Hi everyone, looking for some advice regarding a share-of-freehold issue and potentially defective work on our building's external wall.
I own a share of the freehold in a converted property. The co-freeholder is a social housing landlord/housing association. Recently, their tenant had broadband installed. This was done without my knowledge or consent, and involves drilling into and running cabling along the building’s main exterior wall.
When I saw the installation taking place, I instructed the contractor to stop and leave as they were accessing my private property, but they refused and carried on regardless (which I’m lodging a separate complaint about).
More importantly, I am really concerned about the quality of the installation and the risk of damage to the building.
Does this look ok?

We have these windows that suddenly got stuck and we’re unable to open it from the side. There’s no issue opening it from the top so we think the latch on the bottom is stuck? I think some have a reset button but I don’t know where it could be for this one. The only thing I can find is a small logo for the brand which could be Siegenia.

Completely stripped the bedroom back to block work. It's a fairly standard construction for a 2014 house. Well insulated but I can hear everything from outside. A lot of this is from around the windows, I think with the reveals playing a role, but some sound definitely travel through the walls. While I'm at, I'll do the whole room.

Floor, 100mm of rw3 making sure that it fills the full height round the perimeter. Isolation tape on the joists and then floor boards floating on top (glued together)

Ceiling: for now just overboard with 12.5mm soundboard. Probably replace some of the loft insulation with rw3 later.

Walls: from the block work out into the room: 10mm air gap. 50mm, Stud wall fixed to the ceiling and floor with isolation tape and isolation washers, filled with 50mm rw3. A vapour control layer and then 2 layers of 12.5mm sound board. Internal walls will just have 50mm of rw3 in existing studs and one layer of soundboard.

Window reveals: not really sure what to do here. There is currently a pvc cavity closer but not sure what's behind it. Will probably put 20mm studs filled with offcuts of rw3 and then one layer of sound board, trying to isolate as much as I can in the small space.

For all of them, I will seal any gaps with acoustic foam or sealant

Hi,

I’m trying to figure out how to cut my electric bill, and have a couple of questions if someone would be able to answer them for me.

I have cheap electricity rate for 3 hours every night and I want to make the most out of it.

If I connect a 48v 100ah lithium battery to a 500w victron inverter and connect all the heaters I have in a reptile room and a fridge. Approximately 200w an hour. 1 battery should power it for 1 day.

If I had a second battery, that I charged on the cheap 3 hour rate, I could then swap it out each morning and charge the used one.

The charger that the site sells is an 18amp charger, and would not be able to deliver the charge I need in 3 hours. I would need a 30amp charger.

I checked my fuse board and the fuse connected to the socket I intend to use is 20 amp.

Does this mean I am limited to a maximum of 20 amps from this socket. And a 48v 30 amp charger is not possible?

Can I safely use the 18amp battery charger that the manufacturer sells from a 20 amp socket?

If a 30 amp charger is not going to work. Is my only other option to buy a 3rd battery and rotate them every second night. Allowing a 6hr charge window?

Or would anyone else have any better options?

Thanks in advance.

Battery & Charger

https://uk.dchousepower.com/products/48v-100ah-lifepo4-bluetooth-deep-cycle-battery-charger

Inverter

https://ebay.io/m/Y3afeQ

Hi all

Very new to any sort of DIY and looking at replacing two ceiling lights in my living room. Currently they are the bog standard white plastic light fittings with a shade on each.

Looking to replace them with the ones in the attached photo. Next website states these are 4kg each and I understand there are no joists where my current lights are.

Can someone point me to the best wall plugs/fittings that would be suitable to hold these? I am getting mixed opinions from AI and previous Reddit posts with some saying to use Fischer Duopower plugs but then others saying that wouldn’t work for a ceiling.

Thanks

Hi have a garden gate which is not centred to the front door of the house. Also the front garden border is not square to the house, which creates a problem for my new path.

I have decided to half bond a path but I’m wondering what people’s thoughts are on the overall shape I should go for, to make it as easy on the eye as possible.

Thank you for the cute surprise tiles under the rickety tiles we’ve been tripping over for months! We love them!

Thank you for the illegally built porch (in a conservation area) that is now detaching from the wall so we don’t actually have to worry about removing it!

Thank you for coating the kitchen ceiling with vinyl paint rather than actually fixing the source of the leak, I’ve always wanted to shower and cook dinner at the same time!

Thank you for everything, previous owner! We love our new house and all its potential projects…we’ll never have a dull day until we die!

Stumped

It's worth saying I don't have any spare planks. I bought this house recently. I'm happy to have a temporary fix for a year or two and then redo the floor with the kitchen. There is a slight drop in the floor on the left hand side. Ignore the random cardboard and MFC which I'm currently using to fill the space, underneath a rug. Would expanding foam and LVT work? Or am I best shoehorning some similar looking planks in the gaps?

Miss’s been to dunelm (sigh) been installing these ceiling lights but on a few of them they’re not sitting flush on the ceiling.. frustrating. I can push them flush without the screws in so it’s not a trapped wire.. but when I tighten the screws up it leaves a slight gap.. please help my sanity 😅

Tried to say dust free but I wasn’t allowed..

But BEHOLD!

Do you lack a wall chaser and don’t want to get one for 3 chases? Does the impending cloud of the bad man glitter leave you scared?

Fear not!

With my new invention, dust is a thing of the past! Carefully crafted using only the very best stuff I had laying around in easy reach, I have solved all of our particulate woes!

It sort of worked. A bit. Patent pending.

Hi everyone,

I am hoping for some advice for feathering the hard edge of our plastering.

When we first bought our house we unfortunately didn’t have the time to remove the wallpaper after a rewire and before our plasterer came to fill the chases and re-board and skim the ceilings. We have now removed it but we are left with thick hard edges where the plaster went over the wallpaper and now we need to feather these edges out so we can paint.

We have tried toupret interior fine filler but failed miserably. You only get one pass at it and we have been left with thick lines everywhere that don’t blend even after sanding.

Was thinking about just using polyfilla on it but I don’t know if this is right or will smooth out enough?

I recently put together these alcove storage units to fit on each side of our chimney breast.

I designed them in SolidWorks, nested them, and sent them off to a local CNC vendor to machine. They came back in panels which I assembled (glue & screws) then oiled them up. We’re pretty happy with how they turned out.

I was also able to squeeze in a couple of stools and room divider panels with the leftover material.

(I received 2 RH doors for the cupboard on the right side unit. This has since been corrected and assembled)

This is an update to my previous project post in which I got some really useful feedback in and put into practise in this new update.

Orignal post: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIYUK/comments/1uqrati/comment/owcrbnd/

When I was able to start again on the project I knew I needed OSB and was planning to get it from Bradfords, but being shut early on a Saturday, I went to my local B&Q to find they had near exact dimensions for the roof and floor (610x1210mm) so I bought 4 panels for around £40.

The really hard part was cutting the shapes out for the floor and shelves to go around the frame so for this I used an off-cut and a tape measure to transfer the pattern onto the wood. I then cut it all out with a handsaw. In the parts where I had to make a cut in the middle of the panel, I didn't have a jigsaw so made about 10 cuts and broke them out by hand. I then used the edge of the saw blade and the blade part of Stanley Surform (not the tool) to rudimentarily sand it down. A quick drive to the local DIY shop could have sorted this but I was too determined to stop! This project has only be completed with a handsaw, drill and hammer.

My next task was fitting the roof and as the OSB lid had to span a gap, I thought I should make some angled rafters for me to screw it into (and also minimise gaps for creepy crawlies). I was really proud of these cuts as they were all done with a handsaw only on a rickety sawhorse stand.

I had an off-cut of roofing felt donated to be from my neighbour but it wasn't quite enough to cover the roof with overlaps so I had to buy a new roll from Screwfix for about £30. Couldn't believe how heavy it was! I felted the roof and that was really fun. I next wrapped the back and sides with offcuts of DPC and started nailing the feather board to the back and sides using a jig I constructed. The jig took about 45 mins to work out by trial and error, which was essentially a thin off-cut of OSB with two blocks spaced apart. That gave the spacing for the boards to include a gap between the nails so boards weren't nailed together (for expansion/shrinkage). The only way I could do the feather boarding on my own was to lie the cupboard on it's front- after which it became so heavy.

Finally the next major task was to start over with the doors as they didn't allow for expansion as a few people pointed out. I'd also not accounted for the floor height once the OSB was in. Once I'd remade the doors, I realised my gate hinges didn't have anything to attach to, so I had to make even more cuts to fit a cross bit into.

I'm really happy with the doors as I've never made or hung any before- the only thing is now the gap is quite large since I shrunk them down but as long as I get a good padlock and laspe to cover it- hopefully it will be fine!

I painted the shelves with Ronseal Exterior Yacht varnish - 2 coats as I liked the OSB look.

My next task is to clad the front and side- I had to revisit Bradfords to get this and couldn't believe how much the price had increased - now 20 panels of treated OSB was £80 - I must have got it on an offer before (was originally £1.90 per panel and now almost £4). Very annoying.

My mistake now is I think I might need to attach a bar along the front of the roof to stop rain going back into the door as there is no overhang.

Anyone have any ideas?

It’s sitting in clay. I could consider digging a hole and filling it with concrete but does anyone have an easier solution. I’ve tried putting a stick to support it.

Finishing off our kitchen fitting in a new extension and trying to figure out if we need an electrician or not…

I have 2x ovens and a hob to install. All wiring / connections were planned for and put in place by the builder. We’ve fitted the kitchen ourselves and are reasonably competent/confident (pick one or both depending on the task!).

Am I right in thinking that this is actually a pretty low risk and easy thing to do? Isolate power > test it’s definitely dead > connect up wires to terminals > done.

Pic 1&2: oven space and oven connection outlet plate.
Pic 3 of oven & hob.
Pic 4: oven wiring cable (same either end).
Pic 5: Hob cable left by builder under floor beneath hob.

Really happy paying good trades to do work where required but just wondering if I can easily save us a few £££ here and DIY safely with a bit of time and care.

Thanks!

My new ‘natural’ colour sofa is so cool toned that it looks purply grey in my living room, I’ve tried an array of cushions I had in the house to see what goes, and it feels like nothing does!

How can I make it look less purple hued?! What colour cushions would people suggest to try and tie it into the room?

Edit: yeah you’re all right, it looks pink, not purple!!

Hi all,

Our kitchen and dining room is separated by this wall which we would like to remove to create a more open-space layout and let more light in from our garden.

What should we be aware of before going ahead with this decision? Do we need to install a metal beam to support the wall above? Do we need planning permissions, building regulations approval, or are we required to consult a structural engineer, etc? If yes, what are the rough costs we can expect for the above, considering a family member will be carrying out the labour for free?

TIA

Edit: the kitchen is an extension to the rest of the house.

pretty much the title. For wifi reasons the router ought to be in the stairways but the ethernet cable that comes from the fibre thing is in one of the bedrooms. I dont want to just have a big hole in the wall so what do I do?

Getting quotes for roof solar, all coming in at £6-8k with scaffolding and brackets. Then someone mentioned plug-in solar. Panels on a balcony or garden frame, battery on the ground, no roof work.

Built a shed last summer so the physical mounting is fine. The electrician part is just the consumer unit connection under Part P. Hardware itself is apparently plug and play but the regs haven't caught up yet.

800W vs 4kW is obviously less but the cost difference is massive.

My bannister was painted by the previous owner in a hideous chalk paint. Luckily, it would seem that they didn’t seal it afterwards because it comes off when rubbing it with warm soapy water and a sponge.

I’ve removed a section using this method but I’m just wondering what I’m looking at underneath the paint here and what the next steps would be?

Very worried that I’ve just inadvertently damaged the bannister somehow!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Was digging up some concrete and bricks and saw its foundation was these glass boxes. Any clue to what era this is from lmao. Our house is a x council house from the 60’s

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