The House Projects Thread

[Explosive Newt]

A friend who is renovating their very similar house in Chiswick has done exactly the same.
Unfortunately the precise right angles of the pattern have made it more obvious that the building is not completely parallel with the street, which is doing her OCD nut in...

[GG.]

A friend who is renovating their very similar house in Chiswick has done exactly the same.
Unfortunately the precise right angles of the pattern have made it more obvious that the building is not completely parallel with the street, which is doing her OCD nut in...

Ha - this is exactly the same - if you look at the back of the path it is not exactly parallel with the step but is parallel with the door as apparently the front of the house is also not true

I would have adjusted the angles slightly but with tiling its kind of a one shot thing. Once the builder has made their judgment call you're kind of stuck with it.

It was the same with the bay window we had fitted last year - the installer was going to have one bay stick out 4 inches from the wall to keep the angle of the window consistent on each side rather than fitting it flush on both side and having an invisible discrepancy between the angles of the two side bays and the central one Fortunately I made them re-fit it and use some common sense.

[Explosive Newt]

Two wrongs make a right!

[Explosive Newt]

A thought. It it possible to do the tiling to make an optical illusion? So that you let your eyes cross and it reveals a shape?
Probably best testing this to make sure the builder hasn’t hidden eg a cock in the tile.

[Jobbo]

A friend who is renovating their very similar house in Chiswick has done exactly the same.
Unfortunately the precise right angles of the pattern have made it more obvious that the building is not completely parallel with the street, which is doing her OCD nut in...

Ha - this is exactly the same - if you look at the back of the path it is not exactly parallel with the step but is parallel with the door as apparently the front of the house is also not true

I would have adjusted the angles slightly but with tiling its kind of a one shot thing. Once the builder has made their judgment call you're kind of stuck with it.

I don't think it detracts from the lovely tiling at all and simply didn't notice the lack of square between house and front step. I did spot the outer triangles at the front and back each have a half cut hidden in them - quite well done though. It might have been possible to avoid that by narrowing the tiled area but then it wouldn't be symmetrical to the door which would be far worse.

[Swervin_Mervin]

This discussion reminds me of two things.

1: In our first house, a new build, I put a curtain rail up in the bedroom. Called the wife upstairs to see if she was happy with it. "It's on the piss! Did you not use a spirit level". Of course I did, hence confused. Obviously the window wasn't level. It looked fine with the curtains close . Lesson learned there about doing it right or doing it so it looks right...

2: When we had the old brick porch ripped out at our current place we had an open porch constructed instead, with an oak post at one end. All the white paint that had been put on the inside of the old porch was stripped off what was the original and again now outside wall to strip it back to brick. I was oiling the post one day when an old chap walking past stopped to tell me the post wasn't vertical. I disagreed, sure that our builder had managed to get a fairly chunky oak post right. Still, had to check with a level to confirm. However, the original '30s brick front wall of the house around the door, and therefore in the background of the post as you looked at it, is definitely on the piss, hence why the old bloke thought the post was off.

[GG.]

Lesson learned there about doing it right or doing it so it looks right...

Yep - IME builders / installers always default to the former unless told otherwise.

[Mito Man]

My flat is the same, 8 story building and every room isn't square. Really obvious in the tiled rooms. I do wonder how accurately these new entirely glass clad skyscrapers are built. Just an inch out and you're not going to get a window to fit on the Shart are you?

[Explosive Newt]

not going to get a window to fit on the Shart are you?

I'm going to assume the shart is built on a very windy brown field site.

[mik]

not going to get a window to fit on the Shart are you?

I'm going to assume the shart is built on a very windy brown field site.

My mate lives in The Shart and had to get a new window fitted. He got a quote from a glazier, but they didn’t follow through.

[Explosive Newt]

not going to get a window to fit on the Shart are you?

I'm going to assume the shart is built on a very windy brown field site.

My mate lives in The Shart and had to get a new window fitted. He got a quote from a glazier, but they didn’t follow through.

I've got a friend running his tailoring business out of the shart. Which is to say, he's always touching cloth.

[DeskJockey]

This discussion reminds me of two things.

1: In our first house, a new build, I put a curtain rail up in the bedroom. Called the wife upstairs to see if she was happy with it. "It's on the piss! Did you not use a spirit level". Of course I did, hence confused. Obviously the window wasn't level. It looked fine with the curtains close . Lesson learned there about doing it right or doing it so it looks right...

2: When we had the old brick porch ripped out at our current place we had an open porch constructed instead, with an oak post at one end. All the white paint that had been put on the inside of the old porch was stripped off what was the original and again now outside wall to strip it back to brick. I was oiling the post one day when an old chap walking past stopped to tell me the post wasn't vertical. I disagreed, sure that our builder had managed to get a fairly chunky oak post right. Still, had to check with a level to confirm. However, the original '30s brick front wall of the house around the door, and therefore in the background of the post as you looked at it, is definitely on the piss, hence why the old bloke thought the post was off.

You were oiling your post in public? Perv.

[240PP]

I'm going to assume the shart is built on a very windy brown field site.

My mate lives in The Shart and had to get a new window fitted. He got a quote from a glazier, but they didn’t follow through.

I've got a friend running his tailoring business out of the shart. Which is to say, he's always touching cloth.

Does he also offer dry cleaning?

[Swervin_Mervin]

not going to get a window to fit on the Shart are you?

I'm going to assume the shart is built on a very windy brown field site.

My mate lives in The Shart and had to get a new window fitted. He got a quote from a glazier, but they didn’t follow through.

[Gavster]

You can visit floor 72, there's an open observation deck up there. In fact it's very windy at the top of the Shart, which often comes as a surprise.

[Gavster]

Does anyone have any tips about moving gas and electricity meters? I've been getting advice through the network suppliers and it seems to be a mightily costly process, e.g. it's ~£700 just to receive a quote for the cost to move the gas meter.

Both need moving, they're in horrid placements in my hallway, but I've been told only the network supplier can move them. In an ideal world someone (a third party company) would come along and move both in one go.

[DeskJockey]

According to Citizens Advice the only way to get a different quote is to ask another supplier, but on the condition that you move supply to them. Otherwise it is only your current supplier that can do the work. You may still need plumbers/electricians to do the necessary on "your" side.

[Gavster]

Moving the electricity meter indicative estimate is £5,200 to £7,800

[DeskJockey]

Yikes

[Mito Man]

Sounds about right, and I'm pretty sure it's the electricity network operator who deal with all that so you can change your electricity supplier but you'll still get the same quote from UK Power Network.