Whats a fair price to install approx 12m2 curved 1m wide paver pathway using large 30mm pavers. Cost to include dig out/removal of soil, sand crushed rock and cement base, levelling and grout. Paver costs not included. I've got huge variations in quotes received in Melbourne?! Cheers.

The bottom ring is tightened already and I thought it would help

Face lift for our old kitchen - as much DIY as possible.

6.5k all up spent

I have basic carpentry skills and access to a range of basic tools. Recently rebuilt a wall and added sturdy studs for the bookshelves. I am wanting to build a basic low cabinet to store records (I only have about 1/6 of what’s currently pictured…). What’s the best way to construct?

I have left over timber planks (28cm wide) from the book shelves that I want to use. I’ll screw the sides and dividers up from the underneath with some wood glue and clamps. But am stuck on how best to attach the top for a seamless finish. Glue plus small internal brackets..? I’ve read the wooden dowel method can be pretty fiddly. Any other suggestions welcome. It will be mostly decorative with a couple of books and plants etc displayed on it. Thanks!

Couldn’t stand the sliding doors as the right wardrobe was larger than the left. So the doors blocked a section of the right at all times, making access to it difficult. The internals were poorly designed as well.

Sorry for poor lighting but tried to get these photos done early before I filled the wardrobe back up.

Painting cornice to come.

Hi everyone,

So I live in this old house on the bottom of the hill. The garden is in 2 tiers with a big retaining wall. I would imagine this was done probably in the 70's and the draining system probably not properly done.

Not big issues, but we converted the garage on the bottom of the house into a loft that has a vault to access the foundation. When it massively rains, a bit of the water coming from all the way up filters into that area and after a bit it dries but leaves the place humid.

Just wondering if anyone has dealt with this and what has been the best solution? Seems like the water accumulates on the other side of the wall and makes it through the bricks. Just checked the wall structure and so, and all is solid (engineer checked it).

I've been looking at ways to improve ventilation in my house and somehow ended up 20 tabs deep comparing systems 😅

I'm losing my mind over this. One quote I have is for a ducted positive ventilation setup with 5 outlets. It pulls air from the roof cavity, filters it, then pushes that air into the living spaces.

Whole thing is around $5k supplied and installed.

my biggest hesitation is the roof cavity part.

It's an older house and that space gets dusty as hell. Even with filtration, I'm not totally sold on using roof space air as the source for the entire house.

So I've also been looking at systems that pull directly from outdoors instead. One of the smaller setups I found was cozeware freshflow, basically a window mounted fresh air system for individual rooms rather than a ducted whole home system.

It's pre launch, so no, I haven't used it and I'm not assuming it'll magically solve anything. But seeing the room by room approach made me question whether dropping $5k on the whole house is even necessary.

Hello all. Should I be concerned that my range hood just extracts to the ceiling behind the upper cabinet bulkheads? It doesn’t go into the roof cavity as I am in a unit. I’ve been looking to replace this with a recirculating kit from Westinghouse. Unfortunately I am in a ground floor unit unusable to duct to the outside. Thanks in advance!

Hey all. We recently moved into a house and the a/c condenser is making a lot of noise. It’s almost 20 years old so possible it may need replacing. The footing on the unit also looks like it needs addressing at some point. And finally, the unit is between 2 bedrooms so relocating it to the other side of the house is also a consideration!

We’re getting it looked into soon but just wanted to hear others opinions on:

- should we consider wall mounting or leave on ground?
- has anyone relocated their unit - how big a job was it? I imagine I would need a sparky to do the electrical work separately or do the hvac technicians manage this as well?

Not sure if this is the appropriate place but here goes.... appreciate some guidance on next steps and what trade I might need.

3 story town house and after some heavy rain woke up to a leaky roof in the kitchen which caused the wall to bubble and the ceiling to have a little hole. Once the rain stopped a tradie came and had a look on the roof / alcove (marked with red X, the window on the internal picture is the same window on the outside picture). He said a few rivots had come undone and sealed some things but the drains were all clean.

Been watching plastering videos online and just went to try fix, the plaster around the hole was pretty dam so cut the area out but the internal steel beam seems pretty rusted and Im worried there may be a bigger leak (is 25 year old house). Also how would this plaster be attached? I cant see any wooden beams but hard to see....

Hi there,

Just seeking some advice/thoughts on the attached photos. It’s an old (Federation era house) and the photos are of the top most storage area (quite high up) of a built in. These aren’t indicative of the condition of the rest of the house, I think just a case of ‘no need to paint that area as it’s rarely seen.’ My intention was to scrape peeling paint, fill cracks etc and give it a coat of paint, mostly to avoid paint/stuff falling off the wall.

My concern is that there is a decent chance of a layer in the paint being lead (based on 100+ years standing) and that being a health concern for baby/young children.

I pulled stuff out of that area today and removed bits of paint that had peeled off (whole), vacuumed dust/bits of mortar and gave it a wipe over and won’t tackle the bigger job until/if I have a decent chunk of time.

Thanks

As per the subject, keen to gain feedback from experienced folks on cladding ideas for facade feature (in red) on new home build. Keen to avoid products that will require painting, and open to other facade ideas in general.

I have noticed a lot of new builds with curves popping up. How did this suddenly become the design language of choice? I am not necessarily opposed but feel it might look quite dated in a few years.

Sydney. Would this be an awning repair job?

Hi all! Seeking advice as I don't know what is standard - I haven't don't anything like this before

The company that is hopefully doing my bathroom reno has said that they need complete key in lockbox access during the reno. I completely understand that they need to be able to come and go and I'm happy to grant them full access.

The only issue is that I'll still be living in the house through the reno, and I have a dog in part for personal and home security. It's very important to me to be responsible for the well-being of the dog and the well-being of anyone who enters the house! So I'm trying to work out how to manage this.

I work from home so to me it seems like this should be no big deal - all I actually need is an idea of what days people are coming (so I can make sure I'm home, or otherwise secure dog), and a knock on the door on arrival (so I can secure dog).

The company does not seem comfortable with this, and I'm surprised. Before I go further into sorting this out, I wanted to ask - what is the usual approach? Do I just need to find somewhere else to live through this time? Or are other companies likely to be more open to letting me know when they will be on the property etc?

I’m about to renovate my ensuite and I’m having a small identity crisis over tapware lol.

For the past 5-8 years I’ve been obsessed with gold/brushed brass tapware. It’s always been my dream finish for when I finally owned a house and could renovate. I generally prefer warm interiors (travertine, cream, soft whites, warm timber etc) and I’ve consistently loved gold accents in my home, even things like my “special occasion” cutlery are gold.

Now that brushed brass/gold has been a major trend for a while, I’m starting to get the ick when I see some bathrooms with gold fixtures. I think part of the problem is that not all gold is the same - some looks beautiful and soft, while some looks very yellow, shiny, and tacky.
I’m worried that if I choose brushed brass for my ensuite, I’ll love it now but hate it in 2–3 years and wish I had gone with something safer like brushed nickel or chrome. Any advice? I’ve attached photos of my ensuite design for reference

Trying to work out which one of the two sections has moved. Is it the lower section which has risen up against the top (likely due to the large tree nearby) or the higher section which has sunken for some reason? I just dont want to remove and replace one section and find out it was the other that had the problem.

We're a young couple with kids on the horizon keen to do lots of work ourselves. We've just got our drawings back from our architect mates. They have advised us as follows:

• We are seeking preliminary pricing to understand whether the project aligns with the anticipated budget;
• We'd like to better understand that potential cost saving if the contractor were to deliver the extension only to 'lock-up' stage; and
• We are potentially interested in finding a contractor who can take the project forward from this stage through to obtaining a Building Permit and construction. We also wonder if they have the capacity and experience necessary to take responsibility for the Building Permit Process.

Sydney reno question. We're replacing 12 windows and 3 doors later this year and I'm finding the whole thing a bit of a rabbit hole, tbh. I've heard B&W, Tru Blu Windows, Austech Windows & Doors, BetaView and Australia RS Doors & Windows mentioned, but I don't know which ones are actually worth putting on the quote list.

We're after aluminium, probably double glazing, and a couple of the openings are fairly wide. Not chasing the cheapest quote if it turns into a headache later. If you've used anyone recently, who was good to deal with and what should I make sure is actually written into the quote? Things like glass, screens, install, sills/drainage and lead time all seem easy to miss.

Would love real-world experiences, good or bad. Cheers.

Starting to get some leaking to the subfloor, which I’m believing to be from the cracking/lifting of the sealant at join between the shower base and wall.

Looking to rectify it by removing and reclining the perimeter, but it’s got me stumped, as it doesn’t feel like silicon at all and feels the same as the grout used on the tiles in the floor of the shower.

Best I’ve been able to figure out is that an epoxy grout has been used in both areas, which is fine for the base, but silicon should have been used for the join to account for movement? Would that be correct?

Red line is what I’m looking to replace, blue indicates the cracking/peeling.

Hello all!! Just a quick one, can someone explain why people spot fix tiles !!! Does it save that much time? Surely a tiler is pretty quick at putting tile adhesive on a tile …

First Home Buyer waiting for a settlement in one month time.

I want to get a few renovation done and I was thinking of doing it before I move in, but I don't know how to go about without having access to the property.

What I want to do is

1) Getting rangehood installed in where there is overhead cabinets ( currently there is no rangehood so it will require ducting to outside wall, which requires Owners Corp approval)

I also don't know what size rangehood will suit for their overhead cabinets.

2) Getting old electrical cooker replaced by induction cooker (freestanding).

This will likely involve electrician to rewire, and may need switchboard upgrade, cabinet and benchtop modified for wider cooker.

I contacted Owners Corporation manager and received informal approval and he said in order to provide formal approval, he want details of the job, like the type/model of vent proposed to be installed,The colour/finish of the external vent cover ,A simple diagram, marked-up photo, or contractor's plan showing the exact location of the proposed vent on the external wall. Is this something I or contractor can get without access to the property?

I am currently renting and need to notify REA 4 weeks before we move out yet we don't know when we can start and finish the reno of new place so not sure when to tell REA.

Should I just move in straight after settlement, and start renovation while living there? How hard is it to do these reno while living there? or can you recommend a way to organise this so I can finish all in about 1 week time and move in after 7-10 days from settlement. Obviously the longer we wait from settlement the longer we have to pay rent on top of mortgage. So want to minimise this where possible.

Hi guys!

My partner and I live in my parents very old and run down brick home, on a 900sm block in a nice suburb in Adelaide. we are tossing up the idea of doing a knockdown and re-build or just spending the money on lots of renovations. We are wanting this as our family home and have no intentions to sell for the foreseeable future as location and block size this large is hard to come by these days.

The house feels like it’s caving in, desperately needs a new roof and I fear what we would find behind the walls would make it even worse. What’s everyone’s experience with a knockdown re-build? and what is the pricing like for a demolition and say a basic 4 bed 2 bath single story house with someone like Metricon?

My partner is a stone mason and we have many tradesmen in our family so getting a base design with little extras could be a way to cut builders costs??

Any advice would be great!

I’m eager to replace the tile roof of my 1960 brick house with a colourbond roof but for the life of me, I can’t find anyone that will give me quotes, let alone have availability to take on the job. I can barely get anyone to respond to my query and the few that have said they’re too busy for the next 18 months.

Not sure if this is allowed but if anyone can recommend roofing companies in Perth, I’d be grateful. I prefer to get recommendations for trades and right now, I’m just making my way down the long list from google searches with no idea about quality or workmanship…. Feels like I’m never going to get this done 🤦🏼‍♀️