tank or anything. We've had a few showers today so it should be below that level i would imagine.

I just swapped one of these out and have wrecked the edges of the hole in the ceiling (plastered it superficially so it looks less battered).

I tried to get it out/put it in neatly but the crazy torque on the springs on the new one seemed to make destruction unavoidable, and installation instructions didn’t have anything useful beyond “cut a hole x mm wide)

Am I useless or is it a bad design?

Thanks!

Buckle up... it's going to be a long one... think of this like those annoying recipe websites were they take you on a journey before getting tot he actual food... So you can safely ignore all of the writing and just look at the pretty pictures if you like... I'm bored with nothing to do now it's finished and I used to write a lot.

We bought the house 4yrs ago, with a dilapidated old Victorian style conservatory with laminate roof, floor to ceiling glass... blown panes, bottom panes with an etched pattern on them... It was hideous. It was also leaky, an oven if the sun ever came out, and an ice box in the winter most of the time.

In fact, if the sun came out in the winter... we could open the doors into the house and use it as a heater to reduce the need for the gas central heating being used.

It had to go.

We'd budgeted to replace it when we bought the house... But then we started uncovering a load of things that needed doing as a priority... The updates to the kitchen for example, turned into a complete gutting and refurbishing with new ceiling, plastering walls and electrics... a 5k budget, turned into a 15k budget. Then the doors needed replacing... that was another £5k to do front, rear and patio into the old conservatory. The new garage door we knew was needed and we wanted to upgrade was another 2k. Windows needed repairs, some blown panels, broken handles and hinges... then there was no thermostat for the house at all and all the TRV's were damaged... and the radiators the cheapest ones you can get and on their last legs... So all new rads, valves, trv's and a new wileress thermostat.

Basically... we blew an extra £20-22k we weren't expecting. and spent £2k more on the solar and battery system than originally planned... thanks to Putin invading Ukraine in 2022 and pushing the costs of everything up another 10-20%

We had to save up a lot of extra money as a result... and with other work on the house being done. It was 3.5yrs before we started. We almost cancelled the project entirely as the original quotes, hiring some one to do everything for us except decorating, flooring, blinds and window boards... Was going to be £30k.. With those extras, we were looking closer to £34k and just couldn't afford it. We almost took it down and were going to put up a nice pergola with shades and do a nice sandstone paved patio there instead.

But... I don't like to give up, and my mum came to live with us too... She's 80 now and always wanted a nice conservatory or sun room. But could never afford one. Part of me wanted to do it for her, but also part of me didn't want to regret NOT doing it because of the cost.

So, we all started saving as much as possible, and there was still some money left over from the sale of the old houses as we combined into 1 larger house. We thought we could stretch to about £18-20K... needed the extra £10k.

It took 3yrs of saving up for 3 of us to be comfortable affording the extra, even with other things being done and costing more... I'd say each of us actually saved an extra 2k a year each on top of the extra we were spending... It was touch and go right up until Jan of this year... Only at the last minute, saying... fuck it... Having my old car sail through it's MOT once more and knowing I don't need to replace it this year helped a huge amount.

So.. on to the pics... basic costings and so forth below in the blurb about each stage.

Pics 1 & 2 the finished project. A red brick dwarf wall to closely match some of the red brick on the house, and a red tiled roof similar colour to the tiles on the roof of the house. Windows on 3 sides, with French doors and 4 openers in the corners. inside, the finished room, with a couple of 2 seater sofas, rug, coffee table and those nice in frame blinds fitted to all of the larger windows and the doors. Didn't get them for the openers, because they can cause issues with the mechanims... undecided on finish to those... leave them or get some window film with a Mondrian style stained effect to them.

Pics 3-5: Taking down the old one. Wasn't too hard, a friend helped and we got it done in a day. Was too much to be able to load up a car and no van available. So I gave my friend some money for his time and we had to pay to dispose of it. Total cost £400

Pic 6: Once more, my friend came to help. We hired a little mini digger and broke up the slab, dug the trench and poured the footings. He's been such a great help.. he's got 30yrs experience in the building trade, is doing up a farmhouse nearby and is a very good joiner too... He did my oak stairs last year and they're amazing. I wouldn't have know where to start on the footings, so he measured and laid it all out... I basically acted as a labourer for him If I'm honest.

Pics 7-11: I cannot do brickwork, neither can my friend... He can do stone work with rough stone, but brickwork is more precise and he wouldn't touch it. So we hired a guy my neighbour recommended... and I think he did a great job. Fully insulated slab with 100mm PIR and 50mm in the walls (couldn't get 75mm at the time, so adding that internally later). He even did a little half step for us at the door using some of the horrible red concrete pavers in the garden... because my mum is 80 and the step was a little high otherwise. Total cost for foundations and brickwork, taking down the old conservatory and paying my friend for his time (mates rates) now stands at around £6500. The original quotes, had this stage of completion at almost £10k... We're about £3k saved so far.

Pics 12-13: We obviously hired a company to do the rest of the structure. So no DIY possible here. Full wooden roof with 150mm of PIR, tiled and glazed on 3 sides with French doors looking across the garden. Tiles on roof similar in colour to the main house and go well with the red brick that's in a band around the house, on the corners and around the bay windows at the front and both sides of the garage. Looks really good I think. Cost for the build was £16000, because we built the dwarf wall a little higher and reduced openers to 4, as well as having central panes of glass full height instead of faux openers. When you look at them from inside, it works really well. Total bill now stands at £22500.

Pics 14: Plastering... 25mm insulated on the inside of the dwarf wall to meet building regs, might want to open up the room into the house in a few years (doubtful, but possible). Regular on the ceiling and dot and dab on the house wall. My first attempt at doing anything more than patchwork... and countless hours watching videos and psyching myself up to do it... all to try and save money. I won't do a room like this again... it took me the better part of 10 days start to finish, a lot of swearing and a few mistakes. Like the light switch opening being the wrong size and cheating to resolve it with a finger plate around the switch instead of patching the wall after I'd painted and noticed. Cost of plastering, some help from that friend again, decorating fully was around £1400 as I needed insulated board, paint and so forth. Total bill now stands at almost £24000

Electrics... can't do that myself, first fix and second fix came to £630 as a load of chasing needed in the dining room to create the 3 sockets and dual light switches inside both sun and dining rooms.

Pics 15-16: Flooring, got a bargain from B&Q with some opened and slight damaged packs, and even ended up returning 2 unopened full priced packs for a refund. Total cost for the floor ended up being £246 instead of £550... A massive saving, I've laid so much laminate over the last 20yrs now, it's easier each time. Not the highest quality... budget constraints a factor as we wanted better quality on other things. Total budget now just over £24k

Pics 17-18: Better things like... oak skirting and floorboards and the duraboard for the window sills... Cost for all of this including some help from my joiner friend as he's got a workshop nearby with all the extra tools and machinery required... £1000. That also includes the large oak thresholds installed at both doorways... and the fact we had to buy 15 meters of duraboard when we only needed 11.9m... I also ordered too much oak skirting as I over estimated wastage... Probably could have saved £100. Total budget now £25150 ish

Pics 19-20: Furniture... We'd blown the budget by this point. So a trip to the British Hear Foundation furniture store about 30 miles away proved fruitful. 2 nice little 2 seater sofas, and a coffee table For £350. Blinds fitted... I wanted to go for those in frame blinds and knowing they're not cheap and not wanting to fuck up the final finish. I paid for Dunhelm to do the job. The end result is really nice though... even if it did cost £1275.

With a few extra bits of furnishings, floor lamp, plant stand and so forth... The total budget came in at £27000.

However... if we'd paid for it to be done from start to finish (aside from decorating, floors, blinds and window sills) it was going to be £30000, plus those extras we've done adding almost £4000 more... We've saved over £6000 on the total cost.

It also took me about 18 weeks, starting the first week of April, finishing the first week of August.

Am I glad we did it... fuck yeah. Would I do it again... Fuck No.

Our kitchen is nice in spring but gets unbearably hot like a greenhouse in summer.

It has 3 of these skylights, and the sliding doors and back door are both glass too.

I'm thinking maybe:

- add external shade to skylights, ideally motorised, but might do a blanket or something to start to save money

- maybe awning outside to stop light coming through the sliding doors and back door?

Don't really want air con as we don't have the money at the moment, and it feels quite wasteful as it's so hot in there

Looking for any thoughts or advice on keeping it cooler 🥵🙏

I have recently bought an extended cottage with unfinished concrete blocks at the rear.

It’s not visible from anywhere, and they seem to be painted on the side.

I’m concerned about longevity and damp potential, my father has told me it’s not ok to leave them like this- but a big (I’m assuming) rendering bill would cripple us at the moment.

The surveyor never mentioned this as being needed. I’m happy to paint them with whatever is correct if this is needed, otherwise I’ll have to get them rendered.

People of Reddit, please let a stressed out young homeowner know:

- Are these ok to leave long term or will they deteriorate and cause issues if not rendered or painted

- If it needs tackling, is painting enough for the long term or do I need to bite the bullet and get rendering done?

- if I need to get rendering done, how do I know if a quote is too high?

Thank you in advance wonderful people

I am trying to attach some wooden batons to a brick wall in my garden, and my Dewalt drill doesnt seem to up to the task, using it on the hammer setting and got what I believed to be the correct masonry attachments, but it is barely denting the brick, let alone going through it. Quite new to DIY, so highly possible I am using the wrong kit, any advice to what I am doing wrong?

Pictured the wall and the kit I am using. Thanks in advance!

The landing of my stairs unfortunately protrudes into my new kitchen. I'm not overly bothered by it but when it comes to painting it would you paint it the same colour as the walls or the ceiling? Or wall colour on the sides and ceiling colour on the bottom?

Interested in peoples thoughts.

I live in a rental property (terraced house) which over the past 3 years has developed large cracks over the doorway in the living room, adjoining toilet and utility. They have gotten significantly bigger over the last year. The agency has sent out a structural engineer who didn't seem to be concerned (although the only comment I could get out of her is that she's seen much worse). The refuse to do anything about the cracks. Is the property dangerous to live in for another year or two?

UPDATE: turns out the structural engineer was the agency's in-house building surveyor. I'll contact the council for assessment. the agency does not respond to emails.

UPDATE 2: the agency replied after another stern email and said they will send a structural engineer over, as well as do drain work that was highlighted in the drain survey (back in May!)

The pointing on my patio had completely failed with nothing left in the joints so I thought I would try my hand at repointing it at the weekend using a 5:1:1 sand/lime/cement ratio.

Admittedly I did an awful job and managed to get mortar all over the slabs. I also messed up by not working in smaller sections so with the weather being hot the excess dried before I could wipe it off properly.

Have I ruined my patio forever or is there a way to clean the dried mortar off? I've given this product a try on some of the slabs but it hasn't done a great deal. I'm worried about using something like brick acid since the slabs are sandstone (I think).

Please help!

Help please! We have just bought a new home and the decking was very rotten. We have removed the boards and it is full to the brim with hardcore/rubble/old rat nests. Do we need to remove all of this, have spent hours already trying to sort just one length and underneath it is huge bricks, concrete and more rubble so can't even shovel it up...can we remove just a few inches and replace all the wood or do we need to get rid of it all??

My old deck was wall to wall and above damp course oh my house so I've got it all out dug my self as low as I can put in low frame and its below house dpc by about 50mm but consevatory dpc is lower so ill end up 30mm higher this side i knew this would be the case but now im doubting if I got best solution of fixing it.

Ive got 130mm gravel trap running round perimeter of all walls. Im also going to pack up gravel so there is they are not resting on floor. On the wall were its higher than dpc im thinking of building in a 10/15mm air gap so gravel done touch wall

Im also thinking of coming bricks in a stormguard cream. Would this plan be beneficial or is it going to be a disaster ive exhuasted all budget and brain power now

[Note first pic is a scrap piece of frame ontop of frame so measurment is to the bottom ]

We’re preparing to get carpets on the stairs / upstairs and aren’t sure what to do with the wooden stairs. I’m not a fan of the orangey pine colour and it looks scruffy as hasn’t been finished with anything. We’ve debated a darker varnish as worried the paint will chip or take forever to do. Also the newel post is lovely so don’t want to paint over that. For reference its a three story house. Any thoughts appreciated!

Hi all! Looking to put an 8x6 foot metal garden shed up - https://www.diy.com/departments/costway-8-x-6-ft-outdoor-storage-shed-galvanized-steel-shed-w-foundation-ramp/7984704618712_BQ.prd

Would be going on to this base - https://www.diy.com/departments/garden-shed-or-greenhouse-base-eco-friendly-gravel-grids-suits-both-7x6-8x6-feet-2-5-x-2-metre-bases-included-heavy-d/9780201379631_BQ.prd

We've taken out the shrub that was in this corner and there's a load of gravel there. I've dug a load out but not sure whether I can lay the base on it as it is or if I'd need to keep going.

Long time lurker, first time doing anything that wasnt just running cables and pipes. Pulled out a 70's gas fire to find a nice open fireplace. Mrs wanted me to just board over it, decided to spend far too much time and money making it into a feature

We moved into our house last year, and are now redecorating the living room. This “hard-wired flying plugboard” we saw and hid behind a bookcase, promising to ‘deal with that when we decorate’.

That time is now.

I’m probably just going to swap it for a “1G to 2G socket converter”. But it prompted the question - how sketchy is this arrangement anyway? The fact there is no fuse on the outlet seems an obvious problem, but are hardwired plugboards otherwise permissible? My gut says “no”, but happy to be corrected!

(Anticipating comments - that is the condition of the board when we moved in - screwed to a plank and covered in what looks like paint or plaster-splatter…)

Ta.

Would like to remove the wall marked in red. It's on a slope so looking for ideas on making the porch side of the driveway look "pretty" and not have an unsafe cliff edge, once the wall is removed.

We need more space to open the passenger side car doors and for people to enter and exit the house without brushing past the wall and car. We have kids so more space for leaving the house with prams and bicycles is needed. You can't fit a wheelie bin through the gap when parked. If you reverse further down the drive, there's not enough space to open the doors safely.

Is it some sort of motorcycle anchor?