building

Hello everyone, There is no mention specifically about SLC over polyethylene paints. The general consensus of leveling over paint is a no no as the adhesion is not there. I have a large area of floor that needs levelling out slightly to get rid of the ridges in the laid concrete. The concrete...

I’m looking for a little advice re; the construction of mine and my neighbours terrace of houses. In the last year or so we’ve started to suspect that rats have accessed our cavity walls and are moving between the properties. We have each noticed burrow holes coming out from close to the...

Hi all I’m hoping somone can give me a little more info we recently bought a new house where the garden is very sloped and in need of raising. we are hoping to put a small retaining wall in front of the rear fence concrete blocks laid flat approximately 0.5m high and back fill to this to bring...

I’m doing a rear extension on my bungalow, the floor is going to be block and beam. My question is... where the beams key into the existing cavity wall, do they have to knock through so that they sit on the inner load bearing skin? Or can they rest on the outer skin? any advice would be...

Hi, This is my first time here and being a homeowner and not a builder/roofer go easy on me! We have an adjoining parapet wall on a groundfloor extension which is leaking damp through the wall just below the ceiling, with signs of previous damp all along the wall. Pic 1 &2. From the outside...

Hi, I understand the need for calculations but also understand the difficulties when the lintel is cast in place? I would like to remove the single brick partition to the left. This is the old pantry. The lintle is holding the side of the house (3 bed semi detached) the pantry is part of a flat...

Hi, I am after some advise. I have had a builder doing a single story extension for me. We have had nothing but problems with him from the start. Him turning up for a couple hours a day and sometimes only twice a week. (This we could deal with) the real problem started when he took out the...

Hi all I'm moving into a new house, we got it for a bargain because it's in pretty poor condition. Floor plan Photos I'm not sure about the order in which we should do work to it. The 'essentials' that need doing are: -Rip up the carpet and restore wooden floors (DIY) -Repair/replace any...

Hi all We're moving into a new victorian terraced house that needs a lot of work - double glazing, heating, floorboard etc - but the main thing we want to do is a kitchen side extension. From the sale of our previous house, we will end up with around £75k and the idea is to make sure we get the...

We have a single skin coal house on the rear of our property, now used to store the washer and dryer. It is currently accessed from the rear door to the house. It works but it is a small room and when we have children it would be much-needed additional space. The room is already powered by a...

Hi, I have had an outbuilding built at the bottom of my garden in the last month or so, it falls within 1m of the neighbour's boundary but is built out of concrete blocks. I discovered today that despite me telling the builders that it mustn't be higher than 2.5m in height with a flat sloped...

Hi all - newbie on here and would like some help So I’m living in a Taylor Wimpey house built in the year 2000 - it had a gas fire in the living room and chimney on the roof. I decided this year that I’d like to install a log burner- however after taking out the fire I found that the clearance...

I’m building a set of driveway gates, each leaf is 1600mm wide by 2m tall. I have made the frame from 4x2 PSE, with a mid rail, which gives me two panels to drop some match boarding into. These panels are around 1400x825mm. I intended to add some bracing around 45 degrees, but it looks...

Disgusting, crafty, company!! Sends letters to your neighbours after looking at planning applications telling them to instruct PSG and you will pay, total vultures!! Our neighbours have stated that they felt under pressure to sign, and that it was implied that they needed to go with PSG and not...

Hi, I'm in the middle of renovating my property it's got three levels; ground floor, first floor and then loft conversion on the top. I'm at the stage where the building is water tight and I've got all the partitions up on the three floors. I am thinking to put the floors in next - Tounge...

Hi All We are in the process of self building a single storey extension on the rear of our property. We are aware we need a steel ridge beam for our gable roof and have had calcs agreed by building control for this. 152x89x16 at 4.2m being deemed sufficient. Situated approx 750mm Below each...

Hi, I have a breeze block out building that has a very substantial crack along the back wall. Big enough at points that you can actually see light through on the other side. My builder had suggested that because it was just a shed of sorts, that he could just 'brace' the wall with metal...

My current Kitchen 2.70m x 3.20m My Lounge 3.70m x 3.70m I would like to move my kitchen out and extend the current lounge into where current kitchen is. The current kitchen is narrower but what's on the other size between kitchen and hallway is one storage cupboard and one cupboard...

Hi I have approval to extend my bungalow (additional floor 1.5 story). The old Bungalow is built out of a buff bradstone block, I have heard it is difficult to render. So am looking for advice on the possibility to create a new skin over the house (and extension) out of either a natural stone...

First post so bear with me. We’ve recently moved into this house and have decided we want to knock down the wall that separates the bathroom from the toilet. It’s and ex council house on the end of a terrace. There is no wall below it, in the loft you can see the plastererboard then there is a...