I got carried away at the local shed suppliers and ended up getting a garden "office" type of shed with big windows.

I am now thinking, although this will work quite well in the summer, how do i winter proof it?

So far my idea is to stuff rockwool between the joists and nail plasterboard all around on the inside. Water vapour sheet on the floor and then insulating underlay and either laminate or some other floor on top.

But what can i do about the door?

Not sure if any of my efforts will have much point.

Has anyone done this kind of diy before?

Thanks

EDIT - Electrician booked. Thanks all.
The white trunking comes from the house and we want to keep this, the black leads to the fuse box which we want to remove. Husband is quite handy at DIY, not a complete beginner but not an expert by any means. Thanks!

Seems to go straight through the mortar in the external brick wall presumably to the inside. What product do I use to fill? Any tools needed and how do I actually do it?

Expanding foam was here before we moved in 5 years ago I think. Ok to leave where it is or… not?

Many thanks

I had a quote for a bathroom at £5200 labour quoted over whatsapp. He did a decent job last year on my downstairs bathroom so went with him again. The builder didn't explicitly state it was VAT or ex-VAT. However last year he quoted me with VAT and upon final payment I agreed to give him cash because he gave a 20% discount.

So I was under the assumption this quote was the same and it was inclusive VAT.

Fast forward to today. The builder has completed about 85% of the job. He was first paid £1000 in materials, then he requested another £500. I hadn't gotten around to sending 500 and I get a WhatsApp stating to transfer another £1000 instead "and the rest will be labour costs." This was about half way through the renovation when he must have had a good idea of what needed to be done and any extras.

A day later he mentions he needs to adjust the quote for additional work after already doing some of it - there's a walk in the shower that wasn't tiled because I ran out of tiles so we had to get mosaic tiles and understandably that increases the price abit so no bother there. Then as they leave I ask about final payment and he says vaguely that the labour cost was the cash price which I was shocked at as I had accepted based on it being VAT.

I've not paid for any labour fees just yet and I'm concerned about some of the workmanship like poor tiling (chipped tiles, lippage) and putting a hole in my joist that isn't to code which he just filled in with foam instead of trying to sister (see thread) I've really just lost my trust in him to be honest and i don't trust him to finish the job

What should my next steps be?

Ripped all the tiles off in the bathroom, we're planning just to have tiles round the shower so we will skim/paint these walls. The plaster above where the tiles were is fine.

Can I get away with just ripping the bottom half plaster off, applying moisture resistant plaster board and skimming? Or will that be a stupid idea/hard to get even?

The other two walls are studs so I'll use backer board or something so that's fine. Just don't know about these two brick walls.

I’ve tried to get this one but apparently company has been bought and they don’t do it anymore

Hey all, looking for a bit of advice… We had a loft conversion completed around six months ago. The loft company carried out the entire conversion, including the plastering, but they didn’t do the decorating—we decorated it ourselves once everything had dried out and settled.

Over the last few months, we’ve noticed a number of movement cracks appearing, particularly a fairly long vertical crack on the top landing, along with a few gaps around the staircase and in some of the corners. The widest part of the main crack is about 2 mm.

I appreciate that some movement is completely normal with a new loft conversion, but I’m not sure where the line is between “expected settlement” and something the loft company should come back and inspect.

Do you think it’s reasonable to ask the loft company to come back and take a look, or is this just something I’d be expected to repair myself now that we’ve decorated?

I’ve attached a few photos for reference. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Just had an EV charger fitted. Power cable has been run straight down and then into the basement.

I was under the impression that there should be a loop and sealant to avoid water ingress but was assured that was unnecessary. The basement is access space only and there's already air vents into the basement space, so this makes no difference.

Hello,
Perhaps not DIY but I think you might be able to help.
Normally my cold water tap water is cold. It may take a second to come cold, but when it does it is super cold, fridge cold.
Yesterday and today, it is warm. Even after watering 4 big outdoor tomato plants and 2 courgettes, so at least 10 litres of water i would say, it was still warm. I don’t think it is temperature related as this didn’t happen in the previous heat waves.
Why could this be? I like cold tap water, not like warm tap water!
Thank you :)

We did attic conversion last year and after placing furniture (bed and wardrobes) the laminate is moving around 8mm

We used 14mm laminate with Timber Tech 2 Acoustic Plus noise-reduction rubber underlay.

We called attic guys who said we should also call the laminate team, but we suspect it may be something with flooring boards or joists.

I don’t mind laminate bending a bit but there are now silverfish coming below the skirting board and that is real issue.

Is this problem easily resolved by applying Tec7 or similar flexi culk or should we go with full investigation and remove laminate to check the flooring boards?

Attached is video of the issue.

Thanks!

Hello, not exactly sure if this is the right sub. We had a kitchen fitted last year that cost us £13,000, which is not a small amount of money to us. 2 weeks ago I noticed the panel on the end of the worktop has started to split at the bottom.

The kitchen fitting company that supplied and fitted the kitchen has basically said it's our fault and probably a result of mopping the floor and fobbed us off.

Is this reasonable? We mop every couple of weeks but in my mind i wouldn't expect the counter to split after a little over a year from very moderate cleaning.

Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Edit: seen a few responses saying this is indeed water ingress. Is the only solution to change the board? I'm miffed that the kitchen fitter would use this material if it's so prone to swelling.

Thanks again.

I have an 8-yard skip in the driveway, and it is a bit high for dumping heavy stuff, so wife put my weight bench in front of the skip so we can step on it.

A guy who drove a white van stopped by, had a look at my skip, and then walked through my driveway to the other side of the skip, close to my front door, saw the bench, and took it and drove off.

I was a bit shocked. My understanding is that everything on the front of the driveway, close to the road is free to grab, am i right?

just checked; it would cost about £130 to get a new weight bench...

Edit: thank you all for sharing your stories. So basically, don't leave anything in your front garden/driveway...

Looking for advice on what I’ve done and how to fix it. Today I took down an overhead light to replace it with a ceiling fan. I only realised after I’d taken the light down that I should have turned off the power at the breaker, I was probably lucky not to get shocked. The blue/yellow/blue I think are live, ground, and neutral (labelled that way on the light fixture wires I unscrewed), but I didn’t know what the brown wires were, they were screwed together and not connected to the light. When I went to install the fan ceiling mount (pictured), the brown wires were making electrical crackling sounds every time they moved, which is when I realised I should turn off the power at the circuit breaker. After connecting the blue and yellow wires into the fan mount, I used electrical tape to cover the end of each of the three brown wires before taping them all together to tuck out of the way. At the time I thought I didn’t want random live wires poking into the fan. Except now, after flipping the breakers back on, none of my upstairs lights are turning on!

What have I done? What should I do next? Can I fix this myself or do I need an electrician?

I had a broken window that was replaced today by a company. There are these scratches on the periphery of the window frame that occurred during the replacement which I'm not happy about.

What recourse do I have to get this addressed? Is this grounds for them to remove the entire thing and do it again?

Thanks

Hey everyone, I’m looking to get a ground anchor for a bike installed on my driveway which is sandstone paving.

According to the manufacturer's spec sheet, the anchor requires:

Excavating a hole at least 300mm deep x 240mm x 200mm

Undercutting the base for extra strength

Sitting the unit on a hardcore base for drainage

Filling it with a heavy 3-2-1 concrete mix flush to the surface

The lifted sandstone would then need to be cut and re-laid around it.

Can I ask what sort of rough price estimate/quote should I expect for the labour and materials? I'm located in London. Thanks in advance for any advice!

There is one red brick in the middle of the wall that I believe is create a bunch of red dust and will eventually dissolve. But there is also a bunch of bricks at the bottom near the paving that have already dissolved.

Any advice is welcome

Not DIY... But well regarded fitters were about to attempt to caulk around this... which I stopped - it's not straight, and the gaps are far too big for caulk. Not sure of a solution, but this is crap no?

Removing stickers and blu tak from a two tone painted wall.

They come off with no issue from the white underlayer.

However, the coloured top layer bubbles and peels off in strips really easily.

It's also done this in some spots without stickers/blu tak.

Did I use the wrong type of paint for the top layer?

The step is crumbling away. This is 2 steps the bottom one underneath the decking. Ideas what I can do to tidy it up.

Hi, I just moved in to a new flat and the beam in the bathroom doesn’t look great. What could I do to make it look better and preserve it from future damage as well?

It’s a rental flat, so I’m looking for rather budget friendly options. I’ve picked up wood hardener (for just in case now) and I’m thinking of staining it to freshen it up. I’ve never really done any proper DIY, so I’ll be very grateful for any advice for what would be reasonable.

Thanks!

I'm considering putting an offer in for an ex rental property. It's in good shape but the layout is not great and its a bit tired being an ex rental.

The living & dining room are one space/open plan. But the kitchen is in an old outhouse/tiny extension. The kitchen is extremely small (you can't even turn round in it) so its got to be changed.

All properties on the street are the same and most neighbours have knocked through to create a kitchen diner, then reinstated the living room wall to create a snug type room.

I've renovated before, on a very small scale but it was 15 years ago and I appreciate costs have changed since then. Google is producing some very varied estimates of costs for the following works - so I wondered if anyone can give me a rough idea of actual costs for the following:

* Removing a small *load* bearing wall to open the kitchen up

* Replacing a *non load* bearing wall to create a separate living room (simple stud wall)

* 3 windows need replacing (2 normal, 1 small bay)

* Approx 10 metres of fencing needs to be installed from scratch in garden

Any advice is very much appreciated, I'm buying this solo so any mistakes will be mine and mine alone to carry!

Sorry if not the correct sub, I’ve got some wood glue. How would you recommend fixing this?