The House Projects Thread

[Swervin_Mervin]

yours is easily the nicest composite one I've seen - I couldn't find one like it, so I went the DIY wood option.

It's also interesting the route you've gone with the garage door matching. I think I'll photoshop the garage door to match the door once it's in to decide if I do similar!

Cheers. It took some time to find them - we were considering English Door Co. and went to a nearby showroom to view them. Fortunately they had this Heritage Collection as well, which was far more reasonably priced!

The garage door, and much of the exterior woodwork, was actually a similar colour to yours. Ours was some crappy red stain though that had faded horrendously as that side faces south.

Re: decking - my parents have composite and we did start to look at that. But then I read about the potential for it to warp, especially if it's the hollow core stuff. And I didn't like the look of any of the solid stuff. It was pure fluke I saw a company I follow retweet London Stone as they'd been used in one of their projects where porcelain pavers had also been used.

There's a guy on PH that did an Indian Sandstone paved area and it was bloody lovely. That was a goldish colour.

[GG.]

Our travertine was from London Stone also. Really pleased with how it’s weathering in (ie not too much) however, I was sweeping leaves off it with a religious fervour up until a few weeks ago to manage staining/algae so I’m sure porcelain is likely easier to maintain.

[Mito Man]

It will eventually go dark and green, there’s this genius stuff called Wet and Forget which you just dilute in water and pour on the tiles which brings them back up to new and lasts close to a year once applied. Prior to that my parents would get a chap round twice a year to pressure wash their Indian sandstone - he had one of those Karchers the size of an old Mini and after 5 years the patio was shot - just too aggressive for it.

[Rich B]

Good tip - nice one mito

[duncs500]

Nice one @Mito Man, I'm going to get me some of that.

[Gavin]

New 6 x 12 base donw two days ago, shed arrived the same day and is now sitting under two inches of snow!

New internal doors and, I assume, the new bathroom will be delayed I would imagine, no idea how long for yet. Ah the joys.

[Swervin_Mervin]

@Rich B

Quick q - what dia piping did you go for in your UFH? Was it 10mm? ISTR you had an overlay system with it clipped into trays. Can you remember the system at all?

I might need to tap up @jamcg here as well. We're into the speccing & costing stage of our works and I need to pin down what type of system to go for. It seems there are so many options!

[Rich B]

Yeah, mines the 10mm. No complaints so far, even under 22mm of wooden floor it doesn't take too long to heat the room. It's usually set to 20 over the winter and there's a nice even heat. One thing I noticed is if you have it too high it's really unpleasant because you can't get away from the heat as it's everywhere!

Ive had a pretty full on test this week - I've had it turned off with the sliding doors open whilst the builders go through to the back (through a poly tunnel), and even from stone cold outside temp the room is warm again in an hour or so. Can't remember the make though.

[Swervin_Mervin]

That's good to hear. Is yours a sprung floor or slab? Oh and did you just lay the flooring directly over, or did you screed it? I've seen some that seem to allow you to lay straight over.

[Rich B]

That's good to hear. Is yours a sprung floor or slab? Oh and did you just lay the flooring directly over, or did you screed it? I've seen some that seem to allow you to lay straight over.

I have a mixture - 1/2 is slab, 1/2 is floorboards. I ply'd the boards to correct the levels, latexed the levels then the grooves insulation boards sit on that with the pipes running through. Then I have a floating engineered timber floor on a membrane.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Excellent - cheers for that Rich

[Rich B]

Also, you can never be too fussy on floor levelling!!! Any high/low on the sub floor will still be high/low at the end!

[Swervin_Mervin]

That's one expensive aspect of what we're doing sadly! Concrete floor in extension isn't level with timber floor in the main area at present. And the utility room level is about 2" lower than the main area. It's expensive raising that utility room floor and breaking out the slab in the dining room! Not least as it means the back door and lintel need raising, along with the adjacent window making taller, and the internal garage door raising and so on.

Still, best to do it right, even if we won't be able to afford to eat once it's finished.

[jamcg]

@Rich B

Quick q - what dia piping did you go for in your UFH? Was it 10mm? ISTR you had an overlay system with it clipped into trays. Can you remember the system at all?

I might need to tap up @jamcg here as well. We're into the speccing & costing stage of our works and I need to pin down what type of system to go for. It seems there are so many options!

I’ve only used the John guest system which uses 15mm pipe. Best advice is to contact manufacturers, most offer a design service which will help plan the routes out

[Gavin]

Managed to get most of my shed built yesterday, was pinning the third row of felt down in the dark but I am glad I did as totally covered in frost this morning. Will get the doors on later, pop the windows in then start offering up bikes and cupboards and see what I can get to fit and where.

Then get a summerhouse ordered up.....

Bathroom and all internal doors etc have been delayed by covid so glad some outside stuff is there to do as I am back on furlough so home schooling and dIy are where it's at.

[Mito Man]

I was planning on scratch building a summerhouse this year but then I saw the price of double glazed windows and doors - it was cheaper to buy a whole pre-fab one online.

5 years ago a double glazed opening timber framed window on eBay cost £40, now they start at £250

[GG.]

Today’s game of how much can you fit in the front boot of a 911:



105 litres of John Innes no3, two bags of horticultural grit and two bags of 20mm gravel!

Admittedly it did scrape on every speed bump in south London on the way back from B&Q

[Rich B]

Stanced photo?!

[ZedLeg]

That’s just ballast to help it handle properly

[GG.]

Not sure it improved it!

@Rich B it didn’t look all that dramatic really but was a good demonstration that you couldn’t live with something low in an urban area unless it had a lift kit.